Oh hell yes. Body, cosmic, horror, collision. Furious, resigned, darkly funny in that if I don’t laugh I’ll scream way, and it carries the escalation beautifully from clinical unease to full scale annihilation. Adore how the medical setting becomes just another failed containment fantasy. Language, protocols, the TV broadcast... every human system meant to manage catastrophe collapses into spectacle leaving the body to hold the universe alone! Pivot from diagnosis to weather system to televised event? Wrecked. Choosing bitterness over awe, rot over reverence, yes, more! This one made my teeth feel all tingly.
Ha, THANK YOU for sharing, and it absolutely lands! That cynicism reads sharp and intentional, not shruggy. The rot is doing real philosophical work here. (muscles)
Gorgeously horrific XD. Also perfectly cynical but in a way that I can't help but empathize with? If there's literally nothing to be done, might as well try to watch?
I like how it starts out small and then just takes over in a squeezing, brutal way. And of course, the media has to be all over it. Haha. Good tale.
Oh hell yes. Body, cosmic, horror, collision. Furious, resigned, darkly funny in that if I don’t laugh I’ll scream way, and it carries the escalation beautifully from clinical unease to full scale annihilation. Adore how the medical setting becomes just another failed containment fantasy. Language, protocols, the TV broadcast... every human system meant to manage catastrophe collapses into spectacle leaving the body to hold the universe alone! Pivot from diagnosis to weather system to televised event? Wrecked. Choosing bitterness over awe, rot over reverence, yes, more! This one made my teeth feel all tingly.
Thank you very much. This review should be stamped to the piece, haha!
Happy that it worked, I tried shipping some philosophical aspect about human cynicism.
Ha, THANK YOU for sharing, and it absolutely lands! That cynicism reads sharp and intentional, not shruggy. The rot is doing real philosophical work here. (muscles)
The body horror and bitterness blend so well together. I can almost feel myself stretching at the seams as I read it.
I hope it won’t cause a cataclysmic event! 😅
Thanks so much for reading!
Gorgeously horrific XD. Also perfectly cynical but in a way that I can't help but empathize with? If there's literally nothing to be done, might as well try to watch?
Thanks, Richard. Glad it landed. That’s exactly the feeling I was going for!
Thank you, Greta. Comments like this are my rocket fuel. 🙏
Bukowski + Vonnegut is a hell of a combo. If any of that Vonnegut-tenderness / Bukowski-bluntness leaked through, I’m chuffed.
I read Hot Water Music at 15 or 16 (too young? maybe), and I’ve been back in Sirens of Titan lately. Both favourites.