Portrait of the Artist as a Yound Dog: The World According to Jeff Noon

[j***@gmail.com]

"Jeff Noon" was a figure of the 90s English literary scene who was "a breed apart", a strange mixture of 70s "speculative fiction" and the emerging values of declasse Blairism. Everything about Noon but the roughness of his face is shrouded in mystery; has the man whose geographical references are a crazy-quilt phenomenology of the city ever been to Manchester?


There are perhaps four major books attributable to Noon: *Vurt*, *Pollen*, *Nymphomation* and *Falling Out of Cars*. (The other works are precieuses some of which may not even be by the man himself.)


*Vurt*, the story of "Scribb" and his anti-gang the Stash Riders, is the first and best-known but the other books merit some consideration as well. *Pollen* is a "secret history of cocaine" and its sociological whys and wherefores, such as *Nymphomation* is a history of, um, capitalism transposed into the key of a lottery game based on dominoes.


*Falling Out of Cars* is the anti-*Vurt*, and might well be the real story of an emigre brought to an Oxbridge milieu; the "manic street preaching" of a Manc rounder would not be for them, and if you thought "everything" would be for such a creature you mivht not understand the real price of everything after all.


Jeff Rubard

[j***@gmail.com]

In terms of the "lesser" works, it might be mentioned that in America "SF" has always evoked SF, the San Francisco of many a science-fiction fan's dreams. Though it is one of our "100% American" locations it is not without a British flavor; "Berkeley" is named for Berkeley and the San Francisco Chronicle is printed on pink newsprint like the FT.

It could be suggested that the "Automated Alice" retelling of Carroll would be linked to Grace Slick, sometime doyen of Jefferson Airplane and The Great Society. Once something of a civic figure beyond rock in SF, Slick was perhaps the first subject of the "Matrix" system for controlling undesirables implemented more broadly in the 70s.

"Mappalujo" with Steve Beard may allude to the idea that "Noon" could be a translation of a South African name which I will not trouble to explain; Noon is Caucasian enough, but might have had a thought of a "spotlight" on black writer's voices in Britain.

[Steve Hayes]

On Sat, 23 May 2020 00:45:48 -0700 (PDT), ***@gmail.com wrote:

"Jeff Noon" was a figure of the 90s English literary scene who was "a
breed apart", a strange mixture of 70s "speculative fiction" and the
emerging values of declasse Blairism. Everything about Noon but the
roughness of his face is shrouded in mystery; has the man whose
geographical references are a crazy-quilt phenomenology of the city
ever been to Manchester?


There are perhaps four major books attributable to Noon: *Vurt*,
*Pollen*, *Nymphomation* and *Falling Out of Cars*. (The other works
are precieuses some of which may not even be by the man himself.)


*Vurt*, the story of "Scribb" and his anti-gang the Stash Riders, is
the first and best-known but the other books merit some consideration
as well. *Pollen* is a "secret history of cocaine" and its
sociological whys and wherefores, such as *Nymphomation* is a history
of, um, capitalism transposed into the key of a lottery game based on
dominoes.


*Falling Out of Cars* is the anti-*Vurt*, and might well be the real
story of an emigre brought to an Oxbridge milieu; the "manic street
preaching" of a Manc rounder would not be for them, and if you thought
"everything" would be for such a creature you mivht not understand the
real price of everything after all.


Jeff Rubard

[Jeffrey Rubard]

Post by j***@gmail.com
"Jeff Noon" was a figure of the 90s English literary scene who was "a
breed apart", a strange mixture of 70s "speculative fiction" and the
emerging values of declasse Blairism. Everything about Noon but the
roughness of his face is shrouded in mystery; has the man whose
geographical references are a crazy-quilt phenomenology of the city
ever been to Manchester?
There are perhaps four major books attributable to Noon: *Vurt*,
*Pollen*, *Nymphomation* and *Falling Out of Cars*. (The other works
are precieuses some of which may not even be by the man himself.)
*Vurt*, the story of "Scribb" and his anti-gang the Stash Riders, is
the first and best-known but the other books merit some consideration
as well. *Pollen* is a "secret history of cocaine" and its
sociological whys and wherefores, such as *Nymphomation* is a history
of, um, capitalism transposed into the key of a lottery game based on
dominoes.
*Falling Out of Cars* is the anti-*Vurt*, and might well be the real
story of an emigre brought to an Oxbridge milieu; the "manic street
preaching" of a Manc rounder would not be for them, and if you thought
"everything" would be for such a creature you mivht not understand the
real price of everything after all.
Jeff Rubard

"Yound?" Yeah, you.