#ethical necromancy

[beehyland]

ETHICAL NECROMANCY IS OUT NOW!!!

ethical necromancy is my debut collection of short stories! they're about ghosts and grief and disability and blood and guts and stuff.

i'm incredibly proud of this book and i'm so grateful for those who have made releasing it possible.

check it out!

and feel free to send asks to this blog if you want!

[dungeonsanddragonsfifthedition]

my book is coming out on august 20!!!

ethical necromancy is a collection of 7 short pieces of speculative fiction, all of which are about grief and loss. here's the proper summary:

A reanimated corpse finds herself longing to return to the grave. The ghost that haunts a house is forced into flesh. A young girl becomes obsessed with the cadavers that appear in the woods near her home. In Ethical Necromancy, the debut story collection from Bee Hyland, she explores the ramifications of a life after death. Playing with literary form and interrogating the grotesque, these seven stories seek to amplify the voices of the undead among us.

i struggle with self-promotion, so i'll just say this: i think that you, dear reader, will enjoy this collection.

talking points include: loss of autonomy, digging your own grave, the un-undead, lesbian codependency, the inherent horror of dying online, disability theory, and namelessness.

more pre-order links coming soon, but for now, here's your chance to pre-order on kindle.

[breathofmyown]

It's really disappointing to see the stigma against necromancy crop up on this site, but I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised.

It's a common misconception among anti-necromancy societies that the skeletons working the fields and forming the armies when needed are terrible desecrations, the honored dead enslaved by vile masters, when this could be nothing further from the truth. Our people give their bodies over to this out of love for their families and community. Allowing their bodies to provide labor and security after they are gone so that those who live do not have to waste their years doing menial labor and throwing themselves away in violence, and instead can pursue a life they take joy in freed from the burdens of survival. And so when we grow old or ill we choose to have our bodies serve our community so that our children, and children's children can enjoy the freedom and security that we did.

During the Days of Remembrance the skeletons are brought in from the fields and factories, back to their family homes and we celebrate them by telling stories of their lives, enjoying their favorite foods, and spending time with the part of them they left behind out of love for us. It's a delightful sight seeing the skeletons adorned with handknit woolens, colorful paints, or glimmering candles when they return to their labor after the holiday.

[necromanceradept]

need volunteers for a soul bonding experiment. i'll be transferring the soul of the volunteer into an articulated doll, ask them to live as such under observation for 1 month, during which time their body will be preserved with the best healing and life support magic available. participants are able to end the experiment at any time should they choose. after the trial period the souls will be returned to their original bodies, therapy will be available for all at no expense. i can't pay you though

[damienthepious]

VIOLET BEACH MENTION IN ETHICAL NECROMANCY <3<3<3<3<3

[house-of-no-regrets]

No Regrets [hanging up is self-care]

So... this was originally the opening to the next vignette, but it actually kind of stands on its own, so I thought I’d toss it up here so y’all don’t have to wait longer for sum Tabby. It’s short!

-------------

I hate phone calls. I hate conflict. I hate saying no and enforcing boundaries. Regrettably, I am an adult, and these are apparently things adults have to do. Sometimes, these all intersect into a torturous hellscape of me, in my office alone, arguing with some rich asshole's executor on speakerphone.

"Sir, I don't know how many times I have to tell you that I am fully aware of my rights and I am not legally obligated to resurrect someone just because they said so in their will." Don't cuss out the lawyer. Don't cuss out the lawyer.

"Don't you run a charity? Mr. Devos was one of the most charitable philanthropists in the state, and he has written here that, should you raise him from the grave, he would be happy to donate a sizeable sum to No Regrets--"

"With how many strings attached, Bill?" This was not a new situation… just an exceedingly exhausting one.

"Mr. Barren," the lawyer snapped. Tone is even harder to pick up over the phone, but irritation is one of the easier ones to get. I've definitely got him riled; that, at least, I can take some small pleasure in. "And of course, if he were to donate, he would expect certain considerations, like a position on--"

"No. And this is not a charity; this is a place of business."

"Then Mr. Devos's estate would gladly buy--"

"No." I did not get enough sleep for this. "No Regrets is not for sale. Neither are we interested in a business partnership."

"Your prices for resurrections are so much lower than market--"

"That's for a reason. I'm sure Mr. Devos, with his deep and charitable pockets, can afford a resurrection at market price."

"Mr. Devos did die with many regrets, though--"

"And enough money to buy God. Pardon me for not feeling charitable towards a union-buster." I glanced over at my computer screen with the man's Wikipedia page open to make sure I had my facts right. Ah, good.

"Miss Jenkins--"

I groaned and dragged my hands down my face. I really need to hire a lawyer of my own at some point. I can't keep dealing with this.

"Listen. Bill. Billy. Billiam. I can only manage about two rezzes a week, and I'm booked for the next month already. I'm not giving up a slot for a decent person just so an eighty-year-old corpse can get richer. Have a good day!”

There are few sounds as satisfying as the beep of hanging up on someone you didn’t want to talk to in the first place.

[uesp]

Did You Know: Tarshea paid an enchanter to enchant him, so that when he died he would resurrect as a skeleton? This allowed him to continue looking after his dog Musi after his untimely death.

"This is even better than I hoped! Think of all the fringe benefits! I don't need to worry about food, water, or even the heat anymore! But most important, I still get to be with my sweet Musi!"

--Tarshea

[dungeonsanddragonsfifthedition]

Hi I just saw your tags about a hauntology paper for your phd and it sounds incredible?! I’ve never heard of hauntology but at a brief glance it definitely looks like my next rabbithole. Please do someday post about disabled zombies, I will eat that UP.

hi! i was referring to a paper i wrote in undergrad that i'm polishing up for applications to PhD programs, so it's nowhere near in-depth (or as good of a paper) as a would like it to be! i took a class on derrida's theory of hauntology during my final year of undergrad and adored it--as a student of metaphysics, as someone who was at the time (and often still is) deep in the throes of grief, and as a lifelong ghost enthusiast. it shaped my academic philosophy a lot, and led me towards some excellent journeys of thought!

my personal thoughts on disabled zombies are: in march, i had a health crisis that, were it not for one specific doctor listening to me, could have turned fatal. i have been disabled since i was a child, and labeled as a medical mystery since i was eighteen. there are three tumors in my brain. i had a family member die a few years back due to medical neglect. i saw another family member die just a few months later of a degenerative disease. all of this feels dehumanizing to the subject--me, or the dead.

i am luckier than most--i have family that has supported me financially and emotionally through my illnesses; i have the tools and knowledge to self-advocate properly; i am a white person who lives in and benefits from the imperial core. in spite of this luck: every symptom, every scare, lives in the corner of my brain and asserts itself constantly. i am tired all of the time. i am in pain all of the time. and again, i am dehumanized--denied autonomy, if not denied personhood. in some perceptions, my body is not as purely-human as an able-bodied one. barring death itself, i cannot choose to lack a body, nor can i choose to have one that functions (by hegemonic standards) as it should. i am somewhere in between person and unperson; every disabled person is, in a society that cannot accomodate them, that often refuses to even try. this is true of every marginalization.

so, you are othered; so, you are staggering and limping and hungry. so, you are the other, the enemy, the inhuman. the ghost, embodied into useless(?), hypermedicalized, socially demonized flesh.

poetics and rambling aside: i'm going to be obnoxious here and post some readings :D most of these aren't exactly about disability, and some aren't even about zombies, but i think it's important to get a broad suite of knowledge on the subject if you want to get into it. obvious disclaimer that i haven't read some of these texts for a few years & my finding them interesting does not mean i agree with or endorse them LOL.

Nekros; or, The Poetics of Biopolitics.

Zombie Porn 1.0: or, Some Queer Things Zombie Sex Can Teach Us

INFECTION, MEDIA, AND CAPITALISM: From Early Modern Plagues to Postmodern Zombies

Ghost Stories from the Uncanny Valley: Androids, Souls, and the Future of Being Haunted

A Zombie Manifesto: The Nonhuman Condition in the Era of Advanced Capitalism

Slaves, Cannibals, and Infected Hyper-Whites: The Race and Religion of Zombies

"Zombies Don't Recognize Borders": Capitalism, Ecology, and Mobility in the Zombie Outbreak Narrative

this isn't necessary about zombies, though, but i would recommend synthesizing this with writing on disabled metaphysics. one example:

The Nightmare of Health: Metaphysics and Ethics in the Signification of Disability.

and of course the essay to start with for anything to do with othering of the monstrous, Monster Theory: Seven Theses.