My November reading got cut short by some health problems,
but I still crossed several amazing short pieces. Since October, I've started a
tradition of linking to the best free short fiction and non-fiction pieces I
read in a given month. Most of these were published in November (naturally),
but selections can come from anytime, so long as there is no paywall between
the reader and the story.
I'm always looking for more great stories. If you have
anything you've been loving, please link me up in the comments.
Also, this feature needs a better title. Please rattle off
ideas if you have them.
Fiction
"The Game of Smash and Recovery" by Kelly Link at Strange Horizons
-That Link magic kicks in after half a paragraph, when you
realize Anat isn't just an adoring little sister, but a flamethrower-wielding
vampire hunter. Possibly part of the last duo on earth. In such short scenes it
alternates between dark and funny (the vampires might be stranded aliens?),
bittersweet (she longs to meet her absent parents, and dreads her brother
disappearing), and legitimately sweet (those birthdays, though). I adore how
all the bits come together. Link remains one of the greatest short story
writers I've ever read, doubly admirable for continually trying the hard things
and making them look easy.
"Dispatches From a Hole in the World" by Sunny Moraine at Nightmare Magazine
-Trigger Warning for Suicide. This is a story about a viral
epidemic of suicides that science has so far failed to figure out or combat.
The grant student goes through case after gruesome case, gradually being worn
down by the awful things she studies, and we fear she'll be infected by
whatever this thing is. Could despair itself be a villain of Horror?
"The Customer Is Always Right" by Anna Salonen at Mothership Zeta
-One of those successful all-dialogue stories that pulls off
the sense of things actually happening while all you get is chatter. Also,
death rays! It's the story of a customer service call for a malfunctioning
death ray and just gets funnier as it goes along.
"Horror Story" by Carmen Maria Machado at Granta
-After all the Horror I've read, why did I relish a short
that's mostly about figuring out what creepy crawly was stalking their
apartment? Because Machado's story uses those tropes to deliver something else
entirely at the end. She unfurls her idea slowly and assuredly, through gradual
hints of a drain malfunctioning, of escalating blame, in a tight package that
hands off to an abrupt and highly unusual ending.
Non-Fiction
"Everything is Miscellaneous: Why Publishing Needs Tagging" by Michael R. Underwood at
Boing Boing
-There are more
books in print today than you could ever read, so we need better methods of
discoverability. Underwood recommends adopting fanfic-like tagging systems,
with idea clouds identifying this novel has Dinosaurs, Coca Cola Product
Placement, and Steamy Sex Scenes. It works for Trigger Warnings (hold your
outrage; they're useful to people with actual psychological triggers), but are
also greatly useful in finding books to meet your specific mood. Amazon has
pushed its sub-categories, but the book-space still needs more robust
discoverability options. It's an excellent proposal.
"How to be a Genderqueer Feminist" by Laurie Penny at Buzzfeed
-Feminism is supposed to be about equity for all, but
historically has had trouble supporting anyone but cis white women. It's getting better, and discussions like this one are why. Here is a
beautiful article about someone who identifies as neither male nor female, who
believes passionately in some of Feminism, but whose identity is met with
hostility by many adherents. It's food for compassion and expanding dogmas.
"Indonesia plans prison guarded by crocodiles for drug convicts" by Kesavan Unnikrishnah at
Digital Journal
-"It’s not a human rights violation when a crocodile
does the killing," says Slamet Pribadi, proposing a prison guarded by
crocodiles. If you want to read it and gape in horror or laugh at the absurdity, it works for both. This, the Inodesian government believes, will be safer because
unlike human guards, crocodiles can't be bribed.
"Campus Activists Weaponize 'Safe Space'" by Conor Friedersdorf at The Atlantic
-Breaking down the recorded instance of Tim Tai, an Asian
American photographer who was bullied by a crowd of fellow students into not
photographing events in a public space. They demanded he not touch them while
marching towards him, said he had no right to photograph them (and ignored when
he explained the First Amendment), and claimed the space was only for students
despite the photographer being a student at the university. Tai was contracted
for the work by ESPN, an outlet the protesters dislike, and so bent every rule
available to themselves to intimidate him. Safe Space policies are necessary
and indispensable, but it's important to consider how they can be abused as we
move forward.
"How Binding of Isaac fans ended up digging holes in Santa Ana, California" by Patrick
Klepek at Kotaku
-The Binding of Isaac is a videogame that's gained a cult
following for being weird, but its latest expansion took that further. Fans suspected
there were hidden levels, enemies, and characters locked away with no sign of
how to reach them. Players dug up files from inside the game itself and
followed the developer's cryptic tweets until they were combing real-life
wilderness and amusement parks for clues over what was in the game. You dream
of engaging with your audience that profoundly.
