If you've made it this far, you're probably wondering, But how did you do it? How did you come to the place where this un-nameable force that, for the sake of clarity, we will call Ratbastardness, entered into your life?

You may be asking how YOU, too, may aspire to this state of being.

Here are a few of our books of knowledge. They are not secrets. The path of the Ratbastard is not easily walked, and yet it is still possible to point in its direction.

Here is where I point.

You are here:


The Start of the End of it All, by Carol Emshwiller

Unlocking the Air, by Ursula Le Guin

The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye, by Jonathan Lethem

Stranger Things Happen, by Kelly Link

Sexing the Cherry, by Jeanette Winterson

Vermilion Sands, by J.G. Ballard

The Fortunate Fall, by Raphael Carter

The Panic Hand, by Jonathan Carroll

The Physiognomy, by Jeffrey Ford

The Jaguar Hunter, by Lucius Shepard

Engine Summer, by John Crowley

The Tooth Fairy, by Graham Joyce

Burning Your Boats, by Angela Carter

The Street of Crocodiles, by Bruno Schulz

Sugar, by A.S. Byatt

Black Glass, by Karen Joy Fowler

Tourists, by Lisa Goldstein

The Knife Thrower, by Steven Millhauser

Unconquered Countries, by Geoff Ryman

The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy

Greetings from Earth, by Scott Bradfield

The Complete Butchers Tales, by Rikki Ducornet

Bears Discover Fire, by Terry Bisson

Haunted, by Joyce Carol Oates

Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains, by A.L. Kennedy

The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, by Aimee Bender

Flying Leap, by Judy Budnitz

The Passion, by Jeanette Winterson

China Mountain Zhang, by Maureen McHugh

Strange Pilgrims, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Self-Help, by Lorrie Moore

Bluebeards Egg, by Margaret Atwood

The Drowning Season, by Alice Hoffman

The Compass Rose, by Ursula Le Guin

Wild Life, by Molly Gloss

Midnight Robber, by Nalo Hopkinson

Ghostwritten, by David Mitchell

Will You Hold Me?, by Christopher Kenworthy

Girl in Landscape, by Jonathan Lethem

Possession, by A.S. Byatt

Nights at the Circus, by Angela Carter

The Terminal Beach, by J.G. Ballard

Music of the Swamp, by Lewis Nordan

My Date with Satan, by Stacey Richter

Dhalgren, by Samuel Delany

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson

The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip, by George Saunders

The Baron in the Trees, by Italo Calvino

The Brains of Rats, by Michael Blumlein

Points of Departure, by Pat Murphy

Mockingbird, by Sean Stewart

The Pure Product, by John Kessel

The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula Le Guin

Think Like a Dinosaur, by James Patrick Kelly

Driftglass, by Samuel Delany

After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie, by Jean Rhys

The Lover, by Marguerite Duras

Houses Without Doors, by Peter Straub

Burning Chrome, by William Gibson

Celestis, by Paul Park

The Hearing Trumpet, by Leonora Carrington

Orlando, by Virginia Woolf

A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia, by Victor Pelevin

Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, by Bruno Schulz

Sarah Canary, by Karen Joy Fowler

Ficciones, by Jorge Luis Borges

Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, by James Tiptree Jr.

Seven Gothic Tales, by Isak Dinesen

The Ballad of the Sad CafÈ, by Carson McCullers

Bones of the Moon, by Jonathan Carroll

Four Ways to Forgiveness, by Ursula Le Guin

Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino

Strange Monster of the Recent Past, by Howard Waldrop

Synthesis and Other Virtual Realities, by Mary Rosenblum

The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood

Carmen Dog, by Carol Emshwiller

I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith

The Wood Wife, by Terri Windling

Always Coming Home, by Ursula Le Guin

Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville

Art and Lies, by Jeanette Winterson