The Loneliness Files – Athena Dixon
These days, we’re confronted with a constant influx of simulations of communication, fun, intimacy, activity, travel. But we’re not present: it’s like seeing the world after your death, or a world into which you were never born.
Hoffer’s work . . . has [a] kaleidoscopic quality, zooming in and out from description of a landscape to a consideration of the molecules from which the landscape is built—from describing the way someone’s insides might look outside their body to simple statements that reveal the weight of a love.
Form doesn’t merely shape content, but creates it. This is a scary fact. Language threatens the freedom of things, making complexity seem fixed and turning loved ones into abstractions.
stemmy things – imogen xtian smith
Pleasure triumphs over production. stemmy things lives up to this axiom, hitting the reader with a sticky frankness that elicits both surprise and gratitude.