Review of Ariana Den Bleyker's New Wave Fabulism novelette Finger : Knuckle : Palm by Paul Edward Costa at Entropy.
Excerpt: “Finger: Knuckle: Palm” intricately creates an immersive world which makes the text become the thing it describes. Samuel Beckett said once that James Joyce’s “writing is not about something, it is that something itself.” In fact, the very best art achieves this distinction. The Christopher Nolan film “Memento” makes the viewer truly experience the memory loss from which the protagonist suffers. The audience does not simply observe his ailment because they also participate in it. Without making too audacious or lavish a comparison, “Finger: Knuckle: Palm” produces a very comparable effect. It cannot be consciously stated that this novelette is about a journey into the depths of the subconscious mind because reading “Finger: Knuckle: Palm” makes one feel that they are immersed in that journey themselves. Yet, because this work is something and is not about something, we do not have the usual expository paragraphs and explanatory dialogue to set things up, let us get our footing, and explain what is happening before it happens. Speculative flash magazine Farther Stars Than These has published my story, Mirror Tattoo.
Somehow, it looks like water. You approach it, and it waves, it sparkles. More like mercury, liquid silver, something impossible. Something undeniable. Her secret tattoo artist does very good work. If she let on who he was, he would be killed. Ariana Den Bleyker's New Wave Fabulist novelette, Finger: Knuckle: Palm put out by LucidPlay Publishing is available in print or as an ebook for low prices. The narrator is under hypnosis.
"It’s a thrill and a treat to read a writer who isn’t afraid of pushing their reader to the edge by testing their audience’s limits. Only by being stretched further than we think we can go do we experience new and original ideas/feelings. The writer in such an instance needs to take their reader out to a place where there are no stars, where they must rely only on the unique strength of their singular vision to try and light the way." Paul Edward Costa's review at Entropy Prologue “Waking up in darkness isn’t like waking up at all. I can’t, can’t feel. I’m aware of me without sensing myself.” “Relax. Start from the beginning.” “Everything’s, frozen, disjointed.” “Do you know who you are?” “I know nothing. I see, smell, feel nothing.” “These things take time. You’ll get there.” “I want to see. Why do I know what seeing is but can’t see?” “Visualize yourself. Don’t worry. It’ll come. You should learn to embrace what you have, that you can think, that you are.” Ocularity
Black obsidian looked back at Jason: a few feet from his face, the giant statue of his own eye hovered heavily above the canyon. The pedestal of the shining Ocularity jutted out at the tip of the narrow path of land jutting out over Colorado River’s millions of years. Around him, the red rock of Glen Canyon exuded sensation. Roiling storm clouds led the indefinite grey horizon on a charge against the twilit cobalt sky. The rain splashed off the statue into his eye, and back again. The wind gusted him nearly into the yawning space below, and he turned to put one foot directly in front of the other on the rocky narrows. Wind knocked him to his knees, and he crawled along, gripping the sides with his hands, his thumbs holding onto the top’s flat surface. He reached the edge where he could stand up, and walked a few yards toward a Manzanita bush. He turned back around and stared at the eye. ...... "Eye Poison" (Weird Fiction/Horror) now in James Ward Kirk's Niall Parkinson No Sight for the Saved.
String of Hearts: Writing Fabulist Fiction (10 weeks)
We focus on the unique world-view that beats inside each type of writing of the imaginary, including Irrealism, Surrealism, Absurdism, Bizarro, Slipstream, New Wave Fabulism, The Weird, Magical Realism, Fairy Tale, Fable, Literary Fiction, Fantasy, SF, and Horror. "Fabulist" is not used in a purist sense here, but for want of a better term to sum up literature that bleeds into unreality. Otherwise, class employs precise usage of the labels, which is useful not only when choosing and recommending work you like to read, but more crucially, when writing, and marketing your own. Submitting a Fairy Tale to a magazine asking for Weird, a Surrealist story when an anthology asks for Magical Realism, or a New Wave Fabulist book when a publisher asks for Fantasy is a faux pas that could turn an editor away from your future submissions. The course provides an overview of the genres' implications about reality, and their core tropes, which you then use to generate fresh prose in inventive ways. After an intensive study of appealing narrative structure and prose, we have 6 writing exercises that help you learn deeply by doing. Finally, you write a complete story in any of the styles you chose, with thorough feedback from the other students and Instructor. |
Tantra Bensko
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