Editing Vurt

{{EngvarB|date=March 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{short description|1993 science fiction novel by Jeff Noon}}
{{Infobox book| <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name          = Vurt
| title_orig    =
| translator    =
| image         = VurtNovel.jpg
| caption       = First edition
| author        = [[Jeff Noon]]
| illustrator   =
| cover_artist  = Joe Magee
| country       = Great Britain

| series        = [[Vurt (novel series)|Vurt series]]
| genre         = Science fiction
| published     = 1993 (Ringpull)
| media_type    = print (paperback and hardback), audiobook
| isbn          = 978-1-898051-03-9
| isbn_note     = (first edition, paperback)
| oclc          = 30734475
| preceded_by   =
| followed_by   = [[Pollen (novel)|Pollen]]
}}
'''''Vurt''''' is a 1993 science fiction novel written by British author [[Jeff Noon]]. The [[debut novel]] for both Noon and small publishing house Ringpull,<ref name="Noon">{{Citation |last=Noon |first=Jeff |url=http://www.jeffnoon.com/novelnotes.php |title=Where the Stories Come From |access-date=24 August 2007}}</ref> it went on to win the 1994 [[Arthur C. Clarke Award]]<ref>{{Citation |title=Arthur C. Clarke Award Listings | magazine=Locus |url=http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/Clarke1994.html |access-date=21 August 2007}}</ref> and was later listed in ''The Best Novels of the Nineties''.<ref>Lesher 2002, pp. 95–96.</ref>

==Plot summary==
''Vurt'' tells the story of Scribble and his "gang", the Stash Riders, as they search for his missing sister [[Desdemona]]. The novel is set in an alternate version of [[Manchester]], England, in which society has been shaped by Vurt, a hallucinogenic drug/shared [[Parallel universe (fiction)|alternate reality]], accessed by sucking on colour-coded [[feathers]]. Through some (never explained) mechanism, the [[dream]]s, [[mythology]], and imaginings of humanity have achieved [[objective reality]] in the Vurt and become "real".

Before the novel begins, Scribble and his sister take a shared trip into a vurt called English [[Haitian Vodou|Voodoo]], but upon awakening Scribble finds his sister has disappeared. Out of that trip comes an amorphous semi-sentient blob which Mandy, a fellow Stash Rider, nicknames "The Thing from Outer Space". From that point on, Scribble is on a mission to find a rare and contraband Curious Yellow feather so that he might find his sister.

==Characters==
* Scribble – the protagonist and first-person narrator
* Desdemona – Scribble's sister
* Beetle – the driver, muscle, and unofficial leader of the Stash Riders
* Bridget – shadowgirl, fellow Stash Rider, Beetle's lover, and powerful psychic
* Mandy – the newest addition to the Stash Riders
* The Thing From Outer Space – a creature from the Vurt-world
* Game Cat – the maestro, the near mythical being who knows and shares the inside info in his "Game Cat" periodical

==Literary significance and reception==
''Vurt'' achieved both critical and commercial success, attracting praise from the science fiction community as well as the literary arena.<ref>{{Citation |url=http://www.jaybabcock.com/noon.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010218095100/http://www.jaybabcock.com/noon.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=18 February 2001 |year=1996 |last=Babcock |first=Jay |title=High Noon |access-date=28 August 2007}}</ref> It has been stylistically compared to [[William Gibson]]'s cyberpunk novel ''[[Neuromancer]]'', as well as [[Anthony Burgess]]'s ''[[A Clockwork Orange (novel)|A Clockwork Orange]]''.<ref>{{Citation |url=http://www.themodernword.com/scriptorium/noon_works.html |date=14 October 2003|last= Santala |first=Ismo |title=Jeff Noon's Works }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Skow |first=John |title=Virtual Orange | magazine=Time|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,982522,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101008023037/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,982522,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 October 2010 |date=20 February 1995|access-date=21 August 2007}}</ref>

In ''High Anxieties'', a book exploring the modern concept of addiction, Scribble is used as an example of a character who has traded addiction for a chance at transcendence. Brodie ''et al.'' liken Scribble's incorporation of Vurt technology into his biological body as a metaphor for the revelation potentially gained through drug use. They point out that the exchange rate between the real and the Vurt is tempered by Hobart's Constant, or "H"—which is "not incidentally", Brodie argues, "slang for heroin."<ref>Brodie and Redfield 2002, pp. 166–167.</ref>

The book has attracted criticism due to its implausible science<ref>{{Citation|last=Wright |first=Rickey |title=You'll Have to Wade Through Noon's 'Vurt' |url=http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1995/vp950405/04050081.htm |access-date=21 August 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071220231341/http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1995/vp950405/04050081.htm |archive-date=20 December 2007 }}</ref> and "wild and kaleidoscopic" yet unsatisfying plot.<ref>{{Citation |title= Vurt Review |date=15 October 1994 |magazine=[[Kirkus Reviews]] |url=http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/fiction/jeff-noon/vurt/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322024717/http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jeff-noon/vurt/|archive-date=22 March 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' felt ''Vurt'' was undeserving of receiving the 1994 [[Arthur C. Clarke Award]], saying the book's "sentimental incest and adolescent self-congratulation ... is never really startling or disturbing."<ref>{{citation |url=https://ew.com/article/1995/02/10/vurt/ |title=Book Review: Vurt |first= L.S. |last= Klepp |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |date=10 February 1995|access-date=6 July 2009 }}</ref>

==Allusions and references==
Jeff Noon says ''Vurt'' originally began as an adaptation of [[Octave Mirbeau]]'s ''[[The Torture Garden (novel)|The Torture Garden]]'', an anti-authoritarian novel written at the turn of the 20th century. Noon, recently exposed to [[virtual reality]] technology by the magazine [[Mondo 2000]], depicts the torture garden as a virtual world. Noon also credits [[Joseph Campbell]]'s book ''[[The Hero with a Thousand Faces]]'' for inspiring the narrative structure of ''Vurt''.<ref name="Noon" />

The character of Desdemona is based on the character of the same name from [[William Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[Othello]]''.
The Curious Yellow feather is a possible allusion to the 1967 Swedish film ''[[I Am Curious (Yellow)]]'', which uses non-linear narrative structures and postmodern techniques like the novel. It might also be a reference to [[computer worms]] (the Vurt is riddled with virtual reality serpents which propagate from game to game, like computer worms replicate themselves by hijacking computer programs).<ref>{{Citation |last=Wiley |first=Brandon |title=Curious Yellow: The First Coordinated Worm Design |url=http://blanu.net/curious_yellow.html}}</ref>

''Vurt'' has been described as a retelling of [[Orpheus]]' visit to the [[Underworld]].<ref>Sawyer and Seed 2000, p. 196.</ref> Orpheus and Scribble are both poets and musicians, and each attempts to rescue their idealised lovers from an alternate reality. As Joan Gordon points out, cyberspace represents "the underside of the human condition" and therefore the journey to virtual reality is comparable to the mythic journey to commune with the dead.<ref>Gordon 1990</ref> In addition, the myth of Orpheus, like ''Vurt'', explores what it means to be human in relation to the non-human; Orpheus encountered the dead, and Scribble the virtual simulations created by computers.<ref>MacCracken 1998, p. 127.</ref>

There are multiple allusions to stories by [[Lewis Carroll]], such as a club the main character walks into, referred to as the Slithy Tove, which is a quote from Carroll's poem, [[Jabberwocky]].

==Adaptations==

===Comic books===
There have been a few comic adaptations of the novel, including ''Vurt – The Comic Remix'', with art by [[Lee O'Connor (comics)|Lee O'Connor]].

===Games===
In August 2015, Ravendesk Games conducted a [[Kickstarter]] campaign, successfully funding a [[tabletop role-playing game]] version of ''Vurt''.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.torbooks.co.uk/blog/2015/8/20/bringing-jeff-noons-vurt-to-the-table |title=BRINGING JEFF NOON'S VURT TO THE TABLE |first= Rob |last= Cox |publisher=Tor Books |date=21 August 2015|access-date=24 August 2015 }}</ref> The campaign reached its goal in only ten days, suggesting an ongoing public awareness and cult-like fondness for the novel{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}. Featuring all-new material by [[Jeff Noon]] himself, the RPG was officially released in October 2017 to critical praise.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}

===Film and television===
Although Noon began the screenplay for the film version of ''Vurt'' in 2002, with [[Iain Softley]] scheduled to direct,<ref>{{Citation |last=Noon |first=Jeff |url=http://www.jeffnoon.com/update301002.htm |title=Jeff's Update October 2002 |access-date=24 August 2007}}</ref> in 2005 he stated on his public website that "Of the Vurt film, all has gone silent at the moment. Don't hold your breath."<ref>{{Citation |last=Noon |first=Jeff |url=http://www.jeffnoon.com/update260405.php |title=Jeff's Update April 2005 |access-date=24 August 2007}}</ref>

In 2018, Netflix optioned the rights to ''Vurt'' from Ravendesk Entertainment to create a television series, the pilot for which was written by ''[[Stranger Things]]'' writer/producer, Paul Dichter; however, after more than two years in development, the series was never greenlit for production.

===Stage===
In 2000, Liam Steel directed ''Vurt: The Theatre Remix'', which ran for three weeks at [[Contact Theatre]] in Manchester.<ref>{{Citation |url=http://www.uktw.co.uk/dl/page.php?page=details&id=L1169259278 |title=Vurt-The Theatre Remix |access-date=1 April 2008}}</ref>

==20th anniversary edition==
In 2013, 20th anniversary edition of the novel was published, featuring three new stories and a foreword by [[Lauren Beukes]].<ref>{{Citation|url=http://upcoming4.me/news/book-news/giveaway-jeff-noon-vurt-20th-anniversary-edition|title=Vurt 20th anniversary edition|access-date=17 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130419130522/http://upcoming4.me/news/book-news/giveaway-jeff-noon-vurt-20th-anniversary-edition|archive-date=19 April 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Simulated reality]]
* [[Mercury Fur]]

==References== 
{{reflist|2}}
==Sources==
{{refbegin}}
* {{Citation |last=Brodie |first=Janet Farrell |author2 = with Marc Redfield |title=High Anxieties: Cultural Studies in Addiction |year=2002 |publisher=University of California Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8g1JIKTRfp4C&dq=vurt+noon&pg=RA1-PA167
 |isbn=0-520-22750-6}}
* {{Citation |last=Gordon |first=Joan |title=Yin and Yang Duke It Out |magazine=Science-Fiction Eye |date=February 1990 |volume=2 |postscript=.}}
* {{Citation |last= Lesher |first=Linda Parent |title=The Best Novels of the Nineties: A Reader's Guide |publisher=McFarland & Company |isbn=0-7864-0742-5 |year=2002 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HsJ0fz4epEkC&q=vurt&pg=PA95 |access-date=27 August 2007}}
* {{Citation |last= MacCracken |first=Scott |title=Pulp: Reading Popular Fiction |year=1998 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn= 0-7190-4759-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wVNWTrtfv_UC}}
* {{Citation |last=Sawyer |first=Andy |author2= with David Seed |title=Speaking Science Fiction: Dialogues and Interpretations |year= 2000 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn= 0-85323-834-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZzIvOGKoo9QC&dq=vurt+noon&pg=PA247}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
* {{isfdb title|id=906|title=Vurt}}
* [http://upcoming4.me/news/book-news/review-jeff-noon-vurt-20th-anniversary-edition Jeff Noon - Vurt (20th Anniversary Edition) review]

{{Jeff Noon}}
{{Arthur C. Clarke Award}}

[[Category:Novels by Jeff Noon]]
[[Category:1993 British novels]]
[[Category:1993 science fiction novels]]
[[Category:British science fiction novels]]
[[Category:Novels set in Manchester]]
[[Category:Novels about nightmares]]
[[Category:Novels about drugs]]
[[Category:Novels about virtual reality]]
[[Category:Cyberpunk novels]]
[[Category:Debut science fiction novels]]
[[Category:Vurt (novel series)]]
[[Category:1993 debut novels]]
[[Category:Role-playing games introduced in 2017]]