SHORT STORY REX June 2023
Elena Sichrovsky, Camilla Grudova, Sascha Belle Nastasi and Manly Wade Wellman...oh, and Steely Dan also
1. “Apologies for the Fact of Your Body,” Elena Sichrovsky
loved this piece in ergot., a short story in seven acts, soberly laid out in stage directions and lines of dialogue between an ANGEL and a PIGEON.
It starts with clouds strangling each other and end with stars going blind, and what comes in between is by turns philosophical and absurd and kinda gross as the two compare notes on various aspects of corporeal existence
(Sichrovsky also had this story in Nightmare recently, a much more sombre affair, which i also enjoyed)
2. “Ivor,” Camilla Grudova
Grudova gang rise up, this story from late April has what you need.
“Ivor”, it could be argued, explores much the same thematic territory as her Shirley-Jackson-Award-winning “Waxy”, ie the socialization of gender via our institutions, if a bit more “grounded” in setting, deceptively at first, before veering in several bizarre directions
Told in a first-person plural POV, the “town POV” as it’s sometimes known, that “we” that self-arrogates first-hand knowledge and shirks responsiblity, we learn about the inner workings of a boys’ school from which there is no escape, where graduation is a death from old age
Above all I love Grudova’s knack for detail, the gritty and glorious unpleasantness of the worlds she creates. I had to Google “Gentleman’s Relish” to know whether or not that odd combination of words was an invention of hers, and i dont know whether i was relieved or more unsettled to discover it was real (a brand of anchovy paste it turns out)
Our title character is both a lifelong fixture of the school and frankly a quite freakish figure, so beloved that one boy names a pet “bug” after him which he lovingly feeds and it’s better if I say no more on the subject of the bug
3. “Another Customer”, Sascha Belle Nastasi
Speaking of glorious unpleasantness, I was very pleased by this story in X-R-A-Y about a very unpleasant person in a grilled cheese restaurant.
This weird little guy has a very specific desire denied to him and proceeds to make it someone else's problem, forcing a service worker to twist herself into some extremely painful-sounding contortions. (Not much info on the author but given the situation described im assuming they're American lol)
Its a corrosive and hairy and mucous atmosphere but still manages to leave a window open for tenderness. Also you can listen to it as a podcast.
4. “Frogfather”, Manly Wade Wellman
Many years ago, back in sixth grade, we had to do a project on a North Carolina writer. We were given a list, and at the time I chose George Moses Horton, but now I’ve taken it upon myself to learn about another illustrious three-name-haver I recall was on that list: one Manly Wade Wellman
He’s best known, from what I’ve gathered, for his Silver John or John the Balladeer stories from the 60s onward, which I have yet to track down. I did, however, find “Frogfather”, an earlier story which while not explicitly connected to the saga was considered by Wellman himself to be an early Silver John tale, so it felt apt as a starting place
Here, young John is basically indentured to pay off his aunt’s debt to villainous bossman Ranson Cuff (I’m imagining Long Hot Summer-era Orson Welles in this role), who takes John and a nameless old man from the “first people”, out on a nightime excursion to go frog-gigging
Predictably the frogmurdering exploiter gets his comeuppance, and Wellman gives good monster in the Weird Tales way. I love the subtle flavor of the descriptions, like this one, which had me looking at my own arm and wondering:
The ordinary human arm is eighteen inches long, I hear, the length of the old-fashioned Bible cubit.
Or this description of the monster’s mouth which, after Steely Dan’s legendary “The Second Arrangement”, is only the 2nd pop-culture reference to the Gladstone Bag that I’ve ever encountered (I’m sure there’s more):
It had no bony nose, no nose at all, and the mouth was a long, curved slit like a tight-closed Gladstone bag.
To me, the treatment of the native lore and the “Indian” character felt much less other-ing and fetishizing than I expected (though there’s definitely some of both and either way it’s extremely not my call to make). After they’ve escaped the Frogfather, John asks the Indian, “What shall we do?” to which he replies:
“we shall think of a story, you and I, that explains Mr. Cuff’s death. A story that white men will believe.”
(sidenote: Manly Wade Wellman, apart from being one of the heirs to the Weird Tales throne post-HPL, REH, and CAS, is also one of only a few writers i know of whose name would have made a killer gimmick for an 80s wrestler, “Manly” Wade Wellman (see also “Ravishing” Rick Rude RIP))
Not-a-story rec: “The Second Arrangement,” Steely Dan
In a stupendous coincidence, the day after my initial thread re “Frogfather” and Gladstone bags, I heard the late breaking news that the aformentioned track “The Second Arrangement” had been made available in the highest quality version known to date, almost certainly the best it will ever sound.
Real heads know, but basically: “The Second Arrangement” is legendary with Dan fans because it was recorded in sessions for their 1980 album Gaucho and then, in a heinous mishap, was accidentally erased by a studio employee who was attempting to recalibrate the tape machine.
They attempted to re-record the track (which their producer Gary Katz had already envisioned as their next single) but could not recapture the vibes and so, ever the perfectionists, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen scrapped it. It’s been an object of obsessive fascination for Dan enthusiasts ever since.
And now, you can hear it in all its glory, from a cassette of a rough mix made by engineer Roger Nichols that has just resurfaced. To be clear: if you are not already a Steely Dan fan you will probably hate this? And if you are then you’ll have already listened to this a million times but anyway, here it is: