DISPATCHES FROM THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS: LUSTING TO EAT THE HOLY UNIVERSE

Meanwhile, news from the White House sounds like dangerous visions. If they were written up as stories back in the day, would Harlan have bought them or rejected them as too bugfuck? Where could I get a hold of a time machine cheap? Do Trump’s executive orders deserve a special Hugo award?

But I digress . . .

THE GREAT FOREST LAWN CLEARANCE SALE–HURRY, LAST DAYS! Stephen Dedman

Besides aesthetic terrorism, I also believe in creative blasphemy. It’s the closest I come to having a religion, and the only path to enlightenment that makes sense to me. This story is chock full of the stuff. A way is found to bring back the dead, do they resurrect Jesus (not Chuy next door, that Jesus) and it goes horribly, and hilariously, wrong. And it’s not just an unbeliever putting down one of the world’s popular religions, trying hard not do a spoiler, the ending turns things around . . . Uh oh, what if it’s not a simple anti-religious tract? Too bad we don’t see more stuff like this. It’s fun. Why does religion have to be such a sacred cow?

INTERMEZZO 3: EVEN BEYOND OLYMPUS D.M. Rowles

Another one of these quickies. We used to call them short-shorts, but now they’re referred to as flash fiction. This one’s a fable about creation and oblivion. It could get heavy if you think too much about it. 

AFTER TASTE - Cecil Castellucci

Eating is a dangerous subject. Getting moralistic about the always violent act of assimilating living matter into yourself so you can survive gets touchy. The Aztecs considered plant and animal flesh to be the same substance. Life is all there is to eat, and we can’t not do it. The story starts like a space opera about a galactic food critic and goes beyond the expected light humor. Then there’s a take on sexual reproduction possible between different species—and it’s not consensual. Every contact leaves a residue. Experiencing the unknown changes you. A galactic civilization—and the coming together of different worlds—would not be like in commercial space operas where humans in the far future behave just like us, except in fresh costumes. We are what we eat. The universe is stranger that we can imagine. Cultural fusion, like nuclear, releases a lot of energy. Bravo Castellucci!

Gets me thinking about conceptual mayhem for my great science fiction bullfighting novel, but that’s a whole other chingadera . . .

LEVELED BEST Steve Herbst

A variation on Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” without the humor. This time it’s intellectual equality that’s being enforced. The destruction of the narrator’s mind and ability to use language is truly horrific. And we now live in a society that the thinks being smart is an abomination, and dystopias and considered proper amusements for teenage girls. Maybe some humor would help.

Meanwhile, the news from Washington D.C. is dystopian with a strong chance of getting apocalyptic. Funny in a blasphemous, alien way.

And there’s a lot more to come . . .