Quick Sips - Fantasy #59 QUEERS DESTROY FANTASY

2016 has been the year for Queers Destroying, with Queers Destroy Science Fiction! dropping in June, Queers Destroy Horror! in October, and now December seeing Queers Destroy Fantasy! There are four original stories, and they range widely, from stories about wars in the dining halls to battles between heroes and monsters where love is a weapon. Women swap heads and young men banish ghosts, both for a price. These are stories of longing and love, violence and tenderness. They are not about queerness so much as they let their queerness subvert and, yes, destroy. These are stories that some might say are common enough now, no big deal. But fuck that, really, because what that argument does is erase those who have worked and are working to change things. These stories are still vital because, as seen in the Bowes story, though things have gotten better, they are not equal. So more of these projects, please. More destruction. But first, reviews!

Art by Priscilla Kim

Quick Sips - Uncanny #2 (February Stuff)

And here is the second part of the Uncanny #2 review that started last month. For those wanting to catch up, check that out here. Anyway, this second half is more full of stories but lighter on poetry and non-fiction. Still well worth checking out, though, so if you haven't picked up your very own copy, maybe go do that.

Art by Julie Dillon

Stories:

"Pockets" by Amal El-Mohtar (3216 words)

A story about a woman who finds that she can pull things from her pockets. Any pockets, and really just about any thing. It's an interesting idea, and when she gets a friend to help her scientifically analyze what's going on, it opens up all sorts of weird questions about where the items are coming from and what she's supposed to do with them. And then she finds a person whose pockets only take things in and together they find a way to get rid of all the things that have been coming out of the one set of pockets...by putting them into the other set. Of course, then the question is where do they go from there. And through is the idea of connection, and of art, and of creation itself. I got the idea that part of what the story was about was finding artifacts (like this story) after the owner has let them go or lost them (or, I guess, sold and published them). It's about how a person can find them, and pass them on again. It's about finding meaning in those items, about connecting through those items, and ultimately about letting them go again, comforted by the idea that they are for whoever finds them, and for whoever finds them after that. For me it's a story about stories, about how these words can be personal to every person, can hit each person differently, and never really lose their power. The message the main character receives in the end wasn't for her specifically, but it was for her because she found it. Interesting stuff.

"Anyone with a Care for Their Image" by Richard Bowes (1322 words)

I actually read this before the story that appeared in Farrago's Wainscot in January, but as the review is coming out now I can say that it's set in the same world, in the Big Arena series, but earlier in the chronology. Here a social media persona finds himself in danger as tensions flare into something big and he makes some mistakes in how he covers the events unfolding around him. This is a story about how certain people, despite being "in the middle of things" are essentially cut off from humanity. They are trend setter and followed by a great many people, but they are also so far removed from the people that follow them that they don't really understand the realities of the world. Especially the inequalities and hardships that they are insulated from. And even when they are reminded, they have a way of getting away, of having the chance to rebrand themselves again and again and survive to plague people once more. They survive because despite the hardships, things don't really change all that much. Their wealth and influence and privilege allows them to try and sell a new snake oil. I'm not sure that I liked this story as much as "Time is a Twisting Snake" but they definitely fit together thematically.

"Love Letters to Things Lost and Gained" by Sunny Moraine (3737 words)

This was my favorite story of the issue. Part of me just can't help loving how stubborn the main character is, how justifiably hurt and angry she is at her situation. It strikes me as so human, as so real. Because dealing with the loss of a limb sounds like it would be terrible, and there is that sense that the world does value what is whole in a way to erase the wounds, to tell a person to get over it and move on so that the world doesn't have to recognize or react to that loss. That the world can basically sit back and say, "yes yes, but you're better now, so get over it." And there is a power in saying no, in forcing people to deal with the scars, with the reality of what happened. To make people see it and be confronted. Because to erase it back to the way it was would not really erase the trauma. It would not make things whole again. It would be to lie for the sake of the world's comfort, and really, fuck that. So I love the story, and I love how the main character becomes more comfortable with what happened but refuses to erase it, refuses to fall for the trap of letting the world pretend it never happened. It's a powerful story about how survivors are not at fault for being uncomfortable, or being hurt. That they own their own bodies, their own choices. And the story is just lovely and powerfully written and good.

Poetry:

"archival testimony fragments / minersong" by R.B. Lemberg

This is a nice, disjointed poem, about a living ship trapped underground and calling out to miners that are working the surface of its now-dead world. It's an interesting mix of voices, mostly the ship's but with the voices from above, as well, the training instructions from the company that owns the planet and the voice of one of the miners who hears the voice calling out and decides to try and respond. In some ways this read to me as a poem about the power of history and workers. Because the ship is seeking to empower the miners, is seeking to join forces with them. At least, I got a bit of the sense that the company was exploiting them both and that the ship wanted to help the miners escape, if that meant it could also escape. To end the circle of exploitation and allow people to escape the captivity beneath the surface. Or I could be way off. But it was a good read with a unique style.

Quick Sips - Farrago's Wainscot #13

A bit of a new one here today with Farrago's Wainscot, a place putting out "literary weird" fiction and poetry. And a nice lobster on the front page. I'm all about lobsters! Apparently the publication was active until 2009 and then disappeared for a while and is now back! So yeah, onwards to the reviews!

Stories:

"Everybody Has a Twin Except for Me" by Toiya Kristen Finley (3715 words)

Literary weird is probably a good way to describe this story, in which CF flees through what might be parallel dimensions from two predatory men bent on killing him. The story is a strange one, and not exactly linear. Through the jumble of scenes it's revealed that CF is kind-of related to the men pursuing him, that they're from his past, a past where he failed to do something and now can't escape. I wonder some how literal it's supposed to be, or if perhaps he's running from the men is more figurative, a running from his past, running from confronting what needs to be confronted. He's out looking for himself, and as long as he keeps running that's exactly what he can't find. It's an interesting piece, though a little muddy for my tastes. Still, it's full of some excellent imagery and language.

"Sinfonia 22" by Forrest Aguirre (1885 words)

Another strange beast, this one told as a collection of quotations from various sources surrounding the death of composer Allesandro Livetti. There is certainly the air of a detailed report to this story, like it could all have happened like this, like this is all absolutely true. Kind of like found-text stories, this one is rather a compiled text story that reveals a number of curiosities concerning the murder. It's a little tricky to get at first, but it does have a nice enough flow to it, and it set up to the ending, to the murder itself, quite well. Musical and strange, it works for what it seems to set out to do, and is entertaining and comical throughout. Some sections obviously will hit better than others, but it all weaves together to form a whole, one that is worth a look.

"Of Homes Gone" by Jason Heller (2013 words)

Still on the theme of weird shit, this story is about an enforcer of the Lack of Laws going out into a city where entering buildings is taboo and perhaps deadly. It's not entirely clear if the fear of the buildings is from buildings collapsing during catastrophes or if there is something more magical about them, but the agent goes out to follow a rumor that someone went inside. What they find is, well, strange, a sort of religious experience, and it changes them. Changes them enough that they start trying to break down the walls of meaning between thing. Starting with their face. Disturbing and creepy, the whole thing is once more a little opaque to me but interesting to read at least.

"Time is a Twisting Snake" by Richard Bowes (2999 words)

Definitely the most coherent and powerful of the stories in this issue, it follows an old New Yorker in a future where people can live on in the bodies of the young. At first this notion disturbs him, and he tries to take his age in stride, but as he goes about his life and sees the benefits to not aging, he is seduced. He's lived through so much, and getting a chance to be young again sounds like it would be too tempting to resist. Really, though, he seems to doubt what he's done, doubts that it should be done. For while he likes his new body, there is a sense that he has betrayed something fundamental about himself, to say nothing about what he's done to the person whose body he's taken over. Weird but rich with science fiction and a strong drive, this story is one that should definitely be checked out.

Poems:

"Worlds In Collision" by Bryan D. Dietrich

This poem is pretty much exactly like the name implies. One planet smacks into another, and basically they both die. It's about the moments before the impact, the moments when the new world looms up like a moon and then everyone realizes what's about to happen. It's about not being able to do much. Stark and desperate, it's a compact poem, full of some neat phrasing and the feel of the atmosphere shredding. This poem hits, and it hits hard, summing up all the lonely despair that comes along with a planet's annihilation.

"Perennial Movement" by Glenn Shaheen

A poem with some form to it, this one moves in a circle, or in branching paths, or any way, really. I read it first clock-wise, then counter, then as a right side and a left. It really can be enjoyed in a number of ways, which is part of the fun and meaning, to find the different meanings that come with the different ways of reading. In most ways it seems to be about death and gravity and all those fun kinds of things. Definitely suited for multiple readings. A fun exercise, if rather dark.

"Whispering Into the Ear Of The Statue Of Your Choice What You Really Think About Things Is Almost Like Talking To Someone" by John Gallaher

This is something of a dense poem, using long lines that give it a sense that it, like the statues, is a bit set in stone, that it is solid, not vague or ephemeral. Of course, this works too because the statues in the poem are solid and allow the narrator to throw a bit of themselves into giving the statues voice. It's a neat poem, with some ideas that I want to call cute, like the voice the narrator uses to give the statues words. I think there's something under the lighter ideas of the poem, though, something about how we are all sort of like that, how we all sort of make ourselves into statues to each other. The last lines of the poem do a great job of capturing that idea, and I like the overall effect. Hurrah!

"Orbital" by Adrienne J. Odasso

And to completely turn things around from the last poem, this one is lithe and airy, very short lines and breaks and just a lot of space in there. Space that the words themselves seem to evoke, asking the reader to fill and make sense of. It has some really nice lines and a good sense that something is happening, that two people are burning, or at least one is burning, but the fire brings them together while it seems to resolve them, to destroy them. It's a short poem, but one that reaches up with the flames, one that lingers like an echo. It's lovely and definitely worth a few reads!