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- Herausgeber: Metaphorosis Publishing
- Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
- Sprache: Englisch
Beautifully written speculative fiction from Metaphorosis. All the stories from the month, plus author biographies, interviews, and story origins Table of Contents Heard – Elise Forier Edie Rowboat – K. G. Anderson How to Survive a Fish Attack – Kato Thompson Seeders – Jamie Killen
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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Metaphorosis
February 2016
edited by B. Morris Allen
ISSN: 2573-136X (online)ISBN: 978-1-64076-061-5 (e-book)
Metaphorosis
Neskowin
Table of Contents
Metaphorosis
February
Heard
It came from Elise Forier Edie
A question for Elise Forier Edie
About Elise Forier Edie
Rowboat
It came from K. G. Anderson
A question for K. G. Anderson
About K. G. Anderson
How to Survive a Fish Attack
A question for Kato Thompson
About Kato Thompson
Seeders
A question for Jamie Killen
About Jamie Killen
Metaphorosis Publishing
Copyright
Landmarks
Title Page
Table of Contents
Body Matter
February 2016
Heard — Elise Forier Edie Rowboat — K. G. Anderson How to Survive a Fish Attack — Kato Thompson Seeders — Jamie Killen
Heard
Elise Forier Edie
When Dr. Paulson Kurtz clones the mammoth Sukari, the whole world gushes. Blog posts, interviews, TV spots, websites, opinion pieces, essays, tweets, and podcasts, the message is always the same: everyone’s enchanted, everyone’s in love. YouTube viewers thrill to her image: Sukari chases a big red ball; Sukari bathes in a plastic pool; Sukari sucks from a bottle, held by a comely grad student. Everyone agrees that her name, taken from the Inuit word for “sweet,” suits her perfectly. Her golden eyes, her shaggy fur, her obvious intelligence make her as popular with adults as she is with children. Sukari mouse pads, Sukari iPhone skins, even Sukari backpacks pop up at fine retail stores everywhere.
The most popular video online is one of Sukari learning to grab a tuft of grass with her trunk. Kurtz shows this clip over and over on talk shows and it is played again and again online. In it, Sukari gambols in a field, adorable and furry. She grabs for the grass, but aims a little too high. She tries again, but dips a little too low. Finally, she curves her tiny trunk around a tuft and pulls. Success! She rocks back, carefully attempting to propel the blades to her mouth. The trunk advances … her mouth opens… but darn it! She hits her cheek instead. So funny! She’s such a star! How can you not fall in love with Sukari?
Of course, everyone also asks, over and over, if she’s lonely. She’s the only one of her kind in the world. Doesn’t a baby mammoth miss her herd?
Dr. Kurtz’s answer is always the same. He says, “Quarantine is necessary, for Sukari’s safety. But she doesn’t know she’s alone. How can she miss a herd that she’s never even seen?”
School children write Kurtz letters, asking for a mammoth of their own. Jesus freaks write too, and condemn him for a heretic. Women send him naked pictures. Meanwhile, corporate investors publicize the construction of a five thousand acre compound in the Pribilof Islands, off the coast of Alaska. The acreage will be for Kurtz’s exclusive use. Everyone waits breathlessly for a whole herd of mammoths to manifest.
On her second birthday, Kurtz releases another Sukari video. In it, bearded and tanned, he kneels under a perfect blue sky. The summer green grass of the Pribilofs ripples around him. Sukari’s trunk, hairy and pliable, explores his wrist and then his forearm. She seems to be laughing as she tickles his shoulder, his neck, all the way up to his face. She gently pats his cheeks, his lips. She seems to be saying, “I love you. I love you.” Kurtz strokes her head, rubs her neck. Sukari closes her eyes.
“You’re very fond of her,” an interviewer prompts, after being thoroughly charmed by the video.
Kurtz clears his throat. “It’s more accurate to speak of attachment,” he says, “which is a biological imperative, as opposed to a poetic construct. Baby mammals behave in a way that releases hormones in their caregivers. These hormones cause pleasant sensations, and insure they will continue to be cared for. What Sukari and I feel for one another is merely attachment. But we both enjoy it.”
On Sukari’s third birthday, Kurtz does not release a video. No more extinct mammals have appeared in the Pribilof compound. Reporters inquire about Sukari’s welfare, about the future of the mammoth-cloning project. But Kurtz does not reply.
A Twitter account surfaces, one purporting to be from Sukari’s handlers. It says there’s a problem with her internal organs. A subsequent grim picture is painted in a series of 145 character reports. Sukari is in pain. Kurtz is keeping her alive anyway. Kurtz is Mengele. Sukari is a victim. Hash tag SaveSukari rises to the top of Twittering Trends, even though the account disappears, just as mysteriously as it began.
Public outcry intensifies. People demand a statement from Kurtz. The President receives a flood of outraged e-mails, begging for an intervention. Finally, a White House press spokesmen, balding and beleaguered, emerges from the West Wing to wearily explain that, though the President cares deeply about Sukari, the White House has no jurisdiction over extinct animals, especially ones manufactured in a laboratory.
