Hypelandia: The Subcultural Oral History of 80s Portland, 90s Berlin, & 2010s Detroit

by Dylan Forsyth

This is the fictional oral history of musicians, artists, and subcultures who were young & hip in the wasteland of 80s Portland, the squats of reunified Berlin, and the postapocalyptic ruins of Great Recession Detroit. 33 interviewees—with plenty of lurid tales, humor, and shameless sincerity—bicker for center stage, talk shit, contradict one another, romanticize their past, and criticize the present.

Comes with a bonus experimental-slash-interactive poetry collection called Nolandia in the back.

“Portlandia’s evil twin” —Mitch Miller, front man of the uns

“Transgressive, sarcastic, playful, funny: the most idealistic satire you may read.” —Gilberto Delacroix, journalist

“The must-have book for hipsters this year (if there are any left).” —Io, front woman of Metaflora

Paperback

Published June 1, 2022

About the author

Dylan Forsyth grew up in the Pacific Northwest where the bohemian writer dream first came to him reading the Beats (Ferlinghetti, Kerouac, Ginsberg) in his late teens (later he killed all of his juvenile idols (though never Ferlighetti)). Soon he found his way into French influences such as the Surrealists, Dada, the Decadents, the Symbolists, the Realists, and the Bouzingo, and on from there. One must always be interested in something, or else what's the point. He sees himself as an amateur, off-the-cuff subcultural art historian (from Romanticism to Posthumanism).

His first novel, The Infinitists, is a mashup of historical fiction and sci-fi—Cloud Atlas meets 1920s Paris meets Occupy Wall Street. His second, Hypelandia, is a fictional oral history of Old Portland, techno Berlin, and contemporary Detroit. His third and fourth works are embellished translations of Arthur Rimbaud and Édouard Levé—both qualifying as experimental memoirs.

His poetry and flash ficiton has appeared in lesser known experimental online magazines (Mannequin Haus, Literary Orphans)—some of which have sadly gone under (theNewerYork). He lives in Portland, Oregon where he is editor-in-chief of the experimental online magazine & publisher: 5th Wall Press—which technically hasn't gone under.

Reviews

[Dylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I conceived this fictional oral history as an homage and parody of other music and subculture focused oral histories such as Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, Johnny Rottten's first autobiography, Wonderland Berlin, and Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock N Roll in New York about post-punk revival a la The Strokes, etc.

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