|
John Shirley
Birth at
10 February 1953
|
John Patrick Shirley is an American novelist, playwright and musician, also known for works of other genres. Born in Houston, Texas, after graduation, he changed several professions: he was a seasonal fruit picker, a clerk in the office, a dancer in a nightclub, a singer in a rock band. The first NF publication - "The word "average", deliberately repeated" (1973). He lives in Los Angeles, California. One of the most controversial and shocking writers among the younger generation in the US NF, Shirley
more
John Patrick Shirley is an American novelist, playwright and musician, also known for works of other genres. Born in Houston, Texas, after graduation, he changed several professions: he was a seasonal fruit picker, a clerk in the office, a dancer in a nightclub, a singer in a rock band. The first NF publication - "The word "average", deliberately repeated" (1973). He lives in Los Angeles, California.
One of the most controversial and shocking writers among the younger generation in the US NF, Shirley in his work is close to the New Wave of the 1960s-70s, and the more modern cyberpunk movement. The hero of Shirley’s first novel, Transmaniacon (1979), is a young punk anarchist obsessed with crazy ideas and out of touch with social frameworks. In the novel “Three-Ring Psychus” (Three-Ring Psychus) (1980), the threat of overpopulation caused a new evolutionary leap: people have acquired the ability to levitate, but adaptation to the new reality is not easy for everyone, and individual social groups are given the opportunity to live in the old way, i.e. on the surface of the Earth, in an atmosphere of war, mutual hysteria and hatred. The surrealist novel City Come A-Walkin' (1980) is set in an imaginary city that exists only in the hero's brain; it is also close to surrealism and the absurdist novel A Splendid Chaos (1988).
Shirley's most significant work was the trilogy "Song of Youth" - "Sunset" (Eclipse) (1985), "Sunset" (Eclipse Penumbra) (1988), "Sunset of the Crown" (Eclipse Corona) (1990), - satisfying all the ideological attitudes of cyberpunk and narrating about the Europe of the near future - a world after a catastrophe (global nuclear war), in which neo-fascists seized power, and resisted them, consisting of anarchic punk youth; the written nervous and cyberpunk books became one of the cult. “Camus of Kadijar: Carcose's black hole. Kamus of Kadizhar: The Black Hole of Carcosa: A Tale of the Darkworld Detective (1988) is a curious example of detective SF; Dracula in Love (1979) and In Darkness Waiting (1988) are horror novels. Shirley's stories, both in the NF and in the horror genre, made up the collection Heatseeker (1989).
Other works include The Brigade (1982), Cellars (1982), Wetbones (1992).