Jeff Noon

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Jeff Noon
Jeff Noon

Jeff Noon (born in 1957 in Droylsden, Manchester, England) is a novelist, short story writer and playwright whose works make extensive use of wordplay and fantasy. Noon's speculative fiction books have ties to the works of writers such as Lewis Carroll and Jorge Luis Borges. Prior to his recent relocation (around the year 2000) to Brighton, Noon set most of his stories in some version of his native city of Manchester.

Contents

[edit] Novels

Noon's first 4 novels are part of a series sharing ongoing characters and background, commonly referred to after the first novel as the 'Vurt' series. In terms of publishing history the Vurt sequence runs: Vurt (1993); Pollen (1995); Automated Alice (1996) (itself simultaneously a 'trequel' [sic] to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, both written by Lewis Carroll), and Nymphomation (1997) - however, in terms of fictional chronology of characters and settings the Vurt sequence runs: Automated Alice; Nymphomation; Vurt then finally Pollen.

[edit] Vurt (1993)

Vurt tells the story of Scribble and his "gang" the Stash Riders as they search for his missing sister Desdemona. Vurt refers to a drug/shared alternate reality that is accessed by sucking on color-coded feathers. Through some (never explained) mechanism, the dreams, mythology, and imaginings of humanity achieved objective reality in the Vurt and became "real". The book won the 1994 Arthur C. Clarke Award. Evidently there is a Vurt film in the works, but as of the date of this writing, Jeff Noon has stated on his public website that "Of the Vurt film, all has gone silent at the moment. Don’t hold your breath."

[edit] Pollen (1995)

Pollen is the sequel to Vurt and concerns the ongoing struggle between the real world and the vurtual world. When concerning the vurtual world, some references to Greek mythology are noticeable, including Persephone and Demeter, the river Styx and Charon, and Hades (portrayed by the character John Barleycorn).

[edit] Automated Alice (1996)

Noon describes Automated Alice as a "trequel" - it is a companion piece of sorts to the famous Lewis Carroll books, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. The novella follows Alice's journey to a future Manchester populated by Newmonians, Civil Serpents and a vanishing cat named Quark. The people who suffer from 'newmonia' (pronounced the same as the real condition pneumonia), are hybrids of humans and other entities. They are mainly hybrids of animals and humans, but also of other random items such as kitchen sinks and pianos. The 'civil serpents' (a play-on-words of the job 'civil servant') are trying to control everything that happens in the future, and try to stop randomness. The 'Supreme Serpent' is the controller of the serpents, and hints at the fact that he is Satan himself. The writing style of Noon is very similar to that of Lewis Carroll, who Noon constantly refers back to during the novel. The narrative is full of Alice mis-hearing words, most notably worm instead of wurm, and pneumonia instead of newmonia. There are also references to popular musical figures, with two notable characters. Firstly, James Marshall Hentrails, a sculpture made of rubbish, and who contains the insides (entrails) of a hen. This character is obviously a reference to Jimi Hendrix. The character also sings a song while playing the guitar. The song is titled 'Little Miss Bonkers', an obvious reference to 'Little Miss Lover' by Hendrix. Secondly, the character of Long Distance Davis, who Alice meets in a police cell, is a reference to jazz musician and trumpet player Miles Davis.

[edit] Nymphomation (1997)

Nymphomation is the prequel to Vurt. Nymphomation primarily tells the story of a lottery in Manchester involving dominos and a group attempting to crack the secrets of that lottery, but it also sets the background for much of the mythology found in the previous three books.

[edit] Pixel Juice (1998)

[edit] Needle in the Groove (2000)

Needle in the Groove follows Elliot Hill, a bass player and ex-junkie trudging the pub-rock circuit, who is invited to join a new band: fusing DJ artistry, voice and rhythm section, the group's hypnotic groove creation is augmented by a startling new recording technology. The band seems bound for success - until one of them vanishes. Elliot's subsequent search draws him into a secret history of music that stretches back 40 years and into his own past.

[edit] Cobralingus (2001)

[edit] Falling out of Cars (2002)

Falling out of Cars is a road novel set in a near-future world where information-based civilization is falling apart. It follows the journey of Marlene, Henderson, and Peacock as they drive around England on a mission to gather fragments of a mirror that may be at the heart of the world's affliction. Falling out of Cars is the record Marlene keeps - or tries to keep - of her quest to flee from her past. Despite her daily dose of Lucidity, Marlene is gradually succumbing to the malady, and it gets harder and harder to distinguish dream from reality, hallucinations from events.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Novels and novellas

[edit] Short fiction collections

[edit] Plays

  • Woundings (1986), ISBN 1-870259-00-9
  • Vurt - The Theatre Remix (1998)
  • The Modernists (2003)

[edit] Radio work

  • Dead Code - Ghosts of the Digital Age (BBC Radio 3, 2005)

[edit] External links

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