We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read

May 9, 2024 8:39 AM

This is our story, simplified: Life. Loss. Transformation. Love. Death. Iteration. The first time you get our message, you only will only find one thread. Short fiction by Caroline M Yoachim.
posted by Artw (5 comments total)

This is remarkable. It's both formally inventive in its presentation yet still has real emotional heft. It's short story as contrapuntal poem.

Caroline Yoachim has been writing remarkable short stories for over a decade now. They mix SFnal "what if?" without losing sight of the people and emotions at their heart. If this is your first encounter with her, you owe it to yourself to read "Carnival Nine" and "The Acronology of Love".
posted by sgranade at 8:44 AM on May 9 [2 favorites]

Wow, cool! Thanks for sharing this!

More behind-the-scenes info in this interview with the author.
posted by brainwane at 12:00 PM on May 9 [1 favorite]

brainwane, I have always loved how Lightspeed does those behind-the-scenes interviews with the authors for specific stories. They're always done by someone who has read the story with care and insight and often have interesting questions about storycraft choices!
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 12:37 AM on May 10

The audio version (there is an audio version!) has a little introduction about the challenges of adapting it as well.
posted by Artw at 6:31 AM on May 10

I thought the story linked in the post was excellent. Today I got around to reading Carnival 9 linked by sgranade above. Holy hell was that the wrong story to read as a father approaching middle age and going through a serious mid-life crisis. Excellent story, but I may need to go sit quietly for a while.
posted by jermsplan at 12:44 PM on May 17