The Surreal and the Grotesque

Your novels include a lot of scenes that are not just filled with monsters, but are also surreal. I'd like you to talk about your sense of the surreal and the grotesque, and how you evoke that with your language. There are various different traditions in, in fantastic literature and fantastic art,. The traditions that I've always been most interested in are those of surrealism, decadence, the baroque, the gothic.