Jeff Noon
Encyclopedia
Jeff Noon is a novelist, short story writer
and playwright
whose works make extensive use of word play
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 relocation in 2000 to Brighton
, Noon set most of his stories in some version of his native city of Manchester
.
Although the fictional chronology leads from Automated Alice to Nymphomation
to Vurt to Pollen, the books were originally published as Vurt
(1993), Pollen
(1995), Automated Alice (1996), and Nymphomation
(1997). (Automated Alice connects the series to the fictional world of Lewis Carroll
), serving as a 'trequel' [sic] to Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass )
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
. 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."
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).
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 ' onMouseout='HidePop("21722")' href="/topics/Pneumonia">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', a reference to 'Little Miss Strange' 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
.
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.
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.
Jeff Noon and David Toop
also released a CD, Needle in the Groove: if music were a drug, where would it take you, on Sulphur Records in the same year.
The Engine begins with Noon using an existing text and then applying different 'filter gates' that edit the text into something new. Examples of these gates include 'enhance' which creates elements of beauty in the text, and 'ghost edit'; this kills the text and calls up a ghost to haunt the text.
The Codex edition of the book was illustrated by Daniel Allington and has an introduction by Michael Bracewell
, explaining the Cobralingus Engine.
and Noon. It is only available online and is a constantly updated collection of short stories about a fictional British apartment building. It has stories about each person who lives in the apartment building, which each author can contribute to.
. Although Noons' input is not known at this time, he has been credited on both imdb and mooviees.com with writing credits. However, the film is in currently labeled as being 'in production'. Husein Alicajic's webpage also lists this film as 'in production', and quotes the films production company as Wild Bear Filmshttp://www.2ndsight.com.au.
Noon is reported to be working on a short story entitled "That's What Jeff Said", though this is currently unconfirmed.
The idea for the film won the ZTudio What IF? Award for Best Un-Produced Screenplay in 2001. According to The Producers' and Directors' Guild of Victoria website, Husein secured an option deal whilst in New York
.
However, as of early 2008, the film's information has been removed from imdb.com. This would suggest that the film did not receive a green light, and pre-production stopped.
Creeping Zero is due to go into production in the summer of 2011. Noon has written the screenplay for this 3D feature film based on his eponymous short story published in "Pixel Juice". The film will be directed by Billy O' Brien Isolation (film)
On the 28th of August 2011, Noon began a Twitter account where he posts what he has described as "microfictions" set in a fictional place called Sparkletownhttp://twitter.com/#!/temp_user9.
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
and playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
whose works make extensive use of word play
Word play
Word play or wordplay is a literary technique in which the words that are used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement...
and fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
. Noon's speculative fiction
Speculative fiction
Speculative fiction is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as...
books have ties to the works of writers such as Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
and Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
. Prior to his relocation in 2000 to Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, Noon set most of his stories in some version of his native city of Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
.
Novels
Noon's first 4 novels, which share ongoing characters and settings, are commonly referred to as the 'Vurt series' (after the first novel).Although the fictional chronology leads from Automated Alice to Nymphomation
Nymphomation
Nymphomation is a novel by British author Jeff Noon, first published in 1997.In terms of publishing history Nymphomation is the 4th novel in Noon's 'Vurt' series, following publication of Vurt , Pollen and Automated Alice , though...
to Vurt to Pollen, the books were originally published as Vurt
Vurt
Vurt is a 1993 science fiction novel written by British author Jeff Noon. Both Noon and small publishing house Ringpull's debut novel, it went on to win the 1994 Arthur C. Clarke Award and was later listed in The Best Novels of the Nineties....
(1993), Pollen
Pollen (novel)
Pollen is a 1995 science fiction novel written by British author Jeff Noon.-Plot summary:Pollen is the sequel to Vurt and concerns the ongoing struggle between the real world and the virtual world...
(1995), Automated Alice (1996), and Nymphomation
Nymphomation
Nymphomation is a novel by British author Jeff Noon, first published in 1997.In terms of publishing history Nymphomation is the 4th novel in Noon's 'Vurt' series, following publication of Vurt , Pollen and Automated Alice , though...
(1997). (Automated Alice connects the series to the fictional world of Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
), serving as a 'trequel' [sic] to Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass )
Vurt (1993)
VurtVurt
Vurt is a 1993 science fiction novel written by British author Jeff Noon. Both Noon and small publishing house Ringpull's debut novel, it went on to win the 1994 Arthur C. Clarke Award and was later listed in The Best Novels of the Nineties....
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
Arthur C. Clarke Award
The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. The award was established with a grant from Arthur C. Clarke and the first prize was awarded in 1987...
. 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."
Pollen (1995)
PollenPollen (novel)
Pollen is a 1995 science fiction novel written by British author Jeff Noon.-Plot summary:Pollen is the sequel to Vurt and concerns the ongoing struggle between the real world and the virtual world...
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
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
are noticeable, including Persephone
Persephone
In Greek mythology, Persephone , also called Kore , is the daughter of Zeus and the harvest-goddess Demeter, and queen of the underworld; she was abducted by Hades, the god-king of the underworld....
and Demeter
Demeter
In Greek mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains, the fertility of the earth, and the seasons . Her common surnames are Sito as the giver of food or corn/grain and Thesmophoros as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society...
, the river Styx
Styx (mythology)
The Styx is a river in Greek mythology that formed the boundary between Earth and the Underworld . It circles the Underworld nine times...
and Charon
Charon (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon is the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. A coin to pay Charon for passage, usually an obolus or danake, was sometimes placed in or on...
, and Hades
Hades
Hades , Hadēs, originally , Haidēs or , Aidēs , meaning "the unseen") was the ancient Greek god of the underworld. The genitive , Haidou, was an elision to denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades". Eventually, the nominative came to designate the abode of the dead.In Greek mythology, Hades...
(portrayed by the character John Barleycorn).
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 WonderlandAlice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...
and Through the Looking-Glass
Through the Looking-Glass
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a work of literature by Lewis Carroll . It is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
. 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 ' onMouseout='HidePop("21722")' href="/topics/Pneumonia">pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
), 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
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
himself.
The writing style of Noon is very similar to that of Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
, 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
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
. The character also sings a song while playing the guitar. The song is titled 'Little Miss Bonkers', a reference to 'Little Miss Strange' 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
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
.
Nymphomation (1997)
NymphomationNymphomation
Nymphomation is a novel by British author Jeff Noon, first published in 1997.In terms of publishing history Nymphomation is the 4th novel in Noon's 'Vurt' series, following publication of Vurt , Pollen and Automated Alice , though...
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.
Needle in the Groove (2000)
Needle in the GrooveNeedle in the Groove
Needle in the Groove is a 1999 novel by Jeff Noon. A music/spoken word CD was released on the same day as the book.It tells its story through the eyes of Elliot, a young twenty-something bassist, as he finds himself playing bass for Glam Damage, a new DJ-based band who are experimenting with a new...
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.
Jeff Noon and David Toop
David Toop
David Toop is an English musician and author, and as of 2001 was visiting Research Fellow in the Media School at London College of Communication. He was notably a member of The Flying Lizards. He was a prominent contributor to the British magazine The Face. He is a regular contributor to The Wire,...
also released a CD, Needle in the Groove: if music were a drug, where would it take you, on Sulphur Records in the same year.
Cobralingus (2001)
Cobralingus sits apart from Noon's other published works. It is part anthology of poems and part instructional textbook for Noon's style of poetry. In it, he details his regimented methods for the creation of poetic text by a style of word play which lends its name to the title. Also included are various exemplars of this style.The Engine begins with Noon using an existing text and then applying different 'filter gates' that edit the text into something new. Examples of these gates include 'enhance' which creates elements of beauty in the text, and 'ghost edit'; this kills the text and calls up a ghost to haunt the text.
The Codex edition of the book was illustrated by Daniel Allington and has an introduction by Michael Bracewell
Michael Bracewell
Michael Bracewell is a British writer and novelist. He was born in London, and educated at the University of Nottingham.-Bibliography:*Fiction**Missing Margate **The Crypto-Amnesia Club...
, explaining the Cobralingus Engine.
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.217 Babel Street (2008)
Noons latest work is 217 Babel Street. Appearing to have been taken out of circulation, it is a collaboration of four authors, Susanna Jones, Alison MacLeod, William ShawWilliam Shaw (writer)
William Shaw works as a journalist and writer in the US and in the UK. One of his most noticeable works is the 1999 book called Westsiders. He worked on Details magazine and remains a contributing editor there...
and Noon. It is only available online and is a constantly updated collection of short stories about a fictional British apartment building. It has stories about each person who lives in the apartment building, which each author can contribute to.
Novels and novellas
- VurtVurtVurt is a 1993 science fiction novel written by British author Jeff Noon. Both Noon and small publishing house Ringpull's debut novel, it went on to win the 1994 Arthur C. Clarke Award and was later listed in The Best Novels of the Nineties....
(1993), ISBN 1-898051-03-8 - PollenPollen (novel)Pollen is a 1995 science fiction novel written by British author Jeff Noon.-Plot summary:Pollen is the sequel to Vurt and concerns the ongoing struggle between the real world and the virtual world...
(1995), ISBN 1-898051-11-9 - Automated AliceAutomated AliceAutomated Alice is a fantastical book by British author Jeff Noon, first published in 1996. The book follows Alice's travels to a future Manchester city populated by Newmonians, Civil Serpents and a vanishing cat....
(1996), ISBN 0-385-40808-0 - NymphomationNymphomationNymphomation is a novel by British author Jeff Noon, first published in 1997.In terms of publishing history Nymphomation is the 4th novel in Noon's 'Vurt' series, following publication of Vurt , Pollen and Automated Alice , though...
(1997), ISBN 0-385-40812-9 - Needle in the GrooveNeedle in the GrooveNeedle in the Groove is a 1999 novel by Jeff Noon. A music/spoken word CD was released on the same day as the book.It tells its story through the eyes of Elliot, a young twenty-something bassist, as he finds himself playing bass for Glam Damage, a new DJ-based band who are experimenting with a new...
(2000), ISBN 1-86230-091-7 - Falling Out of Cars (2002), ISBN 0-385-60296-0
Short fiction collections
- Pixel Juice (1998), ISBN 0-385-40859-5
- Cobralingus (2001), ISBN 1-899598-16-2
- Mappalujo (2002) - co-written with Steve Beard, currently only available online
- 217 Babel Street (2008) - co-written with Susanna Jones, Alison MacLeod and William ShawWilliam ShawWilliam Shaw may refer to:* William Shaw , leader of the Home Rule League after between Isaac Butt and Charles Stewart Parnell....
, currently only available online
Plays
- Woundings (1986), ISBN 1-870259-00-9
- Vurt - The Theatre Remix (May 2000- the show ran for three weeks)
- Somewhere The Shadow (May 2001- the show ran from Thursday 3 May - Saturday 26 May)
- The Modernists (June 2003- the show ran from Wednesday 11 June - Saturday 21 June )
Reported works in progress
Apparently, Noon is working on a script/ screenplay for a film entitled Divine Shadows with director Husein AlicajicHusein Alicajic
Husein Alicajic is an Australian filmmaker who writes and directs for film and television, known for award-winning commercials for Foxtel.-Background:...
. Although Noons' input is not known at this time, he has been credited on both imdb and mooviees.com with writing credits. However, the film is in currently labeled as being 'in production'. Husein Alicajic's webpage also lists this film as 'in production', and quotes the films production company as Wild Bear Filmshttp://www.2ndsight.com.au.
Noon is reported to be working on a short story entitled "That's What Jeff Said", though this is currently unconfirmed.
The idea for the film won the ZTudio What IF? Award for Best Un-Produced Screenplay in 2001. According to The Producers' and Directors' Guild of Victoria website, Husein secured an option deal whilst in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
However, as of early 2008, the film's information has been removed from imdb.com. This would suggest that the film did not receive a green light, and pre-production stopped.
Creeping Zero is due to go into production in the summer of 2011. Noon has written the screenplay for this 3D feature film based on his eponymous short story published in "Pixel Juice". The film will be directed by Billy O' Brien Isolation (film)
On the 28th of August 2011, Noon began a Twitter account where he posts what he has described as "microfictions" set in a fictional place called Sparkletownhttp://twitter.com/#!/temp_user9.
External links
- What The Hell Ever Happened To... Jeff Noon? - An update on Jeff's current projects as of November 2011 from the author himself
- Spike Magazine link collection for Jeff Noon
- The Modern Word: Jeff Noon–An introduction to Jeff Noon and his works
- Mappalujo–A writing game devised by Steve Beard and Jeff Noon
- Language is a Virus - Cobralingus Engine - Metamorphiction Process by Jeff Noon
- Origins of a Dub Fiction - by Jeff Noon
- Radio interview of Jeff Noon on Bookworm, April, 1996