Fantasy“Negative Theology of the Child from the ‘King of Tars’” by Sonia Sulaiman
“Fandom For Witches” by Ruoxi Chen
“Homecoming” by Wen Yu Yang
“Once Upon A Time At The Oakmont” by P. A. Cornell
Reviewed by Mina
“Negative Theology of the Child from the ‘King of Tars’” by Sonia Sulaiman challenges a medieval poem about the stillborn child of a “heathen” and a Christian; a mixed-race child, a half-breed. This reviewer checked out the original poem, which of course has Christianity winning over the Moslem faith (for it is the Christian God that brings the child to life), and ends with the black sultan turning white. That is perhaps the one weakness in this beautifully written piece: you can’t understand properly what the author is challenging without checking the original poem. The narrator rebels at the idea that the dead child is a less-than, Other or incomplete: “I am Palestinian. I know the horror that our syncretic and chaotic loves of mixing and miscegenation had on visitors and colonists. And so, it is my place to pick at the threads that the English poet has woven, to leave here with a hole of messy, frogged fabric. Through that hole will be born something Other. I bend to my work, and pluck out the weave quickly. I leave a hole that is perfect and round. Will that mother and father follow their child out of this textual hell? Would they learn to extend love to the flesh, to reach out toward the world as it is: ambiguous, and gloriously chaotic?” An excellent commentary through fantasy with the narrator debating with their muse. I don’t disagree with the premise of this story, i.e. challenging old attitudes that still have an influence on today’s, but there also needs to be some recognition that medieval literature was firmly anchored in medieval times. Just like most of us don’t speak like Jane Austen when negotiating the tricky world of dating nowadays, a medieval poem would not reflect today’s more nuanced understanding of ambiguous, chaotic and messy reality (which of course is a reflection of my own opinion, not the medieval author’s!).
“Fandom For Witches” by Ruoxi Chen starts with Lara, a teenage witch obsessed with a TV show, writing fanfic. It slowly gains depth and turns into dealing with different cultures (Chinese immigrants in America), a very ill (possibly dying) mother and first love with Shen Jia. A well-written, coming-of-age story, with a gentle and melancholic rhythm.
“Homecoming” by Wen Yu Yang takes the idea of the River Styx and adds a skeleton pig and dead butcher to the mix. A very short piece of flash fiction, it feels like a vegetarian’s take on the afterlife and final judgement. What’s not clear is whether it is tongue in cheek or deadly serious.
“Once Upon A Time At The Oakmont” by P. A. Cornell tells us of The Oakmont, a block of flats built over a time vortex. As the building manager explains to us: “Time is nothing . . . and everything. It doesn’t actually exist, because we made it up, but if it did exist, it wouldn’t run in a line; it would run in a circle…Time moves differently at The Oakmont. We can touch it at any point in time or at all points at once.” The narrator, Sarah, tells us of residents she knows and the rules (of which there are many) that govern The Oakmont. We learn of her lover, Roger, and her friends, all coming from different eras. It’s a bitter-sweet, beautifully written story with a gentle, dreamy quality. It feels like an answer to my comments on “Negative Theology” with the narrator telling us at one point: “I smile. You have to accept this kind of thing when you’re a resident of The Oakmont. Times are different, and each one has its own set of values and attitudes that will inevitably become obsolete as the sands of time continue to fall.” A gentle tolerance permeates this tale, and an acceptance of the things you cannot change, without ever straying into fatalism. And with it, this issue of Fantasy turns full circle, but like a spiral, moving ever outwards.
Mina would like to point out that this is the very final issue of Fantasy. To quote the editors in their farewell that shows no bitterness: “One of the things that I love about the SFF short fiction community is the “coopetition” between magazines. I’m grateful to all of the other editors and publishers out there who boosted FM and supported us from the start. Go subscribe and support your favorites!”.