The salt, the spray, the gorgeous undertow
I returned from demoralizing errands of the bank and the post office to find that my queer Jewish Deep One story "All Our Salt-Bottled Hearts" has been rave-reviewed by Ruthanna Emrys and Anne M. Pillsworth at Tor.com's Lovecraft Reread:
Those of us who identify with Lovecraft's monsters see a different horror. That's probably why sympathetic Deep Ones—my own, Taaffe's, McGuire's—find it a little harder to go back to the water. In these versions it's assimilation that terrifies, the loss of culture and tribal cohesion that follow on the heels of genocide. It's the delicate negotiation of the mixed marriage, the question of whether your children will really be able to fit among your parents' people. Taaffe perfectly embodies those challenges with a mixed Jewish/Dagonish marriage, where both sides must have shared those fears. I would happily read a whole other story, or novel, consisting solely of Anson's parents discussing holiday customs.
So that has made my day. A lot. In a conversation on Facebook this weekend, I mentioned that one of the things I left NecronomiCon really, really wanting was an anthology of Lovecraftian fiction by marginalized writers: we have two anthologies of women writing Lovecraft and they are neither of them chopped liver, but let's broaden the parameters explicitly to include queer writers, trans writers, writers of color, non-Christian writers, non-American writers, intersections of all of the above and more—Lovecraft entirely from the perspective of people who would have been Other to him. (A commenter suggested the title Heroes of Red Hook, which I think is brilliant.) I don't want to have to edit the thing myself and in any case it should probably be someone like Emrys, Craig L. Gidney, Caitlín R. Kiernan, or Victor LaValle, but I think there would be a readership. I met a lot of them at the convention. Also I'd throw money at it. We might even get that genre-making third example.
Have some links. They're even thematically apropos!
1. Courtesy of![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
moon_custafer: ChiZine Publications is now reading for Other Covenants: Alternate Histories of the Jewish People, edited by Andrea D. Lobel and Mark Shainblum. The reading period runs until February. I admit that I side-eye some of the prompts, but appreciate that they are not meant to be either "prescriptive or proscriptive . . . the whole canvas of Jewish history is open to you—Biblical, historical and mythological." I suspect I have a better shot on the mythological front than the purely historical. Friendlist, don't self-reject.
2. Courtesy ofselkie: lesbian Jewish WWII Berlin.
3. Travis Beacham who wrote Pacific Rim (2013) has a short selkie film in the works: The Curiosity. I have no idea of its release status, but further stills and snippets are available at the official Tumblr.handful_ofdust, one of the actors reminds me of Three-Fingered Hank Fennig. I still wish I'd found a way to see So Yong Kim and Bradley Rust Gray's Salt (2002).
Those of us who identify with Lovecraft's monsters see a different horror. That's probably why sympathetic Deep Ones—my own, Taaffe's, McGuire's—find it a little harder to go back to the water. In these versions it's assimilation that terrifies, the loss of culture and tribal cohesion that follow on the heels of genocide. It's the delicate negotiation of the mixed marriage, the question of whether your children will really be able to fit among your parents' people. Taaffe perfectly embodies those challenges with a mixed Jewish/Dagonish marriage, where both sides must have shared those fears. I would happily read a whole other story, or novel, consisting solely of Anson's parents discussing holiday customs.
So that has made my day. A lot. In a conversation on Facebook this weekend, I mentioned that one of the things I left NecronomiCon really, really wanting was an anthology of Lovecraftian fiction by marginalized writers: we have two anthologies of women writing Lovecraft and they are neither of them chopped liver, but let's broaden the parameters explicitly to include queer writers, trans writers, writers of color, non-Christian writers, non-American writers, intersections of all of the above and more—Lovecraft entirely from the perspective of people who would have been Other to him. (A commenter suggested the title Heroes of Red Hook, which I think is brilliant.) I don't want to have to edit the thing myself and in any case it should probably be someone like Emrys, Craig L. Gidney, Caitlín R. Kiernan, or Victor LaValle, but I think there would be a readership. I met a lot of them at the convention. Also I'd throw money at it. We might even get that genre-making third example.
Have some links. They're even thematically apropos!
1. Courtesy of
moon_custafer: ChiZine Publications is now reading for Other Covenants: Alternate Histories of the Jewish People, edited by Andrea D. Lobel and Mark Shainblum. The reading period runs until February. I admit that I side-eye some of the prompts, but appreciate that they are not meant to be either "prescriptive or proscriptive . . . the whole canvas of Jewish history is open to you—Biblical, historical and mythological." I suspect I have a better shot on the mythological front than the purely historical. Friendlist, don't self-reject.2. Courtesy of
selkie: lesbian Jewish WWII Berlin.3. Travis Beacham who wrote Pacific Rim (2013) has a short selkie film in the works: The Curiosity. I have no idea of its release status, but further stills and snippets are available at the official Tumblr.
handful_ofdust, one of the actors reminds me of Three-Fingered Hank Fennig. I still wish I'd found a way to see So Yong Kim and Bradley Rust Gray's Salt (2002).
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Wow, yeah--that dude DOES look like young Mister Henry from Five Points, don't he?
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Thank you! It is especially wonderful because these are people who know whereof they speak: if they shredded (or were even just lukewarm about) the story, I'd believe they had a point. And instead they said enthusiastic things about it, so I guess I have to believe those, too. My impostor syndrome is confused.
(Happy and terrified to see they're doing "Hairwork" next, probably because I told them about it at Necronomicon. Like a fool.;))
It's a good story! I'm looking forward!
Wow, yeah--that dude DOES look like young Mister Henry from Five Points, don't he?
He became my fancast on the spot. Apologies to anyone you may actually have had in mind at the time.
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That imposter syndrome needs to shut up every once in a while, for sure.;)