Short Fiction Fridays #9: Nostalgia
There was a system-wide issue with this newsletter platform yesterday, so welcome to Short Fiction Saturday!
I keep coming back to Nostalgia as a theme. It’s such a powerful feeling, so easy to evoke on the page but so difficult to get exactly right. In a way that difficulty is perfectly thematic: all pursuit of the past falls short of living in it.
What is nostalgic for me might not be what is nostalgic for you, but nostalgia is a half-remembered dream at heart, and these recommendations are more about the vibes than the details. The stories below feature oranges and online forums, megabytes and Martian skies, the end of summer and the beginning of snow.
POEM: “Summer Night” by Yena Sharma Purmasir
This poem is about summer, about being too late, about that heat-mirage knowledge that everyone else is having a better time than you, about fear and loss and beauty and hazy memories of running wild and free on a cloudless July day. Poignant, evocative, and open.
CW: None
“All Worlds Left Behind” by Iona Datt Sharma
Priya and her father have always been able to travel to the land of Amarnath Noy through the arch of a curved tree. She returns alone while preparing for his funeral and her wedding, but begins to wonder if she belongs there when she can’t even remember the words to order a dragon-flat nimbu pani. Heavy, lonely, and steady.
CW: Death of a parent
“Snow” by John Crowley
After Georgie dies, her husband visits The Park to watch recordings of their life together. What he finds are non-chronological recordings — randomly accessed memories — and although Georgie hated winter, it always seems to be snowing in the past. Thoughtful, quiet, and softly disturbing.
CW: Death of a partner
“Certainty in Gold” by Samara Auman
Hibiki and Renata have been inseparable since childhood. They now work on dusty Mars, where Ren longs for the ocean. Biki uses a heron-like Doppel robot to mirror experiences, so when she develops terminal cancer, she finds a way to bring the ocean back to Ren. Warm, fading, and safe.
CW: Terminal illness
“Abandonware" by An Owomoyela
David doesn’t want to get over his older sister Andy’s death. Instead, he finds her zip disks and runs SELDON.crn, a program she wrote that generates predictions. The predictions keep coming true… Grounded, unsettling, and fateful.
CW: Death of a sibling
PRINT: “Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows” by N. K. Jemisin
The only things that still exist in Helen’s reality are a ten-hour time loop, her apartment, and an endless expanse of barren desert outside. Thankfully, she can communicate with the lonely survivors of other realities online. Most have logged off to walk forever in their desert or blizzard or grassy plains, but a new user has just made their first post. Weary, hopeful, and probably a whole lot more relatable now than it was when it was published in 2004.
CW: Rape (as a topic of academic discussion), racism, loss of a pet, suicidal ideation
UP NEXT
The next issue’s theme will be Self, for no reason other than “I have six recommendations on this theme that I would like to share.”
THANK YOU FOR READING
If you enjoyed any of these stories, please support their authors and the magazines that published them. I’d also love to hear any suggestions for future list themes! Just reply to this email or contact me elsewhere and I’ll use your theme (within reason) for a future newsletter.
I have contacted the Revue team to request the ability to add alt text for photos, since these back issues are available on the web, but until that is an option please note that all included images are non-informational cover art for linked stories.