by Christopher Brownsword
I: VORTICES
I.I (SEPTEMBER MMVIII)
The smell of damp crevices mingles with that of decaying vegetable matter, paint stripper, urine, sour dish rags, burnt fuses, cough syrup, faulty drainage systems and vase water partly to repel the olfactory senses and partly to attract them. I draw breath in her shadow and pray the din will not awaken the reptiles which nest silently in her pubic mound, greased with saliva and the sap of plants dissected under a red Sabbath moon. The universe contracts as if it were steel cooling in a fractured cyst. ‘So vast is the quantity of moisture held within the sky,’ I hasten to remind myself, ‘that if not for it being contained by the troposphere it might crush one like a tidal wave.’ I mention nothing of this to her, of course, for an ulcerated mouth is easily dismantled.
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Tagged as:
Literature in the Media,
New Literature Online,
Short Story
Dark Skies Over A Cold Mountain
We’ve hiked Cold Mountain more than any other mountain in the world. It isn’t Everest, but it is appropriately named. Long before the book by the same name was published, we were hoisting our hammocks in the 25 square feet of flat land on the peak and picking through a plane that crashed on the side of Southern Sixer in the 50s. The mountains are a setting for the individual and the mind. So, in our return to the 2-D world, we delve into the individuals behind the works. Interviews abound, profiles emerge in our path of discovery. Pittsburgh is a fitting place of apocalyptic journey, not that Cormac McCarthy had (or wanted) any input. Our backcountry background had us pining (oh dear…) for a job as a NYC park ranger, much like Able Brown’s forest within a city. We have four different lists in front of us, Umberto Eco knows what we’re talking about. Sadly, none of the Post-It Notes have the possible homes of Jesus’ foreskin. And, in memory of Claude Levi-Strauss, an interview with quasi-structuralist author Tom McCarthy. Without further ado, here are the individuals, in their own words, led by others’ questions. – Andrew Geer
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Tagged as:
Literature in the Media,
Tuesday's Literary Briefing
