The New Weird

People have long been interested, or at the very least – aware, of the weird. Tales throughout history demonstrate this. It isn’t too hard to understand. After all, a story about the ordinary is hardly a story at all. As time marches ever forward, the things we considered weird have evolved into even weirder things. Consider it an escalation of force perhaps. In order to appease our desire for weirdness we seek out ever weirder subjects. Sometimes, as is the case with Cabin in the Woods, we acknowledge and somewhat parody the tropes that comprise what we consider weird – thus making it something that is slightly weirder, if not a little silly.

It is this introduction of new ideas that brings me to Kraken by China Mieville. We are all familiar with the ideas of cults but Mieville turns it on its head and makes something of a parody of it by making it a cult devoted to what is essentially a giant squid. The weirdness doesn’t stop there as we are witness to other strange things throughout the book. I did find parts of it moved rather slow and took a while to get through but I was able to appreciate what was there. I felt like it fulfilled the concept of new weird by continually raising the ante while delivering us an entertaining story.

With the nature of people being what it is, I wonder what new weird things we will conjure up in the future. We are always looking for that newest thing to entertain us, with older, known things being left behind. This is reflected in our past and will certainly be a major influence in the future.