I know little kids for whom the story about the mother replaced by the stranger with a glass eye and wooden leg were unreasonably frightening. This is a talent that is besotting as well as making it clear that when we use material at hand, memorable and renowned stories can result. But it is not out of reach, for anyone, to be inspired by material like this. like writing a story about Law And Order: SVU which this writer has also done. Yet all are re-imagined in a completely original, literary, compelling way – i.e. I read this online when it appeared in Granta and immediately was charmed by it, though also so intrigued, because nearly all the stories mentioned within this story, as well as the frame story (a woman with a ribbon around her neck, no spoilers here!) were all literally taken from a book called Scary Stories that any parent of an elementary school or middle school child will know. Leave a comment ‘Especially Heinous’ by Carmen Maria Machado Also available online in The American Reader Posted on ApApby Jonathan Gibbs Posted in Emer O’Hanlon Tagged Carmen Maria Machado. Published in Her Body And Other Parties, Serpent’s Tail, 2019. It’s incredibly freeing as an artist if you can rewrite an entire long running TV series and make it compelling, anything is possible. Perhaps long short stories are more interesting to writer-readers than lay-readers, but I’ve always been struck by the boldness, the audacity, of the long short story.

The episodic summary form, however, compels ‘Especially Heinous’ not to miss a word. But he also never told her about his older brother, which was more acceptable, because he didn’t know about him, either.”Īt 16,000 words long, whether it counts as a short story or a novella is up to the reader to decide. ““ The Third Guy”: Stabler never told Benson about his little brother. Stabler and Benson contend with ghosts with bells for eyes, doppelgangers, and exorcist priests, and each of the 272 summaries is a Lydia Davis-esque short story in its own right. Here, Machado details twelve seasons and 272 episodes of an alternative Law & Order, one which may be closer to the X Files than the source material, in which supernatural occurrences are de rigueur. Or, if not alternative realities, then at least real fictions in our reality. ‘Especially Heinous’ is another story which satisfies my desire to be convinced of alternative realities.

The green ribbon carmen maria machado