A Bestiary of Short Fiction
In the present moment, it is not difficult to look at animals and feel a certain amount of guilt. We are the generation who have grown up under the gathering cloud of climate change and the looming threat of mass extinction. The fantasy of ‘nature’s revenge’ is now a cathartic outlet for that level of guilt. Indeed, it no longer feels like ‘revenge’, it is something more like redemption, or reclamation. This happens at the end of ‘Pigskin’ and is ever-present throughout the tales of ‘Fauna’. I’m trying to highlight the entirely false hierarchy we’ve imposed on the animal kingdom. We’ve got ourselves at the top like overlords, and our favoured courtiers just underneath – the dogs, dolphins, tigers, cats, eagles – and then everyone else in descending order down to the flies, worms, and slugs. The inversions of Fauna are an attempt to topple this imaginary structure of animal importance.
Katy Wimhurst interviews David Hartley.
Plain Speaking
Where might he be able to best enjoy the hiss of steam from a dishwasher door, the rattle of glasses in their crates, the creak of a pump, the first gurgling squirt from a nozzle, the splash of beer into a still-warm glass, coins in the till, the friendly chink of glass meeting glass, slurping off the foam, the sound of that first great glug in his throat, the oesophageal embrace, his own loud sigh of satisfaction — Aaah! — the gurgle in the gullet, the belch, and he turned towards The Bricklayers…
A new story by Tony White to mark the anniversary of Flann O’Brien’s birth.