Some of you have noticed, I’m actually sure all of you have noticed, I’ve been farting around with my logo. The Absurd Circle is a new literary turn for me. I’ve been writing, and thinking, in more absurd terms than I normally do. Those of you who know me very fairly well have right to be concerned. But I assure you, I’ve got this all thought through… absurd as it may be.
There is a growing community of absurdist writers. I’ll be introducing some of them in this blog by way of reviewing there works–the first step I’m planning to take as a member of this literary community. I’ve been writing absurd works for a while. I just didn’t realize that there was a movement going on and that I was part of it. Some of my closest writing friends have been doing it as well, though we never considered how to label our work… we just knew it defied categorization into any of the established genres.
So now that I’m more aware of what’s happening, I’m planning on getting more involved by reading more absurdists and reviewing their works. I’ll be reaching out to the more established community members leaving thoughtful comments on their blogs as well as my blog url.
In this way I hope to establish myself as a participant in the absurd conversation. So when my new friends come to my site to see their works reviewed or whenever a new reader comes they’ll see my new absurd logo.
So what’s up with that? What the hell is it?
One of the interesting elements in neo-absurdism is the idea that identity is mutable. This idea is very appealing to me. All of my work deals with identity issues. Even Torque, my gritty pulpy crime novel, dealt with identity in the criminal class.
The other element of neo-absurdism that I find extremely appealing is the allowance for humor. Absurdism isn’t always funny, much of it is bleak–I’m thinking of Beckett here, but to be able to laugh at the human condition and not be labeled as genre writing, is a pretty cool feature. Thus my Alien novel fits the mold, although in a fringe way.
What’s my Alien novel? It’s a humorous take on the Alien Invasion genre. It’s not very serious and most Alien Invasion enthusiasts will suggest that while the book actually contains an alien race bent on overthrowing Earth, the circumstance, and the method of invasion is absolutely absurd. And they’d be right. It’s not really an Alien Invasion Novel. It’s an absurdist novel. I just have some revision work to do. Like a lot of revision work to do.
So back to the logo. Bringing those two beloved aspects of neo-absurdism together, I created the faceless cartoon head. The “Absurd Circle” referring to the human head. Its faceless quality referencing the concept of mutable identity. It can be taken a step further that the head is really empty, which works for me. The more I consider what life is about, the more I realize I don’t know anything… nor does anybody else.
The more theories I hear, the more religions I become exposed to, the more I think it’s all so absurd. It’s so hard to live and so easy to die. We absurdist reject suicide… it’s much more fun to laugh at the human condition, to find man’s ridiculousness endearing. Vonnegut wrote, “Don’t let anyone tell you anything different, we were put on Earth to fart around.” I’m paraphrasing, but I’m certain he used the words “fart around.” And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing lately, farting around. Thus the new logo.