Also hes very, very drunk. 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.. But we wont die: we will show our scars. The female body no longer disappears; rather, it (over)exposes its anormal materiality as proof of the distinct pedagogies of cruelty (Segato) it has suffered. Shadow Over Argentina: Mariana Enriquez's "Under the Black Water". It was something biblical. When Marina investigates, events grow more and more disturbing in a way that feels Lovecraftian. Seven Stories About Scary (and Possibly Sentient) Plants, What We Do for Wraithlike Bodies: Hilary Mantels, Five Space Books to Send a Chill Down Your Spine, Five Cautionary SF Tales About Enhanced Intelligence, A Critical Division of Starfleet Intelligence: Section 31 and the Normalization of the Security State. Check out the discussion questions below and please feel free to add your own. But hes not getting out, and neither is she. The short stories of Argentine author and journalist Mariana Enriquez are seeing machineslenses that throw the uglier side of the human condition into uncomfortably sharp focus. You shouldnt have come, says Father Francisco. Its just that even the weirdest fiction needs a way to elide the seams between real-world horror and supernatural horrorand many authors have similar observations about the former. This is not fantasy divorced from reality, but a keener perception of the ills that we wade through. Is this enormous symbolic production around evil a response to economic crises and the implementation of ever-more-savage neoliberal policies? On the southern edge of the city, past the Moreno Bridge, the city frays into abandoned buildings and rusted signs. $24.00. He came out of the water. So, the articulation of a univocal female community is an aporia becauseas if positioned within a materialist feminismthe problem of class permeates the problems of women, preventing a true sisterhood, as is illustrated in La Virgen de la tosquera [The virgin of the pit], a story in which bourgeois teenage girls seem to fight over a man when what is really at stake is class struggle: the war against his girlfriend, Silvia, a vulgar, common, dark-skinned girl. Defiled churches, shambling inhuman processions hey. Originally published in Spanish, it was translated into English by Megan McDowell in 2017. When I wrote "Our Lady," I was obsessed with teen-age girls and with my own teen-age years. Never mind that Pinat has his voice on tape, saying Problem solved. Emanuel means god is with us. But what god? (Its the most remarkable word weve ever seen.) She learns that strange things, including a dead man coming up out of the water, are happening in the slums. Author: Mariana Enriquez Author Record # 265086; Legal Name: Enrquez, Mariana? Yamil Corvalns body has already washed up, a kilometer from the bridge. Enriquez: Sure, for example, "Under the Black Water" was inspired by a true story of police violence. I felt unpleasant echoes of That Only a Mother, a much-reprinted golden age SF story in which the shocking twist at the end is that the otherwise precocious baby hasnt got any limbs (and, unintentionally, that the society in question hasnt got a clue about prosthetics). Enriquez seems to imply that the feminine/feminized sixth sense is the only one capable of revealing the invisible (Merleau-Ponty) in a bodily and ideologically disciplined social mass that does not realize that the true horror is within the real: within the self. Silvina, the protagonist of Things We Lost in the Fire, is not yet all the way committed to the protest movement. Im a cultural journalist. You have to get out of here, Pinat tells him. The story ends with a lingering look towards her exemplary act of violence, which must soon follow. Hes tried! Already in 1976, Ellen Moers had coined the term female gothic to refer to women writers who cultivated this genre as a subversive space in which to display the social and political oppression of women, the confinement of their bodies, the marginalization of their work, and the impossibility of their expressing their sexual freedom. And her gun, of course. Get new fiction, essays, and poetry delivered to your inbox. How many forms of violence run rampant with impunity in the present day? Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers. I sincerely believe that they dont have a true idea of what it is like to live in a highly politicized society. Privacy Policy. Translation is its own art, of course, and je ne parle pas Espanol, so the story Ive actually read may be as much the work of Megan McDowel as Enriquez. I dont write pedagogically. Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories (Spanish: Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego) is a short story collection by Mariana Enriquez. Anne M. Pillsworths short storyThe Madonna of the Abattoir appears on Tor.com. We read and post about several books each month that are suggested by members and selected by popular vote. But, in my opinion, she goes further, developing what we might call a gothic feminism that proclaims the empowerment of women, building upon the sinister, as a process of subjectivization. All Rights Reserved. The children born with those defects are, alas, treated more as symbols than characters, or as indications that the river leaches humanity. 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. 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. Pinats dubious about all this, or wants to be. In the distance, she hears drums. Adam Vitcavage: This short story collection has a lot of reoccurring themes related to the horrific and the mysterious. Enriquez, Mariana. Today were reading Mariana Enriquezs Under the Black Water, first published in English in Things We Lost in the Fire, translated by Megan McDowel. Vitcavage: Since youre a journalist as well, is there a sense of need when it comes to including political commentary within yourfiction? Most dont. The river itself has been the chosen dumping site for waste from cow offal up through the tanners heavy metals. [Scheduled] South American: Things We Lost in the Fire, by Mariana Enriquez, "Under the Black Water" Welcome to the discussion of "Under the Black Water," the 10th story from Mariana Enrquez's Things We Lost in the Fireshort story collection. The cows head, clearly, is just some of the neighborhood drug dealers trying to intimidate the priest. Among the children marked by the black water, she thinks she spots the cop, violating his house arrest. The boy opens the door; she goes in. Since Esteban Echeverras foundational 1871 work The Slaughter Yard, Argentine literature has offered plentiful examplesArlt, Lamborghini, Chejfec, etc.of the representation of forms of violence. Vitcavage: What are you working on next? These stories blend the real-life horrors of domestic and state violence, homelessness and economic uncertainty with the supernatural; ghosts, demons and witchcraft. You shouldnt have come, says Father Francisco. Vitcavage: What can readers learn about Argentina from yourstories? All these tales are told from a womans point of view, often a young one, and they seem to be able to hold out against the horror that lures them for only so long. From where?, The most disturbing element to this is its source material, like much of Enriquez, drawn from news headlines. Yeah, Im sure, agrees Mariana matter of factly, because were all about politics and football. The fact that Mariana has no such qualms is in some ways thanks to Aira. The psychic interiority of broaching ones own darkness is the mainstay of horror fiction, the genre to which these stories clearly belong. What about these themes exciteyou? Kenyon College "She dreamed that . Oh come, Emanuel? You have no idea what goes on there. Whats Cyclopean: This is very much a place-as-character story. Beyond this empty area live the citys poor by the thousands. 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. 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. In this case rather than Lovecrafts racism and terror of mental illness, we get ableism and a fun-sized dose of fat-phobia. A review in The Guardian called the collection "gruesome, violent, upsetting and bright with brilliance. Support our mission to make literature more exciting, relevant, and inclusive. Never mind how the priest knows shes there about Emanuel, or knows about the pregnant girl who pointed her this way. The cows head, clearly, is just some of the neighborhood drug dealers trying to intimidate the priest. Im still intrigued by the idea of pollution as a messed-up attempt at bindingcontaining, of course, the seeds of its own destruction. I swear we dont keep picking stories with shootings and killer cops deliberately. "Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books", "Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enrquez review gruesome short stories", "Brooding Books for the Dark Days of Winter", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Things_We_Lost_in_the_Fire_(story_collection)&oldid=1136661150, This page was last edited on 31 January 2023, at 13:55. She is the author of nine books, including two short story collections, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed and Things We Lost in. Fairy tales are the ancestors of scary tales. This type of story-action creates enlightened, involved readers, and this, in my view, makes her fiction necessary. But I think that readers can gather that Argentina is a diverse and unequalsociety. But now the streets are dead as the river. In short, Mariana Enriquez reads Argentine society with a feminist lens that evinces the structural violence imposed by necropolitics, class inequality, and gender. These genres are emotive and consider sensitivity and feeling. Welcome back to the Lovecraft reread, in which two modern Mythos writers get girl cooties all over old Howards sandbox, from those who inspired him to those who were inspired in turn. We dont know what the awful spectre is, gray and dripping, that sits on the bed with its bloody teeth. Defiled churches, shambling inhuman processions hey. Characters range from social workers to street dwellers to users of dark magic. Yeah, yeah. Before she can react, he shoots himself. She runs, not looking back, and covers her ears against the sound of the drums. These industries run unregulated by the State. How can the well-known and familiar become strange and dangerous? Either way, its good to read a story with different settings from our usual selection, different points of view, different horrors. These ghostly images flicker out of Mariana Enriquezs stories, her characters witnessing atrocities or their shadows or afterimages. Today were reading Mariana Enriquezs Under the Black Water, first published in English in Things We Lost in the Fire, translated by Megan McDowel. Body horror based on real bodies is horrible, but not necessarily in the way the author wants. Enriquez: A very long and complex novel, but I cant tell you more than that. I didnt do it, the cop says. So we share interests then? Its refreshing to encounter somebody so political and literary who, instead of turning from genre, adopts it to save her work falling into preaching or pamphleteering. Arthur Malcolm Dixonis co-founder, lead translator, and Managing Editor ofLatin American Literature Today. I mention speaking with Argentine author Csar Aira just the week previous. Spoilers ahead. People swimming under the black water, they woke the thing up. The river itself has been the chosen dumping site for waste from cow offal up through the tanners heavy metals. Under the Black Water isnt quite a Shadow Over Innsmouth retelling, but it riffs on the same tune. The world demands their sacrifice. Tens of thousands were tortured, killed, or disappeared under circumstances later nullified with a blanket amnesty. She runs, not looking back, and covers her ears against the sound of the drums. The truth is that I dont think too much about readers from any part of the world. Some of Enriquezs women resurface from such experiences. They simply had to go. political horror like "Under the Black Water, " "El desentierro de la. TW for suicide. "[4] Jennifer Szalai, writing in The New York Times, wrote "[Enriquez] is after a truth more profound, and more disturbing, than whatever the strict dictates of realism will allow. At Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshops, talented high school students from around the world join a dynamic and supportive literary community to stretch their talents, discover new strengths, and challenge themselves in the company of peers who are also passionate about writing. It was a crime that was pretty big. Do all lives have the same worth? 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 . In the Villa, shes startled by silence. Just a few months ago, she helped win a case against a tannery that dumped toxic waste in the river for decades, causing a massive cluster of childhood cancers and birth defects: extra arms, cat-like noses, blind high-set eyes. Fear, as an emotion, the ultimate puppeteer. Its been pointed out to me a lot, she replies. He has translated the novelsImmigration: The Contestby Carlos Gmez Prez andThere Are Not So Many Starsby Isa Moreno (Katakana Editores), as well as the verse collectionIntensive Careby Arturo Gutirrez Plaza (Alliteraton). There were terms that you didnt understand, like political prisoner, or detention camps., In one story, The Intoxicated Years, a trio of adolescent girls go feral during the vacuum, post dictatorship, when hyperinflation was accelerating and the countrys infrastructure failing. Hey, wait a seconddoes this sound familiar to anyone else? This process thereby generates a violence, both symbolic and material, that produces disease, precarity, and death. Or, even better: what makes readers become addicted to her poetics? Sign up for our newsletter to get submission announcements and stay on top of our best work. But what is the cause of this resurgence and predominance of the gothic in recent years? This unpretentiousness translates well to our surprisingly laid-back conversation, considering the subject matter black magic, torture and death being discussed at this early hour. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. They physically abused them and threw them in the Riachuelo River. I adopt this term from Achille Mbembe, who uses it to define the way in which states regulate death in the Third World (femicides, the sex trade, disappearances, kidnappings, drug trafficking, etc.). But they project bravery as well as outrage at the awful muck theyve dipped into. This collection comes with a trigger warning for body horror, abuse, neglect, violence against children, teens, and women, self-harm, drug use, discussion of rape and sexual assault, animal cruelty, disordered eating, and police brutality. Today we're reading Mariana Enriquez's "Under the Black Water," first published in English in Things We Lost in the Fire, translated by Megan McDowel. In the slum Buenos Aires frays into abandoned storefronts, and an oil-filled river decomposes into dangerous and deliberate putrescence.. Vitcavage: What are some of the difficulties or obstacles you encounter while writing a shortstory? Cookie Notice Ive been wanting to read more weird fiction in translation, so was excited to pick up Mariana Enriquezs Things We Lost in the Fire. While chatting with the Argentine author, Im nave enough to bring this point up. I dont have a problem about being called a horror writer, she answers directly when I ask. And of course, whatever lies beneath the river might have been less malevolent, if it hadnt spent all that time bathing its ectoplasm in toxic sludge. However, not until the expansion of global capitalism did Argentine literature reveal the new horrors placed before us by necropolitics. The gothic was born in the English language in the eighteenth century, with Walpole, to name tales of mystery and fear that transgress reason, common sense, and the positive order of the world. She met Father Francisco, who told her that no one even came to church. That boy woke up the thing sleeping under the water. I hope theyve also translated works by Roberto Arlt into English, he was great. I write for myself, thinking about my country and its reality.. In "Under the Black Water," Marina is an attorney who works with the people who live in impoverished in the slums of Buenos Aires. There are hints of sacrifice, mysterious deaths of the young. Im still intrigued by the idea of pollution as a messed-up attempt at bindingcontaining, of course, the seeds of its own destruction. Children living on the street, a girl dying on the sidewalk after an illegal abortion, prisoners tortured at a detention center, sit in wait for those who would notice them, making broad daylight just as unnerving as midnight. I will concentrate on two books of short stories by Enriquez, Los peligros de fumar en la cama [The dangers of smoking in bed] (2009) and Things We Lost In the Fire (2016), in order to explain the singularity of her fiction, which we might synthesize in the militant use of the gothic, permeated by feminism and necropolitics. Among them all, Mariana Enriquez stands out with her own flickering light. We are delighted to offer a range of residential and online programs to support writers at every stage of their writing journey. Visit our Bookshop page to buy books by Mariana Enriquez and support local bookstores. He tried to swim through the black grease that covers the river, holds it calm and dead. He drowned when he could no longer move his arms. Why is that a representation youre comfortable with? Normally there are people. Not one of the blind kids with misshapen hands gets characterization, or even a speaking role other than to mouth platitudes about dead things dreaming. For a long time, it was considered elitist (protagonized by upper-class characters and set in opulent castles), escapist (appealing to a beyond that shuns the present), normative (vindicating a logocentrism that condemns the unknowable and the strange), and barbaric (it is no coincidence that the word gothic comes from the people called Goths, and cannibalism and violence are two of its recurring themes). [1], "The Intoxicated Years" was published in Granta. Thus the act of looking takes on enormous importance. Birthplace: Buenos Aires, Argentina Birthdate: December 1973 . OK, nice, is her reply. Silvia hated public. Her absence is absolutely not due to nefarious extraterrestrial body-snatching, we promise. Next week, Lovecraft and Henry S. Whitehead explain why you should be more careful about mirrors in The Trap.. A demonic idol is borne on a mattress through city streets. The full schedule can be found here and the marginalia can be found here. An outsider comes in to investigate, and ultimately flees a danger never made fully clear. The body of Emanuel Lpez, the second boy, still hasnt surfaced. Yamil Corvalns body has already washed up, a kilometer from the bridge. I like these genres for various reasons: theyre popular and entertaining, and at the same time theyre very profound. Fear is one of the most powerful and motivating emotions. After the cop leaves, a pregnant teenager comes in, demanding a reward for information about Emanuel. These are stories that speak of fear as the intimate driving force of our livesand the intimate is always politicalof the extreme violence of neoliberal capitalism, of the vulnerability of children, women, the sick, and the lower classes in the disciplinary, hyper-consumerist, normative, and patriarchal society of the twenty-first century. It was everywhere, it was on TV, it was in magazines. Enriquez always puts forth the body, be it deformed, mutilated, sexual, etc. Pinats dressed down from her usual DA suits, and carries only enough money to get home and a cell phone to hand muggers if needed.

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