Familiarity bleeds into strangeness, certainty becomes impossible. Only the violence is vivid enough to stick.
the vegetarian – han kang
seen from Norway

seen from T1
seen from Türkiye

seen from China
seen from T1

seen from Malaysia
seen from Macao SAR China
seen from United States

seen from United Kingdom

seen from United States

seen from India

seen from Malaysia
seen from United States

seen from United Kingdom

seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Russia
seen from Japan
seen from United States

seen from United States
Familiarity bleeds into strangeness, certainty becomes impossible. Only the violence is vivid enough to stick.
the vegetarian – han kang
the castle of otranto – horace walpole
[TEXT: “Angels of grace protect me!” cried Frederic, recoiling. “Deserve their protection!” said the spectre. Frederic, falling on his knees, adjured the phantom to take pity on him.]
monstrilio – gerardo sámano córdova
[TEXT: Our son died before the dogwood pushed out its first flower, a bloom so simple with four white petals and a burst of yellow-green in the center—a beginner’s flower. I believed that flower was my son reincarnated. One believes the stupidest things in grief. I spoke to the flower and called it my son. And then I laughed because how ridiculous—how cruel, really—it would have been if my son was reincarnated as something so ephemeral, frail, and beautiful. I killed that first bloom with one swoop of my hand. Dead again, my son could become something else: the shell of a tortoise, strong and ancient, or a hideous fanged creature deep in the sea where he’d see wonders even he could’ve never imagined.]
the final strife – saara el-arifi
[TEXT: Love may give you strength, but retribution gives you purpose.]
model home – rivers solomon
[TEXT: Maybe that’s what’s wrong with me. I can’t really live because I don’t let things die. Everything inside of me,]
We didn’t so much exist as much as we haunted, and with no one else to haunt, we haunted each other.
monstrilio – gerardo sámano córdova
downward to the earth – robert silverberg
[TEXT: He felt a stab of nostalgia so powerful that he winced.]
She’s far happier thinking her sister is normal, even if she has a lot of problems, than she is having an abnormal sister for whom everything is fine. For her, normality—however messy—is far more comprehensible.
convenience store woman – sayaka murata