The Strange World of Slipstream Fiction – What Is It?

We define slipstream fiction, present its characteristics, and provide examples. We also offer tips for writing slipstream fiction.

What Is Slipstream Fiction?

Slipstream fiction has been described as the fiction of strangeness, or a form of writing that makes the familiar strange or the strange familiar through skepticism about elements of reality.

The term slipstream was introduced by cyberpunk author, Bruce Sterling – after a conversation with his friend, Richard Dorsett. It is defined by its surreal and unconventional nature, and it aims to evoke a feeling of dislocation.

Slipstream is a ‘strange’ or uncanny literature that blends mainstream, literary fiction with science fiction, horror, and fantasy elements, and blurs the lines between them. It is illogical, fantastical, and jarring. Jorge Luis Borges‘ Ficciones, Italo Calvino‘s Invisible Cities, and J. G. Ballard‘s The Complete Short Stories are cited as canon of slipstream writing. (Download the list: The Canon of Slipstream Writing)

Slipstream fiction is a genre of ‘cognitive dissonance‘ – a mental phenomenon in which people unknowingly or subconsciously hold fundamentally conflicting cognitions. According to Wikipedia: ‘Cognitive dissonance surfaces through psychological stress when psychological discomfort is created due to persons participating in an action that creates conflicting beliefs, attitudes, or behaviours, or when new information challenges existing beliefs.’

Slipstream disrupts the principle of realism. It breaks reality. It has been described as not so much a genre as a literary effect, like horror or comedy. Christopher Priest, in his introduction to Anna Kavan‘s slipstream novel, Ice writes ‘the best way to understand slipstream is to think of it as a state of mind or a particular approach, one that is outside of all categorisation. … slipstream induces a sense of ‘otherness’ in the audience, like a glimpse into a distorting mirror.’

They are stories of our world, but with enough of the uncanny to make us feel unbalanced, weird, and leave us feeling very strange.

Characteristics Of Slipstream Fiction

1. Exists Between Genres: It sits between speculative and mainstream fiction, and does not comply with the requirements of any genre.
2. Intense Emotional Reactions: Because of the unexpected strangeness, slipstream fiction evokes deep emotional responses.
3. Disorienting/Surreal: Stories are unsettling, illogical, challenging the reader’s understanding of reality (cognitive dissonance).
4. ‘Fiction of Strangeness’: As described by Sterling, these stories focus on a quiet, uncanny distortion of the everyday and the mundane.
5. Mainstream Presentation: Although speculative, these books are often published as general literary fiction. (They often win mainstream literary prizes.)
6. Ambiguity: We are often left with more questions than answers, and we try to interpret what we’ve read.

Examples of Slipstream Fiction

1. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (won the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction)
2. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (won the 2012 ALA Alex Award and the 2012 Locus Award for Best First Novel)
3. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (won the 2014 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 2014 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel)
4. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (won the 2017 Man Booker Prize)
5. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (won the British Book Awards Literary Fiction Award, and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2004)
6. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (won the 2006 ALA Alex Award, and shortlisted for the 2005 Booker Prize and 2006 Arthur C. Clarke Award)
7. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (won the 2015 Arthur C. Clarke Award. Finalist for the National Book Award, PEN/Faulkner Award, and Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction)
8. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (won the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award)
9. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (shortlisted for the 1999 Dublin Literary Award)
10. Ice by Anna Kavan (Best Science Fiction Book of the Year 1967)
11. All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
12. Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi (shortlisted for the 2022 Goldsmiths Prize)
13. The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez (shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, 2021 Kirkus Prize, and 2021 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Fiction)
14. Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente (won the 2010 Lambda Literary Award)
15. The Butterfly Lampshade by Aimee Bender (longlisted for the 2021 PEN/Jean Stein Award, and a best fiction book of 2020 by Publisher’s Weekly, The AV Club, and InStyle)
16. Perdido Street Station by China Miéville (won the 2002 Arthur C. Clarke Award and the 2001 British Fantasy Award)
17. The Overstory by Richard Powers (won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction)

Tips For Writing Slipstream Fiction

1. Mix Genres: Blend literary fiction with elements of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
2. Bend Reality: Use concrete, realistic settings to make the strange, unexplainable elements feel more jarring and uncanny.
3. Don’t Explain: There is no reason given for the fantastical events.
4. Use Cognitive Dissonance: Focus on the characters’ emotional reactions to the uncanny events.
5. Use Tone & Imagery: Incorporate shocking imagery in a surreal, dream-like tone.
6. Create The Correct Character: Use first person to add to the unreal story that unfolds. Make it amplify the protagonist’s confusion, unreliability, and distorted perception of the mundane world. The protagonist must experience the surreal happenings, and the blurring of boundaries to create an unsettled feeling in the reader.
7. Plot The Story: Use these ideas:
   • The Uncanny Everyday: A character’s normal, mundane life is disrupted by a subtle, unsettling, or surreal phenomena. The Butterfly Lampshade by Aimee Bender explores a child’s perception of strange, shifting realities in an ordinary domestic setting.
   • Investigating the Impossible: Protagonists investigate strange, inexplicable events, or a mysterious, shifting landscape. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer is about a biologist who enters Area X, a dangerous landscape where the laws of nature are altered.
   • Logical Surrealism: Unlike dream-logic, slipstream plots often provide answers, but these answers raise further, more bizarre questions. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is a meta-narrative about a house that is larger on the inside than the outside. Investigation into the impossible structure gives answers that only deepen the mystery.
   • Metaphysical/Philosophical Journeys: Stories that explore the nature of reality, memory, or identity through speculative, non-linear narratives. Ice by Anna Kavan is a surreal, haunting story about the search for a woman in an ice-covered world, acting as a metaphor for addiction and, mental breakdown.

The Last Word

Slipstream is about what it feels like to be a human in a strange world. Click here for a list of more slipstream titles.

by Amanda Patterson
© Amanda Patterson

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