A Year of Neo-Decadence

A few pieces on the movement

Some of you may know that I have been into a group of writers that calls their loose movement of literary aesthetics “neo-decadence”.

Since at least the middle of Covid, I have been reading their stuff and keeping up with a few of them through Facebook, one of my few interactions on that platform, a blasted place.

But I kind of like to imagine neo-decadence poking around the ruins. I also like that the Facebook algorithm has become so direct and my interaction is so small, that mostly when I go on all there it’s all maps.

The Neo-Decadents include writers like Justin Isis, Brendan Connell, and Damian Murphy who embrace the effusion of technology and niches while maintaining stylistic rigor most comparable to the novels of the late 19th century and to occult texts.

They’re all over. Isis runs around Tokyo, and there are people at least in the US, UK, India, and Peru who have featured in many manifestos in the last few years.

I may do some more writing about the details in the coming posts, but for now, I wanted to share some stuff I’ve managed to get published on them in the last year or so.

First, a primer in Document Journal essentially synthesizes parts of the delightfully descriptive and sardonically prescriptive manifestos with some of the fiction works.

Inside the Neo-Decadent movement | Document

And second, an interview with Isis culled from a year’s worth of conversation or so in X-Pat

Justin Isis Unveiled: On Neo-Decadence and the Literature of Anti-Apocalypse | Ex-pat

Back soon.