This book offers an examination of Jeff Noon's iconoclastic debut novel Vurt (1993). In this
first book-length study of the novel which includes an extended interview with Noon Wenaus
considers how Vurt complicates the process of literary canonization its constructivist
relationship to genre its violent and oneiric setting of Manchester its use of the Orphic
myth as an archetype for the practice of literary collage and musical remix and how the
structural paradoxes of chaos and fractal geometry inform the novel's content form and theme.
Finally Wenaus makes the case for Vurt's ongoing relevance in the 21st century an era
increasingly characterized by neuro-totalitarianism psychopolitics and digital surveillance.
With Vurt Noon begins his project of rupturing feedback loops of control by breaking narrative
habits and embracing the contingent and unpredictable. An inventive energetic and
heartbreaking novel Vurt is also an optimistic and heartfelt call for artists to actively
create open futures.
