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The Weird
The Weird
from Wikipedia

The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories is an anthology of weird fiction edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer.

Key Information

Published on 30 Oct 2011,[1] it contains 110 short stories, novellas and short novels. At 1,126 pages in the hardcover edition, it is probably the largest single volume of fantastic fiction ever published, according to Locus.[2] The book serves as a comprehensive companion to the editors' earlier 2008 anthology, The New Weird, which focused specifically on important contemporary works and authors in the genre.

Contents

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The editors' objective in publishing The Weird was to provide a comprehensive definition of "the Weird", a type of fiction that their introduction describes as "as much a sensation", through its contents—one of terror and wonder—"as (...) a mode of writing", and as a type of fiction that entertains while also expressing readers' dissatisfaction with, and uncertainty about, reality.[2] To that end, The Weird includes works that range from fantasy, science fiction and mainstream literature "with a slight twist of strange", but it also amounts, according to The Guardian, to "a history of the horror story".[3]

The editors limited their chronologically ordered collection to fiction from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, deliberately avoiding stories focusing on tropes of the horror genre such as zombies, vampires, and werewolves, to highlight what they considered the Weird's innovative qualities.[2] To cover the genre comprehensively, they commissioned original translations of, among others, works by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Michel Bernanos, Julio Cortázar and Georg Heym.

The anthology contains the following works:[4]

The introduction notes that certain stories were not included because of problems with obtaining the reproduction rights, but that the editors considered these stories as an extension of the anthology: Philip K. Dick's The Preserving Machine, J. G. Ballard's The Drowned Giant, Gabriel García Márquez's A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings and Otsuichi's The White House in the Cold Forest.

Reception

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The anthology was well received by reviewers from the Financial Times, who called it an "authoritative" representation of weird fiction,[5] the San Francisco Chronicle, who considered that the volume's broad range of authors proved that "the bizarre and unsettling belong to no one race, country or gender"[6] and Publishers Weekly, who characterized it as a "standard-setting compilation" and a "deeply affectionate and respectful history of speculative fiction’s blurry edges".[7]

Locus magazine's reviewer noted that the anthology's chronological order allowed readers to construct a "fossil record" of the Weird's evolution. He wrote that its broad geographical scope made noticeable the distinct traditions of English-language weird fiction, which depict the "eruption of the inexplicable into meticulously ordered realities", and the traditions represented by many translated works, whose cultures are more thoroughly grounded in folklore and mythology, or which resist a Western impulse toward rationalism and realism.[2] Writing for The Guardian in a pastiche of the genre's style, Damien Walter warned of "the madness of the many authors contained in its pages and clearly inhuman determination of its 'editors'", prophesying that "Soon the chrysalid will form, and The Weird itself will burst into the world as a radiant winged moth of metaphysical doom!"[8] The Weird received the British Fantasy Award for best anthology in 2012.

References

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from Grokipedia
The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories is a landmark anthology of weird fiction edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, first published in 2011 by Corvus Books (UK) and in 2012 by Tor Books (US), featuring 110 stories and novellas that span more than a century of literary history from 1907 to 2010. The collection draws from the subgenre of , which blends elements of horror, fantasy, , and the to evoke a of the and the surreal, often subverting traditional narrative expectations with nontraditional monsters, esoteric themes, and atmospheric dread. Stories in the explore bizarre and dark phenomena without relying on conventional ghosts or folklore, instead incorporating innovative literary experimentation that crosses genre boundaries. Notable contributors include literary icons such as Franz Kafka, Angela Carter, and M.R. James alongside contemporary masters like China Miéville, Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, and Haruki Murakami, as well as genre heavyweights including H.P. Lovecraft, Clive Barker, and Michael Chabon. The editors selected works to trace the evolution of weird fiction, from its pulp magazine roots in the early 20th century—epitomized by publications like Weird Tales—to modern iterations that challenge societal norms and embrace global perspectives. Upon release, The Weird received critical acclaim for its comprehensive scope and influence in revitalizing interest in the genre, earning the 2012 for Best Anthology and the for the same category. At over 1,100 pages, it serves as an authoritative reference, highlighting weird fiction's role in literary innovation and its enduring appeal to readers seeking narratives that unsettle and provoke.

Overview

Publication details

The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, compiled by editors Ann and , was originally published on October 31, 2011, in the United Kingdom by , an imprint of Atlantic Books, and released in the United States by on May 8, 2012. The hardcover edition spans 1,126 pages and carries the ISBN 978-0-7653-3360-5 in the US market. Available formats include , (1,152 pages), and e-book, though no official edition exists. A reissue appeared in 2012 via , and as of 2025, no major revised editions have been issued.

Editors

is a Hugo Award-winning editor best known for her tenure as editor-in-chief of from 2007 to 2011, during which she revitalized the magazine's focus on speculative and . She founded Buzzcity Press in the 1990s, which published early works including her husband Jeff VanderMeer's novel Dradin, in Love (1996), and she has co-edited influential anthologies such as (2008) with Jeff and contributed to the series. Jeff VanderMeer is a World Fantasy Award-winning author, recognized for his Southern Reach trilogy, which includes Annihilation (2014) and explores themes of ecological horror and the uncanny. He has edited numerous speculative fiction anthologies, including the Thackery T. Lambshead series in collaboration with Ann, and his editorial work often bridges genre boundaries in fantasy and weird fiction. The VanderMeers, a married couple who began collaborating professionally in the mid-1990s and have over two decades of joint projects, co-edited The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, published by Tor Books in 2012, as a deliberate effort to revive and expand the tradition of weird fiction following their earlier anthology The New Weird. In this project, they jointly selected the stories from a global pool spanning 150 years, with Ann managing permissions and translations for international works, while Jeff concentrated on crafting introductions and framing the anthology's approach to the genre.

Background and development

Genre context

Weird fiction emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a subgenre of speculative that blended elements of horror, fantasy, and , often evoking a sense of the through encounters with the inexplicable. Key early figures included , whose stories like "The Willows" (1907) explored psychological dread induced by natural forces; , who introduced dreamlike mythological fantasies in works such as (1905); and , whose tales from the 1920s onward emphasized humanity's insignificance against vast, indifferent cosmic entities. These authors built on Gothic traditions but shifted focus toward modern anxieties about science, , and the unknown, marking a departure from Victorian supernaturalism. The genre flourished in the 1920s through the 1940s primarily via Weird Tales magazine, founded in 1923, which serialized stories by Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith, establishing a pulp aesthetic of serialized adventure laced with the bizarre. Following World War II, the genre experienced a decline due to the pulp industry's collapse from paper shortages, rising costs, and competition from mass-market paperbacks, with Weird Tales ceasing publication in 1954. A revival occurred in the 1990s and 2000s through the "New Weird" movement, coined by M. John Harrison in 2002 and exemplified by authors like China Miéville, whose urban fantasies such as Perdido Street Station (2000) incorporated political allegory, body horror, and genre subversion. Central to weird fiction are traits like cosmic unease—a pervasive dread of forces beyond human understanding—and an ambiguity between the real and unreal, where rational explanations falter against irruptions of the otherworldly. Unlike traditional horror, which often relies on familiar antagonists like ghosts or vampires for immediate terror, weird fiction prioritizes subtle, existential disorientation without resolution, as seen in Blackwood's atmospheric indulgences or Lovecraft's "cosmic fear." This foundation influenced later anthologies, including 1970s collections reprinting material, such as Peter Haining's (1976), and the VanderMeers' (2008), which curated contemporary examples to trace the genre's ongoing mutation.

Selection process

The curatorial goals of The Weird centered on assembling 110 works of fiction published between 1907 and 2010 to trace the historical development of across a century, emphasizing its evolution from early 20th-century roots in magazines like . Editors Ann and sought to highlight the genre's global scope by prioritizing diversity among authors, including underrepresented voices from various cultures and eras, while incorporating original translations of non-English works, such as Japanese stories by and Latin American pieces in Spanish. This approach aimed to map key tendencies in the weird, from classic tales to surreal and expressions, fostering a comprehensive view of its breadth and depth. Inclusion criteria focused on stories that evoke a sensation of "terror and wonder" through innovative and visionary narratives, deliberately avoiding reliance on conventional tropes like or ghosts in favor of authentic engagements with modern uncertainties and dissatisfactions. The editors balanced canonical classics with contemporary pieces to demonstrate the genre's ongoing vitality, ultimately arranging the selections in chronological order—based on original dates for translations—to illustrate its progression over time. This structure preserved a "chain of evidence" for the weird's transformation, ensuring the anthology served as both a historical document and a dynamic literary . The curation process faced significant challenges, including difficulties in acquiring rights that led to exclusions such as Philip K. Dick's "The Preserving Machine," despite its thematic fit. Length constraints, with the anthology totaling approximately 750,000 words across its 1,100-plus pages, necessitated favoring substantial novellas like Michel Bernanos's The Other Side of the Mountain over full-length novels to maintain comprehensiveness without excessive volume. Commissioning and verifying original translations added complexity, as some efforts proved unusable due to quality issues. Development of The Weird was conceptualized in the wake of the VanderMeers' 2008 anthology The New Weird, which had begun to delineate contemporary strands of the . The project required two years of intensive research, permissions negotiations, and editing, culminating in the 2012 publication by . authored the era-specific introductions to provide historical context, framing each section to underscore the weird's cultural and literary shifts.

Contents

Structure and organization

The anthology The Weird comprises 110 pieces, encompassing short stories and novellas, organized into three distinct eras: Early Weird (1900s to the 1920s), Midcentury Weird (1930s to the 1960s), and Recent Weird (1970s to 2010). This division highlights the historical evolution of while maintaining a cohesive arc across the volume. Within each era, the selections are ordered chronologically by their original publication dates, allowing readers to trace the genre's development through temporal progression rather than thematic grouping; translations are dated by their initial appearance in the source language. There are no further subdivisions by theme or motif within these eras, emphasizing the anthology's focus on linear historical presentation over categorical analysis. Supplementary elements enrich the collection's scholarly value, including a foreword ("Foreweird") by that sets the contextual tone, an introduction by the editors Ann and , era-specific introductions providing historical overviews, brief bibliographies for each author to contextualize their contributions, and a comprehensive index of stories and contributors for easy navigation. These additions total over 750,000 words across the volume, supporting its role as both a literary and a . The works vary significantly in scope, with the shortest entries approximating 1,000 words and the longest novellas extending to around 20,000 words, accommodating diverse forms from concise vignettes to expansive tales. International diversity is evident in the inclusion of more than 20 non-English language works representing authors from more than 18 nationalities, including seven newly commissioned translations, to broaden the anthology's global perspective.

Notable inclusions

The anthology The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, edited by Ann and Jeff , spans over a century of , with its selections arranged chronologically to illustrate the genre's evolution. From the early twentieth century, the collection features H.P. Lovecraft's (1929), a seminal work exemplifying cosmic horror through its depiction of otherworldly entities intruding on rural life, underscoring the insignificance of humanity against vast, indifferent forces. Similarly, Franz Kafka's (1919) represents surreal bureaucracy, portraying a nightmarish execution device that inscribes the condemned's sentence onto their body, highlighting themes of alienation and mechanical justice in a colonial setting. Midcentury inclusions draw from post-war literary experimentation, such as ' "The Aleph" (1945), which explores infinite conceptual spaces via a point in a containing the universe's entirety, challenging perceptions of and . Shirley Jackson's "The Summer People" (1950) captures subtle unease in a lakeside community, where seasonal visitors encounter mounting, inexplicable hostility from locals, evoking quiet dread through everyday disruptions. More recent entries reflect contemporary innovations in the genre, including China Miéville's "" (2002), which delves into urban strangeness through a narrative of obsessive observation and perceptual shifts in a modern cityscape. Kelly Link's "The Specialist’s Hat" (1998) illustrates domestic weirdness, blending fairy-tale elements with suburban ennui in a story of a girl navigating and enchantment via a mysterious milliner. The anthology emphasizes diversity, incorporating non-Western perspectives such as Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's "The Hell Screen" (1918), a Japanese tale of artistic torment and ghostly visions during the creation of a demonic , and Octavia E. Butler's "Bloodchild" (), a powerful exploration of and power dynamics from an African American female author's viewpoint. Selections intentionally prioritize literary depth over pulp-heavy works, with omissions including certain pulp-influenced stories due to issues or to maintain focus on innovative, boundary-pushing narratives rather than formulaic tropes.

Themes and style

Defining the weird

In their introduction to The Weird: A of Strange and Dark Stories, editors Ann and conceptualize "the weird" as a dynamic literary mode that evokes a sense of wrongness, , and wonder, rather than adhering to fixed boundaries. They describe it as pursuing "an indefinable understanding of the world beyond the mundane," intersecting with horror, , and fantasy while resisting strict categorization as any one of them. Central to this definition are attributes such as a focus on the "unseen" or inexplicable elements that disrupt everyday , often through human-scale encounters with the vast or unknown. The VanderMeers emphasize how the weird evolves from static depictions of horror—rooted in traditional tropes—toward fluid speculation that incorporates transformative, unsettling experiences reflective of modern life's extremes. Historically, the editors build on H.P. Lovecraft's notion of the "weird tale" as evoking "a certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread" or a "malign and particular suspension or defeat of…fixed laws of Nature," but they expand it to encompass global traditions beyond Anglo-American pulp fiction. Influenced by movements like , Symbolism, and , the weird includes works from diverse authors such as Jean Ray, Hagiwara Sakutaro, and , spanning the 1910s to 1930s and incorporating rural, abstract, and non-urban forms that contrast with the New Weird's emphasis on contemporary, city-based settings. The anthology positions the weird as an ongoing, adaptive tradition rather than a historical relic, showcasing its idiosyncratic endurance over a century and hinting at a potential "Next Weird." This perspective is reinforced in China Miéville's afterword, which portrays the weird as "rather slippery and generally macabre fiction, a dark fantastic ‘horror’ plus ‘fantasy’, often featuring nontraditional alien monsters," underscoring its resistance to neat definitions and its emergence through ripped, unfinished worldviews.

Literary techniques

Literary techniques in The Weird emphasize the genre's capacity to unsettle through stylistic innovation, drawing on a century of experimental to evoke the inexplicable. Central to this approach is narrative ambiguity, where first-person unreliability and open-ended resolutions amplify unease by withholding clear explanations for phenomena, allowing readers to grapple with the limits of and knowledge. As the editors note, the weird "strives for a kind of understanding even when something cannot be understood, and acknowledges failure as sign and symbol of our limitations," fostering a pervasive sense of disorientation that mirrors the core definition of the weird as a blend of terror and wonder. Atmosphere building forms another cornerstone, achieved through sensory details that merge the mundane with the , transforming settings into active characters that reflect psychological turmoil—such as decaying environments symbolizing inner decay. This technique creates a "certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread" or a "malign and particular suspension or defeat of … fixed laws of Nature," as articulated in the anthology's introduction, often by invoking isolation and nature's latent hostility to heighten immersion. Reviewers observe this pattern across the collection, where evocative descriptions of "monstrous outlines" and unnatural landscapes sustain an undercurrent of unease without relying on overt action. The anthology's stories frequently employ hybrid forms, blurring boundaries between genres such as elements within horror—like alien biology disrupting human norms—or fantasy intrusions into realism, alongside experimental structures like non-linear timelines that challenge conventional plotting. This genre-blending subverts rational explanations, incorporating influences from and New Wave science fiction to produce fresh, subversive narratives that evade categorization. Such approaches align with the editors' vision of the weird as a "darkly democratic" mode that synthesizes diverse traditions, including ritualistic and visionary elements, to explore the strange without fixed tropes. Linguistic innovation further distinguishes these techniques, with neologisms and fragmented prose conveying alienation and the erosion of familiar language, often drawing from surrealist and modernist influences evident in translated works. For instance, experimental styles akin to James Joyce's stream-of-consciousness produce dreamlike , as seen in contributions that employ "pipe-cleaner thin limbs" or other vivid, disorienting imagery to disrupt syntactic norms and immerse readers in subjective chaos. This fragmentation underscores the anthology's commitment to linguistic subversion, where prose itself becomes a vehicle for the , reflecting broader modernist in .

Reception and legacy

Critical reception

Upon its release, The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories received widespread acclaim from critics for its ambitious scope and authoritative curation of the genre. The Financial Times praised the anthology as an "authoritative" representation of weird fiction, highlighting its inclusion of over 100 authors ranging from H.P. Lovecraft and Jorge Luis Borges to contemporary voices like Michael Chabon and Haruki Murakami, and emphasizing its role in surveying a century of unsettling, disorienting narratives. Similarly, Publishers Weekly described it as a "standard-setting compilation," commending its "stunning diversity" and "excellent quality" across 110 stories from more than 20 countries, which blurred the boundaries of speculative fiction while avoiding clichéd supernatural tropes. Locus Magazine echoed this enthusiasm, calling the chronologically arranged selections an "evolutionary fossil record" of the genre's development, showcasing its innovation and global cultural variations in depictions of strangeness. Some reviews offered mixed assessments, often noting the anthology's formidable size as a potential barrier. The observed that the 1,152-page volume was "too big" to fully assimilate in one sitting, though it acknowledged the richness of its contents as both enjoyable and overwhelming. In , Damien Walter adopted a humorous tone in a pastiche-style review, portraying the book as a monstrous entity with a "pulsing opalescent body" and a "beaked, gaping, chewing maw," crediting the editors' "inhuman determination" for assembling such a vast, reality-devouring collection that might intimidate casual readers. Early scholarly attention recognized the anthology's contribution to by expanding the weird fiction canon beyond predominantly Anglo-American works. For instance, in discussions of modernist and contemporary weird literature, critics have noted its inclusion of international authors from regions like , , and , which broadens the traditional focus on figures like Lovecraft and introduces diverse cultural inflections of the weird. This global perspective was seen as a key step in redefining the 's boundaries. The anthology achieved commercial success, evidenced by multiple editions including hardcover, paperback, and e-book formats, and its win of the 2012 for Best Anthology. Reviewers highlighted its accessibility, particularly the e-book version priced at $14.99, which made the expansive content affordable despite its physical heft.

Awards and recognition

The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories won the for Best Anthology in 2012, selected from nominees including A of edited by Jones. The anthology also secured the for Best Anthology that same year, prevailing over competitors such as A of and House of Fear edited by Mark Morris, with recognition for its broad international scope encompassing stories from over 20 countries. In addition, it received the This Is Horror Award for Anthology of the Year in 2012, a voter-based honor from the horror community celebrating its comprehensive survey of . The anthology was nominated for the for Best Anthology in 2012, reflecting its strong reader reception among and fantasy enthusiasts. These accolades underscored the editors' ambitious curation of over 100 stories spanning a century, bolstered by positive critical buzz that highlighted its role in revitalizing interest in the weird genre.

Cultural impact

The publication of The Weird in 2012 marked a pivotal moment in the revival of , catalyzing a surge in ambitious anthologies that sought to redefine and expand the genre's boundaries. Editors Ann and followed this with The Big Book of in 2016, a similarly expansive collection spanning international authors and speculative traditions, which echoed The Weird's emphasis on diversity and historical depth. This momentum influenced broader expansions of the "" movement, incorporating urban, subversive elements into contemporary speculative literature by featuring works from authors like and alongside global perspectives. In academic and critical circles, The Weird established a lasting legacy, frequently cited in 2010s scholarship on speculative fiction and the global dimensions of weird narratives. Studies have drawn on the anthology to analyze its role in mapping "Old Weird" and "New Weird" evolutions, highlighting its departure from pulp origins toward modernist and international influences. By including over 110 stories from diverse regions, including non-Western traditions, it expanded the genre's canon to embrace underrepresented voices, fostering discussions on cultural hybridity and the uncanny in global literature. For example, analyses of New Weird's deconstructive elements reference the anthology's curation of both-and logics in fiction from authors like VanderMeer himself. The anthology's commercial and critical success with publisher , including its 2012 for Best Anthology, spurred publishing trends toward large-scale genre compendiums in the post-2012 era. This validation prompted similar projects across imprints, emphasizing comprehensive overviews of speculative subgenres, and heightened demand for translations of non-English weird works featured in the collection, such as those by Krohn and others from Japanese and Latin American traditions. Beyond literature, The Weird resonated in popular culture through references in horror media and echoes in VanderMeer's subsequent novels, such as Annihilation (2014) and Borne (2017), which extend the anthology's themes of ecological unease and otherworldly intrusion. As of 2025, it endures as a benchmark for genre anthologies, informing ongoing explorations of weird fiction's intersections with climate and identity in speculative discourse.

References

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