"'Destroy
time so that chaos may be ordered' was the instruction more than
half a century ago of Mailer's Man Who Studied Yoga and D. Harlan
Wilson has taken that advice seriously; here is a novel which
implodes and conflates autobiography, biography, history, quasi-history,
alternate history and Occam's Safety Razor in a fashion which
I find utterly original and utterly discommoding. The exquisite
tilt of this novel runs us all off the board and on; its originality
is a weapon. Firing at that bullseye on time." Barry
N. Malzberg, John Campbell Award-winning author of 70+
science fiction novels
"If
you had a time machine and could secure the living brains of James
Thurber and Andre Breton ripped untimely from their skulls, run
them through a juicer, then mainline the blended liquid neurons,
you might become a writer like D. Harlan Wilson. In fact, I know
with certainty that this is how he actually got his start. As
evidenced by his new 'Memoir of Vulgaria,' Blankety Blank,
we are facing a writer who can evoke howls of pity and tears of
laughter on the same page, and generally within the same sentence.
In this 'multimedia' novel, suburban inanity and insanity
are depicted in loving and intimate depth, resulting in a furiously
animated canvas equal parts Bosch and Tex Avery. Imagine an episode
of The Simpsons scripted by Robert Coover and Donald
Barthelme, then directed by Michel Gondry, and you won't be far
off the mark. If this be "interstitial" fiction, then
it's a case of the interstices expanding like a galaxy to overwhelm
whatever bland shores once flanked them." Paul Di
Filippo, author of The Steampunk Trilogy, Ciphers and Cosmocopia
"Be
not embarrassed to laugh out loud at this nasty book. Wilson has
reinvented the genre of demonic sci-fi slapstick. Nothing close
to it since the unwritten Portnow's Restraint. Intelligent, wicked,
erudite, maniacal. What a talent. And this is the first ever cross
species collaboration. The pages penned by his companionable ape
are achingly close to humanoid. Read this book and bask in the
energy of a living imagination." Steve Katz,
America Award-winning author of Swanny's Ways and Antonello's
Lion
"Blankety
Blank is both vulgar and vulva—a masterful DJ mix of
the sounds and sights of avant-pop, avant-porn, critifiction,
and (yes) post-cyberpunk sensibilities. Mixing the academic with
the asylum (i.e., academentia), Blankety Blank shoots
forth ficto-history, the post-essay, and celebrity reality TV
from the barrell of its Magnum Opus. Indeed, D. Harlan Wilson
holds the Avant-Prof Chair vacated by Lance Olsen, briefly held
by Mark Amerika, and passed up by David Foster Wallace. A fine
promotion, I say, with the possibility of tenure for ten years.
Consider, please, if you will, what Jean Baudrillard's ghost channeled
to me via Channel 3: 'Tenure is better than
manure!' Translation: there's a lot of shit being published these
days, but this tasty novel ain't crap. It's cake. So, to quote
Marie Antoinette, eat it!" Michael Hemmingson,
Hollywood screenwriter and author of The Dirty Realist Duo:
Charles Bukowski and Raymond Carver on the Aesthetics of the Ugly
"With three offbeat story collections and the indescribably madcap Dr. Identity (2006) to his credit, Wilson has been duly anointed as speculative fiction’s most unpredictable stylist. Here he flouts all novelistic conventions and propriety in recounting the misdeeds of a serial killer known only by a name written in blood on the walls of his victims’ manicured homes—Blankety Blank. In the mid-twenty-first century, the American landscape has morphed from suburbia into 'vulgaria,' featuring neighborhoods replete with shopping malls and oversized McMansions. Quiggle Estates resident Rutger Van Trout just wants to enjoy his newly built silo in peace, without the added distractions of a nymphomaniac daughter, a werewolf-obsessed son, and a wife haunted by her own skeleton. Then Blankety Blank leaves his trail of blood across vulgaria, and it’s up to Rutger and Quiggle Estates’ odd assortment of faux superheroes to save everyone. Wilson sprinkles his rapid-fire narrative with glib aphorisms, absurdist pseudo-historical tidbits, and outlandish digressions that leave a reader breathless. Although this isn’t everyone’s cup, iconoclasts will relish every word." Booklist
"This is the fifth work of fiction from Wilson, a nearly unclassifiable Fabulist/Satirist/ Bizarro/Post-Postmodern/Speculative writer and literature professor whose titles include The Kafka Effekt and Dr. Identity, or, Farewell to Plaquedemia. Take an existential dive into the near-future’s “irreality” before the author sells out to Hollywood over a seemingly inevitable Gamehater movie." ForeWord Magazine
"This comedy of menace, this spooky Kabuki, is never comfortable to inhabit but is as enjoyable as Krazy Kat just the same—the author indulges himself to the hilt and denies himself nothing." Rain Taxi
"In Blankety Blank, fact and fiction don’t so much
blur as they collide like lovesick Sumos fired at each other from
cartoon cannons, resulting in a pseudo-biographical romp interspersed
with fictional histories, strange quotes, haikus, and plain ludicrously
fun happenings." Fractal Matter
"Blankety
Blank: A Memoir of Vulgaria has its roots in a more advanced
version of our suburbia, but above ground this is one weird tree.
At times it’s part Desperate Housewives—suburban drama,
parties and wicked rumor mill—and other times it’s
dark and brutal commentary, or complete bizzarro-fueled randomness." Word Press
"Wilson
leads you
head-on into a nightmarish, confusing, yet outrageously funny
world, using his razor-sharp wit and gift for the written word
to keep you enthralled—and almost hopelessly addicted—to
this book until the very last page." NVF Magazine
The
book reads like Dali attampting an exercise in a Zen sort of living-in-the-moment
with an ADHD Alex from A Clockwork Orange." Susurrus
Magazine
"This book reminded me of the TV show Seinfeld—quirky characters, interesting events, but at the end of the day, really a show about nothing ... If you are the type of reader who can open your mind to alternate histories, worlds where absurdity becomes reality, and stories that know no limits, I’d encourage you to give Wilson’s work a try. Whether you wind up loving it or hating it, the experience of reading him once is well worth the price of admission." Dark Scribe Magazine
"This disturbing read is a breakthrough work of fiction that deserves a spotlight on the literary landscape as one of the best works of experimental writing of the year, if not ever ... Wilson's purpose, I think, is trying to reveal that there is no such thing as a coherent story in the first place and that history is a fiction, and that that’s where the horror always lies, because we can’t escape these fictions, these truths, this stuff called language ... Despite it’s persistent intellectalizing this remains a genuine horror story because, much like Danielewski’s House of Leaves, it begs the question of its own capacity to capture something much larger and much more sinister than itself in language and narrative, and this is what Freud meant by 'the return of the repressed.' Somewhere, somehow, the id is unlatched within this masterful work of historiography, and that’s what gives this Bizarro memoir its own unique and uncanny sense of horror. See if you can handle it. You’ll probably laugh a lot. Michael Arnzen, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Grave Markings, 100 Jolts and Play Dead |
