Fantastique Unfettered

FU Weekly: History, Knocking at Your Door

2012-02-24T14:52:00.000-08:00

History, Knocking at Your Door
by Brandon H. Bell

The following originally appeared on my personal blog earlier in the year. When Alexa mentioned using it for one of the FU Weekly features, I said 'sure.'

Strong opinion, uncertainty, or simple frustration at a politics gone astray--whatever one's reaction--it is useful to deconstruct the arguments, to examine, to clarify. All too often, the hateful statements repeated over and again become the truth parroted by media consumers. Regardless of veracity. Here's to a bit more clarity and a bit less hate. Or at least, a bit less utility to the hate that remains. BB

First, read this article about anti-gay myths debunked.

And HERE's another, less scholarly article but it does reveal the social security argument's origin with AFA/James Dobson, and points out the stupidity of the argument.

Politicians such as Rick Santorum are campaigning, in part, on a platform that opposes same sex marriage, and even go so far as to suggest parents in jail are preferable to gay parents. That's such a ridiculous statement that I'm not going to waste time with it: anyone who cares to apply some critical thinking will see it does not hold up, and if you fail to be able to do so we'll both be wasting our time.

I support same sex unions/ gay marriage, marriage equality: however you want to frame it.

The arguments against that I keep seeing and on which I'll comment:

Santorum's own 'Why not polyamory/polygamy then?' and
'If gay marriage, why not bestiality?'

That latter one is typically stated with a caveat that the speaker 'isn't implying the two are alike.' Back in 2009, the last time I directly addressed such, I replied:

"Of course not. Though this is a familiar tactic. The writer innocently mentions homosexuality and [something reprehensible like bestiality]. It is just an extreme example. But of what? If they are not linked, then why mention it. This is hostile action. Read it again. Recognize it. Hostility. It sounds nice and reasonable, but it is not... Reject, reject, reject any attempts at so called reasoned difference of opinion that uses this tactic."

The polyamory/polygamy argument is more interesting (more interesting to me means that this seems a reasonable question to more people whereas those more offensive comparisons usually only come from extremists.) It also betrays an ignorance born of a belief that what we call marriage today is a static institution that has always looked like it does. It is not and has not. In the past, group marriages were quite common, including in those cultures giving rise to western society. And even when it became a union between husband and wife, the union was typically not the romantic/emotional commitment that we understand it as today.

The problem with group marriages is that typically at their center was a man whom had the rights surrounded by the woman he essentially owned. Is it possible for polygamy to work? Well, it did in those societies, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anything approximating the equality that our society deems normative. A pure Libertarian philosophy would leave the question of polyamory/polygamy up to the participants. But, the question specifically is: if marriage between same sex couples, why not marriage with more than two partners? Or a dog?

Marriage is an agreement/contract, so of course the dog is a facetious--and hateful, but that's beside the point-- question. The basic structure of marriage is an agreement/commitment between two consenting adults. No new provisions need be made to accommodate same-sex couples.

But where the institution of marriage as understood by the United States government remains fully functional and essentially unaltered by same sex unions--the framework for the institution is extant and requires no alternation but to acknowledge those unions (essentially a contract between two parties)--what we are talking about with polygamy is a much more complex arrangement. It is not a structure currently extant in the United States and would require laws to define it, and so forth.

Should that institution be created? I don't know, and being a proponent of same sex marriage does not require that I do. They would be two very different institutions even if they carried the name 'marriage.'

The tactic that I allude to above is at work here too. It's funny, that my first post here back in 2005 was about this very topic. Also, to be clear, while same sex marriage _from the state's POV_ would look no different than the same contract that opposite sex couples enter into, from the POV of the participants, it would mean everything that marriage entails in the hearts and minds of anyone in our society. It would mean that they have equal rights to marry the consenting adult of their choice, just as their heterosexual counterparts are able to do.

Why not same sex marriage? The relationships already exist, but unacknowledged for what they are. The family's already exist, but without the protections marriage provide. All manner of _but they can get power of attorney_ type claims fail to to acknowledge the base question: why should they have to? Why not same sex marriage? What are you afraid of?

Here's what I know:

Some people are gay. They have the same rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Your church does not have to acknowledge same sex marriage. In fact, I encourage that if you are an opponent, express yourself through your church's policies.
Not all Americans share your denomination or faith. While right now, you might imagine that 'might makes right', some day you will find yourself in the minority and you'll hope that your concerns are dealt with in a way that does not seek to impose non-empirical laws based on someone else's holy book or an interpretation contrary to your own.
America is not a theocracy, but a secular state. That's a good thing. Our very religious forefathers left an officially Christian nation. Turns out giving the State too much power in this realm inhibits the freedom of believers. Hmmph.
Sexual orientation is not a choice, and treating everyone, regardless of orientation, as equal members of society is only right. It is not legislating privilege.
What 'has always been' is not a good argument. Look at slavery. Look at equality for women. Look at equality in general.
Semantics is a game as well: turning words into something they are not.
Faith is one of the greatest things in the world and I would never stain that for someone else. But Faith is only ever something that each of us may have for ourselves. We can live as a light, an example. As soon as you posit yourself as holding the Truth--and everyone else better find the same as you, or else--, you essentially lay claim not to Faith but to Fact.
Facts require proof.
Ergo, the right question is: why not same sex unions? The framework exists, we know that gay people are real, raising families right now without the benefits that go with marriage. History is watching, and the only right side to be on is the side of families. Guess what? With or without your 'permission' that includes families of same sex partners. Who are you to deny those families what yours takes for granted?

If you want to reply, feel free. Name calling or anything that I'd classify as Trolling will not see the light of day. Arguments should be fact-based. Appeals to authority are invalid unless you have the batphone to the Absolute and can conference me in for verification. Otherwise, you are a person like the rest of us and must make your way as a human rightly should: by thinking for your self. If your reply is one of disdain to proclaim why I 'just don't understand' or 'haven't thought through the implications' or whatnot, that is fine, but it must be a _cogent, coherent, and reasoned_ reply of disdain. Lack of these merits is a waste of my time.

Fantastique Unfettered is an effort of love. We love bringing fiction, non-fiction and poetry to our readers, and we love to pay our authors. To help us, please consider making a donation--however small--by following the Donate button at the top right of this page.

Thank you!

FU Weekly: More from Our Pushcart Nominees

2012-02-17T15:37:00.000-08:00

For this FU Weekly, we are turning around to look at some of our past contributors--to be exact, authors of FU#2 and FU#3 whose work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

First goes Simone Martel. Her story "We Are Family" appeared in Issue 2. Read on to find out what went into creating this piece.

"I’m excited and flattered that the editors of FU have chosen to nominate We Are Family for a Pushcart Prize. At the heart of my story are Nora and Noah, born within weeks of each other and raised as sister and brother, but separated when their two moms end their longterm relationship. This much is based on the experience of two real neighborhood kids my son used to play with outside when they were all much younger. What makes the story unique, however, is that We Are Family is narrated by a plastic Freud action figure.

"When those two moms on our block split up, each taking her child with her, I overheard another neighbor observe that because the boy and girl weren’t genetically related they weren’t “really” brother and sister. They seemed pretty real to me, and I started wondering about the definition of a modern American family.

"My first attempts to explore this question in writing never got far. After several false starts taking Bella’s point of view, then Freddy’s, and trying the third person, I felt stuck. In addition, the story I wanted to tell takes place over about a decade. Between the two dramatic bookends--the miscarriages, overlapping pregnancies, the babies’ almost twin-like closeness,and, finally, the breakup and Nora and Noah’s separation--is a lot of regular life. Using flashbacks or just hinting at the shared history didn’t work for me.

"Once I hit on letting the Freud action figure tell my story, my problems mostly vanished. (I’m not sure when that happened, but I think Freddy’s half-joking, “Calling Dr Freud,” in response to Bella’s “My mother never loved me," sparked an image of the plastic figure among children’s other toys.) With Freud--the inactive action figure--narrating, the story narrowed to only what he can observe inside the house; no more scenes in the train museum, say, or at grandma’s house. Unity of place helped me focus the story. In addition, I could conveniently skip over the years he spends inside a box.

"The Freud action figure’s limitations paralleled Nora and Noah’s. As two kids stuck in a mess created by adults, they have as little control over their fate as a toy on a shelf (or in a box). As I rewrote the story, I wondered if that similarity would affect the Freud action figure’s feelings for the children. Unlike most omniscient narrators (or at least contemporary ones), this narrator can judge or sympathize, and though he can’t change the story, his attitude toward it can. This narrator, representing the patriarchal point of view that the unconventional family challenges, can start out disapproving of Freddy’s and Bella’s lifestyle, and grow more friendly as he’s drawn into the story. Some readers might, as well.

"In the end though, what interested me in this story had little to do with sexual orientation or gender politics. We Are Family was a lot of fun to write--I got to put in a talking Isis statue and a potty-mouthed Lego Harry Potter!--and also to explore ideas that continue to haunt me about motherhood, love, commitment, loss, fantasy and play, and the magical thought that perhaps a family can be whatever we imagine it to be."

Our second author is Zen Cho. Zen already did a guest post about her story "First National Forum on the Position of Minorities in

Malaysia," which we cannot recommend highly enough. However, she gave us permission to show her reaction to that story's Pushcart nomination with you, Dear Reader:

Goodness, that is good news! Thank you very much. I'm super pleased that you chose the story for all kinds of reasons -- it's a story that couldn't really be set anywhere else but

Malaysia

. It explicitly addresses political issues American readers probably wouldn't be familiar with. It's also basically a silly story -- it deals with a couple of serious issues, but it has silliness at its heart. I was dubious about its prospects of getting sold, much less of getting nominated for awards!

"I can't think of anything else to say about how I feel about the nomination really. Thanks again!"

Both authors are very welcome of course, and we have to thank them in turn for their contributions to FU Weekly. Oh, and if you were wondering where you could read such goodness as both these stories, look here (it goes without saying, you absolutely should!)

If you are interested in what our other Pushcart nominees have to say about their respective pieces, feel free to explore:

Lisa M. Bradley

Bruce Boston

Samantha Kymmell-Harvey

J.S. Watts

--AS

Thank you!

FU Weekly! And: An Interview with Stone Bird Press Founder Rose Lemberg

2012-02-10T15:26:00.000-08:00

According to our little poll FU WEEKLY is what y'all want for a title in this section of weekly tidbits from the world of song and tale. Well, no Problem! We like to please!

This week's offering is a little interview with Rose Lemberg of Stone Telling, who recently branched out with first acquiring the minimalist spec poetry zine inkscrawl (read an interview with inkscrawl's new editor, Samantha Henderson), and then founding a micro press dedicated to a world of verse.

AS: Why "Stone Bird Press"?

RL: I love birds! Many of my poems feature bird imagery, and I’m currently writing fiction set in a fantasy world with a Bird deity. Stone Bird Press seemed like an appropriate way to reference birds and Stone Telling – plus, it’s a nod to an experimental poem of mine, “Marginalia to Stone Bird.”

AS: The SBP slogan is "Poetry Matters." Tell us why.

RL: Why poetry matters? Or why it matters to me? I was born in the Soviet Union. When I was in my early twenties, I had the honor to briefly meet a Nobel Prize laureate, Czesław Miłosz, who accidentally is one of my favorite poets. He has a poem, “You who wronged.”

Który skrzywdziłeś człowieka prostego,
Śmiechem nad krzywdą jego wybuchając (...)
Nie bądź bezpieczny. Poeta pamięta,
Możesz go zabić – narodzi się nowy.
Spisane będą czyny i rozmowy.

You who wronged a simple man

Bursting into laughter at the crime,

[…]

Do not feel safe. The poet remembers.

You can kill one, but another is born.

The words are written down, the deed, the date.

(Here’s the whole piece, translated at the Poetry Foundation: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/179607)

That line, poeta pamięta ‘the poet remembers’ – that is one of my favorite lines. Milosz talks about the poet’s power to resist an evil regime. Poetry is compact; if writing is forbidden, it can be memorized, and thus, you cannot destroy it; it is a perfect vehicle for resistance. Poetry is memory – the poet remembers - not just the wrongs, the wars, but beauty past, and mythic times and epic deeds, awe and heartbreak. Poetry can remember forward and sideways too – and the best speculative work does that. Poetry is not a lucrative pastime, but there will always be those who write and promote it out of love. I realized, back when I started Stone Telling in 2010, that I want not only to create my own worlds, but to enable others to do so, and to bring their work to an audience that may not be large, but for whom this work matters. Poetry matters.

AS: What kind of work will SBP publish? And when can we expect the first SBP book to come out?

RL: Baby steps! We are starting small. I want to see how this will develop. We will publish poetry, and perhaps other things that engage me that are at least tangentially poetry-related. We’ll start with a collection of queer poetry, bringing together the excellent and groundbreaking queer poems published in Stone Telling from its inception, including poetry in the upcoming queer issue. The book will come out in May 2012.

AS: What formats will you be using?

RL: The queer collection will come out as a physical book, and also as a pdf, since poetry is notoriously hard to get right in other e-formats.

FU Weekly thanks Rose for answering our questions. We are looking for that first publication of SBP!

--AS

Ch-Ch-Changes

2012-01-30T21:39:00.000-08:00

Fantastique Unfettered has operated as a print magazine since we started in June of 2010. Since then we have published 4 print issues in a time when print is going the way of the buffalo. Page bleeds aside, I'm damn proud of (Kalpa), (Unless), (Prolefeed), and (Ralewing) as each issues was subtitled, and while it'd be easy to tell the story of building up to publishing the likes of Hal Duncan and Jacqueline West, we started out with Bruce Boston!

Though you'll see improvements in the presentation from issue one to issue four, the content was kick-ass from the start. I mention those names because they're the ones you'll recognize, but there's not a story in those four issues that doesn't stand tall beside the work of these folks.

I'm bragging a bit--something that's uncomfortable for me--but the truth is that you should hop on over to your favorite book site and order all four of those bad boys. You'll be happy you did.

Going into 2012, we are no longer a print magazine.

As cool as it was, it simply has not sold through enough to justify the costs both monetary and in time. Could another year or two of this level of work have built a readership? Sure. I suspect without a better 'in' on the distribution side, it would remain a struggle. There are other scenarios that would see a print version of FU making its way, but even if we were able to pay pro-rates tomorrow (we've kicked the tires on that option too) we remain a fan zine at heart. We're doing the work in our spare time. And making a print magazine in our spare time proved a monumental undertaking, especially with all the various content, art, and a layout that aspired to 'do it right.'

If I could create issues of FU for a living I'd be in heaven.

Alexandra Seidel, poetry editor since issue two, has a similar passion for FU in a new, online incarnation. Recognizing this, I am stepping down as managing editor of the magazine and Alexa is taking the wheel. I'll remain around in some capacity that equals 'various ongoing assistance' but FU the ezine will be new thing that will and should change from what FU the magazine was.

I will not be reading a lot of slush after issue #5, so if you are someone we know a bit, reach out to Alexa and let her know if you can help. Or if you have other talents to offer, mention those. We still hope to see ebook versions at some point, but we need the expertise to do so: another opportunity.

Fantastique Unfettered, as it was originally envisioned, used the Creative Commons ShareAlike Attribution license to 'copyleft' all its content. Aether Age fiction (welcome at FU and at the same rate as the main guidelines describe) will remain cc-by-sa, as will adaptations/derivatives of works published in the first four issues. In the transition to both a new editor and the online medium--while cc-by-sa will remain an option for authors--we will incorporate a more restrictive CC license as an alternative. I encourage authors whose work is published by FU to stick with cc-by-sa. And: options are good.

Fantastique Unfettered: A Periodical of Liberated Literature--as a magazine concept--will remain cc-by-sa.

Our publisher for issues one through four, M-Brane Press/Christopher Fletcher, remains an ally to FU, though as an ezine, FU enters into a free-agent status for the time being. As we look into ebook and 'best of' anthologies, we'll see done whatever is best for FU.

As for me, I'll be around. I remain interested in editing additional projects and when I find something that makes me as excited as FU has, you'll hear me holler. In the mean time, there's this idea I've had since I was in third grade, that I'd be a writer. I'm going to work on that.

Please give your support to Alexa by sending her more kick-ass prose & poetry, buy and share the print issues, write a review on Amazon or your blog, or simply spread the word. Shakespeare Unfettered is 'on like Donkey Kong' (look up along the top there to check out the guidelines) and she is fired up about The Aether Age as well. There is fantastic stuff to come.

--Brandon H. Bell

inkscrawl Rises from the Ashes

2012-01-29T10:45:00.000-08:00

Last year, Mitchell Hart founded the online journal inkscrawl, devoted entirely to short spec poetry of ten lines or fewer. The first two issues featured some great work, but in October of 2011, Mitchell announced that he would no longer publish inkscrawl.

Then, this January, inkscrawl rose again like phoenix from the ashes. The zine is now edited by Samantha Henderson and published by Stone Bird Press, a newly founded micro press owned by Rose Lemberg.

Samantha took the time to do a little interview with FU regarding her new editorial position.

AS: You are inkscrawl's second editor. What will be different from issue 3 and onwards?

SH: Besides the obvious fact that any two editors will have different tastes, the first two issues of inkscrawl showcased poetry with a fantastical element. Starting with issue 3, inkscrawl is now open to all speculative short poetry, science fiction included. The first two issues of inkscrawl were an asset to the speculative poetry field not only because they featured the short form but because the poems Mitchell Hart edited were wonderful examples of what could be done in short formal/informal poetry with the inquiry and curiosity that inform the speculative genres, and I hope to continue that.

AS: Where do you see the appeal in short spec poetry both for readers and writers? Being a poet yourself, what does it take to write a good short poem?

SH: For both readers and writers, I believe much of the appeal is to experience or make something that's a crystallization, on short form, of the spirit of inquiry and imaginative possibility of speculative genres - the shock of recognizing something that doesn't exist in our reality that has created its own fantastical or science fictional space. Short poetry, formalized or not, can be deceptively difficult; It takes focus and requires being mindful not only of what poetic materials (words, rhythms, rhymes, etc) are used but also what is not used.

AS: What kind of work would you like to find in your inbox? What topics are you looking for?

SH: I've avoided being specific about what precisely I'm looking for in the guidelines because I don't want anyone to not send something because they think it might be a form I don't like, or because it doesn't fall into some kind of strict definition of speculative. There are some things that are going to be a hard sell, I think because they are difficult to do well - humor, notoriously, and rhyming poetry come to mind - but that doesn't mean people shouldn't send it. I see a lot that speculative poetry published that I would consider "one liners," rather than poems - but then, one of my favorite very short poems is Kendall Evans' "If Only," which is all of nine words long and manages to invoke enormous context.

I would like to see something that takes the scope and the powerful voice of Alex Dally MacFarlane's "Sung Around Alsar-Scented Fires" (http://stonetelling.com/issue6-dec2011/macfarlane-alsarscented.html) and manages to do it as a triolet, or gets to the meat of Neuromancer in ten lines. I like poems that invoke an immediate emotional reaction without being maudlin, like Rose Lemberg's "If I Had Reb Yoel's Violin" (http://inkscrawl.net/issue1-june2011/lemberg-yoelsviolin.html). And although a poem can be stronger for being self-contained, I like work that makes me want to explore or research something outside of my experience.

AS: Ten years from now inkscrawl will be...?

SH: Gone with the rest of the internet in the Solar Storm of 2017? Archived in a coil of tungsten at the base of your ear? The Sentient Meme Party nominee for POTUS? It's impossible to know if any venue, poetry or fiction, pixel or dead tree, will be around that far in the future, but whether or not inscrawl's around in ten years I hope the poems it has and will feature will resonate with those who appreciate short spec poems.

FU thanks Sam for taking the time to answer our questions! We hope that readers take a few minutes to visit and browse the inkscrawl site, and writers who are interested in submitting their work can find the guidelines here.

--AS

FU#5 cover reveal and other interesting news...

2012-01-22T20:22:00.000-08:00

View the teaser cover for the next issue of Fantastique Unfettered, along with some possible bonuses for accepted AeA contributors, over at The Aether Age zine. We understand that contributing to shared world markets can present a chancy proposition to authors: if rejected, what do you do with the story? Due to the story length and the stratified tech eras, we've arranged it so authors may fairly easily adapt their story back into a more typical steampunk, sf, or fantasy tale. It's an iffy sort of path: we certainly don't want 'typical' anything. But let's see if this makes it easier to take the plunge. We hope to publish something awesome by month's end. Maybe you have something that is just about right.

Clay Shirky on SOPA courtesy TED.com

2012-01-20T15:50:00.000-08:00

SOPA: What, Why, and Taking Action

2012-01-17T22:07:00.000-08:00

What is SOPA?

Why is SOPA Dangerous?

What can I Do?

Fantastique Unfettered 2011 Awards Eligibility - Poetry

2012-01-09T18:58:00.000-08:00

Here are the fifteen poems we published last year--one long poem, the rest short, all of them excellent.

Fantastique Unfettered #2 (Unless) --April 2011

Then Cried Arthus by Peter Chiykowski (short poem, 1-49 lines)

Fantastique Unfettered #3 (Prolefeed) -- September 2011

Relative Weights and Measures by Bruce Boston (short poem, 1-49 lines)

Blodeuedd, or, The Maiden of Flowers by Robert E. Stutts (short poem, 1-49 lines)

The Cartographer's Ache by Robert E. Stutts (short poem, 1-49 lines)

In Defiance of Sleek-Armed Androids by Lisa M. Bradley (short poem, 1-49 lines)

Green Rushes by J.S. Watts (short poem, 1-49 lines)

Fantastique Unfettered #4 (Ralewing) -- December 2011

Binary by Mike Allen (long poem)

Sisyphus Crawls by Mike Allen (short poem, 1-49 lines)

Seed the Earth, Burn the Sky by Mike Allen (short poem, 1-49 lines)

Black Sheep by Jacqueline West (short poem, 1-49 lines)

Life Decisions by Kaolin Fire (short poem, 1-49 lines)

Clones evaporate faster by Kristine Ong Muslim (short poem, 1-49 lines)

'cubus by Dan Campbell (short poem, 1-49 lines)

Self-portrait by Shweta Narayan (short poem, 1-49 lines)

At the Crossroads of the West by J. C. Runolfson (short poem, 1-49 lines)

Fantastique Unfettered 2011 Awards Eligibility - Prose & Art

2012-01-08T13:47:00.000-08:00

Here are the 2011 prose and artworks from Fantastique Unfettered that are eligible for (Hugo/Nebula) award nomination. Perhaps in 2012 we will make that Semiprozine claim, but at this point it seems appropriate to define FU as a fanzine. A separate post is forthcoming with poetry award eligibility.

Categories and qualifying works:

Novelette (at least 7,500 words but less than 17,500 words):

Two Steps Forward by Sandra Odell, published in Fantastique Unfettered #3 (Prolefeed)

Short Story (at least 7,500 words but less than 17,500 words):

Fantastique Unfettered #2 (Unless) -- April 2011

Dividing Lines by Lawrence Conquest
Every Mother's Child by Therese Arkenberg
Glorious Madness by Jude-Marie Green
I Remember Jenny by Michael Pignatella
Me and Susan Smiling at the Beach by Jeremy Schliewe
Red Truck by William "Bill" C Rasmussen
The Dollhouse by Magen Toole
Wagon Trail by John Moran
We Are Family by Simone Martel
The Kemetian Husesen Craze by Ed W. Robertson

Fantastique Unfettered #3 (Prolefeed) -- September 2011

A Spectacular Display by Beth Cato
First National Forum on the Position of Minorities in Malaysia by Zen Cho
The Singularity of Puppies by Michael Furlong
First Born by Samantha Kymmell-Harvey
The Jelly Fish Queen by Jaelithe Ingold
Twelve Days of Dragons by Mari Ness
Two Steps Forward by Sandra Odell
The Lesson of the Pheonix by Julia Rios
The City at Night by Jeremy Schliewe

Fantastique Unfettered #4 (Ralewing) -- December 2011

Azif by Lynne Jamneck
The Bachorum Principle by Brenda Stokes Barron
The Butterfly Collection of Miss Letitia Willoughby Forbes by Alma Alexander
Mr. White Umbrella by Georgina Bruce
Sons of the Law by Hal Duncan
Three Tales of the Devil’s Wife by Carmen Lau
Vérité by D. Harlan Wilson

Stolen Souls by Mike Allen (Reprint) -- Reading through the requirements for works published previously outside the US, it is unclear if this story is eligible for consideration. It was originally published in Altair #3, an Australian zine, in 1999.

Other Categories:

Fanzine: Fantastique Unfettered, edited by Brandon H. Bell. (We have published four issues, three in 2011. We pay our contributors and are a print publication.)

Related Work: Fantastique Unfettered, Alexandra Seidel & Brandon H. Bell. This includes the Alexa Chats series of interviews; Hail Caesar: Creative Commons and the Small Press; Life is Suffering: The Writer's Point of View, Being a Discussion with Hal Duncan & Mike Allen; This Inscrutable Light: A Response to Thomas Ligotti's The Conspiracy Against the Human Race; and additional book reviews.

Best (fan?) Artist: (my parenthetical here is due to the high quality of artwork contributed by artists who are professionals in their field. I am also only listing cover artists and those few items commissioned, since most interior art has been done in-house by the editorial staff or contributed on a exposure basis.)

M.S. Corley -- Fantastique Unfettered 'Aetherati & Automata' masthead. Shakespeare Unfettered submissions page illustration, 'Steampunk Shakespeare.'

Luis Beltran -- Covers #2 (Unless) & #4 (Ralewing)

E.M. Jensen Cover #3 (Prolefeed)

Issue #4 Reviewed on Locus Online

2012-01-07T20:41:00.000-08:00

"Another example of the kind of zine I tend to like, when done well: surreal and strange fantasy based on unusual ideas. This one is clearly a labor of love. It has a variety of content: fiction, verse, interviews and other editorial matter, and full-page illustrations. The issue features Mike Allen and Hal Duncan. There are seven original stories..."

Lois Tilton goes on to comment on the over-all feel/theme of the issue and includes short comments on the 7 original stories.

Read the full review HERE.

Fantastique Unfettered #4 (Ralewing) now available

2011-12-27T22:14:00.000-08:00

Get it now via Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Available soon through Powell's.

Distribution | Back Issues | Press Kit

Fiction:
Azif by Lynne Jamneck
The Bachorum Principle by Brenda Stokes Barron
The Butterfly Collection of Miss Letitia Willoughby Forbes by Alma Alexander
Mr. White Umbrella by Georgina Bruce
Sons of the Law by Hal Duncan
Stolen Souls by Mike Allen (Reprint)
Three Tales of the Devil’s Wife by Carmen Lau
Vérité by D. Harlan Wilson

Poetry:
Mike Allen (special feature)
Seed the Earth, Burn the Sky
Binary
Sisyphus Crawls

Self-portrait by Shweta Narayan
'cubus by Dan Campbell
At the Crossroads of the West by J. C. Runolfson
Life Decisions by Kaolin Fire
Black Sheep by Jacqueline West
Clones evaporate faster by Kristine Ong Muslim

Nonfiction:
Alexa Chats with... Hal Duncan & Brent Weeks
Life is Suffering: The Writer's Point of View, Being a Discussion with Hal Duncan & Mike Allen, Conducted by Alexandra Seidel
This Inscrutable Light: A Response to Thomas Ligotti’s The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, Editorial by Brandon H. Bell

Fantastique Unfettered #4: What Others Say: C.S.E. Cooney

2011-12-23T15:52:00.000-08:00

"Reading the 'Ralewing' issue of Fantastique Unfettered is like resting your face against the smooth side of a mountain. Immediately you realize three things. Inside this mountain is a palace. It is a beautiful palace, dark and vast, but not kindly. This is where the soul goes when it dies.

Set your ear to the stone more firmly. What do you hear? A thunderclap built of human voices. A slither, a whisper, a restless shiver of wings. Press your eye to a fissure in the stone. What do you see? Monstrous angels, horned harlequins, coyotes and cowboys, a gleam of cabochon amber, a thing of patient patchwork waiting for the lightning. Sniff what wafts from an aperture. What is that smell? A hint of carrion. Something pickled in brine, vaguely green. Witch ash. Sulfur. New rain.

There is poetry here, keen as starlight, that prowls the dark like a wolf. Be careful how you consume it. Like the first fruits offered in an underworld, the poetry in this issue is both a rite of passage and an invitation to stay."

-- C.S.E. Cooney

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Fantastique Unfettered #4, coming Dec 26

Pushcart Nominees 2011: Bruce Boston

2011-12-19T17:38:00.000-08:00

Relative Weights and Measures explained... Bruce Boston talks about his nominated poem from FU #3.

On “Relative Weights and Measures”

By Bruce Boston

“Relative Weights and Measures” was composed in a rush of writing poems for my collection Surrealities (Dark Regions, 2011). I started with one file and filled it with ideas for surreal poems, titles for surreal lines, sudden lines that flashed into my mind, strange juxtapositions. Surrealism thrives on juxtapositions, the kind that at first glance appear startling…yet when one looks closer, can reveal strange associations. Somewhere along those lines I started to think of all the different ways we weigh and measure the world, material and subjective, all of them linked by the common denominator of a value being assigned. From there to the finished poem was a process of finding the right measurements to include and juxtapose.

The result was a poem that, despite its brevity, reflects a range of my interests and experiences –

the “feathers and gold” stanza: conflicting measurements and evaluations,

the “Bugatti” stanza: Einstein’s theory of relativity,

the “nepenthe” stanza: alchemy/fantasy/magic,

the “ten gallon hat” stanza: imagination unlimited

the “guns and butter” stanza: my worthless degree in economics,

the “scissor” stanza: an observation of measurement drawn from experience

– a poem that hopefully resonates.

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Further posts that might interest our readers:

-Bruce Boston on his Bram Stoker Award

-A review of Dark Matters

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"Relative Weights and Measures" appeared in Fantastique Unfettered #3

Get your copy from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Pushcart Nominees 2011: Samantha Kymmell-Harvey

2011-12-16T16:39:00.000-08:00

Our third nominee will talk to you of fairy tales and how they end. How they could end. How they could never end.

The Origins of
“First Born”

By Samantha Kymmell-Harvey

The seeds of “First Born” were really sown in my childhood. For Christmas, my dad got me a couple of books from the Time Life Enchanted World series, which if you’re not familiar, is this fantastic collection of books that tell the stories of mythology, folklore, and fairy tales. I’d be up way past my bedtime, under the covers, flashlight in hand, reading. And as I read each story, I’d silently berate the heroes. Why did the fisherman follow the mermaid back into the sea? Didn’t he know she’d drown him? Why did the child climb on the kelpie’s back? I wouldn’t get on a creepy looking, red-eyed horse. Time and time again, I’d tell them not to do it, yet they did it anyway. Of course, this frustration never deterred me from reading those stories again. But it was this passion that ultimately led to a Master’s thesis on the supernatural in French courtly romances. Yes, believe it or not, a thesis on fairies, goblins, giants and the like is perfectly legitimate.

First Born, for me, represents that voice of reason. She warns the wives of Bluebeard, just as I did while reading Charles Perrault’s story Barbe Bleue many years ago during my undergrad French program.

In Perrault’s version, the story opens with Bluebeard already having gained a reputation for his missing wives. Despite his blue beard, considered an ugly deformity, he still manages to snag another bride. But this is the wife who survives. After she discovers the bodies in the basement, she drops the keys into the blood. The problem is, the keys are enchanted and will not wash clean. This is how Bluebeard knows what she’s done. But before he can murder this last bride, she calls upon her brothers to murder him instead.

In “First Born,” I wanted to incorporate the classic elements of fairy tales and folklore, but experiment with warnings. If the characters were told of their fate, would they still break the rules anyway? To my surprise, the answer was yes. Because it’s human nature to do the one thing you’re told not to do, and that’s what good fairy tales capture: both the flaws and redemption of our human condition.

Loneliness, in my opinion, is the underlying motivation here. Bluebeard wants a companion, yet he seems cursed. None of his wives can resist opening that basement door and thus he must murder them. And the brides must be lonely too, for why else would they marry this man knowing his reputation?

First Born, the daughter of Bluebeard and his first wife, feels the ultimate sting of loneliness. She’s a child who will never know the love of parents or the love of friendship. Forced to live in the shadows of the castle, she becomes a sort of “living ghost.” Though she wants a friend, she cannot risk revealing her existence. At night, she whispers into the ears of each bride “Beware of the man with the blue beard. Though he is your husband, he will not spare you. But I will be your friend for as long as I still breathe.” Despite the warning, these women still find their way into the forbidden chamber.

In considering the end of the piece, I disliked the fact that Perrault’s final wife is rescued by her knightly brothers. I preferred a strong woman who could save herself. Furthermore, since Bluebeard is a sort of supernatural being, I felt his death could only be delivered by someone also of that world. Enter the Winter Bride, or Death -- the ultimate cure for loneliness. And for First Born, Death redeems her from her loneliness in a very unexpected way.

In closing, I’d like to thank a few people for the roles they had in making “First Born” come together. First, without the watchful eyes of my critique group (especially Kelly and Marion), this story would never have made it into print. And thank you Prof. Martin for telling me that I can indeed study fairy tales.

Finally, a huge thank you to Brandon Bell and Alexa Seidel for believing in this story and honoring it with a Pushcart Prize nomination. I still can’t believe it and I am so grateful! I’m in awe of your magazine. It’s clear you really believe in your writers and in your mission. I hope one day I may grace your pages again.

About the author:

Samantha Kymmell-Harvey is originally from Midlothian, Virginia but now resides in Baltimore. She studied French at the College of William and Mary and French Medieval Literature at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She loves to write gothic, historical fiction, steampunk, and re-tellings of old fairy tales. Her fiction can be found in The Urbanite and Underneath the Juniper Tree. When not writing, she teaches high school French. Check out her blog at: http://samanthakymmell-harvey.blogspot.com/

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"First Born" appeared in Fantastique Unfettered #3

Get your copy from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Pushcart Nominees 2011: J.S. Watts

2011-12-12T13:50:00.000-08:00

This Monday brings us yet another of our Pushcart nominees, J.S. Watts who will throw some light on her engaging poem Green Rushes.

Green Grow The Rushes, O

Reflections on the poem, Green Rushes

When trying to write this type of post and shine some light on one of my poems, I am never sure whether it’s best to introduce myself or the poem first. The poem is, after all, a reflection of a part of my mind, but, by writing this post, my mind is reflecting on and reflecting back the poem – a sort of chicken and egg scenario, but with the added complication of mirrors.

Today the first image to find its way into the mirror of this post is mine – me. I’m a British writer who has been fascinated with words and stories for as long as I can remember. As a child I loved myths and fairy stories, to the extent that I must have exhausted the local library’s book collection of Myths and Legends From Around The World. I also drove my mother mad by constantly asking her to, “Tell me another history story”. The bloody doings of the Kings and Queens of

England

were of particular interest to my developing, and possibly darkening, imagination.

I have maintained this fascination with things mythical and historical to the present day. I guess you can see this in the subject matter of many of my short stories and poems, my enthusiasm for British folk music and in the folk traditions (or superstitions, if you prefer) that are so frequently referenced within it. I have also developed a fascination with the human psyche: the psychological clockwork that makes (or doesn’t make) us tick as individuals. You’ll see all of these things reflected in Green Rushes as I move it into the reflective glass of this post.

Green Rushes was, as is so often the case, a coming together (or should that be a refraction?) of many different ideas and influences: the aforementioned love of myth and legend, the traditional song Green Grow The Rushes, O, the modern folk singing of Suzanne Vega (in particular the song Straight Lines, should you be interested), a lurking feeling that if anything is down at the bottom of the garden it is likely to be somewhat darker than little, merrymaking fairies (sorry, Rose Fyleman), my interest in folk traditions and superstitions and in the darker recesses of the human psyche, plus my own head of long dark hair (longer than it is now) which, at the time, had a propensity for getting seriously tangled. Combined together, the planned outcome was a mythic, folk poem of alienation and marginalization: it is purely intentional that, by the end of the poem, the rushes are found on the margins, “at the borders of the garden”. When reflecting upon Green Rushes you might also want to bear in mind the frequently negative influence of mirrors in myth and legend: their reputation as gateways to innumerable other worlds, their roles in Snow White, The Lady of Shallot.

The hair-brushing, mirror-gazing speaker of Green Rushes grows increasingly isolated during the course of the poem, because “one is one and all alone and ever more shall be so”, as the traditional song goes. She lets go of friends and lovers and ultimately herself when she abandons the mirror image that she has cultivated for so long, and “which shows the world as others view”, by hacking off her long straight hair. The fact that she continues to brush away at what is no longer there is not a psychologically positive thing, but the straightness which the speaker abandons is not necessarily positive either. The straight green rushes seen at the start of the poem take on a more ominous hue by the end: the green of rot and decay on the margins of life. The straightness of her hair, the rushes and her upright lover (as magicked-up by the mirror) can be seen as symbols of control and restraint (psychological and social), a straightjacket that is destroyed by cutting her hair off, though the memory of straightness is retained by the brush as it continues to “stroke straight” after the hair has gone. Custom and habit have a lot to answer for. Throw into this mix, the psychosexual allure of long hair and the superstition of seeing your future husband as you comb your hair by candlelight in front of a mirror whilst eating an apple and you have, hopefully, a folk tale of love and loss, female limitations and subsequent emancipation at the cost of sanity, loneliness and despair all contained within the domestic claustrophobia of the bedroom: a psychological reflection, in some ways, of The Lady of Shallot, but in this poem the mirror remains uncracked while the human psyche sustains the damage instead.

In writing this post and reflecting upon Green Rushes, a poem I wrote some years ago, now, I have reminded myself that the simple folk-style repetition of the poem conceals a complex interior. There are so many different echoes within the poem that, perhaps, somewhere there is shattered, multi-faceted, mirror reflecting this diversity of images and ideas back at the reader. Perhaps it is this post. Perhaps it is the poem itself. Perhaps they are both nothing but reflections of the other. Mirrors can be disconcerting things.

J.S.Watts was born in London, England and now lives and writes in East Anglia. In between, she read English at Somerville College, Oxford and spent many years working in the education sector. She remains committed to the ideals of further and higher education despite governments of assorted political persuasions trying to demolish them.

Her poetry, short stories and book reviews appear in a variety of publications in Britain, Canada, Australia and the States including Acumen, Brittle Star, Envoi, Hand + Star, Orbis and Fantastique Unfettered and have been broadcast on BBC and independent Radio. She has been Poetry Reviews Editor for Open Wide Magazine and, until its recent demise, Poetry Editor for Ethereal Tales. Her debut poetry collection, Cats and Other Myths is published by Lapwing Publications. Further details of the book, which finds contemporary relevance in the echoes of myth and legend and the mythic in the day to day world around us, can be found on her website: www.jswatts.co.uk .

You can also find her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/J.S.Watts.page

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Green Rushes appeared in Fantastique Unfettered #3

Get your copy from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Pushcart Nominees 2011: Lisa M. Bradley

2011-12-09T12:58:00.001-08:00

A few days ago, we announced our Pushcart nominees here. But then we thought, wouldn't it be much more interesting--more interesting than just a list we typed up--to let our nominees speak for themselves? Well, obviously this is a rhetorical question, and instead of wasting your time with my babble, I give you Lisa M. Bradly who gave us a short response in regard to her nomination for her poem In Defiance of Sleek-Armed Androids. Lisa already did a guest post about her poem for us when we learned it would be reprinted in The Moment of Change, an anthology of feminist spec poetry, forthcoming in 2012.

"I'm not a spiritual person, but it felt like kismet when Fantastique Unfettered published In Defiance of Sleek-armed Androids. A periodical that operates under a Creative Commons license? A staff committed to promoting ideas unfettered by traditional copyright? I couldn't think of a more-fitting venue for my poem, which was inspired by the title of another poet's work and revels in the theme of confounding expectations. But now, I learn that FU nominated my poem for a Pushcart Prize, and I am awed all over again. Brandon and Alexa are truly committed to the works they publish and to their authors. I'd say, Could I ask for anything more?—but truth to tell, I'm a little scared of what FU might do next. I only wish I wrote more and faster, so I could send more poetry their way, and maybe score a slot in their table of contents again. For now, I am so very pleased and grateful. Happy holidays, indeed!"

We are humbled, Lisa, and grateful to have your name on one of our ToC's (so far.) Thanks for writing!

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Lisa's poem appeared in Fantastique Unfettered #3

Get your copy from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Pushcart Nominations 2011

2011-12-07T12:15:00.001-08:00

We are very happy to announce our Pushcart nominees of 2011:

Issue Two:

>We Are Family by Simone Martel

Issue Three:

>Relative Weights and Measures by Bruce Boston
>In Defiance of Sleek-Armed Androids by Lisa M. Bradley
>Green Rushes by J.S. Watts
>First Born by Samantha Kymmell-Harvey
>First National Forum on the Position of Minorities in Malaysia by Zen Cho

While picking out these works, we were again confronted with why it sucks being an editor: you have to choose. We chose the pieces that we thought might stand the best chance in winning, we did not pick favorites here. What I'm trying to say is we love the work of all our authors--we wouldn't have accepted it if we didn't. We are sorry that we could pick only six pieces, but we hope that all the other authors can keep their fingers crossed for their ToC mates. Thanks everyone!

Issue Four aka (Ralewing) Table of Contents

2011-11-14T15:36:00.000-08:00

Fantastique Unfettered is available through leading distributors such as Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and others. You may also contact our publisher to place bulk wholesale orders.

Press Kit

Issue 4 Available on or near December 8th 2011 Back Issues Available Now.

Fiction:

Azif by Lynne Jamneck

The Bachorum Principle by Brenda Stokes Barron

The Butterfly Collection of Miss Letitia Willoughby Forbes by Alma Alexander

Mr. White Umbrella by Georgina Bruce

Sons of the Law by Hal Duncan

Stolen Souls by Mike Allen (Reprint)

Three Tales of the Devil’s Wife by Carmen Lau

Vérité by D. Harlan Wilson

Poetry:

Mike Allen (special feature)

Seed the Earth, Burn the Sky

Binary

Sisyphus Crawls

Self-portrait by Shweta Narayan

'cubus by Dan Campbell

At the Crossroads of the West by J. C. Runolfson

Life Decisions by Kaolin Fire

Black Sheep by Jacqueline West

Clones evaporate faster by Kristine Ong Muslim

Nonfiction:

Alexa Chats with... Hal Duncan & Brent Weeks

Life is Suffering: The Writer's Point of View, Being a Discussion with Hal Duncan & Mike Allen, Conducted by Alexandra Seidel

This Inscrutable Light: A Response to Thomas Ligotti’s The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, Editorial by Brandon H. Bell

Poetry stats, issue 4 of Fantastique Unfettered

2011-11-12T11:27:00.001-08:00

Poetry slush by the numbers:

We received 32 submission batches from 30 authors, a total of 89
poems. This is less than last submission period, but that may well be
attributed to the fact that we closed to subs early. While many of the
subs for #3 came in late, this time it felt like more was coming in on
a day to day basis. The three poems for the Mike Allen Special Feature
are not included here.

Poetry slush by gender:

Authors:
male: 16, accounting for 59.38% of all submssion batches and 60.67% of all poems
female: 14, accounting for 40.63% of all submission batches and 39.33%
of all poems

Acceptances: Out of these 89 poems, 6 were chosen for inclusion in #4.
This is a little more than usual and speaks to the high quality of
this particular slush pile.
acceptance rate: 6.74%
rejection rate: 93.26%

Acceptances by gender:

male: 1/3
female: 2/3

Like last submission period, male authors sent multiple batches while
female authors never sent more than one.

Response time for poery slush: ranged from almost immediately to 71
days with an average of 28 days. Final round pieces and acceptances
always wait the longest, sorry folks!
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Our TOC is forthcoming, possibly before the weekend is over.

Fantasy Literature on Fantastique Unfettered #3

2011-11-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

"Even as many mourn the apparent passing of the age of print, it seems that more and more speculative fiction periodicals are coming into being. When I first heard of Fantastique Unfettered, I was certain that it must be an internet-only publication. Yet as far as I can tell, it isn’t even available in electronic format. Instead, it’s a traditional magazine, full-size (as opposed to the digest-size of Asimov’s, Analog and F&SF), and chock-full of black and white illustrations. The stories are fantastical in the best sense of the word: strange and marvelous, full of the inexplicable." Read the entire review HERE.

Issue 4 Update

2011-11-01T21:56:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick status update.

Poets: we are still making decisions, and hope to advise those of you still waiting asap. Our poetry editor is abroad, visiting the Globe Theatre in fact, but will get word out soon.
Prose authors; all story selections have been made and responses sent to all authors. There are no outstanding short story/ flashfic subs.
We will announce the TOC once we have our poets confirmed for the issue.

Thanks for your interest in the magazine! This is going to be a very special issue.

Not So Broken

2011-10-27T20:48:00.000-07:00

Thoughts on In Defiance of Sleek-armed Androids

We are happy to welcome guest blogger Lisa M. Bradley. She is a poetry contributor of FU #3, and her poem In Defiance of Sleek-Armed Androids recently made the ToC of The Moment of Change, an anthology devoted to feminist spec poetry and edited by Rose Lemberg. Read on, and let Lisa tell you about her defiance:

The catalyst for my poem was Jaswinder Bolina's poem (published in American Poetry Review and acknowledged in my poem's footnote) "One Day, Androids Will Have Pudgy Arms and Hug Us Like Mother, But Still I’d Reach for You, Dear Reader, Which Is Why I Have So Much Faith in Us as a People." I love ridiculously long titles, and I was delighted to see a mainstream, literary poet referencing a SFnal concept. True, he rejected the notion that technology can satisfy our need for nurturing touch. (Carbon-centric prejudice!) Still, I admired his calm defiance, his belief that humans will always know the difference between Us and Them.

But I doubt androids will have pudgy, "motherly" arms any time soon, because our culture (I'm thinking specifically of the United States) has a youth fetish and is obsessed with sex. At the same time, our technology relentlessly pursues streamlined efficiency without asking, "Efficient for whom?" For all their overtures toward ergonomics, manufacturers still cater to an ideal that doesn't exist. This is why I need barbecue tongs to reach the top shelf in my kitchen, why three-quarter sleeves infuriate me, why my child can't wash her hands in a public bathroom, why people using wheelchairs can't navigate store aisles, and so on.

So I took back the SFnal concept, but I made it more realistic. Technology perpetuates internalized prejudices: hence, idealized able-bodied androids that exist as sex objects. Once I'd hit upon that premise, the poem spilled out, although not with anything approaching calm defiance. Obviously, I would reject such androids, as surely as Bolina would reject the pudgy-armed momdroid. Not because they're "mechas" but because they're attempts to police my desires, deny my needs, erase me.

I didn't know how strongly I felt, how rebellious, until the words were on the page. I didn't know how feminist the poem was until I wrote this essay.

Anything that refutes or resists the status quo is considered dangerous by those who benefit from it. (See the NYPD's response to Occupy Wall Street.) According to the status quo, certain people are not supposed to feel desire. They're not supposed to have sex, or to have sex "that way." Yet human beings need satisfying, nurturing tactile experiences to be happy and healthy, and for many of us, that includes sex.

I believe transgressive, "dangerous" sex can actually make us less harmful to ourselves and others, because the consensual fulfillment of our specific needs validates our sense of self-worth: "This is what I want and need, and I deserve to have it." And when we get what we need, we feel good about ourselves. We're more productive and generous. That's what I mean by:

The longer we grind together,
the safer our jagged silhouettes grow
for programmed caresses…

But once we receive such sustenance, we are much less inclined to sacrifice our desires for the benefit of a hostile system:

…our crevasses yawn,
ache for shorn and crumbling cleavages
that…upset the wholesome parameters
set by quality control.

In my poem, Us versus Them doesn't mean androids/mechas/fake versus humans/biologic/real. It means real, imperfect, complicated relationships versus fake, perfect, frictionless fantasies. It means me and my tribe versus those who perpetuate harmful, uninterrogated idealizations.

When Rose Lemberg requested "In Defiance of Sleek-armed Androids" for the The Moment of Change: An Anthology of Feminist Speculative Poetry, I was pleased but puzzled. I hadn't thought of my poem as feminist.

That's one of the benefits of anthologies. While writing this poem, while down in the trenches, it was all I could do to find the words that fit how I felt, that melded eroticism with defiance to suit the soul of the poem. As a reader, I often slip into the same tunnel vision. I am so eager to immerse in the text—to wallow in alliteration, marvel over turns of phrase, admire form and experimentation—that I lose sight of the larger context. By gathering diverse works, having them grind together as it were, editors prompt new comparisons and realizations, even among the authors themselves.

I'm grateful that Rose selected this poem (and another of mine) for the anthology—not only because she's gifted me with a deeper understanding of my own words, but also because I'm deeply honored, flabbergasted even, to share a table of contents with so many outstanding poets. I thank Fantastique Unfettered for first broadcasting my poem and for sharing the rabble-rousing spirit of liberation.

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Lisa Bradley's work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Weird Tales, Cicada, Mothering, and many other publications. Her poems "The Haunted Girl" and "In Defiance of Sleek-armed Androids" are reprinted in The Moment of Change: An Anthology of Feminist Speculative Poetry (forthcoming from Aqueduct Press). She believes, as Oscar Wilde wrote, "The truth is rarely pure and never simple." She tells her impure, tangled truths at cafenowhere.livejournal.com and she tumbles and tweets as cafenowhere.

Stories of the Hidden People

2011-10-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

by Zen Cho

A while ago I wrote a story so hopelessly embedded in the Malaysian context I doubted any non-Malaysian publication would take it. However, being a determined optimist, I sent it out into the world and was very pleased when Fantastique Unfettered agreed to publish it. "First National Forum on the Position of Minorities in Malaysia" features in Issue 3: Prolefeed.

The story was recently one of five finalists in the English language creative writing category of the Selangor Young Talent Awards, which recognise artistic achievement by young Malaysians. Brandon and Alexa suggested I might want to write a post about this for Fantastique Unfettered, so here I am!

The events of my story take place at a conference run by well-meaning young activists, designed to encourage discussion by community stakeholders about minority rights. Business as usual – except that they have an unexpected guest. (It's less boring than it sounds!)

As a fantasy writer my general approach is more E. Nesbit than J. R. R. Tolkien – I'm interested in the intrusion of the fantastic into the mundane, and in drawing out what might be mundane about the fantastic. Since I'm from a country where the activities of supernatural beings are reported in the news and peculiar behaviour can sometimes be chalked up to fairy abduction, writing stories about a world where magic mingles with the everyday comes naturally.

Fairy is a misnomer, of course. Malaysia is populated by the uncanny in its various forms, but none of those forms come with little wings and a cone hat. You're more likely to encounter a reanimated fetus rifling through your stuff on behalf of its sorcerous (and larcenous) master, or pick up a beautiful hitchhiker who will then proceed to devour your internal organs.

They're not all bad, of course. Orang bunian live in the jungle and seem generally benign, though certain communities' practice of playing the kompang from 2 am till dawn make them undesirable neighbours. Orang bunian are Muslims and speak Malay, or sometimes Javanese – a detail that highlights a striking characteristic of Malaysian spirits, the fact that their racial and religious make-up reflect the diversity of the country's human population.

Local deity Dato' Gong is an especially interesting example. Similar to the Lares of Ancient Rome, there are numerous Dato' Gong and they are attached to places – when you start construction of a new building on a virgin plot of land, the construction workers (if Chinese) will erect a shrine to the local Dato' Gong and pray to him before starting work. Because Malaysia is a country of the Malays, the immigrant-descended Chinese community pay their respects in a way that befits a Malay-Muslim god. You might make offerings of bunga telur, sirih pinang or halal curry, but nothing haram (forbidden) – pork and alcohol are out.

I first learnt about Dato' Gong via Malaysian writer Danny Lim's Malaysian Book of the Undead. The deity is a great illustration of the tensions that arise from the mix of cultures in Malaysia, and is one cobbled-together answer to the questions that continue to trouble us as a society – who owns the land, what responsibilities we owe each other, and at the end of the day, how does a community operate when its members come from such different places?

In my story I've tried to play with the expectations we impose not only on our human compatriots, but on the spiritous inhabitants of our country. I've tried to point up, as well, the various contrasts in modern Malaysian society as I know it – between the progressive and the traditional, the enlightened and the superstitious, the urban and the jungular. And finally, I've tried to show what I believe – that these qualities are not separate poles in opposition of each other, but points on a spectrum; that you can be progressive and old-fashioned, enlightened but ignorant, inflexible and accepting.

When writing a story about characters having an explicitly political discussion, there's always a risk that it'll come off as a heavy-handed "message" story, that you'll be perceived as pushing some moral or other. If I am pushing any moral in this story it is that people – including spirits – are not as simple as they think they are.

***

If you're interested in finding out more about Malaysian mythology, check out the following links.

Glossary of Malaysian ghosts, provided by Malaysian newspaper the Star.
Danny Lim's The Malaysian Book of the Undead is basically a dictionary of the undead, also available in Malay: Kitab Pengetahuan Hantu Malaysia.
Singaporean writer Alfian Sa'at wrote a series of stories with Malay hantu or spirits as their theme, which are free to read online: Toyol and Hantu Kum-Kum; Hantu Tetek (an improbable ghost which suffocates children with its enormous breasts); Penunggu; Pontianak. While not fantasy, each story uses the concept of the hantu to explore aspects of the human condition.
For a brief guide to Malaysian sff, see Eeleen Lee's Rough Guide to Modern Malaysian Science Fiction and Fantasy (mainly focused on English language writing). She has also posted specifically about Malaysian horror fiction: The Magical Roots of Malaysian Horror Fiction in English.

***

Zen Cho is a Malaysian writer living in London. Her short stories have been featured or areforthcoming in various venues including Strange Horizons, the Selangor Times, Steam-Powered II, GigaNotoSaurus and Mascara Literary Review. She blogs about food and fiction at http://qian.dreamwidth.org.

First Annual Halloween Fundraiser

2011-10-15T09:43:00.000-07:00

Announcing the Fantastique Unfettered First Annual Halloween Fundraiser

What's it for?

We are working on some extraordinary projects and milestones:
A very special issue of FU, Shakespeare Unfettered.
Launching the Aether Age ezine.
An increased pay rate for fiction in 2012.
And of course our one year anniversary issue this December.

Where do my donations go?

To further literature that explores the cracks in the genre boundaries, to give new voices to old tropes, to bring the strange, weird, and wonderful to readers all around the world, to support writers, poets, artists (of every skin color, religious belief, sexual orientation...); to give room to unfettered voices.

What can I do?

Donate $5 or $10 to support a poem
Donate $15 to support a flash story
Donate $33 or $50 to support a short story
Donate $66 to support the cover art in one of the issues
Donate $100 to get your name published in issue four as an official FU sponsor
Donate $600 to fund an issue in 2012

I don't have cash, what else do you need?

Reviews! Especially on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, & Powells. Be honest. Some stories work better than others for a given reader. That's great information for potential readers. We have pdf review copies of all issues.
Blog about us! Reviews are valid, but we are also available for interviews.
Spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, (ahhhhh, wherever you hang your virtual hat), become a follower on Twitter @FUnfettered...

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