What is Weird Fiction?

I’ve tried to dive into the genre of the”New Weird” fiction stories several times. China Miéville is an author I’ve bought several books of and taken an interest in, but they’re hard for me to get into. These books aren’t horror, but they aren’t specifically fantasy or science fiction. They’re a lot of things mixed together.

So this felt like a good jumping off point. Before I get into some “Weird Fiction” in some upcoming reviews, I figured touching on the subject would make sense. So let’s get into it. Let’s cover the old school weird, the original weird.

What does it mean for fiction to be weird?

Elements of the Original Weird

The original perception of “weird fiction” was tinged by work at the end of the 19th century and those kicking off the 20th. H. G. Wells and Edgar Allen Poe are often brought up in these early days, but it isn’t until the early 20th century that we have the specific conception of weird fiction.

Often, William Hope Hodgson is brought up as the first real author pointed to as an example of the weird fiction of the 20th century. His work was actually loved by H. P. Lovecraft himself.

But The Night Land is a science fiction book at heart (though typically called a fantasy book) featuring a distant future where Earth’s sun has faded and the land is now covered in night. Creatures called The Watchers wait in the shadow for the time when a protective shield will fade, leaving the citizens of the planet vulnerable.

But how is this science fiction story similar to the weird fiction of weird westerns? Or how about the ghost stories?

Let’s talk about the elements that comprise these 20th century weird stories:

1. Darkness

This fiction is often characterized by being dark, but often not completely horror. Several of Robert E. Howard’s works were published in the magazine Weird Tales, which set in the mind of readers what weird fiction was supposed to be.

H. P. Lovecraft mentions this in his “Supernatural Horror in Literature”:

The true weird tale has something more than secret murder, bloody bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains according to rule. A certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present; and there must be a hint, expressed with a seriousness and portentousness becoming its subject, of that most terrible conception of the human brain—a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space.

Many of the early weird stories were nothing more than spooky ghost stories with a hint of gothic fiction. They were the natural evolution of the Victorian ghost story brought into the 20th century.

2. Fantastical Elements

My friend Matthew Pungitore has a gothic weird novel called Fiendilkfjeld Castle, which contains fantasy elements along with horror elements. It seemingly touches on exactly what Lovecraft was describing in his quote, therefore it’s very “weird”.

Who better, then, to give a comment on what he thinks “weird fiction” is?

Matthew Pungitore told me:

Weird fiction is about a tone and overall effect indicating the impossible and the overwhelming, where things aren’t what they seem, and occurrences or threats are not exactly what you, or the characters, have been taught they should be, nothing’s as it should be and nothing can be truly explained only guessed.

Things can’t be fully explained. This fantastical weirdness, a mysterious wonder in the dark, is a key element. Science fiction/fantasy, like The Night Land, can fall into this category by keeping to darkness and having fantastical elements. The Watchers aren’t explained, they’re just there.

The tales of H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith are sort of the three commonly mentioned in these discussions. They always contain a mix of horror and fantasy elements. The ghost stories, tales of dark fantasy, adventure stories, and even weird westerns are all in this category. I would even argue some of the war stories in the early to mid 20th century comprise weird fiction as well.

Conclusion

So to answer the question of what comprises a weird fiction story, I would say the two elements required are darkness and the fantastical elements. Clark Ashton Smith is the most direct I can think of with this, but Howard and Lovecraft are obviously in the same vein.

Matthew pointed out to me, when discussing this post, that it’s “connected to Gothic and modernism, so you’re never really gonna have hard rules to keep it pinned… So yes it’s fantastic and horrific.”

Weird fiction is hard to nail down, but it’s clearly not strictly fantasy, horror, western, or adventure. It seems to be a mix of several genres with particularly dark elements. There are specifically horror stories that fall in this category, but typically readers will count even conventional horror stories as “weird” if they contain fantastical elements.

Over the coming weeks I’m planning on reviewing some “weird fiction”. I hope you’ll follow along with me!

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You may like some of my reviews:

• Story Review: Queen of the Black Coast by Robert E. Howard
• Book Review: The Ship of Ishtar by A. Merritt
• Book Review: The Dragon Masters by Jack Vance
• Story Review: The Dark Eidolon by Clark Ashton Smith

You may also like some of my other work:

• Should Writing be Art or Entertainment?
• Misha Burnett’s “Five Pillars” and Defining Pulp Stories
• Poetry: “Rusted Theme Park from My Childhood”
• Poetry: “Life in a Puddle”

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