Weirdness is best when it can be understood
Sometimes, anyway
It's easy to lean on 'weirdness'. The inexplicable can act as a crutch, ensnaring an audience with questions an author never intends to answer, instead leaving ambiguity to cloak what's hollow. Control is a recent culprit, but I'm not here to moan. I'm here to celebrate stories that subvert that. Stories where the unfamiliar becomes more enticing through explanation, rather than left unscrutinised or hand-waved away. Stories where strangeness doesn't just stem from an ostensible lack of explanation, but from an immensely foreign society where no one acts out of greed or self-preservation.
OK, I'm mainly here to celebrate Schild's Ladder by Greg Egan.
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