In The Dirty Kid, a begging child ostentatiously shakes the hand of subway passengers, soiling them deliberately. Of murdered teens who return from beneath dark polluted waters. But still: If only that whole slum would go up in flames. The themes of horror and fantasy work for me in two ways. Sat 1 Oct 2022 13.00 EDT M ariana Enrquez, 48, lives in Buenos Aires. 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). Do all lives have the same worth? Shadow Over Argentina: Mariana Enriquez's "Under the Black Water" We discussed Argentina as a country and a character, the place of politics in literature, and what inspires Enriquez when shes working on astory. Never mind that Pinat has his voice on tape, saying Problem solved. 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. Or, even better: what makes readers become addicted to her poetics? He came out of the water. 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. Today were reading Mariana Enriquezs Under the Black Water, first published in English in Things We Lost in the Fire, translated by Megan McDowel. Spoilers ahead. [Scheduled] South American: Things We Lost in the Fire, by Mariana The boy opens the door; she goes in. Its been pointed out to me a lot, she replies. Anne M. Pillsworths short storyThe Madonna of the Abattoir appears on Tor.com. Instead she chooses to see for herself this diabolical landscape. Hey, wait a seconddoes this sound familiar to anyone else? After all, a living boy is one less crime to accuse the cops of. Spiderweb | The New Yorker Whats Cyclopean: This is very much a place-as-character story. 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. Never mind that Pinat has his voice on tape, saying Problem solved. The consequences are dire, but theres nevertheless a sense of agency in directing ones gaze. Before she can react, he shoots himself. Her most recent published books areLas novelas argentinas del siglo 21:Nuevos modos de produccin, circulacin y recepcin(2019) andOtros:Ricardo Piglia y la literatura mundial(2019). That pause before the inevitable is the space of fabulist fiction, torqueing open the rigid rules of reality to create a gap of possibility. 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. In the Villa, shes startled by silence. Anne wasnt able to submit a commentary this week. A fact that made him feel very un-Argentinian. The voices of the women are so powerful that were left on the side, and thats kind of disturbing. Either way, its good to read a story with different settings from our usual selection, different points of view, different horrors. She runs, not looking back, and covers her ears against the sound of the drums. So, time to leave her desk and investigate. Its not that her protagonists fear a slide into poverty, but that the niceness of their lives is so clearly perched on evil filth. She met Father Francisco, who told her that no one even came to church. But now he knows: they were trying to cover something up, keep it from getting out. Shadow Over Argentina: Mariana Enriquez's "Under the Black Water" Her young adult Mythos novel,Summoned, is available from Tor Teen along with sequelFathomless. She leaves the church crying and shaking. Shes relievedobviously, everyone has just gone to practice the murga for carnival, or already started to celebrate a little early. What is it about the fiction of Mariana Enriquez that makes the whole world, book market and academics included, like it so much? And the church is no longer a church. They learned how to swim. The time stamp suggests that he at least knew that two young men were thrown into the Ricachuelo River. She recognizes that little yellow house, so shes not lost. This is a police force tainted by recent history, an aftershock of a violent past. While most shudder away, Enriquezs women are drawn to it, as if to see what they can do with it. He also works as a community interpreter in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a Tulsa Artist Fellow. 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. 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. In "Under the Black Water" from Things We Lost in the Fire, I read: "It was a procession. Vitcavage: Who are some other Argentinian writers that readers shouldexplore? Table of Contents: Things we lost in the fire - Schlow Library . Not the only one but that I can assure you; that was weird. For more information, please see our After the cop leaves, a pregnant teenager comes in, demanding a reward for information about Emanuel. Enriquez: Of the authors I know who have works translated in English, there are Di Benedetto, Silvina Ocampo, Manuel Puig, Ricardo Piglia, and Julio Cortzar, who is very famous. The Writing Life in Argentina in the 1990s, Kelly Link Makes Fairy Tales Even Weirder Than You Remember, When Reality is More Terrifying Than Cursed Bunnies, Booktails from the Potions Library, with Mixologist Lindsay Merbaum. Hes only been back a little while. In short, Mariana Enriquez reads Argentine society with a feminist lens that evinces the structural violence imposed by necropolitics, class inequality, and gender. The district attorney could have stayed in the car, or stayed in her office, behind brick and glass. You have no idea what goes on there. 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. 202 pages. The Degenerate Dutch: The rivers pollution causes birth defects. All the New Fantasy Books Arriving in May! While chatting with the Argentine author, Im nave enough to bring this point up. Vitcavage: What are some of the difficulties or obstacles you encounter while writing a shortstory? Enriquez: I always write for myself. She learns that strange things, including a dead man coming up out of the water, are happening in the slums. But a representation of a husband that doesnt make his wife happy something that happens all the time youre so uncomfortable with.' The truth is that I dont think too much about readers from any part of the world. Never mind how the priest knows shes there about Emanuel, or knows about the pregnant girl who pointed her this way. You shouldnt have come, says Father Francisco. Under the Black Water isnt quite a Shadow Over Innsmouth retelling, but it riffs on the same tune. But the next day, when she tries to call people in the slum, none of her contacts answer. On the other hand, Enriquezs fiction also enters into dialogue with the deeply rooted tradition relating illness and literature (Foucault, Sontag, Guerrero, Giorgi), with stories of necrophilia, cannibalism, satanic rites, anorexia, social phobias, etc. 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? 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. Our Privacy Notice has been updated to explain how we use cookies, which you accept by continuing to use this website. On the southern edge of the city, past the Moreno Bridge, the city frays into abandoned buildings and rusted signs. All the New Fantasy Books Arriving in May! Copyright 2023 Kenyon Review. That which is unseen and unsaid constitutes the storys meaning, an opaque truth that each reader (re)assembles in their own way. 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". 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. I didnt do it, the cop says. I mention speaking with Argentine author Csar Aira just the week previous. Second, these genres are literary. The river itself has been the chosen dumping site for waste from cow offal up through the tanners heavy metals. And then, of course, its even worse than that: a mutant child, rotting meat, a thing with gray arms, all vivid and inexplicable. 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. Beyond this empty area live the citys poor by the thousands. I just wrote a review of the concert, but on another level, I always have antenna for this weirdness.. I think so, yeah, Enriquez ponders, but what fiction does is slower, lets say In journalism, it's more urgent. On the southern edge of the city, past the Moreno Bridge, the city frays into abandoned buildings and rusted signs. Clearly these acts, and the concomitant economic instability and corruption, provide the earth for Enriquezs tales. Enriquez: I dont know. Much of Black Waters horror is the surreal constraints of poverty, pollution, and corrupt authority. I sincerely believe that they dont have a true idea of what it is like to live in a highly politicized society. Isolated locals take dubious actions around a nearby body of water, resulting in children born wrong. A new and suspicious religion drives Christianity from the community. Shes trying to get a glimpse when the thing moves, and its gray arm falls over the side. Other contemporary authors to look for are Leila Guerriero, Samanta Schweblin, Juan Jos Saer, Hernn Ronsino, Liliana Bodoc, Rodrigo Fresn, and Hebe Uhart. But it would not be until the start of the twenty-first century that this new reading would attain global success thanks to TV series, comics, and bestsellers like Millennium, Twilight, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, and many more, which have filled our imaginations with monsters, zombies, vampires, mutants, ghosts, cyborgs, and other supernatural beings that coexist with us in a sort of global-gothic world. (Its the most remarkable word weve ever seen.) I write for myself, thinking about my country and its reality. Our Privacy Notice has been updated to explain how we use cookies, which you accept by continuing to use this website. 780 Van Vleet Oval The priest refers to them as retards, but the narrative itself isnt doing much better. Vitcavage: It seems, in America at least, that we cant talk about anything without talking about politics. Mariana Enriquez mesmerizing short story collection, Things We Lost in the Fire, is filled with vibrant depictions of her native Argentina, mostly Buenos Aires, as well as some ventures to surrounding countries. 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 Enriquez: Sure, for example, Under the Black Water was inspired by a true story of police violence. Penguin Random House. That is to sayI primarily write thinking about Argentina, and in a larger context about Latin America, because we share many similar realities. We read and post about several books each month that are suggested by members and selected by popular vote. I dont have a problem about being called a horror writer, she answers directly when I ask. An emaciated, nude boy lies chained in a neighbor's courtyard. He laughs. Benedetto was tortured by the dictators militiathey faked his execution and he suffered a great deal. Shes relievedobviously, everyone has just gone to practice the murga for carnival, or already started to celebrate a little early. They never stopped screaming. In Under the Black Water, a district attorney pursuing a witness ventures into a slum that even her cab driver wont enter. The Villas not empty any more; the drums are passing in front of the church. Vitcavage: Since youre a journalist as well, is there a sense of need when it comes to including political commentary within yourfiction? And death, how much is death worth? Ive been wanting to read more weird fiction in translation, so was excited to pick up Mariana Enriquezs Things We Lost in the Fire. 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. The title story almost takes up where Spiderweb left off, with women protesting domestic violence with a violence of their own. In short, Mariana Enriquez reads Argentine society with a feminist lens that evinces the structural violence imposed by necropolitics, class inequality, and gender. A review in The Guardian called the collection "gruesome, violent, upsetting and bright with brilliance. I swear we dont keep picking stories with shootings and killer cops deliberately. I was reporting as a journalist, and I hated them. 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.. These industries run unregulated by the State. Things We Lost in the Fire, by Mariana Enrquez - A Bookish Type These stories blend the real-life horrors of domestic and state violence, homelessness and economic uncertainty with the supernatural; ghosts, demons and witchcraft. Because even if its a long time ago, even if they are trained as a democratic force, theres still a sediment there of that brutality and impunity the power that they used to have over the people that somehow is still there., The collection's translator, Megan McDowell, states so perfectly in an excellent afterword: The horror comes not only from turning our gaze on desperate populations; it comes from realizing the extent of our blindness. This feeds well into Enriquez reply to me when asked why she focusses on the darker side of her country. Originally published in Spanish, it was translated into English by Megan McDowell in 2017. Visit our Bookshop page to buy books by Mariana Enriquez and support local bookstores. Finn House But Pinat does, and doesnt try to investigate the slum from her desk like some of her colleagues. 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. Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers. Site made in collaboration with CMYK. 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. [1], "The Intoxicated Years" was published in Granta. 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. 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. This type of story-action creates enlightened, involved readers, and this, in my view, makes her fiction necessary. And her gun, of course. Influenced by the works of Stevenson, Poe, James, Lovecraft, Bradbury, Silvina Ocampo, and Stephen King, she takes up the North American gothic and deterritorializes it toward an Argentine setting and toward Argentinas history, drawing on a feminist perspective that revises and broadens its meaning. The Old Book Appreciator The journalist and author fills the dozen stories with compelling figures in haunting stories that evaluate inequality, violence, and corruption. Botting, Ellis, Patrick, Stevens, Williams, Gross, Mighall, Punter, and Byron, among others). A DEAD BABY and her haunted great-niece open The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Mariana Enriquez's collection of disquieting short stories. The rivers dead, unable to breathe. But Pinat does, and doesnt try to investigate the slum from her desk like some of her colleagues. Argentina had taken the river winding around its capital, the woman observes, which could have made for a beautiful day trip, and polluted it almost arbitrarily, practically for the fun of it. If the foul water itself werent bad enough, she learns that police have murdered kids by throwing them off a bridge into it. He passes her, gliding toward the church. But hes not getting out, and neither is she. Enriquez spent her childhood in Argentina during the years of the infamous Dirty War, which ended when she was ten. The driver makes her walk the last 300 meters; the dead boys lawyer wont come at all. We publish your favorite authorseven the ones you haven't read yet. A woman, in this case from Argentina, who writes strange, unsettling horror stories, starting from a political and aesthetic commitment that has had such an international repercussion that it brings to mind the Latin American Boom, in feminist and terrifying form. But the police throwing people in there, that was stupid. His life and works were never the same afterthat. Similarly, in the title story, a hideously burned beggar kisses the cheeks of commuters, taking pleasure in their discomfort with her. But behind her, footsteps squelch: one of the deformed children. Originally published in Spanish, it was translated into English by Megan McDowell in 2017. No matter how weighty her themes, Enriquez readily references genre fiction and popular culture in her work; films such as Kiyoshi Kurosawas dread-soaked internet ghost story Pulse and the new flesh of Cronenbergs Videodrome. Welcome to r/bookclub! The body of Emanuel Lpez, the second boy, still hasnt surfaced. 'Things We Lost in the Fire' by Mariana Enriquez is a terrific - Reddit Anne wasnt able to submit a commentary this week. Never. Ruthanna Emrys and Anne M. Pillsworth. So you could say that Im working on a novel and on another short storybook. The Villas not empty any more; the drums are passing in front of the church. 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. But we know that it is there through an inescapable logic, an intense awareness of the world and all its misery. The world demands their sacrifice. Its stench, he said, was caused by its lack of oxygen. In others, "Adela's House" and "An Invocation of the Big-Earred Runt," past crimes reach out from the past to claim new victims. Novel, short story collection, a long investigative non-fiction book? Much of Black Waters horror is the surreal constraints of poverty, pollution, and corrupt authority. We are not currently open for submissions. Then she runs, trying to ignore the agitation of the water that should be able to breathe, or move. For some reason that river to me always hid something very ancient, very evil, suggests Enriquez, a cosmic evil. When Marina investigates, events grow more and more disturbing in a way that feels Lovecraftian. An abandoned house brims with shelves holding fingernails and teeth. In this way, her storieskafkaesquely propheticfunction as revisions of systems like neoliberalism, positivism, and the society of reason, not only through their subject matter, but also through their form, with the use of two highly Jamesian narrative techniques: secrecy and mystery. The boy opens the door; she goes in. And in trying to make those insular locals truly terrifying, the narrative gets problematic as all hell. Instead theres a wooden pool topped with a freshly slaughtered cows head. Theyre carrying a bed, with some human effigy lying on it. Beyond this empty area live the citys poor by the thousands. Mary Shelleys Frankenstein, 1818), as well as the image of the young woman who is simultaneously a victim and a monstrous killer, became tropes in the works of well known women authors such as Ann Radcliffe, Kate Chopin, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, whose tutelary shadows fall over the poetics of Mariana Enriquez. And it definitely shouldnt be swelling. I work as a journalist and its difficult to find the time to write. This process thereby generates a violence, both symbolic and material, that produces disease, precarity, and death. Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories by Mariana Enriquez The coddled suburbanite does not exist. 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. Next week, Lovecraft and Henry S. Whitehead explain why you should be more careful about mirrors in The Trap.. Early life Enrquez was born in 1973 in Buenos Aires, [1] and grew up in Valentn Alsina, a suburb in the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area. things we lost in the fire mariana enriquez analysis Author: Mariana Enriquez Author Record # 265086; Legal Name: Enrquez, Mariana? After a few pages of that, walking corpses and abomination-imprisoning oil slicks just seem like a logical extension. Also hes very, very drunk.