Endicott Redux

On ghosts and giants. . .

I hope y'all are familiar with Fantasy Magazine, the weekly webzine devoted to high fantasy, contemporary and urban tales, surrealism, magical realism, science fantasy, and folktales. The magazine is co-edited by the indefatigable Sean Wallace and Cat Rambo (of Prime Books), along with the stellar team of Paul Tremblay, K. Tempest Bradford, Paula Guran and Stephen Segal.

They've published some terrific fiction recently, but of particular interest to mythic fiction readers is Paul Jessop's fine tale "A Word Without Ghosts" (with its delicious allusions to fairy tales, animal bridegroom myths, and the story of Peter Pan), and Richard Bowes' enchanting fable "The Cinnamon Cavalier." Don't miss them.

The charming painting above is "The Artist at Work," from K. Tempest Bradford's profile of illustrator Kat Beyer.

Speaking of Prime Books, did you know that they're republishing the "Snow White, Blood Red" fairy tales series in new trade-paperback editions? Black Thorn, White Rose is available now, with more volumes to follow.

   

Half Flight by Shweta Narayan

JoMA is pleased to introduce our readers to new author Shweta Narayan and invite you to read her beautiful and haunting short story, Half Flight, based on the fairy tale Six Swans. Despite the efforts of the heroine to free her brothers from their enchanted forms, the youngest brother remains trapped as half swan, half boy. In this strange, interstitial life between human and animal, real and fantastic, he struggles to find an identity that will include both.

"The boy with one wing does not fall asleep. He rises into sleep, lifts into sleep, sleeps high, high above the muck and drizzle. In sleep he soars over rippled clouds, wrapped in clean and comforting sky. The ground is an occasional patch of brown and green below. Until he wakes.

She has caught him in nettles and his feathers are falling, falling out.

The swan with one arm falls awake..."

Dreaming Methods: Writing Infused with New Media

I am always attracted to experimental flash animation in combination with fiction. I think it is one of the most interesting new art forms -- allowing for a richly textured and interactive experiment with fiction. Dreaming Methods is a website that offers quite a few of these experiments -- combining art, flash animation, and narrative together in complex and adventurous ways. There are many ongoing projects -- so it's a terrific site to come back and visit regularly to see what's new. You will need flash and a fast connection to view and participate fully in these projects. And do subscribe (it's free) as it will give you access to more projects and an interesting look at resource materials associated with each project.

One of the projects I found really amazing was the The Sketch Book of Annie Sykes, a fascinating collage of text, imagery, sound (which is best turned up), and video. "Turning" each page presents a kind of "living" journal.

I also find this work really interesting because I think it is perfectly tuned to mythic fiction and art despite its technical demands. It creates a version of oral story telling, allows for a mythic interpretation of the tale through art, music, and flash animation, and also allows the audience to connect to the tale though interactive play. I am looking forward myself to having an opportunity to do a project in flash. For another great example of this new frontier in mythic arts, have a look at the recent work of Connie Toebe and Lisa Stock (Through The Cobweb Forest). And for poetry, have a look a Born Magazine. 

Short Reading Pleasures

We are always so rushed these days that it is hard to find time to slow everything down and appreciate a literary interlude. Reviewing books, writing articles and papers, finishing novels...always such a commitment of time. But taking the time to read short pieces of literature online, like the occasional piece of Godiva chocolate, can be quite refreshing and enjoyable, reminding us that beautiful writing comes in small gifts too.

So let me offer you a few of these opportunities today:

The first is a thoughtful new poem, "Shapeshifter," by poet and young adult author Maureen McQuerry, that slowly unravels the process of transformation. The second is a short story, "Medusa at Morning" by Beth Bernobich, available at the newly redesigned Behind the Wainscot site (which, by the way, has lots of great new fiction offerings). Also, as I've been searching out "Swan Maiden" fiction for an upcoming article, let me recommend the beautiful and haunting "Gift of Flight" by Nghi Vo, published in Strange Horizons (which also has a tremendous backlist of short science fiction and fantasy tales). And for something completely different, bracing as a cold smack of fresh air, try Hari Kunzru's funny and poignant contemporary short story "Magda Mandela"  at The New Yorker, about a woman who is a force of nature and whose voice is a metaphysical wonder.

*The art above is "The Scribe" by Gentile Bellini (1479-80).

How to Bring Someone Back From the Dead

It seems right on Halloween that we should read Veronica Schanoes' How to Bring Someone Back From the Dead, an Orphic guide to the underworld. This instructional tale is terse, driven, and deeply mythic.

"There is always a journey and it is often long. You will have to take the path of pins and the path of needles. You will walk on the pins and your feet will bleed. You will walk on the needles and your feet will bleed, red like your jacket (You must always wear bright colors when you go to the underworld). This is your body mourning. It hurts to bring someone back from the dead."

The Parade of You: 1 day to Halloween

Barth Anderson's terrific story, The Parade of You, has everything a good autumnal story should have: rituals, feasting, masks, zombies, and transcendence.

"Take a cold, translucent candle from the child in the bulb-eyed fish mask, and pray for your beloved to die. Light the candle from a torch at the woodland path's gate. Say, 'Burn.'

"Behind you, your city shines, but the forest is dark, and the night is damp as the freeze of winter encroaches. Your candle drips as you walk past musicians in the rainy forest. Gauze winding sheets shroud musicians playing violins and quiet drums, lit by the stream of your many candles. All of you leave a trail of wax drippings on the forest floor.

"Please. Sit. Once you have spread your blanket on the dead grass and drunk a draft of sweet beer, your ritual will begin..."

The art above is "Twisted Devotion," used with permission from  Vince Marcone of the fabulous "My Pet Skeleton" website.

My Shadow: 2 Days to Halloween

My Shadow by Kate Bernheimer is a dark and troubling tale of a young girl cursed by her shadow. The horror here is in life's sharp edges and repressed fears, simmering just beneath the surface of ordinary events.

"And the more I grew up the harsher she got — I don't think she liked the way my growing stretched her so thin. When I became a woman, as my mother puts it, I grew leagues not only in height but in feelings. Soon after that the shadow girl began to trouble me badly. She became very strange: her face held a constant and hideous smile, in the past, she had hardly broken even a tentative grin — just like me, whom my mother has always accused of having a grim demeanor..."

The art above is by Connie Toebe.

The Princess and the Ghost: 3 Days to Halloween

Today's tale, The Princess and the Ghost, was written by Jessie Roy, one of the Journal of Mythic Arts' youngest authors. It appeared in the Summer, 2007 Young Adult Fiction issue. Roy's story is a haunted version of the familiar Sleeping Beauty tale, but with a poignant twist.

"And there was supposed to be a happy ending. Rose knows this, as surely as she knows the lore of the flower for which she is named. She knows her own story from start to finish, and knows exactly what happened to make it all go wrong."

How Master Madman Came to Ch'ing Feng Temple: 4 Days to Halloween

Heinz Insu Fenkl gives readers a Chinese tale of cannibal demons and the search for authenticity in How Master Madman Came to Ch'ing Feng Temple. The hero is arrogant and in need of a re-education; the demons are sufficiently scary and monstrous-- and there is a whole lot of crunching and munching of body parts -- so put down that mini-snickers when you read this.

"...And in this dream the enemy was not human — they were a horde of cannibal demons wearing the armor of dead soldiers from the time of the First Emperor, carrying antiquated weapons, shouting war cries in their guttural tongues. They swarmed towards him like the foaming waves of the sea, and then, as he noched an arrow and drew back his magic bow, an odd thing happened. The dream split in two, each half playing over the other half, as if the two were superimposed one on top of the other. In one dream his magic arrows caused great confusion and panic, and then he drew his great sword and drove through the demons, mowing them down like a field of ripe wheat. But in the other dream the chariot suddenly stopped and would not move. The single wheel was stuck. There was something wrong with the eight spokes, something having to do with how they converged on a point of nothingness. The demons were upon him like a ravenous swarm of locusts. He was overwhelmed by their stench of spoilt milk and rotting meat, the sight of their goggling round eyes, their red and yellow fur, their sickly white flesh like the bellies of dead fish. They tore him to pieces."

Jubilee: 5 days to Halloween

Today's offering, Jubilee, is an eerie, haunting tale from Tim Pratt. A man, grieving the murder of his girlfriend, returns home looking for solace in his hometown and its quaint traditions. But something has changed in our protagonist, and everything he views is strangely altered by a recent tragic experience:

"I knelt, and there was a creature partially covered by sand, unlike anything I'd ever seen. It was as big as a two–year–old kid, smooth–skinned, with long froglike legs, a lumpily oblong body, and big black eyes. Lacy fins hung limp from its legs and sides, and glowing green algae covered its body in spiraling, swooping patterns that seemed almost artistic. I was astonished. 'Bill, have you ever seen anything like this?' "

The painting above is "The Ghost in the Hills" by John Jude Palencar. The image is copyrighted by the artist, and used with permission.