New York. 2021. She tries to get them out of there, and he grabs her gun. The themes of horror and fantasy work for me in two ways. Anne M. Pillsworths short storyThe Madonna of the Abattoir appears on Tor.com. Anne M. Pillsworths short storyThe Madonna of the Abattoir appears on Tor.com. Our mission is to amplify the power of storytelling with digital innovation, and to ensure that literature remains a vibrant presence in popular culture by supporting writers, embracing new technologies, and building community to broaden the audience for literature. And for those boys? I dont go beyondthat. Hes only been back a little while. Im still intrigued by the idea of pollution as a messed-up attempt at bindingcontaining, of course, the seeds of its own destruction. We discussed Argentina as a country and a character, the place of politics in literature, and what inspires Enriquez when shes working on astory. Seven Stories About Scary (and Possibly Sentient) Plants, What We Do for Wraithlike Bodies: Hilary Mantels, Five Space Books to Send a Chill Down Your Spine, Five Cautionary SF Tales About Enhanced Intelligence, A Critical Division of Starfleet Intelligence: Section 31 and the Normalization of the Security State. Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories (Spanish: Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego) is a short story collection by Mariana Enriquez. Its been pointed out to me a lot, she replies. political horror like "Under the Black Water, " "El desentierro de la. Sign up for our newsletter to get submission announcements and stay on top of our best work. Augusto Mora is a Mexican comics artist and graphic designer. The dictatorship killed or helped to make important Argentinean writers disappear, like Haroldo Conti, Rodolfo Walsh, and Paco Urondo. The children born with those defects are, alas, treated more as symbols than characters, or as indications that the river leaches humanity. Emanuel means god is with us. But what god? These genres are emotive and consider sensitivity and feeling. Yamil Corvalns body has already washed up, a kilometer from the bridge. The gothic was born in the English language in the eighteenth century, with Walpole, to name tales of mystery and fear that transgress reason, common sense, and the positive order of the world. Site designed in collaboration with CMYK. Her father, who once worked on a River Barge, told stories of the water running red. [2] "Spiderweb" appeared in The New Yorker. You shouldnt have come, says Father Francisco. Vitcavage: What are some of the difficulties or obstacles you encounter while writing a shortstory? In the middle of the night, invisible men pound on the shutters of a country hotel. Dissipation and Disenchantment: The Writing Life in Argentina in the 1990s. The voices of the women are so powerful that were left on the side, and thats kind of disturbing. Instead we get deformed children with their skinny arms and mollusk fingers, followed by women, most of them fat, their bodies disfigured by a diet based on carbs.. In this case rather than Lovecrafts racism and terror of mental illness, we get ableism and a fun-sized dose of fat-phobia. TW for suicide. And I think thats an effect of CsarAiras literature., Then, after some chit chat and pleasantries (a reference to Dawn of the Dead amongst them), shes off to prepare for some sort of party later in the day, which it seems is being approached in the style of her writing: It's a BBQ basically, but brutal., Things We Lost in the Fire is out now, published by Portobello Books, RRP 12.99. But we know that it is there through an inescapable logic, an intense awareness of the world and all its misery. Shes disturbed by his toothless mouth and sucker-like fingers. I was struck by the cruelty of those police officers. The setting in the troubled wake of the Argentine dictatorship makes their underlying influence seem obvious, but sometimes the origins of horror can surprise you. Privacy Policy. I felt unpleasant echoes of That Only a Mother, a much-reprinted golden age SF story in which the shocking twist at the end is that the otherwise precocious baby hasnt got any limbs (and, unintentionally, that the society in question hasnt got a clue about prosthetics). This article about a collection of horror short stories published in the 2010s is a stub. And when they are left to themselves, because theres a crisis that is quite over their heads and nobodys paying attention to them, god knows what they can do alone., The collections most darkly thrilling story is Under the Black Water, a Lovecraftian tale of two boys tortured by the police and made to cross a polluted river. Support our mission to make literature more exciting, relevant, and inclusive. Vitcavage: Since youre a journalist as well, is there a sense of need when it comes to including political commentary within yourfiction? After all, a living boy is one less crime to accuse the cops of. I interviewed Enriquez via email; I wrote to her in English and she responded in Spanish, with Jill Swanson then translating. Madness Takes Its Toll: Father Francisco doesnt handle his parishioners new faith well. She runs, not looking back, and covers her ears against the sound of the drums. Theyre carrying a bed, with some human effigy lying on it. Mary Shelleys Frankenstein, 1818), as well as the image of the young woman who is simultaneously a victim and a monstrous killer, became tropes in the works of well known women authors such as Ann Radcliffe, Kate Chopin, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, whose tutelary shadows fall over the poetics of Mariana Enriquez. 208 pages. And he says to me, I think its because we dont own the narrative. We publish your favorite authorseven the ones you haven't read yet. They physically abused them and threw them in the Riachuelo River. And death, how much is death worth? I remember having a conversation with a friend and saying, 'But you never complain when men are portrayed as corrupt politicians, violent cops, serial killers. Silvina, the protagonist of Things We Lost in the Fire, is not yet all the way committed to the protest movement. Originally published in Spanish, it was translated into English by Megan McDowell in 2017. [2] " Spiderweb" appeared in The New Yorker. Botting, Ellis, Patrick, Stevens, Williams, Gross, Mighall, Punter, and Byron, among others). Argentinean literature, especially whats been written within the last forty years, after the dictatorship, is profoundly political. An abandoned house brims with shelves holding fingernails and teeth. But behind her, footsteps squelch: one of the deformed children. Before she can react, he shoots himself. Even for me and Ive been there. Now we burn ourselves. Electric Literature is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2009. 202 pages. He passes her, gliding toward the church. Her young adult Mythos novel,Summoned, is available from Tor Teen along with sequelFathomless. In one story, "Under the Black Water," a severely polluted river that has become a dumping ground for victims of police violence becomes a source of a zombie cult. The Writing Life in Argentina in the 1990s, Kelly Link Makes Fairy Tales Even Weirder Than You Remember, When Reality is More Terrifying Than Cursed Bunnies, Booktails from the Potions Library, with Mixologist Lindsay Merbaum. A few years ago in Buenos Aires, two policemen detained two poor, young men who were coming back from a night club. In the slum Buenos Aires frays into abandoned storefronts, and an oil-filled river decomposes into dangerous and deliberate putrescence.. Copyright 2023 Kenyon Review. We dont know who has taken away a vanished girl, or murdered a child, or consumed a husband. The immense pleasure of Enriquezs fiction is the conclusiveness of her ambiguity. Enriquezs writing is therefore often in the first person, both singular and plural, and extraordinary elements enter into this fiction through the sense of smell (El carrito [The cart]), hearing (Dnde ests corazn [Where are you, darling]), taste (Carne [Meat]), sight (Ni cumpleaos ni bautismos), and touch (Los peligros de fumar en la cama [The dangers of smoking in bed]). The full schedule can be found here and the marginalia can be found here. In others, "Adela's House" and "An Invocation of the Big-Earred Runt," past crimes reach out from the past to claim new victims. In effect, Enriquezs short fiction is populated by women suppressed by patriarchal necropolitics: lesbian teenagers (The Inn), girls both sexual and cruel (The Intoxicated Years), sufferers of anorexia (No Flesh over Our Bones), self-mutilated schoolgirls (End of Term), women who are raped, satanic, etc. Normally there are people. I dont write pedagogically. I want my stories to have an air of familiarity, especially those in a collection or in a book. There both the fierceness of the military and the untamed jungle combine into a ghostly trap, where the turn into the paranormal leaves the wife with some unexpected options. Our Privacy Notice has been updated to explain how we use cookies, which you accept by continuing to use this website. They learned how to swim. The time stamp suggests that he at least knew that two young men were thrown into the Ricachuelo River. In "Under the Black Water" from Things We Lost in the Fire, I read: "It was a procession. I love the country, but I think thats why Im harsh with it Im harsh because I care about it and I want it to change.. I just wrote a review of the concert, but on another level, I always have antenna for this weirdness.. [Scheduled] South American: Things We Lost in the Fire, by Mariana Enriquez, "Under the Black Water" Welcome to the discussion of "Under the Black Water," the 10th story from Mariana Enrquez's Things We Lost in the Fireshort story collection. These ghostly images flicker out of Mariana Enriquezs stories, her characters witnessing atrocities or their shadows or afterimages. Up next is u/Joinedformyhubs with the penultimate story in the collection, Green Red Orange, on Wednesday, December 21. She leaves the church crying and shaking. Well, maybe not always that last. She dreamed that when the boy emerged from the water and shook off the muck, the fingers fell off his hands.. It is a story that shares echoes with Schweblin's Fever Dream, in that belief in the occult becomes confused with the damaging physiological effects of certain poisons. In Under the Black Water, a district attorney pursuing a witness ventures into a slum that even her cab driver wont enter. Much of Black Waters horror is the surreal constraints of poverty, pollution, and corrupt authority. The cows head, clearly, is just some of the neighborhood drug dealers trying to intimidate the priest. She dreamed that when the boy emerged from the water and shook off the muck, the fingers fell off his hands.. But, in my opinion, she goes further, developing what we might call a gothic feminism that proclaims the empowerment of women, building upon the sinister, as a process of subjectivization. The priest refers to them as retards, but the narrative itself isnt doing much better. Mariana Enriquez: When I was a girl, the first things I read were horror and fantasy. Her neo-Lovecraftian stories The Litany of Earth and Those Who Watch are available on Tor.com, along with the distinctly non-Lovecraftian Seven Commentaries on an Imperfect Land and The Deepest Rift. Ruthanna can frequently be found online onTwitterandDreamwidth, and offline in a mysterious manor house with her large, chaotic householdmostly mammalianoutside Washington DC. Enriquez spent her childhood in Argentina during the years of the infamous Dirty War, which ended when she was ten. Personalize your subscription preferences here. Welcome back to the Lovecraft reread, in which two modern Mythos writers get girl cooties all over old Howards sandbox, from those who inspired him to those who were inspired in turn. Enriquez, Mariana. I swear we dont keep picking stories with shootings and killer cops deliberately. All these tales are told from a womans point of view, often a young one, and they seem to be able to hold out against the horror that lures them for only so long. All the New Fantasy Books Arriving in May! [3] Contents Not one of the blind kids with misshapen hands gets characterization, or even a speaking role other than to mouth platitudes about dead things dreaming. Argentina is a theme and a character in my stories. Her absence is absolutely not due to nefarious extraterrestrial body-snatching, we promise. Its no murga, but a shambling procession. Sat 1 Oct 2022 13.00 EDT M ariana Enrquez, 48, lives in Buenos Aires. Silvia hated public. We dont know what the awful spectre is, gray and dripping, that sits on the bed with its bloody teeth. I felt unpleasant echoes of That Only a Mother, a much-reprinted golden age SF story in which the shocking twist at the end is that the otherwise precocious baby hasnt got any limbs (and, unintentionally, that the society in question hasnt got a clue about prosthetics). And her gun, of course. Spoilers ahead. Its stench, he said, was caused by its lack of oxygen. That is not hyperbole. Whats Cyclopean: This is very much a place-as-character story. It was like, whats the power that these girls are conjuring?. He also works as a community interpreter in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a Tulsa Artist Fellow. Spoilers ahead. Translation is its own art, of course, and je ne parle pas Espanol, so the story Ive actually read may be as much the work of Megan McDowel as Enriquez. 2023 Macmillan | All stories, art, and posts are the copyright of their respective authors, Shadow Over Argentina: Mariana Enriquezs Under the Black Water. Violence flaunts itself, intruding on everyday life. I was born December '73, so was two years old when the dictatorship came, so I really dont remember it rationally, I remember it emotionally I cant remember anything more than a climate of fear in my house. Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers. She shows us. I work as a journalist and its difficult to find the time to write. They simply had to go. Hes tried! Pinats dressed down from her usual DA suits, and carries only enough money to get home and a cell phone to hand muggers if needed. The evil of that police officer wanting to make the boy try to swim in a polluted river when he knows that hes going to die. She runs, not looking back, and covers her ears against the sound of the drums. The boy opens the door; she goes in. He laughs. You shouldnt have come, says Father Francisco. I mean, one of the places where I had the most fear in my life was a Backstreet Boys concert, Enriquez says, with no hint of mockery. Enriquez: I always write for myself. After the cop leaves, a pregnant teenager comes in, demanding a reward for information about Emanuel. All Rights Reserved. She recognizes that little yellow house, so shes not lost. But the police throwing people in there, that was stupid. He came out of the water. This type of story-action creates enlightened, involved readers, and this, in my view, makes her fiction necessary. We are not currently open for submissions. Do all lives have the same worth? Not one of the blind kids with misshapen hands gets characterization, or even a speaking role other than to mouth platitudes about dead things dreaming. Translation is its own art, of course, and je ne parle pas Espanol, so the story Ive actually read may be as much the work of Megan McDowel as Enriquez. But I have to be careful that my personal passions and obsessions dont take over my stories and make them all sound toosimilar. Today we're reading Mariana Enriquez's "Under the Black Water," first published in English in Things We Lost in the Fire, translated by Megan McDowel. Shadow Over Argentina: Mariana Enriquez's "Under the Black Water". Then she runs, trying to ignore the agitation of the water that should be able to breathe, or move. So we share interests then? Its refreshing to encounter somebody so political and literary who, instead of turning from genre, adopts it to save her work falling into preaching or pamphleteering. She met Father Francisco, who told her that no one even came to church. And yet Enriquez shifts this interiority outward into a landscape made ghastly by political and economic forces. [But] it wasnt about the boys, it was about them, feeding off each other, their energy, and trying to release something. People swimming under the black water, they woke the thing up. The psychic interiority of broaching ones own darkness is the mainstay of horror fiction, the genre to which these stories clearly belong. 102 W. Wiggin St. You can be afraid of a monster and fear can also turn you into a monster. Does our apathy make us complicit? You have to get out of here, Pinat tells him. The "propulsive and mesmerizing" (The New York Times) story collection by the International Booker-shortlisted author of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed and Our Share of Nightnow with a new short story.The short stories of Mariana Enriquez are: "The most exciting discovery I've made in fiction for some time."Kazuo Ishiguro In the specific case of the River Plate tradition, there are important precursors such as Quiroga, Cortzar (who even wrote the famous Notas sobre lo gtico en el Ro de la Plata [Notes on the gothic in the Ro de la Plata]), Onetti, Felisberto Hernndez, Silvina Ocampo, and Alejandra Pizarnik. In The Dirty Kid, a begging child ostentatiously shakes the hand of subway passengers, soiling them deliberately. I think so, yeah, Enriquez ponders, but what fiction does is slower, lets say In journalism, it's more urgent. For some reason that river to me always hid something very ancient, very evil, suggests Enriquez, a cosmic evil. And Enriquez achieves all this with an ambiguous, stark, coarse, and crude language that bombards us with uncomfortable questions: How does the gothic speak to us about the real? We anticipate opening again for general submissions in September 2023. Enjoy strange, diverting work from The Commuter on Mondays, absorbing fiction from Recommended Reading on Wednesdays, and a roundup of our best work of the week on Fridays. Today were reading Mariana Enriquezs Under the Black Water, first published in English in Things We Lost in the Fire, translated by Megan McDowel. What is it about the fiction of Mariana Enriquez that makes the whole world, book market and academics included, like it so much? In the distance, she hears drums. But we wont die: we will show our scars. The female body no longer disappears; rather, it (over)exposes its anormal materiality as proof of the distinct pedagogies of cruelty (Segato) it has suffered. Ana Gallegos Cuiasis full professor in the Department of Spanish Literature of the University of Granada. Oh come, Emanuel? What he separated from Argentinian literature was the obligation to be solemn, to talk about politics to put imagination aside because these things were too serious to be contaminated by genre, let it be horror, fantasy, humour, whatever I can cross it [the socio-political situation] with genre and not be scared and think, 'Ah, Im going to talk about the disappeared in a horror story, this is totally disrespectful.' She lives in Edgewood, a Victorian trolley car suburb of Providence, Rhode Island, uncomfortably near Joseph Curwens underground laboratory. Since Esteban Echeverras foundational 1871 work The Slaughter Yard, Argentine literature has offered plentiful examplesArlt, Lamborghini, Chejfec, etc.of the representation of forms of violence. He has translated the novelsImmigration: The Contestby Carlos Gmez Prez andThere Are Not So Many Starsby Isa Moreno (Katakana Editores), as well as the verse collectionIntensive Careby Arturo Gutirrez Plaza (Alliteraton). Considering her writings overlap between Borges and King, Ocampo and Jackson, an accurate term might be 'black magical realism', and its possible this strange genre brew is a result of Enriquez' historical vantage point; born just prior to the coup but too young to be complicit, or even fully aware. The body of Emanuel Lpez, the second boy, still hasnt surfaced. The poor men, she deadpans back. Meanwhile, in his house, the dead man waits dreaming. So what is prisoned under the river? An abandoned house brims with shelves holding fingernails and teeth. This collection comes with a trigger warning for body horror, abuse, neglect, violence against children, teens, and women, self-harm, drug use, discussion of rape and sexual assault, animal cruelty, disordered eating, and police brutality. The body of Emanuel Lpez, the second boy, still hasnt surfaced. OK, nice, is her reply. These are stories that speak of fear as the intimate driving force of our livesand the intimate is always politicalof the extreme violence of neoliberal capitalism, of the vulnerability of children, women, the sick, and the lower classes in the disciplinary, hyper-consumerist, normative, and patriarchal society of the twenty-first century.