卡尔顿·麦利克三世

Carlton Mellick III (born July 2, 1977) is an American author currently residing in Portland, Oregon. He is best known as one of the leading authors in the Bizarro movement in underground literature.

Mellick's work has been described as a combination of trashy schlock sci-fi/horror and postmodern literary art. His novels explore surreal versions of earth in contemporary society and imagined futures, commonly focusing on social absurdities and satire.

Biography

Carlton Mellick III started writing at the age of ten and completed twelve novels by the age of eighteen. Only one of these early novels, Electric Jesus Corpse, ever made it to print. Mellick attended Clarion West in 2008, where he studied under such authors as Chuck Palahniuk, Cory Doctorow, Connie Willis, Paul Park, and Mary Rosenblum.

He is best known for his first novel Satan Burger, which was translated into Russian and published by Ultra Culture in 2005. It was part of a four book series called Brave New World, which also featured Virtual Light by William Gibson, City Come A Walkin by John Shirley, and Tea from an Empty Cup by Pat Cadigan.

In the late 1990s, he formed a collective for offbeat authors which included D. Harlan Wilson, Kevin L. Donihe, Vincent Sakowski, among others, and the publishing company Eraserhead Press. This scene evolved into the Bizarro fiction movement in 2005.

Controversy

The novel Satan Burger earned a degree of notoriety in 2005 when Jared Armstrong of Girdwood, Alaska was incarcerated. The charges, giving/showing indecent material to a minor, were dismissed by the prosecutor four months later. The Alaska Court found that the arrest and approximately 15 search warrants executed by the Anchorage Police Department for dissemination of the novel Satan Burger were illegal. A Federal Civil Rights suit brought by Armstrong against the lead Detective Gerard Asselin under Title 42 §1983 U.S.C was dismissed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2013.