Diabolical Plots #112, June 2024

“This Week in Clinical Dance: Urgent Care at the Hastings Center” by Lauren Ring

“Hold the Sea Inside” by Erin Keating

Reviewed by David Wesley Hill

I’ve reviewed a half dozen issues of Diabolical Plots over the past couple years, and despite the magazine’s name, most of the stories it publishes lack plots of any kind, much less diabolical ones. A fair percentage aren’t even speculative fiction, reminding me more of the absurdist avant-garde “literature” published by the hermetic journals beloved by the pretentious English Lit majors of my college days. Such is the case with the first offering of the month, “This Week in Clinical Dance: Urgent Care at the Hastings Center” by Lauren Ring, which conflates medical procedure with modern dance in a heartfelt exercise that—confusing style for substance—not only lacks a plot, but any other quality that makes a story worth your time, such as characterization, conflict, or epiphany. Sadly, I suspect this won’t matter to regular readers of Diabolical Plots. As for the rest of you, well—you’ve been warned.

Despite what I just wrote in the preceding paragraph, the second story of the month, “Hold the Sea Inside” by Erin Keating, actually has a plot, albeit a slight one: Woman is happy by the sea. Woman moves to the mountains and is unhappy there. Woman turns into a waterfall and returns to the sea as salt water. This is, of course, an attempt at a modern origin myth, which is why there are no true details in the story, only generalities. In an attempt to be universal, the author foregoes specificity. As one example among many, we never know why Maribel’s husband uprooted them from the beach, only that there “was an accident, an accusation, a falling out.” OK, which was it? An accident? An accusation? Something else? Inquiring minds want to know, but they won’t find the answer here… May appeal to those who mistake ambiguity for profundity.