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Steve Aylett (born 1967 in
Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, char ...
, United Kingdom) is an English author of
satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
,
fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
, and
slipstream A slipstream is a region behind a moving object in which a wake of fluid (typically air or mustard) is moving at velocities comparable to that of the moving fluid, relative to the ambient fluid through which the object is churning. The term slip ...
. According to the critic Bill Ectric, "much of Aylett’s work combines the bawdy, action-oriented style of
Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...
with the sedentary, faux cultivated style of
Peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera ''Pavo (genus), Pavo'' and ''Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female pea ...
." Stylistically, Aylett is often seen as a difficult writer. As the critic Robert Kiely suggests, his books tend to be "baroque in their density, speed, and finely crafted detail; they are overcrowded, they dazzle and distort and wait for us to catch up with their narrative world." Although Aylett is best known for his novels, and for his transmedial
metafiction Metafiction is a form of fiction which emphasises its own narrative structure in a way that continually reminds the audience that they are reading or viewing a fictional work. Metafiction is self-conscious about language, literary form, and story ...
''Lint'', he has also created comics, stand-up, performance, music, movies, and art, often working in appropriative and other
avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
modes. Aylett is also one of the few UK authors associated with the largely US-based
Bizarro Bizarro () is a supervillain/anti-hero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Otto Binder and artist George Papp as a "mirror image" of Superman, and first appeared in ''Superboy'' #68 (1958) ...
literary movement.


Writing


Beerlight

Aylett's Beerlight series includes the novels ''The Crime Studio'' (1994), ''Slaughtermatic'' (1997), ''Atom'' (2000) and ''Novahead'' (2011), as well as shorter fiction such as "The Siri Gun" (1998) and "Shifa" (1999). The setting of these works has been described as a "cyber-noir vision of a near-future metropolis with a comic-book aesthetic" and as "a crime-ridden urban-noir hell inhabited by a menagerie of grotesque, amoral characters and surreal, mind-bending technology." Stylistically, the Beerlight series "marries the cyberpunk vision of
William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his ...
’s Sprawl trilogy or
Neal Stephenson Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, postcyberpunk, and baroque. Stephenson's work exp ...
’s ''Snow Crash'',
William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...
’ talent for utterly weird but comprehensible description, and the hardboiled stylings of
Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...
or
Elmore Leonard Elmore John Leonard Jr. (October 11, 1925August 20, 2013) was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were Westerns, but he went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thri ...
." Aylett's Slaughtermatic is name checked in My Chemical Romance's "Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys," an album apparently inspired by the novel.


Accomplice

''Only an Alligator'' (2001), ''The Velocity Gospel'' (2002), ''Dummyland'' (2002), and ''Karloff's Circus'' (2004) are set in Accomplice, a suburb on a tropical peninsula in a perhaps nuclear-blasted future, underneath which live demons; Aylett says he is in the tradition of "real satirists" such as
Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...
,
Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...
and
Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
. The four books are collected in ''The Complete Accomplice'' (2010).


Jeff Lint

''Lint'' (2005) is a satirical, ''
Zelig ''Zelig'' is a 1983 American mockumentary film written, directed by and starring Woody Allen as Leonard Zelig, a nondescript enigma, who, apparently out of his desire to fit in and be liked, unwittingly takes on the characteristics of strong per ...
''-like biography of an imaginary author. The book traces Jeff Lint's career through thinly disguised satires on a number of well-known writers from the late 20th century, including Philip K. Dick,
Hunter S. Thompson Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author who founded the gonzo journalism movement. He rose to prominence with the publication of '' Hell's Angels'' (1967), a book for which he s ...
and
Ken Kesey Ken Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. Kesey was born in ...
. As
Paul Di Filippo Paul Di Filippo (born October 29, 1954) is an American science fiction writer. He is a regular reviewer for print magazines ''Asimov's Science Fiction'', ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'', ''Science Fiction Eye'', ''The New York Re ...
remarks, Jeff Lint's work is sometimes not dissimilar to Aylett's. Jeff Lint is also a transmedial creation, incorporating a comic, ''The Caterer'' #3 (2008), purportedly written by Jeff Lint; a spoof Wikipedia page; a spoof collection of academic essays on Lint's work, ''And Your Point Is?'' (2014); and a mockumentary ''Lint: The Movie'' (2011), which features reminisces by " lanMoore,
Stewart Lee Stewart Graham Lee (born 5 April 1968) is an English comedian, screenwriter, and television director. His stand-up routine is characterised by repetition, internal reference, deadpan delivery, and consistent breaking of the fourth wall. Lee b ...
,
Robin Ince Robin Ince (born 20 February 1969) is an English comedian, actor and writer, known for presenting the BBC radio show ''The Infinite Monkey Cage'' with physicist Brian Cox (physicist), Brian Cox, and his stand-up comedy career. Education After ...
,
Mikey Georgeson Mikey Georgeson (born 1967) is an English artist, working in various media. He is a painter and illustrator, who regularly exhibits his work at Sartorial Contemporary Art and other galleries. As "the Vessel", he is songwriter and singer of the ...
,
Josie Long Josie Isabel Long (born 17 April 1982) is a British comedian. She started performing as a stand-up at the age of 14 and won the BBC New Comedy Awards at 17. In 2006, Long won the If.comeddies Best Newcomer award at the Edinburgh Festival Frin ...
, D. Harlan Wilson, Bill ctric and
many others Many may refer to: * grammatically plural in number *an English quantifier used with count nouns indicating a large but indefinite number of; at any rate, more than a few ;Place names * Many, Moselle, a commune of the Moselle department in Franc ...
on Lint’s outrageous and irritating career."


Comic books

Aylett has also written for
comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...
, most notably the Jeff Lint title ''The Caterer'' (2008). Other projects include #27 of ''
Tom Strong ''Tom Strong'' is a comic book created by writer Alan Moore and artist Chris Sprouse, initially published bi-monthly by America's Best Comics, an imprint of DC Comics' Wildstorm division. Tom Strong, the title character, is a "science hero", wi ...
'' (2004), ''The Promissory'' for ''
Arthur Arthur is a common male given name of Brittonic languages, Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. An ...
'' magazine’s "mimeo" line (2007), ''Get That Thing Away From Me'' (2014), and ''Johnny Viable'', which appeared in Alan Moore's print magazine '' Dodgem Logic'' and was collected and expanded as the standalone ''Johnny Viable & His Terse Friends'' (2014). In 2021-22 Aylett's 3-part comic "Hyperthick" was published by Floating World Publishing; Alan Moore described it as "a new dimension of poetic genius" and Grant Morrison said "It's astonishing - like being riot-hosed with language, ideas and imagery!"


Awards

''Slaughtermatic'' was shortlisted for the 1998
Philip K. Dick Award The Philip K. Dick Award is an American science fiction award given annually at Norwescon and sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and (since 2005) the Philip K. Dick Trust. Named after science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, ...
. Aylett was the recipient of the 2006 Jack Trevor Story Award.


Personal life

Aylett left school at the age of seventeen and worked in a book warehouse, and later in law publishing. A synesthete, Aylett claims to have books appear in his brain in one visual "glob" that looks like a piece of gum.
Rick Klaw Richard Ira "Rick" Klaw (born December 22, 1967 in Brooklyn, New York), is an American editor, essayist, and bookseller. Biography Rick Klaw is the paternal grandson of Irving Klaw, the photographer and film maker most noted for his bondage photo ...

"A Glob of Multicolored Chiming Vibrational Bubble Gum: An Interview with Steve Aylett"
, '' Fantastic Metropolis'' (19 February 2005)
Aylett also has
Asperger syndrome Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger's, is a former neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant difficulties in Interpersonal relationship, social interaction and nonverbal communication, along with restricted and re ...
.


Bibliography


Novels

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Short fiction

* * *


Other Works

* * ''The Caterer''. Spoof Pearl Comics reprint. 2008. * * ''Johnny Viable and His Terse Friends''. Floating World Comics. 2014. *


Notes


References

* * * *


External links

*


Interviews


2002 interview
with 3:AM Magazine
2004 interview
with Roy Christopher

with Goaste

with FIEND

with FractalMatter
2006 interview
with BookSlut
2008 interview
with IncorporatingWriting
2013 interview
with Mookychick
2016 interview
with TriggerWarning


Music and Audio


Lint-inspired album
by 7 Inch Stitch
Rocket To The Room
by The Wesley Kern Gun {{DEFAULTSORT:Aylett, Steve 1967 births Living people 20th-century English novelists 21st-century English novelists English comics writers English science fiction writers People from Bromley English male novelists English male non-fiction writers People with Asperger syndrome