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June 02, 2005

Bring on the Infernokrusher Fiction--Now!

I've been hearing about so-called "slipstream" fiction for a few years now, and have never found a decent, accurate, pithy definition that didn't sound like "permission to write whatever I damn well like and who cares if it makes any sense or not?"

Today, I learned that "slipstream" is on the way out. We are now entering the "Infernokrusher" era.

This post from Chrononautic Log (and which I found out about in the first place from the fabulous Making Light) explains it better than I can.

Notes toward an Infernokrusher manifesto

Slipstream, ultimately, is just a wussy term. We should be drawing names less from wishy-washy words (slip, stream) and more from monster trucks (krusher, inferno).

— Meghan McCarron

Catch phrases
# Explosion is the new transgression. Demolition is the new deconstruction. — Benjamin Rosenbaum
# How far is the distance between infernos and krushing? — an Infernokrusher koan by Dora Goss
# Instead of “Well, where are we slipping? Are we beaver-like dam builders, or just clumsy waders?” we can now ask “Are we glad things are on fire? Do we like to Krush?” — Meghan McCarron
# More than the death of the Reader, Infernokrusher prizes the sudden, violent dismemberment of the Reader
# Monster truck fiction — ‘soft infernokrusher’ — rolls across genre boundaries . . . and krushes them
# Infernokrusher fiction explodes stagnant genre conventions, e.g., that it’s not okay to have all your characters run over by a monster truck in what would seem to be the middle of the story
# Infernokrusher is a violently anti-materialist movement, regardless of the materials involved
# While other attitudes to art yearn to communicate truths, to move people, to challenge, or to entertain, infernokrusher art wants to blow stuff up
# It is important to note that an infernokrusher sensibility does not require literal infernos or crushing
# Core Infernokrusher fiction would never forget to fill up the tank. — Karen Meisner
Redefinitions, subgenres, philosophemes
# slipstream -> proto-infernokrusher fiction
# slipstream : infernokrusher :: uniformitarianism : catastrophism
# Elemental truth in infernokrusher fiction: Nature crushes stuff too
# Religious truth in infernokrusher fiction: God likes to blow stuff up
# Innocence in infernokrusher fiction: e.g., eight year olds natural krushers
# The ultimate ambition of infernokrusher art is to blow up the world
# Heretical spinoff: slow infernokrusher fiction
# Important subgenre or trope in feminist infernokrusher fiction: blowing up Barbie
# Infernokrusher critiquing involves burning manuscripts and melting them to slag (the more positive reviews are more explosive)
# Resolved: Hot pink — color of infernokrushing
Pieces, presses, publications, organizations
# Ignitrix: (1) a goth, feminist Infernokrusher ’zine (2) sobriquet applied to Meghan McCarron as coiner of the term “infernokrusher”
# Thrown Down A Well Still Burning: a moody, “soft infernokrusher’ poetry ’zine
# Burning Hammer Review: Academic “soft infernokrusher” journal, probably from the University of Pittsburgh
# Burn Ward: Dispatches From The Infernokrusher Frontier: an anthology of Infernokrusher criticism
# Monster Truck Press
# Twelve Ton Press
# Megaton Press
# Swan Inferno!!!!!: the canonical Infernokrusher Ballet
# Blowtorch!: the canonical Infernokrusher Broadway musical
# Hammer and Napalm: Infernokrusher eating club at Princeton
# McSweeney’s #27 — the Infernokrusher Issue: comes soaked in gasoline, with a match
Deviations and faux-infernokrusher tropes:
# infernoes/krushing only as metaphor
# infernoes/krushing as resolution rather than violent irruption — trappings, but lacks sensibility
The infernokrusher coat of arms
# Monster truck, in flagrante, rampant
# Motto: Da ogne bocca dirompea co’ denti un peccatore
The first Infernokrusher poem
#

I blew up the plums
that were in the icebox
and which you were probably saving for breakfast
forgive me
I like fire

— Dora Goss

If you visit Chrononautic Log to check all this out for yourself, don't forget to check out the droll comments as readers begin to consider Infernokrusher literature, music, and of course, literary criticism. If you were ever exposed to university level English course litcrit (and I was), you will be mightily amused.

I also liked the Dora Goss poem here about the plums. Though I'm sure William Carlos Williams is rolling in his grave somewhere.

Posted by adrian at June 2, 2005 09:01 PM

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Posted by: pastamasta at June 3, 2005 12:27 AM

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