Elliott Dunstan

The Gremlin’s Library: Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia Butler

July 16th, 2020

I confess, I’ve never actually read Octavia Butler before. It wasn’t deliberate – a lot of her work just falls more to the sci-fi side of spec, and I tend to seek out fantasy. Plus, for whatever reason (we all know why), she never comes up on those Big Fancy Rec Lists or gets assigned in school – so this is a new experience for me. And whatever it was I expected, it was not what I got!

TWs for this collection include but are not limited to: insects, oviposition, underage sex, pregnancy, surgery (Caesarian section), degenerative disease, self-harm, psychosis, cissexism/gendered medical treatment, incest, suicide, alcoholism, torture, religious speculation, anti-Blackness & misogyny (in essays as lived experience.)

Bloodchild and Other Stories is a collection – in fact, the only one – of Octavia Butler’s short stories and essays. Butler was mostly a novelist, something she talks about in the opening, which means that these were the rare ideas that were perfect for shorter fiction. As somebody who’s never read one of her full novels, though, I’m – man, is impressed the right word? Basically, “if the stories are making me feel like this, holy shit, I’m not sure I’m ready for a Butler novel.”

All of the stories are excellent, but the ones that stuck out the most to me were ‘Bloodchild’ and ‘Amnesty’. Bloodchild…admittedly freaked me out, a lot, but in a very interesting way. Bluntly, I don’t go into classic scifi really expecting oviposition kink? And while it’s obviously not written For That Purpose, it is very funny to go from Twitter’s frequent debates on “is it pedophilia for a 19 year old to date a 17 year old” to ‘Bloodchild’. In it, humans have made a deal with an insectoid race of aliens called the Tlic – in which humans can journey into space and leave Earth, in exchange for being hosts for Tlic eggs. However, being a host isn’t easy – if abandoned by their Tlic, human hosts run the risk of being eaten alive from the inside by the hatched larvae. I love this story a lot, but I really wish I’d known a little more about what I was in for going in – I do NOT like bugs or pregnancy, and so while I’m impressed and very struck by the themes, I’m also going ‘scritch scritch scritch’ even just talking about it.

Butler’s comments on Bloodchild are also super interesting – she talks about the idea of male pregnancy as well as her own fears of invasion/infestation. From a transmasc perspective, it was really neat to see somebody approach it this way, especially since there’s a big trend to see pregnancy as some Ultimate Good instead of something that can be and is very, very scary.

The other story that I really liked was ‘Amnesty’. This story features another type of alien race, this one evocative of some of the odd non-human species from Bogi Takac’s writing (particularly ‘Good People In A Small Place’ from The Trans Space Octopus Congregation) and Derek Nason’s ‘A Planet with a Lake’ from Abyss & Apex. However, the focus isn’t even on them, not really; the central character is convincing others to be translators for them because, well, sure, being abducted and unknowingly tortured by aliens trying to Understand You is bad, but the treatment from the US Government afterwards was much, much worse. It’s an interesting callout of the demonization of other countries from the US while they do worse, that never quite lets the Communities off the hook but puts them in perspective.

Two other stories intrigued me but were slightly jarring – I want to analyze them more deeply at some point from a disabled perspective. ‘Speech Sounds’ and ‘The Evening and the Morning and the Night’ both engage with disability in different ways; ‘Speech Sounds’ is about a plague that attacks human ability to understand and create language. I want to reread it and think about it more, and it’s a fascinating idea, but I think it could have done more with the idea of different kinds of expression and language as something that nonverbal/nonspeaking people still do, just Differently. ‘The Evening and the Morning and the Night’ is even more complex. It engages with a degenerative disease that causes self-mutilation, violent outbursts, etc. and was – not quite uncomfortable to read? It mostly feels validating and interesting and then the ending goes into some territory I don’t know how to feel about.

This is a great collection of science fiction, and as a first dip into the world of Octavia Butler, it’s astounding. I don’t have any of her books to compare it to yet – but I’m excited to read more. Worth a look for connoisseurs of short speculative fiction – I just wish AO3 tags were “in” for tradpub books so I could tag this somewhere with “underage mpreg ovi” and watch people freak the hell out. Haha.
0.1 PROLOGOS: House of Tantalus

July 15th, 2020

stories begin and end with scripts ˑ do you miss me ˑ the watchman

THERE ARE NO GHOSTS WITHIN THESE WALLS –

THEY KNOW ENOUGH TO KEEP AWAY –

THERE’S JUST THE SILENCE AND THE DRYWALL,

AN ECHO OF AN UNSUNG GRAVE.

THERE ARE NO SONGS HERE TO BE SUNG,

NO TALES COMPLETE ENOUGH TO TELL,

NO LOVE LOST ‘TWIXT DYING SPARKS,

NO ENTRANCE INTO CHAMBERED HEARTS –

THERE ARE NO GHOSTS WITHIN THESE WALLS

ALTHOUGH THEY CREEP ALONG WITH US.

JUST A CURSE THAT HANGS LIKE COBWEBS HERE

AND THERE AMONG THE DUST.

YOU CAN BURN DOWN THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT,

TUMBLE HIS DRY BONES DOWN THE HILL,

YOU CAN TEAR YOUR PAST OUT FROM YOUR VEINS-

-AND GOD KNOWS, I THINK YOU WILL-

BUT THERE ARE NO GHOSTS WITHIN THESE WALLS,

NO SPIRITS HOVERING GRAY,

THERE’S JUST ME, THE BLOOD THAT YOU WON’T CLAIM,

AND HERE IN THIS HOUSE I’LL STAY.

{-AND AFTER ALL THE RAIN AND RUIN

AND THE CLEANSING OF THE STORM –

AFTER THIS, TOO, HAS COME TO PASS-

COME FIND ME. COME BACK HOME.}

Song: Untitled 1 by Keane

<- Table of Contents 1.1 ->
The Gremlin’s Library: “The Dead, In Their Uncontrollable Power” by Karen Osborne

July 14th, 2020

I am notoriously bad at keeping up with New Things. I have a bit of a wandering magpie’s approach to fiction; I get to things when I get to them, pick up what interests me at random, and am otherwise incredibly unpredictable. That said, this year, I’ve made an actual effort to keep up with the Nebulas, and so – here at the final hour – I’m reading up on some of the finalists in the short story category.

‘The Dead, In Their Uncontrollable Power” is an incredibly vicious, angry story, and I love it. That doesn’t quite encapsulate it. Much in the same way that An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon takes the very Straight White Cis Dude-Plagued sci-fi subgenre of generation ships and turns into a scathing examination of modern-day slavery and a “new Antebellum”, this story takes aim at specifically the idea of cultural memory. The main character and first-person narrator is a sin-eater; the person on the ship tasked with carrying the sins and cruel memories of the captain, so that the captain can lead the ship without guilt or doubt. The bad memories go to the sin-eater, the good ones to the captain; the sin-eater has to wrestle with the nightmares, the captain is free to lead.

If this sounds familiar for some reason, that’s because this is a similar system to The Giver by Lois Lowry. The idea of one person having to carry the memories of another isn’t new. However, what really intrigues me here is how it ties into the idea of ancestral guilt. I compared this story to An Unkindness of Ghosts, but while there are elements of first-class vs. second-class vs. steerage, the primary focus here is on what it means to be responsible for the terrors enacted by your predecessors, not how to cope with terrors that they suffered. As a mixed-race person, I deal with this question a lot – some of my ancestry is Black, and some of it is White, and my family tree is the product of rape and colonialism. Dealing with ancestral trauma for me is only half of the story; the other half is reckoning with the harm done. Many – most, honestly – White people lean heavily into denial, and this story feels very much like it’s calling that out. White people give our (their?) sins to others to cope with, and clean the horrors out of history.

Of course, the story doesn’t “have” to be about race. It never really goes into race, and ancestral guilt isn’t limited to race; but it’s one that’s on my mind and the filter I ended up reading the story through. Even without thinking of it in those terms, the rewriting of history and memory in the service of propaganda and false peace is a particularly relevant theme right now. (“We have never been at war with Eurasia”, anybody?)

“The Dead, In Their Uncontrollable Power” by Karen Osborne was a finalist for the Nebula Short Story Award 2020, published by Uncanny Magazine, and can be read here: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/the-dead-in-their-uncontrollable-power/
Chaos Queer Cooking: Ploughman’s Pickle/Piccalilli/Chutney

July 9th, 2020
Hi all! It’s been forever since I did a cooking column and I’m glad to be doing another one. Quick primer for those who are new to Chaos Queer Cooking; I don’t give a lot of measurements or ingredient lists, because a lot of these are recipes I come up with on the fly. I cook the way your grandmother does, and I want to show people how to cook that way too. (Frankly, it’s easier, once you get into the swing of it!) But if you’re scrolling down to find the “real recipe”, you won’t find it. I haven’t the foggiest idea how much turmeric I actually put in this.

Today, I’m gonna talk about chutney, “ploughman’s pickle”, and piccalilli. To North American readers – at least white ones – two or even all three of these words probably sound bizarre. Luckily, the secret is: they’re pretty much the same thing!

(At my English and Indian readers: shush. They are. Keep your bickering to yourselves and let me explain.)

Chutney is a very general term, and an Anglicized/colonizer version of the Hindi term chatni. It’s the same concept as relish (pickle relish, corn relish, you name it), except that chutneys are usually fruit-based. You might have run into mango chutney at the store, tamarind chutney at your local Indian restaurant, or mint chutney in various places.

Ploughman’s pickle is sold as Branston pickle in a lot of places – it’s a malt-vinegar based “pickle” – pickled relish – made up of various vegetables, dates, apples, vinegar and sugar. The Branston version is heavy on sodium and other preservatives, but on the other hand, it’s really good. Unfortunately, it’s just about impossible to find on the North American side of the ocean short of special order.

Piccalilli is a bit of a combination of both of these. While piccalilli’s exact origins are unknown, it is a mix of the ingredients of ploughman’s pickle (most commonly cauliflower, pearl onions, carrots, celery, etc.) and Indian spices like turmeric and cumin.

So all three ARE different. Why do I say they’re pretty much the same? Because I’m poor, queer, and I’m not teaching you how to cook any of these three. If you want to cook any of these three to specific instructions, you can google them – but instead, I want to share the fine art of the Make-It-Up-As-You-Go.

SO. How do you make a chutney/English-style pickle?
1. Pick your fruits and vegetables. At least to start, you want firmer vegetables. No spinach or kale or anything leafy for this type of dish. Instead, look at cauliflower, cucumber, carrots, white/pearl onion, rutabaga, squash, parsnip, zucchini, daikon (Japanese radish), green beans, bell peppers, etc. I suppose you could include red radishes, but you have to really like the taste; mushrooms are too delicate, and broccoli gets its florets everywhere. Potato would probably work, but I haven’t personally tried it. You also want some FRUITS. You can make this with no fruits at all, but fruits add that tangy extra sweetness. You’ll usually see apples and/or dates, but I often use apricots, prunes, mango, and/or raisins. Pick any number of these vegetables and fruits, thinking about how they’ll taste together.
2. Pick your vinegar. There are all types of vinegars, but not all of them are appropriate for all type of pickles. Balsamic vinegar is (in my opinion, and most people’s) too strong for pickling; rice and rice wine vinegar is good for more Asian-inspired pickles, but is a bit delicate in other types of recipes. White vinegar is strong and kind of boring, but will work if you spice it right. For this type of pickle, I find that the best kinds are white wine vinegar, malt vinegar and/or apple cider vinegar. I usually use half-and-half of malt and apple cider, but it depends on your personal taste preferences and what you have on hand. You can also half-and-half any other vinegar with white vinegar if you don’t have enough. Take whatever vinegar(s) you’re using and set them aside.
3. Pick your spices. Different spices go best with different fruits and vegetables and different vinegars. Overall, here are some recommendations from me:
Cauliflower/cucumber/carrot/onion/apricot/apple/raisin + 1/2 malt, 1/2 apple cider vinegar + spiced with TURMERIC, GROUND MUSTARD, CINNAMON, CUMIN, GINGER, CHILI PEPPER, SALT, BLACK PEPPER

Cauliflower/cucumber/rutabaga/parsnip/zucchini/apple/date + malt vinegar + spiced with GROUND MUSTARD, ALLSPICE, CLOVE, CORIANDER, CINNAMON, NUTMEG, CAYENNE PEPPER, SALT, BLACK PEPPER

Cauliflower/green beans/onions/parsnip/mango/apricot/date + white wine vinegar + spiced with TURMERIC, MUSTARD, GARLIC, GINGER, CUMIN, CHILI PEPPER, SALT, BLACK PEPPER

Once you’ve picked all of these, you’re ready to actually start!
1. Chop up the vegetables (not the fruits!) into small pieces (think 1-2 inches max), and put them in a big bowl of salted water. Weigh them down with a plate so that they stay submerged, and put in the fridge for 24 hours/overnight. (Psych. Yeah, this takes a bit.) For two mason jars of pickle, you want about two cups of chopped veg.
2. THE NEXT DAY: Chop your fruits – apples, dates, mangoes, apricots, prunes, whatever else you’re using – into small pieces. You only want about a cup of these if you’re aiming for two mason jars. Get out a medium or large pot and mix your vinegar of choice with sugar, in a 1:1 ratio. One cup total of vinegar to one cup of sugar is enough, and dissolve it over medium heat, adding your chopped fruit and raisins. Add a spritz of lemon juice, and the spices you want to use – 1-2 teaspoons each is good to start, and you can always add more as you cook. Bring this to boil, then simmer on low heat while you do the rest. You want the fruits falling apart into a delicious, mushy jam, but give it a stir every now and again to make sure it isn’t sticking, and add water if you need to.
3. Take your veg out of the fridge, drain them, rinse them, and bring them to a boil on the stove, simmering for 5-10 minutes. Then drain them (again, yes) and add them to your fruit mixture, mix well, and simmer for another 30 minutes or however long it takes until everything has blended together. Taste as you go and adjust spices as necessary – if it’s not as sweet as you want, add sugar, if it’s not tangy enough, add a splash of vinegar, if you want a little more sourness, add a touch more lemon juice, etc.
4. Depending on a number of factors – the sugar you use, the vegetables, etc. – your pickle may or may not thicken up. If as it’s simmering, the liquid is still very thin, use a ladle or spoon to take some of the liquid out and put it into a cap. Add about a tablespoon of flour, mix til thick, then pour back into the chutney, mixing well. Do this a few times until the pickle starts thickening up a little. It’ll thicken more as it cools, too – just make sure the flour doesn’t clump up.
5. Sterilize two (or more) mason jars (you can look this up online, but i generally pour boiling water into them and let them sit, or put them into the oven at low heat for a few minutes). While the pickle is still hot, pour it into the jars and seal them, and let them sit out on the counter to cool.
OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS:

-Splash of Worcestershire sauce. Highly recommended especially if you’re doing a more sour pickle.

-Crystallized ginger for sweeter pickles Nom nom.

-Full cloves of garlic.

-Honey for a different taste and consistency rather than sugar.

-Dried chilies rather than chili powder. Slice them up real small, and you can use the seeds too, if you’re like me and love spice. Be careful, though, chili pepper seeds are evil. Also, PLEASE wash your hands right after cutting them.

-Tomatoes. Okay, I have no idea how this would actually taste, but tomato chutney/relish is a thing, so if somebody tries it, do let me know, I’m curious.

EXTRA NOTES:

-Pickles can last a while in the fridge, but for shelf or freezer storage, you’ll want an extra seal! There’s a few ways of doing this; look up water bath canning or pressure canning if you’re looking to do this a lot. However, a great way to add a little extra seal is to melt plain paraffin wax and pour it on top of the chutney, and then screw the mason jar lid on top. This works for jams as well, and helps with freezer storage in particular. When you want to pop the wax seal off, just poke one side of it with the handle of a spoon or a fork.
First Chapter Thoughts: Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Gracia

July 7th, 2020

A while back, I read Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Gods of Jade and Shadow, and fell utterly in love. Her prose, her characterization, her wry, dark humour, combined with Mayan mythology and clever worldbuilding – It’s a fantastic novel, which I’ve reviewed over here.

So, inevitably, I’m checking out more of Moreno-Garcia’s work. The first I got my hands on was actually her first published novel, Untamed Shore. Right off the bat, I’m catching reoccurring themes in Moreno-Garcia’s work. The main character is a girl on the cusp of adulthood, desperate to escape to a larger city with dreams of having more, wanting to follow her father for all that he abandoned her (only by dying in GoJaS; here it’s a much more literal abandonment, and he still sends her odd presents from Mexico City here and there.) The MC’s mothers are theoretically helpful, but urge their daughters to accept their place and stop trying to be or have more. And in both GoJaS and Untamed Shore, the book is not set in the present day; Untamed Shore is set in 1979, the tacky decor and clash of the modern with the so-claimed “provincial” driving much of the novel and evoking a more mythical past behind it.

The similarities don’t hurt the novel at all. In fact, if I hadn’t drunk down GoJaS so recently and greedily, I probably wouldn’t have thought about it; these are time-honored themes, after all, and Viridiana and Casiopeia are different enough characters in different enough books that it’s a thematic echo that strengthens both books. Part of what makes Untamed Shore so fascinating, though, even just from the first chapter, is its noir sensibilities. A seaside small town, a girl who dreams of more, shark jaws hanging up to dry, and a chess-playing mentor in a charcoal suit… The imagery isn’t of Mexico as westerners understand it, but of a much bleaker, more mundane reality.

I particularly love the focus right off the bar on Viridiana as a shark-fisher, and the sense of Desengaño being a place full of wasted potential. It was Meant to be many things, and these things did not transpire. Particularly I think that’s where the bleak feeling comes from; Viridiana can see her own possible future in the false starts around her. The shark imagery is unexpected, but excellent – a touch morbid, in a wonderfully evocative way. Also, although I haven’t the foggiest idea what the mystery or noir elements are going to be, I’m eyeing the shark imagery like…. i see you

Excited to read the rest of the novel, and deeply curious to see what darker things are on the horizon.

The Gremlin’s Library: Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia Butler

0.1 PROLOGOS: House of Tantalus

The Gremlin’s Library: “The Dead, In Their Uncontrollable Power” by Karen Osborne

Chaos Queer Cooking: Ploughman’s Pickle/Piccalilli/Chutney

First Chapter Thoughts: Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Gracia