The Interstitial Arts Foundation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the study, support, and promotion of interstitial art: literature, music, visual and performance art found in between categories and genres – art that crosses borders. 
Today we posted a second essay from Interfictions Zero, the rolling online anthology of interstitial criticism on interstitial texts. Author J.M. McDermott in his essay “On Mosaic Novels” posits :
I’m going to propose that there exists such a thing as a Mosaic Novel, as I will define it contrary and in addition to any definitions that may already exist from any number of critics. In this imaginary category, individual pieces of story, potentially disjointed from other pieces of story, are arranged into the shape of a narrative. This whole shape, comprised of and beyond the individual pieces, reveals more than the sum of the parts of each of its fictional segments or sections. In fact, placing the pieces into this shape invites interconnectivity that allows the imagination to fill in the blank spaces.
Here’s a link to the Interfictions Zero project:
http://www.interstitialarts.org/projects/interfictions0.php
REMINDER: We’re accepting rolling submissions for IF0, so if you have an idea, please go here for Submissions Guidelines.
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May 20th, 2011 at 10:29 am
Lots of thoughts here, but I’m confused by this one statement:
“Mosaic texts, each and every one, from the classic sci-fi fix-up novel to the expansive, experimental work of Jeff VanderMeer and John Barth, could all arguably be considered the center of this new category.”
Am I wrong in reading it this way:
“Mosaic texts are the center of the Mosaic Novel category.”
Is that actually saying anything?
May 26th, 2011 at 12:17 am
The intended reading is that every individual mosaic text could be considered, alone and by itself, as the center, regardless of all the rest.
Sorry if that wasn’t clear.
June 2nd, 2011 at 2:22 pm
So basically there’s no one story that is the center of a mosaic novel?
June 6th, 2011 at 11:14 am
Now you got it. In fact, there is no “center” of any genre, style, or form.
June 8th, 2011 at 5:29 am
Would you call World War Z a mosaic novel?
June 10th, 2011 at 6:31 pm
If I remember correctly, World War Z had a lot of different mini-narratives where different characters were giving eyewitness accounts of a large-scale zombie apocalypse. I think it qualifies, because the Setting, Theme, and Plot are the same, but the characters are fragmented. I don’t think it’s an ideal definition for WWZ, but it is one useful way of reading the text.