With a foreword by Bruce Sterling
Eyeball Books (1996)
The trajectory of a science fiction punk. Stories, lyrics and autobiographical links stretching a span of 24 years in the creative life of one of the most uncompromising and influential of today's writers.
ISBN 0-9642505-0-0
Trade Paperback/ 309 pp.
(out-of-print)
REVIEWS
Tangent:
Call them what you will, but read them.
The Exploded Heart offers a rare glimpse of an artist self-exposed for his art. You can not separate John Shirley from his writing and he and publisher Steve Brown have utilized that in this collection. Shirley prefaces each story in The Exploded Heart (all in chronological order except for the last entry,) with autobiographical material that allows the reader a deeper understanding of both the literature and its creator. It's a chancy thing to do. Presenting material written as a teenager
alongside more mature work is one risk; offering up some of the person behind them is another. Knowing something of Shirley's life of considerable anarchy, however, may be important in understanding his work because, more than most writers, there are often bloody pieces of the author left hanging from his words. What results, in Exploded Heart, is a story in itself. You get an impression of an era and
something of the vision the writer was working from along with the fiction -- a sort of text-contained performance art statement.
Risks are taken, but essentially the gamble is won. The pot is sweetened with a Bruce Sterling introduction that solidifies the myths and explains Shirley's seminal role and prophetic howl that spawned what later became the cyberpunk literary movement. Taken in tandem with a companion volume, a reprint of the novel City Come A-Walkin' and its William Gibson introduction, John Shirley's importance as a progenitor of CP can not be denied.
The first, and earliest story in the book, "What He Wanted" introduces us to what
was probably the first of a continuing pattern of redemptive rogue heroes who go
through a quest process to become avatars for some kind of cosmic magic, confront evil and then
save some aspect of society or soul. They never completely win, but they never completely lose. This
element often gives an optimism to the author's work that balances the unrelenting dark side.
"Tricentennial" offers more of that pessimistic view -- and the bleak futuristic city-world we would
later see in so many other stories and films. "Shadow of a Snowstorm" tells us something of that type
of grim future and how we are all merely economic units. "Cold Feet" journeys into magic realism/surrealism and makes the reader suffer loneliness, isolation
and displacement in a remarkably effective manner. Shirley's writing is often compared to music and "Fragments" is a frenetic screaming punk assault
that may overwhelm you; "Seams" is a story sung as bluesman might -- if, admittedly, he was pretty
weird. "Parakeet" is all power chords and heavy metal, dealing with, what else, power, but also the
military mind.
"The Incorporated" is an evocative story about all of us and who we are and what "they" do to us,
and the places we find ourselves in. Introspective and erotic, "When Enter Came" is another look that
the callow youth who wrote the first story could never take of life.
In "The Prince." we meet that redemptive hero again, but with a twist --for once he is
not the alien, the outsider, but the insider forced to rethink his philosophy and reshape
the world.
"V, H and You" is cranky Dickens with a cliched "observer" that would never work for
anyone who can't write to the extreme. This writer can and it makes the story work. You
may be numbed now by stories of abuse, but this story becomes depressing, horrific
and emotionally rending because it is precisely and sickeningly true and Shirley can do
truth.
"Where It's Safe" has some wonderful moments, but it becomes so didactic that much of the
ecological message is diluted by overkill.
"A Walk Through Beirut" is an outstanding story and, not surprisingly, the most recent of the stories.
It is almost a summation of what is "essential Shirley." The punk is there, drugs, music, the quest for
self-knowledge, strong characterization, the confrontation of societal shit, spirituality, truth, redeeming
elements all played against a frighteningly well-done future noir setting. It deals with self-discovery
and maturity without abandoning the essence of "youth." The hero turns his redemptive powers on
himself in this one.
The unpublished novel fragment "Epilogue" is out of chronology, but its closure is an obvious choice
and brings the book full circle.
Some lyrics are included at the end, but gives the reader little feel for
Shirley's music. Throughout the book, Shirley mentions what he was listening to at the time he was writing a certain story or at a particular time of his life. Thus "soundtrack" gives you some of the musical flavor, and pronanly should be considered as integral to the work.
There are weaknesses in this collection. It's a pretty frank look at the pathway an erratic, complex
writer took to arrive at where he is today. But few retrospective collections leave you so poised and
anticipatory at the end, so eager to continue the journey.
Paul Lappen, Under the Covers 11/8/96:
Very Highly Recommended
This is an excellent bunch of previously published stories collected for the first time from John Shirley, a veteran speculative / imaginative / science fiction writer from San Francisco.
Shirley, who is also a punk rock musician, has spent lots of time with the junkies, hookers, and punks, and does a great job bringing the reader along through the back alleys and into the abandoned apartment buildings of the human soul.
Among the stories included are: a horror story in which regular daily life is the horror; a brother and sister go through a war zone of a city to get a Tricentennial flag for their father; a near future story of a depression so widespread that bizarre jobs have to be created for the millions of unemployed, like humannequin and humannequin inspectors; and another horror story about an ecologically devastated America.
Note to cyberpunk fans who have never read John Shirley: this book (along with his 1980 novel CITY COME A-WALKIN', reprinted by Eyeball Books) is especially recommended. John Shirley was publishing cyberpunk before William Gibson ever sat at a typewriter to pound out NEUROMANCER. THE EXPLODED HEART gets a double thumbs up.
Jasmine Sailing, Cyber-Psychos AOD #7:
When reviewing a collection of John Shirley stories you can't easily slap on some convenient market-induced label. SF? Speculative fiction? Dark fiction? All yes and no. These stories all have elements of darkness, some evoke a future world, some have elements of the supernatural or the alien.
This was probably my favourite from the current slew of John Shirley books, though it is a short fiction collection rather than a novel. One of the interesting things about it is that he writes a preamble for each story, in which he says where he was (head-space) & what he was doing while writing the story. Actually there's even the real version of a small snippet from "Preach" in this issue, think PCP & sex on rooftops. Very personal retellings of such experiences are included. There's some hassling of Harlan Ellison (which always tickles me), convention antics, what he was reading, & listings of which bands he was in & which ones he was listening to at the time. It's good brain food, & it's interesting. I think the non-fiction was my favourite part as it's nice to be able to take a look at what was going through a writers' head as they constructed various pieces. My 2nd favourite element were THE EXPLODED HEART segments. These are 3 portions of a book by that title which he wrote in the late 70s. It was never published, he thinks the entirety doesn't even exist anymore & wouldn't be that good if it did. What a bummer. I was definitely into the idea of it & would've loved to read it, whether or not it was particularly good. The portions are entitled "What He Wanted"(published as a short story in Amazing Stories in 75), "Fragments of an Exploded Heart", & "Epilogue. Premise?" Aaron Dunbar is turned onto the music of Whistler & mesmerized by it. Whenever he hears it he drifts into other dimensional visions where he walks alongside the eccentric vocalist & realizes he is needed by him. Why, he isn't sure. He simply knows he must go to the performance when Whistler appears in town. The vocalist is known for causing trance states at live shows, even occasions of phenomena such as levitation. He isn't someone people can get along with, but he is certainly revered by quite a few. The setting is futuristic. Society isn't yet degraded too far beyond the usuals... a lot of hatred, as somewhat represented by the leather clad Jeezus Freak & Satanist gangs (not to mention the slew of drugged out assholes). Aaron Dunbar himself is a bit of an asshole, definitely a bit on the cold & irresponsible side of life. He's also very easy to identify with, though. I don't want to ruin where the story goes... It's quite a build of intense settings, musical corporate politics, thuggery, failing relationships, & the flattening power of the collective will. Otherwise... "Shadow of a Snowstorm" takes superficial aesthetic to an extreme with heavily trained human mannequins, but it also touches on the incredible power of mind over body. Seams was written as song lyrics, a bit of a sad story about a bartender who was in love with a hooker who was in love with a cold jerk who... Well, you'll see. "Parakeet" is a long & dredging tale of the abuse of military personnel (by their "superiors"), & of the use of experimental drugs for adrenaline boosts & psychosis. This was written years before JACOB'S LADDER came out, & the setting is present tense war-time only rather than a flashback on past miseries/mistreatments. It often isn't as easy for people to flashback cohesively in John Shirley's world... "The Incorporated" is about corporate control: the recruited mindless workers who serve their bosses before their own families, & those who don't sign on for the paycheck. The main character is the latter, & struggles through having his thoughts stolen (or forcibly purchased) while trying to regain them would threaten his life. "When Enter Came" gives a bit of a supernatural solution to alienation of feeling & lack of true contact with those you should be close to. I wish a glob mimicking all of my past lovers could flow through the light bulb in my office to solve my mentally-drifting/ walled-off relational troubles... Ah well, there's something to be said for managing to bring these effects on by yourself. "The Prince" is another corporate story, though this time from the POV of giving the execs an example of what their business is doing to the world. This same element is behind "Where It's Safe" as well, though the former story gives the exec a chance to survive his own damage & the latter moreso involves "terrorist" execution. The "V, H, and You" preamble begins with "The world sucks". Yeah. The story is a heart- breaking run-down of some of the many reasons for this, given through the perspective of 2 other-dimensional spirits who find our home more than a little disturbing. "A Walk Through Beirut" closes out the musical career downward spiral alongside the denigrating society theme, carried along by a young man who escorts a female neighbor through gang/mafia controlled territory while tripping. Visions, ghosts, & lecturing thoughts, (all supposedly hallucination) redirect his life as he wanders blithely through chaos & rioting. There's also an intro by Bruce Sterling & very striking full colour cover art by Rick Berry. This is a very interesting, disturbing, & thought-provoking read. Had I a few more hands, I would give it several thumbs up.
