Weird fiction is a type of speculative fiction that began in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It either avoids or changes the typical villains found in supernatural horror stories, such as ghosts, vampires, and werewolves. Some writers, like China Miéville, use the term "the tentacle" to describe this kind of writing. A tentacle is a limb that is not commonly found in monsters from European Gothic stories but is often part of the strange creatures created by weird fiction authors, including William Hope Hodgson, M. R. James, Clark Ashton Smith, and H. P. Lovecraft.
Weird fiction aims to make readers feel both awe and fear when encountering its fictional creatures. This idea is similar to a concept described by Goethe, which writers like Miéville reference. The term "weird fiction" was mainly used to describe stories from the early 1900s up to the 1930s. It became popular again in the 1980s and 1990s under the name New Weird, and this trend continues into the 21st century.
Definitions
John Clute describes weird fiction as a term that "loosely refers to fantasy, supernatural stories, and horror tales that include challenging or unconventional content." China Miéville explains that weird fiction is "often seen as a fast-paced and hard-to-categorize type of dark, imaginative fiction, combining horror and fantasy elements. It frequently includes unusual, nonhuman creatures, which also connects it to science fiction." Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock notes that "Old Weird Fiction," written in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, uses horror, science fiction, and fantasy to highlight how small and powerless humans are compared to powerful, mysterious forces in the universe that humans cannot fully understand or control. Jeff and Ann VanderMeer describe weird fiction not as a specific type of story, but as a style or mood that often appears within the horror fiction genre.
History
The term "weird fiction" was not used until the 20th century, but Edgar Allan Poe is often considered the first writer of this type of fiction. H.P. Lovecraft identified Poe as the first author to create a unique kind of supernatural fiction that was different from traditional Gothic stories. Later writers and critics also believed Poe was the first to write "weird fiction." Sheridan Le Fanu is also seen as an early writer in this sub-genre.
In the 19th century, some literary critics used the word "weird" to describe supernatural fiction. For example, a 1859 article in the Scottish Review praised Edgar Allan Poe, E.T.A. Hoffmann, and Walter Scott for having "weird imagination." A 1898 review in The Freeman's Journal called Bram Stoker’s Dracula "wild and weird" and not Gothic. Weinstock suggested there was a time called "Old Weird Fiction" from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. S.T. Joshi and Miéville believe there was a period called "Haute Weird" between 1880 and 1940, when important weird fiction writers like Arthur Machen and Clark Ashton Smith were publishing their work.
In the late 19th century, some British writers linked to the Decadent movement wrote stories that were later called weird fiction. These writers included Arthur Machen, M.P. Shiel, Count Eric Stenbock, and R. Murray Gilchrist. Other early British weird fiction writers were Algernon Blackwood, William Hope Hodgson, Lord Dunsany, and M.R. James.
The American pulp magazine Weird Tales published many weird fiction stories in the United States from March 1923 to September 1954. The magazine’s editor, Farnsworth Wright, often used the term "weird fiction" to describe the stories it published. Writers who contributed to Weird Tales are closely connected to the weird fiction sub-genre, including H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber, and Robert Bloch. Other pulp magazines that published weird fiction included Strange Tales (edited by Harry Bates) and Unknown Worlds (edited by John W. Campbell).
H.P. Lovecraft helped popularize the term "weird fiction" in his essays. In his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature, Lovecraft described weird fiction as stories that create a sense of fear from unknown forces and hint at something terrible that breaks the laws of nature.
S.T. Joshi explains that weird fiction has several types, such as supernatural horror, ghost stories, quasi-science fiction, fantasy, and ambiguous horror. He says that weird fiction comes from the ideas and artistic choices of the writers who create it.
Although Lovecraft was one of the few early 20th-century writers to call his work "weird fiction," the term has been used again in modern times, especially in a movement called "New Weird fiction." Many horror writers today also identify with the weird fiction tradition, including Clive Barker, who calls his work "fantastique," and Ramsey Campbell, whose early stories were influenced by Lovecraft.
Notable authors
The following well-known authors are recognized as writers of weird fiction. They are arranged in order of their last names and grouped by the time when they started writing weird fiction.
New Weird
Ann and Jeff VanderMeer and China Miéville have noted that weird fiction has become more popular recently, a trend they call the New Weird. Stories that belong to this category, along with detailed discussions about it, are included in the anthology The New Weird.