Versions of Wonder: Web Links and Bibliography

compiled by Jeff Gundy for Imaginarium, June 2007

(Also at http://www.bluffton.edu/~gundyj/versionsofwondersources.htm or through my web page, www.bluffton.edu/~gundyj.)

 

Individual Authors

A. E. van Vogt

Icshi: The A. E. Van Vogt Site. http://www.home.earthlink.net/~icshi/. Includes a large annotated bibliography, 200 scanned book covers, and much more information.

 

The Weird Worlds of A. E. Van Vogt. http://vanvogt.www4.mmedia.is/. Another fan site. Includes first chapters of Slan and several other books.

 

Arthur C. Clarke

The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation. http://www.clarkefoundation.org/ .

Arthur C. Clarke Unauthorized Homepage. http://www.lsi.usp.br/~rbianchi/clarke/. Fan site with lots of information.

 

Ursula K. Le Guin

Full text of “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” http://tinyurl.com/3aedfr. (Probably unauthorized, and lacking paragraph breaks.) 

Official Ursula Le Guin web site. http://www.ursulakleguin.com/.

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929- ) http://www.levity.com/corduroy/leguin.htm.

 

Kurt Vonnegut

The Official Website of Kurt Vonnegut. http://www.vonnegut.com/.

The Vonnegut Web. http://www.vonnegutweb.com/. Large fan site. 

 

Jorge Luis Borges

The Life and Works of Jorge Luis Borges. http://www.internetaleph.com/index.asp?langid=en&set=1 Large site by Martin Hadis.

Jorge Luis Borges: The Garden of Forking Paths. http://www.themodernword.com/borges/. Fine Modern Word site on Borges.

Funes, the Memorious.”  http://www.bridgewater.edu/~atrupe/GEC101/Funes.html. 

 

Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino. http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/calvino/cal.html. Solid reference page with lots of information and links. 

Italo Calvino 1923-85.\http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/calvino.htm. A biography and bibliography.

Calvino News Articles. http://www.italo-calvino.com/.  Links to a number of fine tributes, reviews, and essays.

John Barth. “’The Parallels!’ Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges.” http://www.centerforbookculture.org/context/no1/barth.html. Excellent essay on Calvino and Borges by another fine experimental writer—and fan of both.

 

Russell Hoban

The Head of Orpheus: A Russell Hoban Reference Page. http://www.ocelotfactory.com/hoban/. Good resources and links.

Russell Hoban. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/russell-hoban/. Complete list of his novels with links for ordering.

 

Other Resources

Science Fiction Studies. http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/ . Back issues and much of current issues available online. Includes many useful links as well.

The Modern Word. http://www.themodernword.com/themodword.cfm. Excellent site with large collections on Borges and Garcia Marquez, as well as Samuel Beckett, Umberto Eco, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, and Thomas Pynchon.

 

On “the fantastic”

“What is the Fantastic?” http://www.unc.edu/~bardsley/ghosts/todorov.html. Summary/quotes from Tzvetan Todorov’s The Fantastic: A Structuralist Approach to a Literary Genre (1975). The book itself is well worth a look.

Lem, Stanislaw. Todorov's Fantastic Theory of Literature.” Science Fiction Studies #4= Volume1, No. 4 (Fall 1974). http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/4/lem4art.htm  A strong critique of Todorov’s structuralist approach.

 

On Magic Realism

Magic Realism. http://www.public.asu.edu/%7Eaarios/magicalrealism/index.html. Fine site with many links by poet/professor Alberto Rios.

The Magical Realism Page. http://geocities.com/Athens/4824/magreal.htm. Extensive site by Evelyn C. Leeper. 

Magic Realism and Surrealism. http://www.bluffton.edu/%7Egundyj/surr.htm. Web page for a class I taught in 2003—some links may be outdated! Some are already included on these pages.

Magical Realist Fiction. Ed. David Young and Keith Hollaman. Oberlin U P, 1984. Excellent anthology of short stories by famous and lesser-known authors.

 

On Slipstream Fiction

Bruce Sterling, “Slipstream.” http://www.eff.org/Misc/Publications/Bruce_Sterling/Catscan_columns/catscan.05 . Sterling’s influential 1989 essay (with a book list) attempting to define “Slipstream” writing. 

Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology. James Patrick Kelly (Editor), John Kessel (Editor). Excellent 2006 anthology—includes considerable discussion of what “slipstream” writing is and should be.

ParaSpheres: Extending Beyond the Spheres of Literary and Genre Fiction: Fabulist and New Wave Fabulist Stories Ed. by Rusty Morrison. Another 2006 anthology in the same vein. More stories than Feeling Very Strange, but I preferred FVS.  

Bruce Sterling and Lawrence Person. “The Master List of Slipstream Books.” http://home.austin.rr.com/lperson/slip.html. Just what it sounds like. Lots of great books here—but if you trust “master” lists too much, you shouldn’t be reading this stuff!

Now All Slipstream Until the End. http://vectoreditors.wordpress.com/2006/09/07/now-all-slipstream-until-the-end/. Good list of Slipstream-related links and sources.

Fantastic Metropolis. http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/. E-zine with lots of slipstream-ish fiction, poetry, etc. Cool graphics and images, too.

“Slipstream.” 2003 column by James Patrick Kelly from Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, with some useful links. http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0312/onthenet.shtml.

 

NOTE: Google searches on any of these terms/names will reveal many more sources, as will a visit to your local bookstore or library. If possible, it’s always good to support your local booksellers.  Happy reading!