My Friends,
It has been too long since we've been here. The journey is still ongoing. The journey is always ongoing. We are now entering a quite intense chapter, though. In here contains the words of many collections. Like walking through a crowded street, we will only catch glimpses of the hustle and bustle.
As a reminder, here is the map of our journey thus far:
- Speak Easy
- Fairyland
- Palimpsest
- Radiance
- The Orphan's Tales
- A Dirge for Prester John
- Oracles: A Pilgrimage & Apocrypha
- Deathless
- Myths of Origin
- The Labyrinth
- Yume No Han: The Book of Dreams
- The Grass-Cutting Sword
- Under in the Mere
Where should we start? Why not with the most obvious beginning? Let's start with death.
The Refrigerator Monologues
Yeah, these girls are cold. Dead and cold. Coldest girls in...well, you already know. Do you care? I can't say, but their lovers sure as hell (ha, see what I did there?) don't. They can claim the hero's throne all they want. Doesn't change a damn thing. Without these girls, they'd still be trying to scrape the gum off the bottom of their shoes. How'd that girl with the scales end up in a place like this? Well, let's hear her story.
The Bread We Eat in Dreams
And now that we're telling stories, let's get something to eat as well. Can I interest you in an apple? It's sweet. If you bite into it just right, you'll feel very relaxed. Little Red had her infamous cloak colored after these apples. Not hungry? I've got more things. Everything tends to end up in a fairytale. That's all we are right now. Fairytales breathing down each other's back. Even the Brontës are fairytales with their Glass Town. Yes, yes, they were born here and grew into the novel they are today. But it's so hot in all these tales. I can sell you a map to a frozen wasteland if you'd like?
Six-Gun Snow White
But first we have to make a pitstop. If it's apples you want, it's apples you'll get. Ol' Snow'll come barreling through before your blood can begin to dot the floor like a failed pointillism painting. This is her story, after all, and she ain't messing around. Why ain't she telling it? Oh, you poor, innocent thing! You can't tell your own story. Too many biases. I promise everything I tell you is the truth. Sure, Snow ran away from home, guns a-blazin'. Life ain't always apples, sweetie.
The Melancholy of Mechagirl
Life is far from sweet sometimes. Not even bitter. Just tasteless. Like swallowing air. Forget the frozen wasteland. Let's just stay here in Japan. I still want to live in a fairytale. We'll always be the outsiders, despite how long we've been here. We can't help it. It's in our blood. The smell of it clings to our clothes like cigarette smoke. Sure, things seem like they change. We can get lost in video games or utopian futures. But things always end up tasteless. At least we have our machines...and apples.
This Is My Letter to the World: The Omikuji Project: Cycle One
Yes, it always comes back to the apples. An apple a day keeps the doctors coming because they're probably concerned that you're only eating apples. A story a month, my dears? Don't mind if I do. Let's explore the truth behind giants and beanstalks. I hear Red's a horrible speller. Oh, you need a fairytale consultant? I got you covered. But don't you dare try and move the story along yourself. I'm the puppet master. I'm the baker.
Ventriloquism
And I've got one last pie to bake. One last string to pull. We end where it all began. We end at birth. The first collection. The first time different moments of blood, sweat, and tears were able to sit down and take tea together. No, your eyes are not deceiving you. Those are infant versions of stories you know and love. See Severin Unck before she was Severin. Catch a total stranger fall headfirst in lust just to map her way to Palimpsest. See Prester John wander through this strange world. An Eden with no apples. Though if we're honest with ourselves, apples and Eden aren't really mentioned together. Still, they are the forbidden fruit of fairytales. It always comes back to the apples.
My Friends,
For the most part, I would suggest getting these in digital format. Unless you like spending lots of money. The only one cannot do this with is Ventriloquism. That collection is out of print, and there is not a digital format of it that I could find. For completion's sake, you will have to spend a bit of money on it. I have not checked to see if the stories are available elsewhere with easier access, though.
These stories are like different sets of paint or colored pencils. If you get more than one set, you will end up with multiples. That's just the way of the things.
I leave you with a few more notes about the bingo squares:
- AMA Author
- AA Author
- Five Short Stories
Submitted September 21, 2017 at 05:07AM by Kopratic http://ift.tt/2xSPXpT Fantasy
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