Writing a Novel: Literary Nonsense as a Genre

Nonsense literature, often called literary nonsense, is a sub-genre of absurdist fiction. To be considered nonsense literature, a book must use sensible and nonsensical elements to defy language conventions or logical reasoning. Nonsense verse is the most common form of literary nonsense, but it can come in just about any form of fiction.

It is important to not that literary nonsense usually consists of an excess of meaning and not a lack of meaning entirely. It is also usually amusing, if not outright hysterical, though this humor is derived almost entirely from the nonsensical nature of the language used. A good example of nonsensical fiction is The Cat in the Hat, written by the now-famous Dr. Seuss, but there are dozens of modern (and not-so-modern) authors who use this genre of literature to express themselves.

Writing Literary Nonsense

If you are hoping to write a piece of literary nonsense, you'll have to become familiar with at least some of the techniques used by authors of this genre. Some of the more popular techniques you may wish to explore include:

• cause and effect that doesn't make any real sense
• portmanteau (combining words together to form new words that often don't make any sense at all unless you know the root words)
• neologism (making up words, sometimes by the dozens)
• reversals and inversions
• imprecision or deliberate vagueness
• simultaneity
• picture/text incongruity (if your book uses pictures or images)
• arbitrariness
• infinite repetition (which isn't as annoying as you might think when done correctly)
• negativity or mirroring
• misappropriation
• nonsense tautology
• reduplication
• absurd precision

To be considered literary nonsense, your work must employ more than one of these techniques. In fact, you have to use more than two. Your work must be full of these techniques and you must use them well. Your job, while writing nonsensical literature, is to allow your readers to find meaning in every corner of your writing, even if there is no true meaning at all. That is the heart of literary nonsense.

But that doesn't mean everything goes. You can't simply writer gibberish. This can happen when using certain techniques, especially portmanteau or neologism. When making up new words, the meaning has to be easily derived from the context of those words or you must use word play to associate what might be gibberish with more familiar words. As an example, Lewis Carroll coined the term "mimsy" to mean flimsy and miserable. This is a great word, but it would have been rendered meaningless if you could not derive the meaning. Nonsense needs at least the appearance of meaning. Gibberish doesn't bother.

Nonsensical literature is not fantasy, though there may be elements of fantasy in your work, such as is incorporated in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The difference is that in a work of fantasy fiction, things make sense. Plot and all its devices follow a system of logic. When the impossible comes up, magic is used to explain it. Literary nonsense doesn't bother with explaining things at all. If magic is used, it doesn't explain anything. It simply is, and usually contributes to the chaos rather than alleviating it.

Essentially, you want your work to be cohesive but not make any real sense. If you want to create a nonsensical work but aren't sure how to go about it, study the creative works of Lewis Carroll , Edward Lear, Roald Dahl, Edward Gorey, or Flann O'Brien. These authors create a universe that is both hysterical and fun in the most nonsensical way.