Originally published in Spanish, it was translated into English by Megan McDowell in 2017. The chairs have been cleared out, along with the crucifix and the images of Jesus and Our Lady. Mariana Enriquez on teen-age desire. 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. We dont know who has taken away a vanished girl, or murdered a child, or consumed a husband. Whats Cyclopean: This is very much a place-as-character story. "The Intoxicated Years" - MarzAat It is a story that shares echoes with Schweblin's Fever Dream, in that belief in the occult becomes confused with the damaging physiological effects of certain poisons. 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. But still: If only that whole slum would go up in flames. And it definitely shouldnt be swelling. Hes tried! 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. Body horror based on real bodies is horrible, but not necessarily in the way the author wants. Instead theres a wooden pool topped with a freshly slaughtered cows head. What is the relationship like in Argentina between politics and literature? The evil of that police officer wanting to make the boy try to swim in a polluted river when he knows that hes going to die. Defiled churches, shambling inhuman processions hey. Seven Stories About Scary (and Possibly Sentient) Plants, 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. Fear is one of the most powerful and motivating emotions. She shows us. I want my stories to have an air of familiarity, especially those in a collection or in a book. The full schedule can be found here and the marginalia can be found here. Fear, as an emotion, the ultimate puppeteer. Enriquezs seams are fine ones. Powered by WordPress and hosted by Pressable. Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories ( Spanish: Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego) is a short story collection by Mariana Enriquez. Also hes very, very drunk. Theyre ancient, theyre the stories we told orally. Ive traveled just a bit in the United States, but I have a few friends there. 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. The driver makes her walk the last 300 meters; the dead boys lawyer wont come at all. Enriquez: Sure, for example, Under the Black Water was inspired by a true story of police violence. To withdraw your consent, see Your Choices. They physically abused them and threw them in the Riachuelo River. In the distance, she hears drums. Author of web-comics, graphic short stories and novels, he has lately popularized the documentary style to relate the recent history, Alberto Chimals Twitter novel, Ciudad X: Novela en 101 Tuits, was originally published on Twitter on October 10, 2014, and subsequently in print version a year later, along with another, University of Oklahoma Oh come, Emanuel? Shes disturbed by his toothless mouth and sucker-like fingers. Spiderweb | The New Yorker I dont have much contact with reality in my journalism. Shes relievedobviously, everyone has just gone to practice the murga for carnival, or already started to celebrate a little early. Enriquez: No, theres not. The consequences are dire, but theres nevertheless a sense of agency in directing ones gaze. June 17, 2022 . There are hints of sacrifice, mysterious deaths of the young. "Our Lady of the Quarry" | The New Yorker 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). Mariana Enriquez recalls a world of dive bars, cheap wine, rockers, writers, misfits and el uno a uno: Buenos Aires before thecollapse, The author of "White Cats, Black Dogs" on why we're drawn to folk tales and how superstitions shape stories, Bora Chung uses the fantastic to examine the absurdity of misogyny and societys injustices in her short story collection, Let your spooky flag fly with a cocktail and Jen Fawkess delightfully strange stories in Mannequin and Wife. I distorted things of course, but mostly it was two boys, they lived around the slum near the river and they were caught by the police and tortured in the street they simulated shooting them., And then they were told to swim the river. Then she runs, trying to ignore the agitation of the water that should be able to breathe, or move. 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. Cookie Notice The coddled suburbanite does not exist. Norman, OK 73019-4037, Building Mariana Enriquez: Ten Theses by Pablo Brescia, Nuestra parte de noche: Reading Mariana Enriquez and the Problems of the Political by Marcelo Rioseco, The Graphic Novel Captures the Moments that the Camera Missed: An Interview with Augusto Mora. But hes not getting out, and neither is she. In Under the Black Water, a female district attorney pursues a lead into the city's most dangerous neighbourhood, where she becomes trapped in a "living nightmare". Most dont. She runs, not looking back, and covers her ears against the sound of the drums. 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. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), 2023 Macmillan | All stories, art, and posts are the copyright of their respective authors, Shadow Over Argentina: Mariana Enriquezs Under the Black Water, What We Do for Wraithlike Bodies: Hilary Mantels, Easy Weeknight Recipes to Appease Ghosts: Deborah Davitts Feeding the Dead and Carly Racklins Unearthen, My Shoggoths Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun: Mythos Poetry by Ann K. Schwader. Marina Pinat, Buenos Aires DA, isnt thrilled with the smug cop sitting in her office. But still: If only that whole slum would go up in flames. But we know that it is there through an inescapable logic, an intense awareness of the world and all its misery. Except these teenagers are thoroughly unlikeable, and they take teenage callousness and self-centeredness to unusual levels. Maybe the girl is lying? Ruthanna Emrys and Anne M. Pillsworth. I didnt do it, the cop says. Then, starting in the 1970s, the social meaning of the gothic was renewed in view of its political vision, based on the idea that the ominous is integratedif hiddenin our ideology and everyday existence. Hallelujah? But, of course, her inspirations occasionally arise from those more innocuous sources: The girls, that kind of stayed with me. Eventually, still unable to reach anyone, she tries to find her way to Father Franciscos church. Spoilers ahead. 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. and our With Enriquez, literature invokes social ghosts that recall recent Argentine historyimmigrants, homeless children, slum-dwellers, and others who lead excluded, precarious lives that dont matteraestheticized in tales of true political horror like Under the Black Water, El desentierro de la angelita [The little angels disinterment], Rambla Triste [Sad Rambla], Chicos que vuelven [Kids who come back], Cuando hablbamos con los muertos [When we talked to the dead], and the particularly biting The Dirty Kid, which tells of the effects of both drug trafficking and witchcraft (a pregnant addict sacrifices her children to San La Muerte) in harsh urban neighborhoods, like the Constitucin barrio of Buenos Aires. Im still intrigued by the idea of pollution as a messed-up attempt at bindingcontaining, of course, the seeds of its own destruction. [1] "The Intoxicated Years" was published in Granta. Tens of thousands were tortured, killed, or disappeared under circumstances later nullified with a blanket amnesty. Among them all, Mariana Enriquez stands out with her own flickering light. From where?, The most disturbing element to this is its source material, like much of Enriquez, drawn from news headlines. The immense pleasure of Enriquezs fiction is the conclusiveness of her ambiguity. That is to say: the disturbing is within subjects, within ideology (not outside the house, not under the bed: inside) and within bodies divided and marked by social class, ethnicity, and gender. Her absence is absolutely not due to nefarious extraterrestrial body-snatching, we promise. Mariana Enrquez - Wikipedia I interviewed Enriquez via email; I wrote to her in English and she responded in Spanish, with Jill Swanson then translating. Vitcavage: It seems, in America at least, that we cant talk about anything without talking about politics. The boy opens the door; she goes in. TW for suicide. The Villas not empty any more; the drums are passing in front of the church. The river is sort of a symbol of carelessness and corruption. 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. The poor men. Mariana Enriquez words drip with glorious sarcasm, and I imagine her slowly shaking her head down the line from Buenos Aires. Shes trying to get a glimpse when the thing moves, and its gray arm falls over the side. I think so, yeah, Enriquez ponders, but what fiction does is slower, lets say In journalism, it's more urgent. What youre doing is basically reporting I dont think [journalism] can make you think in the long term or a very profound way, something you can go back to in 20 years and say, 'this is what was going on, this is the space people were living in.'. Were discussing her talent for forming fantastical horror from the twisted scar tissue of Argentinas recent past: police torture, political persecution, the disappeared and the Dirty War the latter a period of state terrorism where right-wing death squads tortured and killed left-wing guerrillas, and often anybody sympathetic to their cause. Characters range from social workers to street dwellers to users of dark magic. 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. Silvia was the one who came up with the idea of the quarry pools that summer, and we had to hand it to her, it was a really good idea. Spoilers ahead. Current schedules can be found on the sidebar, in the top tabs, and pinned on the front page of the sub. These genres are emotive and consider sensitivity and feeling. 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. And death, how much is death worth? Just a while ago an English work of Antonio Di Benedetto was recovered. The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez Its interesting to me that there can be a certain disdain for whats popular, but I reject that, thats an elitist way of thinking. We are delighted to offer a range of residential and online programs to support writers at every stage of their writing journey. In this case rather than Lovecrafts racism and terror of mental illness, we get ableism and a fun-sized dose of fat-phobia. Why cant we be the protagonists here?. 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. On Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez By Angela Woodward New York, NY: Hogarth Press, 2016. You shouldnt have come, says Father Francisco. The protagonists in Enriquezs stories are mostly aware of their privilege, if its a privilege to have a place to live, food to eat, a face thats not grotesquely disfigured. Here Enriquez creates a terrifying scenario where reality is suspended and the crimes the Argentinean authorities have committed rise up to take revenge. Spoilers ahead. Check out the discussion questions below and please feel free to add your own. 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. What about these themes exciteyou? But theres something powerful and secretive about them. Of murdered teens who return from beneath dark polluted waters. What makes you do something like that? How do they affect women? But the next day, when she tries to call people in the slum, none of her contacts answer. But I have to be careful that my personal passions and obsessions dont take over my stories and make them all sound toosimilar. Shadow Over Argentina: Mariana Enriquez's "Under the Black Water". We publish your favorite authorseven the ones you haven't read yet. This is not fantasy divorced from reality, but a keener perception of the ills that we wade through. About Things We Lost in the Fire. 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. They physically abused them and threw them in the Riachuelo River. 780 Van Vleet Oval 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. Originally published in Spanish, it was translated into English by Megan McDowell in 2017. She met Father Francisco, who told her that no one even came to church. Sign up for our newsletter to get submission announcements and stay on top of our best work. Well, maybe not always that last. Vitcavage: When youre writing, do you primarily write for an Argentinian audience, or do you consider that your works will end up in English at some point, read by Americans as well as the rest of theworld?
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