Weird Fiction discussion

This topic is created for us to have a space to discuss November 2021's group read, Joanna Koch's The Wingspan of Severed Hands. I haven't read this book yet, by the way, just enough about it to make me want to nominate it for our group read.

This is a fairly short novel, just 102 text pages long in print, told in four parts. The Kindle version is $4.99 and Amazon offers a reader a chance to "Look Inside" in order to sample the author's style. Weirdpunk Books, the publisher, puts out what looks like a nice print version for $12, if that's your preference. It's also a recent novel, published only December 15, 2020, less than a year ago.

A good review I found, part of which I skimmed because it did look to have a few plot spoilers, is this one: https://www.horrordna.com/books/the-w.... I liked the review because it squarely ties in a lot of the other works we've read here at this group, including Robert E. Chambers' The King in Yellow, and Lovecraft's short stories we are making our way through now. Yet, Koch's work goes its own way and adds much that is new. My understanding of this work is that it is a great example of the direction Weird is heading in, something I want to call (in an article I'm working on) "Transition" Weird. I call it "Transition" because these stories first ground themselves in reality before slowly, subtly deviating. The transition into Weird is a big part of the fun of this new style.

Finally got to this book - OH MY!!! That prose is ...something else. As a fat girl myself, I viscerally sympathized with Adira. I didn't move too far yet, but I am amazed. Pedestrian prose this is not.

I am through the first third and I agree, that prose is different. You gain something and you lose something, I think, by going over wrought that way. I'm keeping an open mind to the end of the book before trying to figure out if it adds.

It's an interesting read, at least, and it's definitely distinctive in style, not at all like other books. I'm getting a more VanderMeer New Weird feel from this book, not the new Transitional style. Joanna Hoch really knows their Weird genre well, too, what with bringing in the sign of the yellow and all that. Very impressive. Makes me want to go back and actually read the Chambers work on our bookshelf, instead of simply just about it.

Adira has my sympathy as well. Not because she has a louse of a husband. I place the responsibility on her to say "no" a 24th time if that's what it takes. That or get rid of him after the second. She gets my sympathy for having a Smother for a parent. Bad parenting always enlists my sympathies.

the sign of the yellow and all that and Carcosa, Carcosa!

On a different note - how do the gentlemen in this group cope with all the physiological things described/referred to? Just curious.

Also, Dan, can you *again* explain to what transitional Weird vs the New Weird are?

Also - I thought that the dead sister was supposed to be younger, but she is also referred to as twin?

Also - Can a person literally tear off another person's wrists, even when their flesh is soft and weak? I mean, muscles, tendons? I guess it probably does not really matter, considering.

Also - I am intrigued by you calling the Mother a smotherer. While she keeps professing her love, it appears that she is mostly driven by malice and loathing of Adira. Unlike some of our students' parents who insist on coming with them to my office hours.

I finished Wingspan. Meh. I guess I'm one of the few people who read it and wasn't thrilled by the experience. Here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

To answer you questions, Zina, since I didn't get to those topics in my review:

There is a stream of horror, rather popular now, called body horror, I believe. It tries to use physiological processes grossly described to kind of sicken people. This book is an example of this exciting development.

What I call transitional weird are stories that start out in the everyday real world and go that way for quite a while. Then an element of weird comes in, then another, etc. A lot of the fiction in the latest couple issues of Weird Tales is being written this way. I think a lot of Victor LaValle's weird fiction is written in this mode. I'm a big fan of it. New Weird is the VanderMeer immersion in an assumed quasi-alien world, like in Mieville's works too. There's a lot more to that definition, but I've defined it deeper elsewhere in this group. I like this too, but its heyday has passed.

I read the "sister" as being this weapon Peter and Bennet are constructing to confront the menace. The cure seems as bad as the disease to me, but it's hard to tell since the menace is even less well defined than the angel weapon sister.

I don't really know what to make of the severed hands thing either. It seems sort of figurative to me except actual physical hands were built for Adira and put in place of her actual hands. So who knows?

There's a line between engaged involvement and smothering of which most parents are cognizant. Adira's mother controls and overwhelms her, makes all of Adira's choices. The mother is clearly the villain early on. I rather like this part of the story, but it doesn't stay there. Calling the mother a Smother is a (borrowed) play on words. Koch only uses the word "smother" twice in her book, both times in reference to the mother.

OK, I finished reading it finally. On some level, this almost reads as a tale of a woman finally working through the childhood trauma inflicted by her mother and possibly, a husband from a very brief marriage. But of course there is also the whole dream invasion from the Yellow Queen realm that's driving people mad. (which really resonates with how the whole society been spiraling into crazy over the last few years) (view spoiler)[
* Once you realize that Adira the young girl is Adira Bennet the grown woman, and it is those dreams that create the weapon angel, it all sorta falls into place.
*You were completely right about the mother.
*For a while there I expected that it was Adira's math probing into the Yellow Sign that carried the Queen into our world to begin with, but looks like no. Or...? maybe? (hide spoiler)]
I have no problem with the super impressionistic language, especially when dream sequences are described. I actually- rather like.

I re-read your review and I like how well you put it all. And you are right - for those who, like me, like poetic on occasion, it's a neat book. I would like to give it 3.5 stars if I could, but will wind up with 4, I think.

Footnote which I will probably erase: I wonder if - at least in the US, there is a strong gender effect regarding reading some of the passages - which you, Dan, somewhat confirmed with your talking of intentional gross-out. Men in the US find certain lady-issues rude and gross, whereas for the ladies (and I wish anybody else could collaborate) these are experiences; like when you read about somebody exhaling deeply and you can picture the feeling.

Incidentally, were we the only two to read this? Come on folks, it's SHORT!

It was short. I even re-read the first third twice because I wasn't getting it at first, a not uncommon occurrence for me. The prose really was divine. I'm glad to read you enjoyed it, Zina.