A Clutch of Weird – Phoenix Alexander

An introductory note: my reading this year has been taken up with submissions for the Arthur C. Clarke Award—for which I am serving as a judge for 2021—and I type this wearing a formidable Cone of Silence which prevents me from talking (and typing?) about novels specifically. Thus, the following list will be free of long-form prose. Weird comes in many aspects, however… 

Attack on Titan 

Attack on Titan is a visceral, disturbing anime series about giant humanoids who all but decimate human society. The survivors shelter within a walled city, and desperately try to repel the giants and find out what, exactly, they are. Twists and turns ensue. The first series is a little slow-paced—at least, for a show about bone-chomping gigants—but stick with it and Attack on Titan will deliver some of the most memorable images that will ever haunt your dreams. 

Devilman Crybaby

Speaking of chomping, Devilman Crybaby is another anime that centers around a group of students who become embroiled in a chaotic turn of events that sees the denizens of hell unleashed upon the earth. Any joy I might have experienced at seeing strong LGBTQ representation on screen was utterly crushed by the nihilistic ending that made even *this* jaded horror queen gasp. I don’t know if there will be a season two, and honestly am unsure if it needs one. This has to be watched to be believed. 

What We Talk About when we Talk About Love, Raymond Carver 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that one must read the writers one wishes to emulate. Hence, with a plan for glory-via-osmosis last summer, I picked up a copy of Carver’s classic short story collection, widely considered to be the GOAT. The stories were a little hit-or-miss for me; all are carefully written, with language (to quote James Baldwin) ‘clean as a bone’, and definitely leave an uncanny tint to the world upon reading, like drying your showered body outside on a day that is colder than the presence of the sun would suggest.

A Priest of Vast and Distant Places, Cassandra Khaw  

Possibly one of my favourite short stories *ever*, this tells the story of a titular priest—one of many who go about the world—who tends to the metallic behemoths of the skies: aeroplanes. Told as a conversation between craft and traveler, the story explores themes of grief, belonging, diaspora and loneliness. The aeroplanes are rendered as gloomily poignant yet sharp-intellected beings, as much to be feared as pitied. A glorious, transforming read that will stay with you the next time you take a journey.

Finally, something a little… different. Not a work of art per se, but a past life regression video on YouTube. This yielded some wonderfully surreal writing material one sunny afternoon in June. Think of it like guided meditation: relaxing, a little unsettling, and definitely Weird, asking you to visually parts of your physical body falling away until only the Essence remains. I would thoroughly recommend experiencing it! 

Semi-relatedly, I took part in artist Matthew Brailey’s incredible meditative event ‘You, Copiphora Gorgonensis’ via Facebook Live in October. The event, hosted by FACT, was “an hour-long meditative experience for online audience focusing on interspecies relationships, psychoacoustics and presence.” 

It certainly did that. I am all chitin now. 

Embering, 

Phoenix