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Witpunk
The Barnes & Noble Review
Witpunk, an edgy collection of sardonic fiction, was inspired when someone asked on an Internet literary forum, "When did reading SF/fantasy stop being fun?" Claude Lalumière, a popular Canadian author and columnist, took exception to this and, along with editor Marty Halpern, put together an anthology of some of the best works of satirical fiction in the last two decades. p
While some of the stories are speculative classics, like Robert Silverberg's "Amanda and the Alien," Pat Cadigan's "Mother's Milk," and Nina Kiriki Hoffman's "Savage Breasts," half the collection is made up of never-before-published works by some of the brightest authors in contemporary science fiction and fantasy, including Paul Di Filippo, Allen M. Steele, Bradley Denton, and Pat Murphy.
Included are stories about a science fiction writer gone temporarily insane, a post#150;global warming society where infertile infants are killed by priests in the name of God, a boy's friendship with a turkey, demonic light bulbs, and a secretary with lethal weapons under her sweater -- to name but a few.p
The back of Witpunk says it all: "When the world is just too stupid, brutal, or annoying to believe -- strike back by laughing at it." This diverse collection of stories, which ranges from witty science fiction to black-humored horror to just plain bizarre fantasy, is a typical Four Walls Eight Windows offering: highly intelligent, brilliantly clever stories with that unique mix of style, irreverence, and attitude. Those afflicted with a twisted sense of humor will cherish this collection for a long, long time.
Paul Goat Allen
Witpunk, an edgy collection of sardonic fiction, was inspired when someone asked on an Internet literary forum, "When did reading SF/fantasy stop being fun?" Claude Lalumière, a popular Canadian author and columnist, took exception to this and, along with editor Marty Halpern, put together an anthology of some of the best works of satirical fiction in the last two decades. p
While some of the stories are speculative classics, like Robert Silverberg's "Amanda and the Alien," Pat Cadigan's "Mother's Milk," and Nina Kiriki Hoffman's "Savage Breasts," half the collection is made up of never-before-published works by some of the brightest authors in contemporary science fiction and fantasy, including Paul Di Filippo, Allen M. Steele, Bradley Denton, and Pat Murphy.
Included are stories about a science fiction writer gone temporarily insane, a post#150;global warming society where infertile infants are killed by priests in the name of God, a boy's friendship with a turkey, demonic light bulbs, and a secretary with lethal weapons under her sweater -- to name but a few.p
The back of Witpunk says it all: "When the world is just too stupid, brutal, or annoying to believe -- strike back by laughing at it." This diverse collection of stories, which ranges from witty science fiction to black-humored horror to just plain bizarre fantasy, is a typical Four Walls Eight Windows offering: highly intelligent, brilliantly clever stories with that unique mix of style, irreverence, and attitude. Those afflicted with a twisted sense of humor will cherish this collection for a long, long time.
Paul Goat Allen
352 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2003
2 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
About the author
Claude Lalumière
127 books56 followersMontreal writer Claude Lalumière is the author of the story collections
Objects of Worship
,
Nocturnes and Other Nocturnes
, and
Altre persone / Other Persons
and of the mosaic works
The Door to Lost Pages
and
Venera Dreams: A Weird Entertainment
. He has edited fourteen anthologies, including two Aurora Award—nominated volumes in the Tesseracts series. His first fiction – “Bestial Acts” – appeared in Interzone in 2002, and he has since published more than 100 stories; his work has been translated into French, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Serbian, Hungarian, Romanian, Turkish, and Russian and adapted for stage, screen, audio, and comics.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 11, 2023
As a friend pointed out, the title is more puzzling than it is anything else. In his Preface, Claude Lalumière mentions that the book's Genesis came about when, in participating in an online forum in mid-2001, someone asked, "When did reading SF/fantasy stop being fun?" Lalumière immediately countered with several examples of books and stories that he felt were definitely fun, and got to thinking.
The stories in Witpunk are certainly fun, though some are darkly so. About half were written especially for this anthology. Of the rest, only one was previously familiar to me: "Amanda and the Alien" by Robert Silverberg, which I think I read in Omni magazine back in the 80's. As with just about all anthologies, the quality varies from story to story. That said, I think that at least three-quarters of these were quite good indeed. "Wild Girls," by Pat Murphy, is superb, one of the best stories I've ever read. It's worth the price of the book all by itself.
I don't love the title. Unlike cyberpunk, steampunk, dieselpunk, splatterpunk, etc., "Witpunk" is just a term that they thought would make a cute title for the book, not an emerging literary movement. As far as I know, its only recorded usage is this book and any reviews thereof. It deserves to fade back into obscurity. But not the book. The book is excellent. And highly recommended!
The stories in Witpunk are certainly fun, though some are darkly so. About half were written especially for this anthology. Of the rest, only one was previously familiar to me: "Amanda and the Alien" by Robert Silverberg, which I think I read in Omni magazine back in the 80's. As with just about all anthologies, the quality varies from story to story. That said, I think that at least three-quarters of these were quite good indeed. "Wild Girls," by Pat Murphy, is superb, one of the best stories I've ever read. It's worth the price of the book all by itself.
I don't love the title. Unlike cyberpunk, steampunk, dieselpunk, splatterpunk, etc., "Witpunk" is just a term that they thought would make a cute title for the book, not an emerging literary movement. As far as I know, its only recorded usage is this book and any reviews thereof. It deserves to fade back into obscurity. But not the book. The book is excellent. And highly recommended!
September 3, 2007
The copy is very excited about being "sardonic." I was drawn in by promises of stories by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Pat Murphy, Pat Cadigan. The Murphy story was actually quite sweet, a strange contrast to the rest that had a nasty edge, some of them downright icky. There was a game that Jeffrey Ford was playing with run on sentences that appeared several times. Glad he was enjoying himself.
January 1, 2009
The thematic drive behind this anthology is, according to the introduction, to refute the claim that the genre of SF (or short fiction in general) stopped being fun. Most of the stories do indeed meet this goal (the few exceptions are so head-scratchingly unqualified that one does wonder just what happened).
“The Teb Hunter” by Allen Steele. A hunting trip to bag bioengineered former pets. Ecologically they're an invasive pest, but....
“Coyote Goes Hollywood” by Ernest Hogan. The story finds the Coyote of myth, what he's done so far in modern history, and what change he's making in his life now.
“Spicy Detective #3” by Jeffrey Ford. Remember the Bulwer-Lytton awards? Remember how the first year they were funny, but after that they degenerated into run-on sentences crammed with every unfunny line the contestant mistakenly thought was funny? This could be one of them. Even worse, it's not the last one in this book.
“Auspicious Eggs” by James Morrow. Doesn't really belong here, not being witty or punkish. Dystopian theocracy in Boston, with the Church deciding the survivability of newborns. Even as ironic comment on organized religion, I didn't believe it for a moment, and it fails to make any point.
“Timmy and Tommy’s Thanksgiving Secret” by Bradley Denton. Timmy is a small boy, Tommy isn't, and this story definitely doesn't end the way you think it will.
“Savage Breasts” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman. Getting the Charlotte Atlas exerciser creates self-improvement beyond expectations. Even as a reader of the wrong gender, I found this hilarious.
“I Love Paree” by Cory Doctorow and Michael Skeet. An expatriate Canadian finds himself swept up by the Libertines in a conflict in Balkanized France.
“Arabesques of Eldritch Weirdness #8” by Jeffrey Ford. See above in the previous Ford story.
“The Seven-Day Itch” by Elise Moser. Genuinely horrifying story of too much closeness between a woman and her lover. Despite this, the final line seems to imply that one can get over any tragedy, in theory I suppose that's true. Nonetheless, the situation she finds herself in is nightmarish.
“The Scuttling” by William Sanders. Awful yuppies get what they deserve. Not a terribly surprising story, although the descriptions of what could be called the special effects are pretty good.
“A Halloween Like Any Other” by Michael Arsenault. Vampire hunting. Why aren't you taking this seriously?
“The Lights of Armageddon” by William Browning Spencer. Invoking the end of the world involves a lot of door-to-door salesmanship.
“Doc Aggressive, Man of Tin #2” by Jeffrey Ford. See above.
“Bagged ’n’ Tagged” by Eugene Byrne. Convict labor gets secure and privatized. But can you trust the people who use their services?
“Amanda and the Alien” by Robert Silverberg. Teens may care too much about the latest pop sensation, but they're still very, very dangerous.
“Diary from an Empty Studio” by Don Webb. The artist is not mad. Not at all.
“Is That Hard Science, or Are You Just Happy to See Me?” by Leslie What. An overprotective mother installs a monitoring and protection device in her daughter. Her daughter is frustrated. Very, very, frustrated. (The device, by the way, has a nickname that I can't use in this review). Comedy and conflicts over sexual freedom ensue.
“Six Gun Loner of the High Butte #6” by Jeffrey Ford. See above.
“Encounter of Another Kind” by David Langford. UFO skeptics need to be converted in the worst way. UFO believers need something else.
“Tales from the Breast” by Hiromi Goto. Inspirational essays on the wonders of breastfeeding aren't convincing to the one who has to go through it.
“Science Fiction” by Paul Di Filippo. An SF author going through writer's block begins to see the world through the lens of his stories.
“Mother's Milt” by Pat Cadigan. This might be considered the flip side of “Bagged 'n' Tagged” above, and consequently doesn't work quite as well. Viewed strictly as horror though, it's effective.
“Deep Space Adventure #32” by Jeffrey Ford. See above.
“The Wild Girls” by Pat Murphy. The new girl in school and the class outcast outsmart what can only be called the forces of mediocrity.
“Jumping” by Ray Vukcevich. A brief story about having absolute faith in someone.
“Kapuzine and the Wolf: A Hortatory Tale” by Laurent McAllister. A Little Red Riding Hood story that combines some of the more gruesome sainthood stories and underground resistance tales. I'm not certain that this, ultimately about betrayal, belongs in this anthology either, but it's still a good story.
With a few exceptions, most of the stories are good, and some are excellent. The outstanding ones are “Savage Breasts”, “Bagged ’n’ Tagged”, “Is That Hard Science, or Are You Just Happy to See Me?”, and “The Wild Girls”, with “The Seven-Day Itch”, “The Lights of Armageddon”, “Amanda and the Alien”, and “Tales from the Breast” in a close second. Only the Ford and Morrow stories were disappointing, and the others are certainly worth reading. All in all, a good anthology.
“The Teb Hunter” by Allen Steele. A hunting trip to bag bioengineered former pets. Ecologically they're an invasive pest, but....
“Coyote Goes Hollywood” by Ernest Hogan. The story finds the Coyote of myth, what he's done so far in modern history, and what change he's making in his life now.
“Spicy Detective #3” by Jeffrey Ford. Remember the Bulwer-Lytton awards? Remember how the first year they were funny, but after that they degenerated into run-on sentences crammed with every unfunny line the contestant mistakenly thought was funny? This could be one of them. Even worse, it's not the last one in this book.
“Auspicious Eggs” by James Morrow. Doesn't really belong here, not being witty or punkish. Dystopian theocracy in Boston, with the Church deciding the survivability of newborns. Even as ironic comment on organized religion, I didn't believe it for a moment, and it fails to make any point.
“Timmy and Tommy’s Thanksgiving Secret” by Bradley Denton. Timmy is a small boy, Tommy isn't, and this story definitely doesn't end the way you think it will.
“Savage Breasts” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman. Getting the Charlotte Atlas exerciser creates self-improvement beyond expectations. Even as a reader of the wrong gender, I found this hilarious.
“I Love Paree” by Cory Doctorow and Michael Skeet. An expatriate Canadian finds himself swept up by the Libertines in a conflict in Balkanized France.
“Arabesques of Eldritch Weirdness #8” by Jeffrey Ford. See above in the previous Ford story.
“The Seven-Day Itch” by Elise Moser. Genuinely horrifying story of too much closeness between a woman and her lover. Despite this, the final line seems to imply that one can get over any tragedy, in theory I suppose that's true. Nonetheless, the situation she finds herself in is nightmarish.
“The Scuttling” by William Sanders. Awful yuppies get what they deserve. Not a terribly surprising story, although the descriptions of what could be called the special effects are pretty good.
“A Halloween Like Any Other” by Michael Arsenault. Vampire hunting. Why aren't you taking this seriously?
“The Lights of Armageddon” by William Browning Spencer. Invoking the end of the world involves a lot of door-to-door salesmanship.
“Doc Aggressive, Man of Tin #2” by Jeffrey Ford. See above.
“Bagged ’n’ Tagged” by Eugene Byrne. Convict labor gets secure and privatized. But can you trust the people who use their services?
“Amanda and the Alien” by Robert Silverberg. Teens may care too much about the latest pop sensation, but they're still very, very dangerous.
“Diary from an Empty Studio” by Don Webb. The artist is not mad. Not at all.
“Is That Hard Science, or Are You Just Happy to See Me?” by Leslie What. An overprotective mother installs a monitoring and protection device in her daughter. Her daughter is frustrated. Very, very, frustrated. (The device, by the way, has a nickname that I can't use in this review). Comedy and conflicts over sexual freedom ensue.
“Six Gun Loner of the High Butte #6” by Jeffrey Ford. See above.
“Encounter of Another Kind” by David Langford. UFO skeptics need to be converted in the worst way. UFO believers need something else.
“Tales from the Breast” by Hiromi Goto. Inspirational essays on the wonders of breastfeeding aren't convincing to the one who has to go through it.
“Science Fiction” by Paul Di Filippo. An SF author going through writer's block begins to see the world through the lens of his stories.
“Mother's Milt” by Pat Cadigan. This might be considered the flip side of “Bagged 'n' Tagged” above, and consequently doesn't work quite as well. Viewed strictly as horror though, it's effective.
“Deep Space Adventure #32” by Jeffrey Ford. See above.
“The Wild Girls” by Pat Murphy. The new girl in school and the class outcast outsmart what can only be called the forces of mediocrity.
“Jumping” by Ray Vukcevich. A brief story about having absolute faith in someone.
“Kapuzine and the Wolf: A Hortatory Tale” by Laurent McAllister. A Little Red Riding Hood story that combines some of the more gruesome sainthood stories and underground resistance tales. I'm not certain that this, ultimately about betrayal, belongs in this anthology either, but it's still a good story.
With a few exceptions, most of the stories are good, and some are excellent. The outstanding ones are “Savage Breasts”, “Bagged ’n’ Tagged”, “Is That Hard Science, or Are You Just Happy to See Me?”, and “The Wild Girls”, with “The Seven-Day Itch”, “The Lights of Armageddon”, “Amanda and the Alien”, and “Tales from the Breast” in a close second. Only the Ford and Morrow stories were disappointing, and the others are certainly worth reading. All in all, a good anthology.
December 6, 2015
See, Emma? I can be generous.
One word review: wacky!
One word review: wacky!
December 4, 2023
The title doesn't really describe the stories. Most were funny, some in a dark way, but few had much of a punk element. The authors are a star-studded lot, and some of the stories are excellent. I liked Cory Doctorow's "I Love Paree" offering, set in a future-ish Disneyland-like yet revolution-torn Paris; I also liked Pat Murphy's "Wild Girls" (though it had no sf/fantasy that I could see); Pat Cadigan's chilling but funny "Mother's Milt"; and Robert Silverberg's story about a teen girl who is bored enough to rescue a dangerous alien (the only story I'd read before). I hadn't heard of authors Laurent McAllister or Eugene Byrne, but really liked the former's future Red Riding Hood satire and the latter's story of a future where convicted criminals are indentured to companies or sometimes individuals. I did not like some of the other stories, notably Jeffrey Ford's three one-sentence one-paragraph two-page exercises in tropes and Paul di Filippo's choppy (due to short and mostly-incomplete sentences) descriptions of a writer's descent into madness (or maybe reality).
December 11, 2018
In brief: This is a collection of funny, clever stories with a science fiction or fantasy twist.
Thoughts: Let’s start with the fact that I don’t, as a rule, enjoy speculative short stories. Some of them are fun and entertaining, yes, some make you really think about the world, and most are very well-written and do absolutely nothing for me. A good anthology, for me, will have about 75% of the first two categories. This one… despite its promises of “modern, funny SFF”, only a few had me laughing or gave me the joy and zing I want when I read. A month and a bit later, I can’t even remember that many of them without looking at the index. I’m not sure if this is because it’s an older anthology, or because my humour is very twisted sometimes, or because of my usual short story problems, or because it’s pretty heavily male, or what, but …. A few good stories in this one, but on the whole, an average anthology.
5/10
Thoughts: Let’s start with the fact that I don’t, as a rule, enjoy speculative short stories. Some of them are fun and entertaining, yes, some make you really think about the world, and most are very well-written and do absolutely nothing for me. A good anthology, for me, will have about 75% of the first two categories. This one… despite its promises of “modern, funny SFF”, only a few had me laughing or gave me the joy and zing I want when I read. A month and a bit later, I can’t even remember that many of them without looking at the index. I’m not sure if this is because it’s an older anthology, or because my humour is very twisted sometimes, or because of my usual short story problems, or because it’s pretty heavily male, or what, but …. A few good stories in this one, but on the whole, an average anthology.
5/10
November 28, 2024
*3.5 stars*. Quite an interesting collection of sci-fi/fantasy stories. Some are speculative/sci fi already published classics by well known authors and the rest are brand new works by some of the best contemporary sci fi/fantasy writers. There is humor and darkness and just plain weirdness. If you are looking for a different kind of sci fi anthology, you will enjoy “Witpunk”….but kind of crappy title!
April 20, 2019
Disappointing. Seemed like stories chosen at random after the concept was sold to a publisher with just the catchy title.
May 13, 2009
This collection was supposed to "range in style from dark comedy to laugh-out-loud farce", but in point of fact only one of the 26 was funny (that being Hoffman's piece, of course). According to the preface, these stories are supposed to be an injection of fun into the specfic genre. Judged by that standard, this collection is a miserable failure. (Jeffrey Ford's ridiculous attempts at humor via run-on sentences and pulp fiction cliches are particularly fail-tastic.) That said, there were a few stories whose premise or execution set them above the rest.
What I liked:
James Morrow's fertility-obsessed dystopia in "Auspicious Eggs"
Nina Kiriki Hoffman's adorable revenge fantasy set in a Mad-Men like world, "Savage Breasts"
Pat Murphy's "The Wild Girls," another retread of the classic "two kids have an intense friendship that is not understood by the outside world, and explore the woods a lot" trope, but with the extra spice that the kids are girls
The best story in the collection was easily Laurent McAllister's "Kapuzine and the Wolf: a Hortatory Tale." Kapuzine and her older sister Maureen live in the suburbs, where the rebel Woodcutters have pushed back the greenery and the forests and restored mankind's supremacy over nature. As part of a Woodcutter scheme, Kapuzine is sent deep into enemy territory (the City, where Gardeners and their minions reign) with plasticine hidden in her basket of goodies. The world is fascinating, and the tale is told as though it were a legend used as propaganda many years thence. For this story alone, it's worth seeking out witpunk.
What I liked:
James Morrow's fertility-obsessed dystopia in "Auspicious Eggs"
Nina Kiriki Hoffman's adorable revenge fantasy set in a Mad-Men like world, "Savage Breasts"
Pat Murphy's "The Wild Girls," another retread of the classic "two kids have an intense friendship that is not understood by the outside world, and explore the woods a lot" trope, but with the extra spice that the kids are girls
The best story in the collection was easily Laurent McAllister's "Kapuzine and the Wolf: a Hortatory Tale." Kapuzine and her older sister Maureen live in the suburbs, where the rebel Woodcutters have pushed back the greenery and the forests and restored mankind's supremacy over nature. As part of a Woodcutter scheme, Kapuzine is sent deep into enemy territory (the City, where Gardeners and their minions reign) with plasticine hidden in her basket of goodies. The world is fascinating, and the tale is told as though it were a legend used as propaganda many years thence. For this story alone, it's worth seeking out witpunk.
January 23, 2017
Perf for a 90s chick. Read through it fairly quickly. Savage Breasts, breast of all. Wild Girls makes me feel like Topanga doing free-verse. Fox and her father are enchanting on that same note.
Pat Murphy is generally a good writer, so in spite of the run-ons, I found myself totally buying Corso and Stiljack's psychosis. I should only hope to make it out to the other side...
Pat Murphy is generally a good writer, so in spite of the run-ons, I found myself totally buying Corso and Stiljack's psychosis. I should only hope to make it out to the other side...
October 17, 2008
It's OK. Not great.
October 31, 2010
So, despite this book's promises, I was greatly disappointed. There were a few I enjoyed--Cadigan's and Pat Murphy's--but I ended up skipping most of them.
January 9, 2011
Such a mixed bag.... Really liked some, really detested others. Feel like this should've been two separate anthologies...
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews