Grieving, loss, futility, diaspora, and broken connections

April 5, 2021 11:06 PM

Two melancholy short scifi and fantasy stories, new this year, about grieving the loss of parents. "Comments on Your Provisional Patent Application for an Eternal Spirit Core" is by Wole Talabi: "So you’ve been using the money they left us to develop this thing?" "All Worlds Left Behind" is by Iona Datt Sharma: "I, uh, used to come here with my dad? I don't speak the language as well as he did."
posted by brainwane (6 comments total)

Thank you for these. Both poignant and the second one was lovely. I really felt for the people in Eternal Spirit Core.
posted by Braeburn at 11:28 PM on April 5, 2021

Thank you for these and for the introduction to authors I didn't know before, which is a gift that keeps giving.
posted by away for regrooving at 12:06 AM on April 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

I love how nice the fiance and FMIL are in the second book! They can't even see the place, but they believe her?! That is amazing.
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:30 AM on April 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

Heh. I was going to I actually found them, or at least Adam, remarkably incurious! If my girlfriend had demonstrated she could disappear in an archway (and the line about holding hands suggests that she had in fact demonstrated this to him), especially if she could bring physical things back, I'd be beside myself with curiosity! I'd be like "bring back a plant! I want to see if it has the same cellular structure! Does it have DNA, does it match ours? What are these minerals?" etc.
posted by tavella at 1:35 PM on April 6, 2021

(It wasn't a problem for me with the story, that wasn't what it was about, but I did have the thought.)
posted by tavella at 1:36 PM on April 6, 2021

It sounded like she'd at least tried to bring him through and it didn't work. And that she had brought back that object.

It felt casual, like his family had been used to knowing this for quite some time.

What nice people. I would never expect in-laws to be that tolerant of my weird :P
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:09 PM on April 6, 2021