In "Under the Black Water" from Things We Lost in the Fire, I read: "It was a procession. And I think thats an effect of CsarAiras literature., Then, after some chit chat and pleasantries (a reference to Dawn of the Dead amongst them), shes off to prepare for some sort of party later in the day, which it seems is being approached in the style of her writing: It's a BBQ basically, but brutal., Things We Lost in the Fire is out now, published by Portobello Books, RRP 12.99. Her stories of monsters, ghosts, witches, sick people, and crazed women leave the reader with no escape route, as if they were mirrors, warped and out of focus, that show the invisible Other in their reflection, just as they illuminate our most sadistic and repressed side. Argentina is a theme and a character in my stories. On Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez Hes in Villa Moreno. In this case rather than Lovecrafts racism and terror of mental illness, we get ableism and a fun-sized dose of fat-phobia. And for those boys? When Marina investigates, events grow more and more disturbing in a way that feels Lovecraftian. On the southern edge of the city, past the Moreno Bridge, the city frays into abandoned buildings and rusted signs. Mariana Enriquez (Buenos Aires, 1973) has published novelsincluding Our Share of Night, which won the famous Premio Herraldeand the short story collections Dangers of Smoking in Bed and Things We Lost in the Fire, which sold to 20 international publishers before it was even published in Spanish and won the Premio But still: If only that whole slum would go up in flames. The church has been painted yellow, decorated with a crown of flowers, and the walls are covered with graffiti: YAINGNGAHYOGSOTHOTHHEELGEBFAITHRODOG. The proximity of others without these basic amenities creates a fragility in the better-off. Additionally, the river marks the geographical limit between the city of Buenos Aires and what we call Gran Buenos Aires, or the suburbs. But I think that readers can gather that Argentina is a diverse and unequalsociety. The slum spreads along the black river, to the limits of vision. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Electric Literature is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2009. So, time to leave her desk and investigate. Originally published in Spanish, it was translated into English by Megan McDowell in 2017. To what extent do neoliberal politics bring about the appalling precarity of social classes and individuals? Instead she chooses to see for herself this diabolical landscape. I would say that my socio-political commentary comes more from my experience as a citizen than it does from my career as a journalist. To withdraw your consent, see Your Choices. Our Privacy Notice has been updated to explain how we use cookies, which you accept by continuing to use this website. Ive been wanting to read more weird fiction in translation, so was excited to pick up Mariana Enriquezs Things We Lost in the Fire. The story ends with a lingering look towards her exemplary act of violence, which must soon follow. But now he knows: they were trying to cover something up, keep it from getting out. Normally there are people. On Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez By Angela Woodward New York, NY: Hogarth Press, 2016. Among them all, Mariana Enriquez stands out with her own flickering light. Mariana Enrquez: 'I don't want to be complicit in any kind of silence That pause before the inevitable is the space of fabulist fiction, torqueing open the rigid rules of reality to create a gap of possibility. 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. 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). We are delighted to offer a range of residential and online programs to support writers at every stage of their writing journey. Enriquez: I dont know. The priest refers to them as retards, but the narrative itself isnt doing much better. You shouldnt have come, says Father Francisco. People swimming under the black water, they woke the thing up. Is this enormous symbolic production around evil a response to economic crises and the implementation of ever-more-savage neoliberal policies? A demonic idol is borne on a mattress through city streets. Ana Gallegos Cuiasis full professor in the Department of Spanish Literature of the University of Granada. The journalist and author fills the dozen stories with compelling figures in haunting stories that evaluate inequality, violence, and corruption. Considering her writings overlap between Borges and King, Ocampo and Jackson, an accurate term might be 'black magical realism', and its possible this strange genre brew is a result of Enriquez' historical vantage point; born just prior to the coup but too young to be complicit, or even fully aware. 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. The slum spreads along the black river, to the limits of vision. Before she can react, he shoots himself. Enriquez: In Argentina everything is political. Her absence is absolutely not due to nefarious extraterrestrial body-snatching, we promise. Then she runs, trying to ignore the agitation of the water that should be able to breathe, or move. She met Father Francisco, who told her that no one even came to church. What makes you do something like that? Hes emaciated, dirty, his hair overgrown and greasy. Now we burn ourselves. And in the rest of the ever-more gothified and gorified world. These women have a choice in what they notice and what they flinch away from. Turning to Latin American literature, we observe that the gothic has borne relatively little fruit, often considered a subgenre within the fantastic, science fiction, or magical realism (see Brescia, Negroni, Braham, Dez Cobo, Casanova-Vizcano, and Ordiz). Silvia hated public. Theyre carrying a bed, with some human effigy lying on it. They simply had to go. And her gun, of course. Spiderweb | The New Yorker 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). Later on, the ideas of Evil and the dead river become an homage to Lovecraft and his unpublished works, mixed with my interpretations of Laird Barron. Anne M. Pillsworths short storyThe Madonna of the Abattoir appears on Tor.com. 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. And the church is no longer a church. Do all lives have the same worth? The Degenerate Dutch: The rivers pollution causes birth defects. And in trying to make those insular locals truly terrifying, the narrative gets problematic as all hell. Today were reading Mariana Enriquezs Under the Black Water, first published in English in Things We Lost in the Fire, translated by Megan McDowel. [2] Table of Contents: Things we lost in the fire - Schlow Library Spoilers ahead. Under the Black Water | Tor.com Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories ( Spanish: Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego) is a short story collection by Mariana Enriquez. Eventually, still unable to reach anyone, she tries to find her way to Father Franciscos church. In the slum Buenos Aires frays into abandoned storefronts, and an oil-filled river decomposes into dangerous and deliberate putrescence.. In my opinion, this was the finest moment in the collection and a powerful commentary on the violence and discrimination against the ones who live in the margins of a troubled . Well, maybe not always that last. Second, these genres are literary. On the southern edge of the city, past the Moreno Bridge, the city frays into abandoned buildings and rusted signs. 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. Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories by Mariana Enrquez I swear we dont keep picking stories with shootings and killer cops deliberately. In short, Mariana Enriquez reads Argentine society with a feminist lens that evinces the structural violence imposed by necropolitics, class inequality, and gender. Just a while ago an English work of Antonio Di Benedetto was recovered. Cookie Notice The rivers dead, unable to breathe. But the next day, when she tries to call people in the slum, none of her contacts answer. All represent nomadic subjects (Braidotti), rendered precarious and placed in crisis, who find in the practice of violence a path to emancipation and protest against the true enemy: capitalism and the middle-class neoliberal family that reproduces it. His life and works were never the same afterthat. 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. [Scheduled] South American: Things We Lost in the Fire, by Mariana Enriquez, "Under the Black Water", Scan this QR code to download the app now. OK, nice, is her reply. Shes relievedobviously, everyone has just gone to practice the murga for carnival, or already started to celebrate a little early. Whats Cyclopean: This is very much a place-as-character story. While most shudder away, Enriquezs women are drawn to it, as if to see what they can do with it. Why is that a representation youre comfortable with? Adam Vitcavage is a Phoenix-based writer whose criticism and interviews have appeared in Electric Literature, Paste Magazine, The Millions, and more. Adam Vitcavage: This short story collection has a lot of reoccurring themes related to the horrific and the mysterious.