How many forms of violence run rampant with impunity in the present day? Either way, its good to read a story with different settings from our usual selection, different points of view, different horrors. Vitcavage: What can readers learn about Argentina from yourstories? Mythos Making: The graffiti on the church includes the name Yog Sothoth amid its seeming gobbledygook. The consequences are dire, but theres nevertheless a sense of agency in directing ones gaze. https://medium.com/media/11bfe3a6b4f7b0925df45e65c1c190a5/href. Hes emaciated, dirty, his hair overgrown and greasy. Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories (Spanish: Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego) is a short story collection by Mariana Enriquez. 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. That boy woke up the thing sleeping under the water. And he wants to meet Pinat. 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.. Enter your email address below to get our weekly email newsletter. Enriquez, Mariana. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. 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. But hes not getting out, and neither is she. Normally theres music, motorcycles, sizzling grills, people talking. I had opened by complimenting this cocktail of politics and cult horror in her work. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. [2] "Spiderweb" appeared in The New Yorker. What got into you? The boy opens the door; she goes in. Silvina, the protagonist of Things We Lost in the Fire, is not yet all the way committed to the protest movement. What about these themes exciteyou? Enriquez wants to tell us about poverty, gentrification and a crippling economy, but first and foremost - she wants to scare the shit out of us, and does it marvelously. "[5], In a review in Vanity Fair, Sloane Crosley was impressed by Enriquez's skill at using supernatural stories to explore Argentina's political turmoil: "In her hands, the countrys inequality, beauty, and corruption tangle together to become a manifestation of our own darkest thoughts and fears."[6]. On the southern edge of the city, past the Moreno Bridge, the city frays into abandoned buildings and rusted signs. The boy opens the door; she goes in. Anne wasnt able to submit a commentary this week. This type of phenomenaI can find no better word to describe itis ever less frequent in world literature. Thus, resistance is body politics, and its goal is empowerment through control of the body, which becomes a dissident political subject (an allegory of movements like NiUnaMenos or the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo) in order to articulate womens sovereignty: a new ideology, a new way to fix the value of the body, of life, and of death. In Under the Black Water, a district attorney pursuing a witness ventures into a slum that even her cab driver wont enter. Through them, Enriquez explores tourism in Argentina, the rich visiting the slums, plus so many more dynamic perspectives on her homecountry. These women have a choice in what they notice and what they flinch away from. Pinats dubious about all this, or wants to be. Argentina had taken the river winding around its capital, the woman observes, which could have made for a beautiful day trip, and polluted it almost arbitrarily, practically for the fun of it. If the foul water itself werent bad enough, she learns that police have murdered kids by throwing them off a bridge into it. It was something biblical. Never mind that Pinat has his voice on tape, saying Problem solved. Here Enriquez creates a terrifying scenario where reality is suspended and the crimes the Argentinean authorities have committed rise up to take revenge. All the New Fantasy Books Arriving in May! There are hints of sacrifice, mysterious deaths of the young. Her young adult Mythos novel,Summoned, is available from Tor Teen along with sequelFathomless. Shadow Over Argentina: Mariana Enriquez's "Under the Black Water". She learns that strange things, including a dead man coming up out of the water, are happening in the slums. [But] it wasnt about the boys, it was about them, feeding off each other, their energy, and trying to release something. An outsider comes in to investigate, and ultimately flees a danger never made fully clear. But hes not getting out, and neither is she. Vitcavage: What are some of the difficulties or obstacles you encounter while writing a shortstory? About Things We Lost in the Fire. Much of Black Waters horror is the surreal constraints of poverty, pollution, and corrupt authority. On the other hand, Enriquezs fiction also enters into dialogue with the deeply rooted tradition relating illness and literature (Foucault, Sontag, Guerrero, Giorgi), with stories of necrophilia, cannibalism, satanic rites, anorexia, social phobias, etc. Today were reading Mariana Enriquezs Under the Black Water, first published in English in Things We Lost in the Fire, translated by Megan McDowel. 2021. The slum spreads along the black river, to the limits of vision. Hey, wait a seconddoes this sound familiar to anyone else? Theyre carrying a bed, with some human effigy lying on it. 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. I dont have a problem about being called a horror writer, she answers directly when I ask. Up next is u/Joinedformyhubs with the penultimate story in the collection, Green Red Orange, on Wednesday, December 21. Madness Takes Its Toll: Father Francisco doesnt handle his parishioners new faith well. Defiled churches, shambling inhuman processions hey. I was struck by the cruelty of those police officers. Violence flaunts itself, intruding on everyday life. Some of Enriquezs women resurface from such experiences. We discussed Argentina as a country and a character, the place of politics in literature, and what inspires Enriquez when shes working on astory. I dont go beyondthat. T hough the terms are often used interchangeably, or as a compoundGothic Horrorin their primeval essences Gothic fiction and Horror fiction can be said to have as much to do with each other as classic and modern Country music.Modern Country, like Modern Horror, is a literal, unpretentious genre: we're from the American South, we sing how we talk, and primarily about the subjectsbeer . The pollution, holding down whatever lies under the river, shapes the community, its children, its resentment, until they burst forth into something that will stir the river and release what lies beneath. 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.. Hes tried! I used this incident, making minor modifications, as the point of departure for the rest of my story. Next week, Lovecraft and Henry S. Whitehead explain why you should be more careful about mirrors in The Trap.. Its no murga, but a shambling procession. Thats roughly the mechanism of my stories, I get my inspiration from a real life event and then I transform it into something fantastical or supernatural. Wed Jul 11, 2018 2:00pm. My parents let me read everything, and it really read like horror, especially if you were a child that didnt know the distinction between fiction and reality so clearly. Even more brutal is 'Under the Black Water', a story that blends an investigation into police brutality with the reality of pollution and fear of the unknown. This is not fantasy divorced from reality, but a keener perception of the ills that we wade through. In others, "Adela's House" and "An Invocation of the Big-Earred Runt," past crimes reach out from the past to claim new victims. This seems very different from the American horror trope, which often involves the comeuppance of someone blithely heedless of what lies beneaththe burial ground under the housing development, or the bland cheerleader unsuspecting of the slashers claws. She tries to get them out of there, and he grabs her gun. Shes relievedobviously, everyone has just gone to practice the murga for carnival, or already started to celebrate a little early. Maybe in the past few years politicization has become more pronounced there; but in Argentina, politics has always dominated public discourse. Before she can react, he shoots himself. Shes disturbed by his toothless mouth and sucker-like fingers. In his house, says the boy, the dead man waits dreaming. The priest is furious, and furious with Pinat for being stupid enough to come. And in trying to make those insular locals truly terrifying, the narrative gets problematic as all hell. That is not hyperbole. The dictatorship killed or helped to make important Argentinean writers disappear, like Haroldo Conti, Rodolfo Walsh, and Paco Urondo. The title story almost takes up where Spiderweb left off, with women protesting domestic violence with a violence of their own. 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. But a representation of a husband that doesnt make his wife happy something that happens all the time youre so uncomfortable with.' angelita" [The little angel's disinterment], . [2] " Spiderweb" appeared in The New Yorker. They learned how to swim. The time stamp suggests that he at least knew that two young men were thrown into the Ricachuelo River. This process thereby generates a violence, both symbolic and material, that produces disease, precarity, and death. Sat 1 Oct 2022 13.00 EDT M ariana Enrquez, 48, lives in Buenos Aires. Shes relievedobviously, everyone has just gone to practice the murga for carnival, or already started to celebrate a little early. Much of Black Waters horror is the surreal constraints of poverty, pollution, and corrupt authority. The journalist and author fills the dozen stories with compelling figures in haunting stories that evaluate inequality, violence, and corruption. The contamination is due to the factories and slaughterhouses on the shores of the Riachuelo that dump their waste into the river, polluting it. This is a police force tainted by recent history, an aftershock of a violent past. TW for suicide. She leaves the church crying and shaking. They physically abused them and threw them in the Riachuelo River. By Mariana Enriquez December 11, 2016 It's harder to breathe in the humid north, up there so close to Brazil and Paraguay, the rushing river guarded by mosquito sentinels and a sky that can. Virgilio Piera said that Kafka was a costumbrista writer in Havana; we might suggest, with Enriquez in mind, that the gothic is a costumbrista genre in Argentina.
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