{"id":148501853,"date":"2024-09-06T12:31:18","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T12:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=148501853"},"modified":"2024-09-06T12:31:18","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T12:31:18","slug":"friday-links-when-youre-out-of-ideas-read-something-else-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=148501853","title":{"rendered":"Friday Links: When You're Out Of Ideas Read Something Else Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

“You came here tonight to steal a story, a story you don’t have any right to. Why?” – Richard Van Camp, “Scariest. Story. Ever.”<\/h2>

Anthologies are great. Love an anthology. Especially when my kid was a baby<\/em> baby, and I didn\u2019t really have time\/desire to do real reading, it was nice to pick up an anthology and read a few pieces, then return to it later. How, though, to do an anthology for this blog? Especially when said anthology is 95% full of writers you\u2019ve never heard of? When I read <\/a>New Poets of Native Nations<\/a><\/em>, I took the \u201cread a few and skip around\u201d approach<\/a>, but it didn\u2019t feel right this time. This time, armed with a hearty LET\u2019S GOOOOOO<\/em>, I went cover-to-cover. <\/p>

What I\u2019ve Been Reading This Week:<\/strong><\/p>

An anthology I\u2019ve been excited about for a long time<\/a>. An anthology of horror short stories\u2014excuse me, dark fiction. An anthology that seemed rad enough to go cover-to-cover on. I\u2019m talking, of course, about Never Whistle At Night<\/em>, edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. <\/p>

\"Never<\/figure>

These stories surprise, they frighten, they get the blood moving and the brain thinking. That\u2019s an NPR<\/em>-ass way to start a review, but how else to highlight such a diverse collection? 20 years after Dave Chappelle (before his untimely death in 2010) said \u201c[Indigenous People] are not all dead, alright<\/a>,\u201d we have this collection of writers from all over the North American continent, Pueblo and Comanche and Dene and Hidastsa and Standing Rock Sioux and Penobscot and others, telling some of the most exciting stories being told right now. Horror demigod recently said \u201cI hear people say \u2018Wow, horror is having a moment right now!\u2019 and also \u2018Horror is more diverse than ever right now\u2019 and I truly hope they see the correlation.\u201d<\/a> This book is proof positive. There are monsters, ghosts, witches, shapeshifters, stories-within-stories, Get Out<\/em>-style white people, and personal demons. Each story is pretty easily read in one sitting\u2014sometimes because your eyes are scanning as quickly as possible, wondering, after being primed by Stephen Graham Jones\u2019s excellent into to expect anything, where the tale is going. <\/p>

Sometimes people lament living in the times we do. I get why\u2014war, covid, AI, Donald Trump\u2014but I like the 2020s. An anthology like this doesn\u2019t happen in 1990, 2000, 2010. When Indigenous activists occupied Alcatraz in the 60s and 70s<\/a>, talking about \u201cwe\u2019re still here,\u201d they had bigger ideas than a short story anthology published by a Penguin Random House. But I\u2019m a believer in the soft power of cultural visibility, and I feel incredibly lucky that I got to read these stories. I can\u2019t recommend this anthology highly enough. Morgan Talty is there<\/a>, as are a few writers who I\u2019ve got scheduled to read in the coming weeks. I\u2019ve got a long TBR list after reading htis book. <\/p>

Sometimes I\u2019ll hear critics of horror\u2014hell, critics of any genre, this happens a lot in music\u2014say that there are no new stories to tell. That everything has been done before and we\u2019re just remixing. This is close-minded and incestuous criticism. And I\u2019m not saying \u201cwhite people go buy this book and rip off Indigenous writers.\u201d What I am saying is that it\u2019s impossible to run out of good art to experience. <\/p>

LINKS!<\/strong><\/p>

Something to listen to while you browse? Should we check in with Dead Pioneers again? It\u2019s been a few months<\/a>. <\/p>

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