I mention speaking with Argentine author Csar Aira just the week previous. In this way, her storieskafkaesquely propheticfunction as revisions of systems like neoliberalism, positivism, and the society of reason, not only through their subject matter, but also through their form, with the use of two highly Jamesian narrative techniques: secrecy and mystery. But the police throwing people in there, that was stupid. What youre doing is basically reporting I dont think [journalism] can make you think in the long term or a very profound way, something you can go back to in 20 years and say, 'this is what was going on, this is the space people were living in.'. He came out of the water. They simply had to go. But the next day, when she tries to call people in the slum, none of her contacts answer. Then, when I was a bit older, 8 or 9, this was the time when the crimes of the dictatorship came [to public knowledge]. These women have a choice in what they notice and what they flinch away from. A demonic idol is borne on a mattress through city streets. To what extent do neoliberal politics bring about the appalling precarity of social classes and individuals? And it definitely shouldnt be swelling. That boy woke up the thing sleeping under the water. Wed Jul 11, 2018 2:00pm. But I saw these 30,000 girls screaming all the time. She learns that strange things, including a dead man coming up out of the water, are happening in the slums. Body horror based on real bodies is horrible, but not necessarily in the way the author wants. The electricity made my hair stand on end; I felt like it had turned into wires, Theres something about the friendships of girls when theyre teenagers that to me is totally scary, is totally witchery, is totally mysterious, Enriquez says. Every author is very different but they account for the wide breadth of current Argentinian literature. Hallelujah? Emanuel means god is with us. But what god? These ghostly images flicker out of Mariana Enriquezs stories, her characters witnessing atrocities or their shadows or afterimages. Much of Black Waters horror is the surreal constraints of poverty, pollution, and corrupt authority. For more information, please see our Before she can react, he shoots himself. In one story, "Under the Black Water," a severely polluted river that has become a dumping ground for victims of police violence becomes a source of a zombie cult. A few years ago in Buenos Aires, two policemen detained two poor, young men who were coming back from a night club. https://medium.com/media/11bfe3a6b4f7b0925df45e65c1c190a5/href. There were terms that you didnt understand, like political prisoner, or detention camps., In one story, The Intoxicated Years, a trio of adolescent girls go feral during the vacuum, post dictatorship, when hyperinflation was accelerating and the countrys infrastructure failing. She tries to get them out of there, and he grabs her gun. Hes only been back a little while. All the New Fantasy Books Arriving in May! The poor men. Mariana Enriquez words drip with glorious sarcasm, and I imagine her slowly shaking her head down the line from Buenos Aires. But theyre not evil, I think? No, I concede, impotent rather than evil. $24.00. But still: If only that whole slum would go up in flames. Why cant we be the protagonists here?. political horror like "Under the Black Water, " "El desentierro de la. In the distance, she hears drums. Its been pointed out to me a lot, she replies. Thats roughly the mechanism of my stories, I get my inspiration from a real life event and then I transform it into something fantastical or supernatural. Welcome back to the Lovecraft reread, in which two modern Mythos writers get girl cooties all over old Howards sandbox, from those who inspired him to those who were inspired in turn. His life and works were never the same afterthat. To withdraw your consent, see Your Choices. Also hes very, very drunk. And then, of course, its even worse than that: a mutant child, rotting meat, a thing with gray arms, all vivid and inexplicable. And the church is no longer a church. Of murdered teens who return from beneath dark polluted waters. The Old Book Appreciator Ruthanna Emrysis the author of the Innsmouth Legacy series, includingWinter TideandDeep Roots. Other contemporary authors to look for are Leila Guerriero, Samanta Schweblin, Juan Jos Saer, Hernn Ronsino, Liliana Bodoc, Rodrigo Fresn, and Hebe Uhart. Enriquez: No, theres not. I swear we dont keep picking stories with shootings and killer cops deliberately. Sign up for our newsletter to get submission announcements and stay on top of our best work. Her absence is absolutely not due to nefarious extraterrestrial body-snatching, we promise. I felt unpleasant echoes of That Only a Mother, a much-reprinted golden age SF story in which the shocking twist at the end is that the otherwise precocious baby hasnt got any limbs (and, unintentionally, that the society in question hasnt got a clue about prosthetics). On Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez But we wont die: we will show our scars. The female body no longer disappears; rather, it (over)exposes its anormal materiality as proof of the distinct pedagogies of cruelty (Segato) it has suffered. Yamil Corvalns body has already washed up, a kilometer from the bridge. But hes not getting out, and neither is she. But then, that sort of thing happens a lot in the Villa Moreno slum, and convictions are few. In Under the Black Water, a district attorney pursuing a witness ventures into a slum that even her cab driver wont enter. She leaves the church crying and shaking. Her absence is absolutely not due to nefarious extraterrestrial body-snatching, we promise. And in trying to make those insular locals truly terrifying, the narrative gets problematic as all hell. The Degenerate Dutch: The rivers pollution causes birth defects. This article about a collection of horror short stories published in the 2010s is a stub. An emaciated, nude boy lies chained in a neighbor's courtyard. She met Father Francisco, who told her that no one even came to church. As it is, the cows head, and the yellowtainted cross and flowers, dont promise a happy relationship, regardless of who worships what. But now he knows: they were trying to cover something up, keep it from getting out. [3] Contents The chairs have been cleared out, along with the crucifix and the images of Jesus and Our Lady. In The Dirty Kid, a begging child ostentatiously shakes the hand of subway passengers, soiling them deliberately. Ive been wanting to read more weird fiction in translation, so was excited to pick up Mariana Enriquezs Things We Lost in the Fire. Never mind how the priest knows shes there about Emanuel, or knows about the pregnant girl who pointed her this way. Ruthanna Emrysis the author of the Innsmouth Legacy series, includingWinter TideandDeep Roots. All Rights Reserved. In this case rather than Lovecrafts racism and terror of mental illness, we get ableism and a fun-sized dose of fat-phobia. Spoilers ahead. My favourite writers have written horror; Robert Aikman, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King I dont have a problem because I think Im in good company.. 2021. He leaves her alone, and she makes her way on foot to what is considered the most polluted river in the world. But theres something powerful and secretive about them. Today were reading Mariana Enriquezs Under the Black Water, first published in English in Things We Lost in the Fire, translated by Megan McDowel. 2023 Macmillan | All stories, art, and posts are the copyright of their respective authors, Shadow Over Argentina: Mariana Enriquezs Under the Black Water. Enriquez wants to tell us about poverty, gentrification and a crippling economy, but first and foremost - she wants to scare the shit out of us, and does it marvelously. A DEAD BABY and her haunted great-niece open The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Mariana Enriquez's collection of disquieting short stories. Defiled churches, shambling inhuman processions hey. Pinats dressed down from her usual DA suits, and carries only enough money to get home and a cell phone to hand muggers if needed. Instead theres a wooden pool topped with a freshly slaughtered cows head. Book review: Argentina haunted history in Mariana Enriquez's Things We (Its the most remarkable word weve ever seen.) As it is, the cows head, and the yellowtainted cross and flowers, dont promise a happy relationship, regardless of who worships what. Dont you hear them? For years, he says, he thought the rotted river a sign of ineptitude. The full schedule can be found hereand the marginalia can be found here. Enriquezs writing is therefore often in the first person, both singular and plural, and extraordinary elements enter into this fiction through the sense of smell (El carrito [The cart]), hearing (Dnde ests corazn [Where are you, darling]), taste (Carne [Meat]), sight (Ni cumpleaos ni bautismos), and touch (Los peligros de fumar en la cama [The dangers of smoking in bed]). Its just that even the weirdest fiction needs a way to elide the seams between real-world horror and supernatural horrorand many authors have similar observations about the former. Isolated locals take dubious actions around a nearby body of water, resulting in children born wrong. A new and suspicious religion drives Christianity from the community. Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories (Spanish: Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego) is a short story collection by Mariana Enriquez. Silvia hated public. In short, Mariana Enriquez reads Argentine society with a feminist lens that evinces the structural violence imposed by necropolitics, class inequality, and gender. Spoilers ahead.