Literature of information: John Crowley

I finished the first two novels in John Crowley's Aegypt sequence (Aegypt, Love & Sleep), and have been deeply impressed and moved. For those who don't know Crowley's work, his fiction is gorgeously written, drawing on the depths of Western hermetica and literary traditions, creating surprising narratives of emotional power.

Here I want to draw attention to what I'm hazily thinking of as the literature of information. These novels concern the discovery and re-discovery of a complex set of hermetic knowledge. This research/awareness occurs at many levels, from the library to reconsiderations of slang, glances at rural folklore and practicing meditation. You can read this sequence as (among many other things) a study in the persistence, recovery, assessment, and integration of information.

Is this a genre, or a type of writing? Is it related to mystery novels, which turn on information? Post away! I offer Borges as a free hint.

Comments

[Glen Engel-Cox]

In the past, I've called novels such as these "science fiction," if that definition encompasses fiction about science (or what passed as science in our history) as much as a novel where the science is fictional, but I think you may be on to something by creating a new term for these, because they are as removed from spaceships and aliens as they can be. (Do not take me wrong--I like a good space opera as much as the next guy, but these books are not that.)

Authors and novels that come to mind that fit this term include, of course, the new novel by William Gibson, as well as the last couple of novels by Neal Stephenson. My personal favorite author in this type of writing is Richard Powers (e.g., The Gold Bug Variations, Galatea 2.0).

[Jane]

I'd add to Glen's suggestions Umberto Eco (The Name of the Rose), Italo Calvino (Invisible Cities . . . not so much about information as manifesting an information structure)and Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams. Okay, these last two probably don't fit within the genre you're talking about, Bryan, but I've long wanted a genre for literature that thematizes, either structurally or in terms of content, a certain granularity and emergence. It's not the same as hypertext, which isn't rigorous enough. Something like 21 Grams would be the cinematic equivalent. Does this make any sense?

[Jeremiah]

Have you read Romances of the Archive in Contemporary British Fiction by Suzanne Keen? Crowley's work often falls into the trend she talks about (though its British).

[Bryan]

I haven't, Jeremiah, but I am proceeding to Amazon right now. Many thanks.