Friday Links: Don't Go Into Those Woods Edition
"'Why did you introduce yourself as a werewolf if that's not what you identify as?'...'The simple fact is that the werewolf is more easily identifiable, iconic." - Indra Das, 'The Devourers'
But first, your weekly Vine. Thursday was Chapter 25: “A Covenant So That They May Dwell Securely In The Wilderness And Sleep In The Woods.” Today is Chapter 26: “Hymn of Healing and Regeneration.” We had an extra episode of The Vine Radio Hour on the Lazy & Entitled Podcast this week, for “Outbreak Part Two” and “Outbreak Part Three,” here’s this week’s regular episode, for chapters 23-26.
You never need an excuse to read horror. Ghost stories do not lose their salience simply because leaves are on trees. Yet life is full of wonders, so we have holidays to remind us of rad stuff we might otherwise forget about. All month long, we’re reading horror novels, baby!
What I’ve Been Reading This Week:
We have two books concerned with scary animals this week. One, you already know if you read last week’s column. Two, a writer I’ve read recently, another effort that is shaping up nicely. Let’s not drag this out too much longer—I’m talking, of course, about The Devourers by Indra Das and The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones.
The Devourers by Indra Das: first and foremost, what I suspected last week is true: The Devourers is one of the most gorgeous books ever written. Luscious is the word I used, overflowing with sensory detail, and hell’s bells, I did not know the half of it. Page after page, I was in awe of what I was reading. This book is proof that “plot” and “good writing” are not mutually exclusive. These characters venture into the delta and forests of the Sundarbans, have “second self” fights, there’s blood and literal entrails being scooped off the ground and back into one’s belly, and yet the prose is still florid, like master stylist-level. There’s no gore for the sake of gore, it’s just that sensory information is all the way at 11. Indra might be the best writer at describing touch I’ve ever read? The language kept infiltrating my brain, too. I caught myself thinking of caravanserais while walking the outdoor steps of my building’s mini-courtyard, or referring to my bundle of canvas grocery bags as “fardels.”
This is not simply a collection of pretty words put in an order that makes me visualize werewolf attacks, though. No, the beauty extends to the symbolic level. “Werewolf” is a bit of a misnomer for the creatures here. Certainly appropriate for the indeterminately Scandinavian Fenrir or the unpronounceably French Gévaudan. Not werewolves but shapeshifters, able to transform their second (changed) and first (human-passing) selves. “Devourers” is a term not just for the physical consumption of their victims, but also the fact that a werewolf’s victim’s life and stories are now contain within the werewolf. This leads to all kinds of metaphors for transness, too—more than one character either changes the gender of their first self or, in their second self, displays both male and female genitals. The queerness of this narrative is interwoven completely with the monster narrative, but it does not point to queerness as something monstrous or honestly even all that out of the ordinary. We’re maybe used to supernatural creatures transcending mortal constraints—here I go talking about Anne Rice vampires again—but Das’s characters transcend gender, transcend homo/heterosexuality, transcend simplistic werewolfism. The way the journey is presented, you almost feel like you could, too.
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones: I’m only about 50 pages into this one, but I had a schedule for spooky season, damnit, and I’m gonna keep up with it (plus Noir-vember is coming). So here’s what I’ll say: a lot of the blurbs compare this book to Stephen King, and sure enough, the first few chapters are all about connecting four friends with a shared history. I’m a sucker for this stuff. A dude, there is something going on with the elk.
LINKS!
But first, some music. Did you know Speakerboxxx/The Love Below recently turned 20? I bought that CD at Hasting’s in Murfreesboro, TN, and it was like a year before I heard the unedited “Spread” and learned I had accidentally purchased the edited CD. Anyway, here’s “Love Hater,” my favorite track off that album.
Baseball, specifically Baltimore baseball, is always going to make me nostalgic. Here’s a wonderful writeup from Tom Scocca in Indignity about Orioles great Brooks Robinson, who passed away recently at 86.
Excellent Defector postmortem on the WGA strike from Katharine Trendacosta. Collective action works, and we should see more of it. A pull quote, because Defector is subscription-based (but worth it): “Generative AI…is an extremely contentious issue right now. Not because it’s good. It’s not. But because…it’s a really good excuse for not paying people. The WGA agreement prevents companies worth billions of dollars from handing a writer a piece of AI-gibberish and then only paying them to “rewrite” it. It recognizes what we all know: No matter how good a machine is, it doesn’t go around living an actual life. It can recognize patterns, but it can’t actually create. The agreement…preserves it as a tool for humans to use rather than a replacement for human beings.”
Delightful Chelsea Stickle micro in Passages North, “The Final Girl Wolfs Down Red Lobster.” Anyone can write a Final Girl story. Not everyone remembers to include details about face-stuffing Cheddar Bay biscuits and popcorn shrimp (god I love popcorn shrimp), size 10 girls being Final Girls too, and knowing some man is always going to try to take your fun away, even after you’ve got your own body count. Read Chelsea’s Final Girl story.
Breezy, wonderfully-line-broken poem from Jill Kitchen in The Lumiere Review, “Salt Lines.” Yet another work where the specific word choices here, the specific turns of phrase—these can only come from the mind of someone who gives a shit about writing something good. The words are put together in the right order. Read this poem out loud.
Lastly, one more Defector piece: A. Andrews on transitioning with Myelomeningocele. The journey of the piece begins in 2006, with Anderson essentially being told that transition is not an option for “people like me.” We don’t get to “then I got the perfect medical care I needed and HRT and surgery and I’m happy with my body,” but it’s a journey worth taking. A quote: “But I still struggle with the belief that actually being trans is not an option…When I explain this frustration, and say that I’d to resolve this confusion, she tells me…it’s likely a feeling brought on by my depression and anxiety—understandable afflictions given my disability. She doesn’t think I’m transgender. Rather, she says, “it is trauma.” I am “dissatisfied with my body” and “looking for a feeling of control.” I would simply need to learn better coping skills for living in and accepting my disabled body. This, of course, is not a thing.”
That’s all for this week! What’re you still doing here? Go read Vine!
If you’re a service worker, may you clean up in tips this weekend. Especially this weekend, for me and Studs.
Sorry you got an email,
Chris