New Fiction 2022 – April

The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete – “Judges” ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

Eyy Samson, and a lot of focus on how the Israelites are more a loose band of tribes than a nation led by a king. And we sing, “there is no king.”

The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete – “Ruth” ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

Short and sweet, focused on Ruth’s origin as wife of Booz in the lineage that leads to King David. The next book is called 1 Kings so it feels like they’ll finally get to the fireworks factory.

Man Hating Psycho – “Change :)” by Iphgenia Baal (2021)

This takes me back about a decade or more to wanting to be a cool and interesting writer with cool and interesting friends. The way these characters live their lives feels so chaotic and carefree, as I tried to be for a hot second.

Man Hating Psycho – “Pain in the Neck” by Iphgenia Baal (2021)

There are moments where a character might wonder if they should just go home, and I’m like, yes, go home and get outta this situation full of uncertainty and risk, but then I should know better, shouldn’t I? This pairs well with my recent Mitski obsession.

Man Hating Psycho – “Middle English Bestiary” by Iphgenia Baal (2021)

There’s a voice here I hadn’t read for a long time because I was terrified to go back there. I used to ask some people I’d meet (digitally communicate with), “are you real?” Since those mixed up days (are they any different now?), I’ve cut myself off from most communication with most people. Instead, I found a place in reading fiction. All sorts, high-minded lit to comfy-as-a-couch science fiction or horror.

Man Hating Psycho – “vodaphone.co.uk/help” by Iphgenia Baal (2021)

I received the communication from them, these made-up people in made-up scenarios. They didn’t need anything from me. I, naturally, began tracking all these fictional works in lists, because how else would I remember that one story about the time a young woman named Belle Starr held a man at gunpoint and which offered no resolution? That’s been the way of it for going on a decade.

Man Hating Psycho – “Nothing Old, Nothing New, Nothing Borrowed, Nothing Blue” by Iphgenia Baal (2021)

Then I read this collection of short stories, and I couldn’t immediately file it away and move on. I was confident I was reading fiction in the first few stories, clearly satire yeah? But then it starts to get more real, too personal to be made-up. Perhaps drawn from the author’s real life but rearranged to protect the innocent, you know. The momentum then builds as more and more of real life seeps in including some of my own that I try to keep at bay.

Man Hating Psycho – “I Just Want to Pull Down Your Panties and Fuck You” by Iphgenia Baal (2021)

London and Los Angeles, police and Grenfell, identity derived from parents and their parents and their parents. It’s a jam. So some fiction and some nonfiction? How have I never run into this before? I researched the author’s work. Some fiction, some nonfiction. Six in one hand, half a dozen in the other. This and that and all of it. I guess some writing just does that to you.

“The Night-Mother” by Melanie Gillman (2021)

Not long for the upright world.

“Sometimes even the villains have standards” by britainbray (2022)

Someone has to place value on life.

You Won’t Be Alone dir. Goran Stolevski (2022)

Carve the home you want from the stone in the path.

Morbius dir. Daniel Espinosa (2022)

You could have been a contender.

Ambulance dir. Michael Bay (2022)

A gambling man never wins.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 dir. Jeff Fowler (2022)

Eggman or Robotnik, you decide.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore dir. David Yates (2022)

Unnecessary secrets in a unnecessary confession.

Dual dir. Riley Stearns (2022)

Keep it, it’s yours.

The Northman dir. Robert Eggers (2022)

When the story has too much meaning to its creator.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent dir. Tom Gormican (2022)

Mr. Cage is doing fine.

The Bad Guys dir. Pierre Perifel (2022)

Join us or die.

Moon of the Wolf dir. Daniel Petrie (1972)

My fantasy in which the monster kills all the landed gentry. Just unnecessary violence and destruction. This is not it, but I want to see it.

Charlotte dir. Eric Warin & Tahir Rana (2022)

Charlotte Salomon lived a short life. Charlotte Salomon lived a complicated life.

The Monster Squad dir. Fred Dekker (1987)

I understand, but it flew by and now it’s beyond me.

Memory dir. Martin Campbell (2022)

Two Liam Neeson snoozy thrillers in as many months and I wonder who’s clamoring to see these in theaters. This was the better take on an aging assassin thanks to the rest of the cast. A more generous analysis might be, “Under this reading, Neeson’s action movies are about the order whiteness and wealth has imposed on the world, the male sense of entitlement to that order, and the violence lurking beneath it, aimed at anyone who tries to disrupt it.”