Squidpunk–the New Movement
Given the rise of squidpunk, we’re proud to announce the following:
SQUIDPUNK: The Anthology
A 300,000-word anthology from Bloomsbury in 2009 featuring squidpunk stories, essays, and interviews. In addition to my work, there will be fiction by Stephen Baxter, Peter Watts, Mike Moorcock, and Caitlin Kiernan. (More on this to follow.) John Coulthart will be creating the design and cover from his collection of twenty-five thousand squid images. Bloomsbury will be notified about their role in all of this sometime in the next month.
SQUIDPUNK: THE MANIFESTO
Fiction that unlike New Weird, Steampunk, or Slipstream, is at its core not only about squid, but about the symbolism of squid as color-changing, highly-mobile, alien-looking, intelligent ocean-goers. As a powerful ecosystem indicator, the squid is a potent symbol for environmental rejuvenation. Squidpunk is almost exclusively set at sea and must contain some reference to either cephalopods or to anything that thematically relates to squid, in terms of world iconography and tropes. Squidpunk is never escapist or whimsical. It is always serious and edgy. This combination of a hard punk aesthetic with the fluid propulsion system common to the squid has produced a unique literary hybrid beloved by Mundanes and Surrealists alike.
October 15, 2007 at 1:35 pm
If movements were my kink, I’d hit that.
October 15, 2007 at 2:01 pm
If this was April 1 and it was anyone but you, I’d think this was a joke.. sadly, it’s not.. is it??
October 15, 2007 at 2:34 pm
As soon as Bloomsbury is notified that they will be publishing our antho, and I set up the whole squidpunk paradigm, we’re a go. I also have to make sure people start writing squidpunk and that the writers I’ve name-checked are told to start sending in their already-accepted pieces to our antho ASAP. Oh–and Coulthart will need to be told to acquire s 25k squid image collection.
But, mostly, it’ll be aimed at squid, so it’s going to be published in squidlish, actually on a strobing squid. Humans will need a snorkel and all of that to “read” the book–but, also they’ll have to learn squidlish.
I think all of this might be an indication that whatever I’m coming down with is the flu. :(
Jeff
October 15, 2007 at 2:40 pm
As a lover anything punk . . . I’m all over this! Are you accepting submissions? I’ve had a concept I’ve been toying with for months about the psychological stresses of living in a marine habitat (which I was basing on NASA’s mock lunar habitat in the Gulf of Mexico). If the antho is open, what kind of deadline would I be looking at, and where would I send something if I was able to produce it in time?
October 15, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Dear Friends: This post was meant as a joke. How could it be anything other than a joke? No matter. I still love you all.
Jeff
October 15, 2007 at 2:46 pm
The _Wayne’s World_ quote “Fiiished in!” seems apropos here.
October 15, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Because you type with such a straight face, Jeff.
You’re the boy who cried squid! after all.
October 15, 2007 at 2:50 pm
I’m from northern Manitoba, and I’m interested in starting up an anthology of Chipmunkpunk. Any takers?
October 15, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Corey–I’m in. Just as soon as I finish my squidpunk retelling of the Odyssey and my squirrelmonkeypunk arboreal adventure serial.
JV
October 15, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Great. I’ll pencil you in after my exploration into the relgious socio-economic ramifications of Monkpunk, my weight-obsessed novel Chunkpunk, and, of course, the discoteria-themed Funkpunk.
October 15, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Two words: KRAKEN SWARM!
Do not trifle with me, sir.
October 15, 2007 at 5:03 pm
this is so awesomely bad!
October 15, 2007 at 5:10 pm
[...] Jeff VanderMeer has published what must surly be the official and definitive Squidpunk Manifesto. I look forward to see who takes this joke the farthest. Posted October 15th, 2007 in web | Link | if (ShowGoogleAd == 1) { document.write(“”); } [...]
October 15, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Oh, but what about the New Squid?
October 15, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Steady on, I think I’ve only got about 12,000 squid images. I’ll have to raid the Encyclopaedia Squidanica at this rate.
October 15, 2007 at 11:06 pm
“The Calamari Caper” ?..
October 16, 2007 at 10:25 am
Oh yeah? Well I take your movement and raise it to the next level! Sushi Punk!
October 16, 2007 at 10:57 am
That said, I am now thinking about doing a Squidpunk pop culture book, if I can convince Chronicle or Taschen or somebody to do it.
Jeff
October 22, 2007 at 8:58 am
Any hope of getting Bruce Schneier in on this?
October 25, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Jeff,
Been hearing about for some time from various friends (Jay Lake, Kari O’Connor) but now you’ve gone and convinced me I need to read you first hand. Brilliant idea for an antho and if you ever get Bloomsbury on board, I’d love to send you a submission.
October 31, 2007 at 9:31 pm
I for one wholeheartedly think you should do this book and should you expect to be flooded by me begging to do art for it.
April 9, 2008 at 9:43 pm
[...] Amy Long, an artist who created crocheted and knitted tentacle-like pieces for her MFA thesis exhibit. See a slideshow on her Flickr site. To me the pieces look a little like genitalia, but so do lots of tentacle-like things… (via io9). Brings a whole new meaning to squidpunk. [...]
July 6, 2008 at 7:08 am
[...] can think of no more fitting way to kick off Squid Week ‘08 than with Jeff VanderMeer’s Squidpunk Manifesto: Fiction that unlike New Weird, Steampunk, or Slipstream, is at its core not only about squid, but [...]
November 2, 2008 at 1:01 am
I fully encourage you to pursue this trend, as I am dying to see hipsters strutting around in pointy squid hats and tentacle-scarves, mocking up nautical themed gadgetry and objects like computer mice that appear to work on fluid propulsion. Of course, if you confront them on the pretentiousness of it all, they will merely squirt a cloud of aerosolized ink at you and run away.
Also, I think that squids have been under-represented in fantasy fiction, trailing only slightly behind African American protagonists and slightly ahead of naked mole rats.
My own alternate -punk trends were published on Fantasy Magazine, but none of them are as frighteningly believable as yours.
January 14, 2009 at 4:52 pm
[...] head down to the closest Greek restaurant, order some calimari, and curl up with an anthology of squidpunk. Damitall, when are we gonna see glyptodontpunk? I'll show you escapist and [...]
August 27, 2009 at 7:39 am
God dammit, I googled “Squidpunk” to make sure no one else had started this movement specifically so I could!
August 27, 2009 at 8:52 am
There’s also http://www.squidpunk.com