Review:
Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens #6 |
 |
by Adicus Ryan Garton |
The editor of this magazine gives me the strangest collections of things to read and review. Case in point: in this issue alone, I am reviewing a gigantic small press horror anthology and a surreal/absurdist magazine. In case you didn't know, I'm the editor of Atomjack—a science fiction magazine. A cut-and-dry science fiction magazine.
Anyway ...
Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens. How do I begin to review this magazine? I'm tempted to say, “I don't read surreal/absurdist fiction,” and leave it at that. But that recalls scenes of college fiction workshops where the phrase “I don't read fantasy or science fiction, but ...” echoed around the room every time one of my manuscripts was on the table. The difference here, though, is a valid one: fantasy and science fiction can be analyzed and critiqued in terms that almost all other genres of fiction can. There are the three basic elements of fiction: characters, setting and plot. And these stories all have all three, but they can't be organized and simplified according to them.
In the issue I reviewed (issue 6), some of these stories feel like dreams—they are vivid to the point of absurdity when it comes to certain things and vague as fog when it comes to others. Settings will change as frequently as one turns the page. People say and do things that make sense only in the context of the story, and when pulled out, are impossible to even define a context in which their words or actions are sensible. These are what I like to call 'nosebleed fiction.'
Other stories, (and I have to confess I liked these stories more), were still absurd, but still extremely personal and emotional. “Too Much Psychic Jesus Blood” and “This is Not What I Meant to Say” and “The Silo” came across as quite meaningful in their own way. “Too Much Psychic Jesus Blood” felt like a cracked picture of suburban life, and the main character has returned from the desert war, unable to keep himself from drinking more and more of that psychic Jesus blood. “This is Not What I Meant to Say” gives me the same feeling as a really good, really sad romantic movie—the kind where the girl doesn't get the guy at the end, and the feelings fade but never completely. “The Silo” is angry. I don't even know what it's angry at, but it's pissed off. The main character slams his wife's face into a door (accidentally), and she almost kicks him in the nuts for it. His daughter never seems to stop masturbating. There's tension between him and the workers building his silo. And it's wonderful. Like there's an argument hiding under the surface that the narrator doesn't want to address, so he's content to hate every thing around him instead.
For a cut-and-dry guy (who quite likes the occasional trip into surreality), this magazine seems to be a mixed bag. On the one hand, there are some stories that are deeply emotional and almost profound—and then there are others that feel like matinee popcorn surreal fiction, strange fiction for the sake of being strange. That being said, if you like the absurd, this magazine will suit you quite nicely. You'll savor the horseshoe smiles and vomit and weed in quarter-machine bubbles. And if you're not so into the surreal, pick up this magazine anyway. And read it one story at a time, spaced out over a long period of time. The occasional nosebleed does everyone good.
__________________________________________________________________
To visit Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens and purchase their magazines click here. They are also hosting for download a free .pdf download called Web Death 2007, The New Absurdist Anthology, to celebrate the demise of The New Absurdist website.