Hello everyone, and welcome to Issue VI of the Words for Worlds newsletter. Apologies for the absence of the first newsletter of February. A series of work deadlines prevented the last issue - no, I’m lying, I was bingeing on The Expanse, and I’m not sorry; but now that I’m done bingeing, the newsletter is back on track.
What I’m Reading
A few days ago, I came across this remarkable essay by Ahmed Naji, titled “Reading and Writing in an Egyptian Prison.” Naji was the first modern-day Egyptian writer to actually be jailed for a novel. My interest was piqued, in particular, when he tried to explain to a police officer that his novel was “kind of like science fiction.” That, and the poignant brilliance of the essay (read it!) immediately persuaded me to get a copy of the offending, “kind of like science fiction” novel, Using Life. I started reading it today, and three pages in, the city of Cairo has already been buried by a sandstorm - talk about a quick start!
I am also reading an ARC of the Brazilian writer Fabio Fernandes’ collection of short SF, titled Love. An Archaeology (look at that gorgeous cover!). I’ve read the first two stories, which are, respectively, a lovers-to-enemies-evolutionary-time-travel tale that feels like a cross between Adrian Tchaikovsky and This Is How You Lose the Time War, and an intriguing piece of Brazilian weird-horror. I’m also loving the range of inter-textual references in these stories, catnip to all genre lovers.
I’ve read a range of non-fiction this month: Andreas Malm’s Fossil Capital, Mark Goodale’s A Revolution in Fragments, and Josef Czapki’s Lost Time: Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp. A few short comments on some of these books are on my Goodreads page.
The Indian Scene/What’s Happening at Strange Horizons
This newsletter’s India and Strange Horizons sections come together this week, with Varsha Dinesh’s short story, “The Demon Sage’s Daughter”, published in the 8th February edition of Strange Horizons. “The Demon Sage’s Daughter” is a lovely hall-of-mirrors tale about stories, power, and beginnings and endings: give it a read.
For those familiar with the controversy around WorldCon 2020, January 2021’s non-fiction issue might be of specific interest. Even otherwise, A.J. Fitzwater’s “The Waters of this Place: Aotearoa New Zealand Speculative Fiction” provides a fascinating guide to contemporary SFF in that country.
Recommendations Corner
Basma Abdel Aziz’s The Queue.
Reading Ahmed Naji reminded me of Basma Abdel Aziz’s 2017 novel, The Queue, which should be a part of any conversation about contemporary dystopic SF. I reviewed it at the time for Strange Horizons, and append a section of that review here.
The Queue is set in an unnamed country, with only the names of its characters acting as geographical signposts: Tarek, Yehya, Nagy—all names redolent of the Arabic-speaking Middle-East. The country is ruled by the “Gate” (i.e., an actual, physical gate, which issues orders and directions through its proxies, and maintains discipline through a militia called the Quell Force). The Gate has assumed power after the internal disintegration of a successful popular uprising against the prior regime, referred to as “The First Storm,” and consolidated it by violently putting down a second uprising known as “The Disgraceful Events.” Now, all human life is subject to the rhythms of the Gate, which promises to open, but never does. And because nothing can be done without the sanction of the Gate, citizen-petitioners must queue before it until it opens, and their paperwork is processed. Over time, this queue—which gives Aziz’s novel its title—swells to monstrous proportions, creating its own mini-society and proliferating little economies—and continues to expand. Life is the queue, and the queue is life, with brief interludes elsewhere.
One of the queue's inhabitants is Yehya, a sometime student radical injured during the course of The Disgraceful Events. He is taken to the nearest hospital, where he has an X-Ray taken. The doctor, Tarek, realizes that there is a bullet lodged in Yehya's body, which can only be removed by surgery. Before Tarek can take action, however, The Gate decrees that no surgeries may be performed without prior clearance. As Yehya begins the long task of waiting in the Queue, and as his condition begins to worsen with each passing day despite the ministrations of his friend as well as his partner, Tarek struggles between the desire to stay safe and the call of the Hippocratic oath. When news begins to filter through that The Gate is denying that any shooting ever took place during The Disgraceful Events, and those who were injured with bullets to show for it are simply disappearing, Tarek is faced with a decisive, agonizing choice: to forget all that happened, or to treat Yehya and face the consequences.
Quote Corner
“Power was not the province of those who made choices. Power was the ability to set the context in which choices were made.”
Seth Dickinson, The Monster Baru Cormorant
Words for Worlds - Issue VI
I put my faith in the ideology which is totally in contrast with Mr. Bhatia but still I respect this man for his sheer intellectual brilliance and wish him best for his future endeavors!
It always makes me giddy (in all the good ways imaginable) to see Indian SFF writers and their work. Hope to me among the ranks one day...