BOC: John Shirley

[Andrew A. Apold]

>Is Shirley a good writer? I think his Bad Channels lyrics are silly but
>maybe his other efforts are better. His novels?

The following is John Shirley's entry in the Encyclopedia of Science
Fiction, ed. by John Clute (entry by Clute and Chris Williamson):

Shirley, John (Patrick) (1954-      ) US writer who began publishing with
"The Word 'Random,' Deliberately Repeated" for Clarion (anth 1973) ed Robin
Scott WILSON, and who has performed as a lead singer in rock bands,
including the punk band Sado Nation.  This background heavily influenced his
first novel, the DYSTOPIAN "Transmaniacon" (1979), in which the typical JS
protagonist appears:  punk, anarchic, exorbitant, his mind evacuated of
normal constraints, death-loving.  Similar characters appear in "Three-Ring
Psychus" (1980), which describes mass levitation with another anarchist
rapture, and "City Come A-Walkin" (1980) set in a surrealistically harsh
inner city.  After writing some horror novels--to which genre his
inclinations have constantly urged him, for JS is not at heart an sf
writer--and most titles in the Traveler sequence as by D.B. DRUMM, he
created his finest sf work in the CYBERPUNK-coloured "Song Called Youth"
trilogy, "Eclipse" (1985), "Eclipse Penumbra" (1988) and "Eclipse Corona"
(1990)--set after a realistically conceived WWIII and describing a
technologically deft resistance movement which fights a neofacist regime to
a standstill, ultimately defeating it.  In another late novel, "A splendid
Chaos" (1988) JS returns to a more surreal background, this time a hazardous
planet where a small group of humans must compete for survival against
unpredicatable aliens.  But the main challenge to "normal" humans comes from
some of their own species, who have been remolded in the image of their
darkest fantasis--a horror device typical of the author, whose best effects
have always come from sparking the gap between normality and horrific madness.

Though his short work sometimes suffers burnout from excessive intensity,
the stories assembled in "Heatseeker" (coll 1988) effectively demonstrate
JS's solitudinous strengths, the flare of his anger.

Other works:  "Dracula in Love" (1979), "The Brigade" (1982), "Cellars"
(1982); "Kamus of Kadizhar: The Black Hole of Carcosa: A Tale of the
Darkworld Detective" (1988) (tied to J. Michael REAVES's "Darkworld
Detective" (collection of linked sotries 1982), "In Darkness Waiting"
(1988), "Wetbones" (1992).

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Most of the the items in quotes in this should be in italics, but I can't
send that in plain text.  The items in all caps are referential items to
other articles in the encyclopedia.
I highly recommend this encyclopedia, BTW, to anyone into this kind of stuff...

FWIW, in the music entry.

Hawkwind, with whom Michael MOORCOCK was associated, built songs around
stories by Roger ZELAZNY, Ray BRADBURY and others, introducing many sf
archetypes, while Moorcock's own group, Deep Fix, recorded the uneven "New
World's Fair" (1975).  A better use of aggresively high-energy music with sf
connotations can be found in the US Group Blue Oyster Cult.

<g>.   Hawkwind is also mentioned briefly in the Michael Butterworth entry.
They devote much more space to groups like Yes, Van Der Graaf Generator,
David Bowie, Pink Floyd, and even Z.Z. Top(!).



===================================
Roger Shrubstaff               "I was corrupt before I had power!" - Random

Baron of Silverwater
Barony of Silverwater
Kingdom of the Burning Lands
http://www.magg.net/~mordru/silver.htm
(Andrew A. Apold)