"It seems emblematic of Generation X that our children might one day rummage through our dressers looking for porn only to stumble upon a VHS tape of an old Godzilla movie," writes Ethan Nosowsky, former editorial director of McSweeney's, in his introduction to this story. "The shame! But that is the very particular disappointment afflicting young Patrick at the outset of 'Godzilla Versus the Smog Monster,' one of the longer stories in Lucy Corin's new collection One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses.
While Patrick chews on the (in)significance of his find, across the country Los Angeles seems to be suffering through some kind of apocalyptic disaster. Not a mudslide, not an earthquake, not a flood, not a smog emergency, not Carmagedden or even a summer without a Hollywood blockbuster. This is different: 'Something swooped overhead and dropped, or dropped something. Something fell burning from the sky and what is it, chemicals, flaming viruses, maybe nuclear - whatever it is, California is burning on the television and burning across the country.'
"But that's not the apocalypse Lucy Corin wants to draw your attention to. Or rather, it's not the only one.
"The apocalypse is being a white, suburban, fourteen-year-old, American boy whose world suddenly cracks open when the stability and normalcy such a boy expects is disrupted.
"Becoming aware of sex is apocalyptic. Feeling like your parents are aliens can be apocalyptic. Starting to hang out with the troubled, biracial, slightly older neighborhood girl can definitely lead to something apocalyptic."
About the author:
Lucy Corin is the author of the short story collection The Entire Predicament (Tin House Books) and the novel Everyday Psychokillers: A History for Girls (FC2). The collection One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses is out now from McSweeney's. Stories have appeared in American Short Fiction, Conjunctions, Ploughshares, Tin House, New Stories From the South: The Year's Best, and many other places. She's been a fellow at Breadloaf and Sewanee, and a resident at Yaddo and the Radar Lab. She spent 2012-13 living at the American Academy in Rome as the John Guare Fellow in Literature.
About the Guest Editor:
Mcsweeney's is a publishing company based in San Francisco.
About the Publisher:
Electric Literature is an independent publisher working to ensure that literature remains a vibrant presence in popular culture. Electric Literature's weekly fiction magazine, Recommended Reading, invites established authors, indie presses, and literary magazines to recommended great fiction. Once a month we feature our own recommendation of original, previously unpublished fiction, accompanied by a Single Sentence Animation. Single Sentence Animations are creative collaborations: the author chooses a favorite sentence and we commission an artist to interpret it. Stay connected with us through email, Facebook, and Twitter, and find previous Electric Literature picks in the Recommended Reading archives.
Genre: Science Fiction
While Patrick chews on the (in)significance of his find, across the country Los Angeles seems to be suffering through some kind of apocalyptic disaster. Not a mudslide, not an earthquake, not a flood, not a smog emergency, not Carmagedden or even a summer without a Hollywood blockbuster. This is different: 'Something swooped overhead and dropped, or dropped something. Something fell burning from the sky and what is it, chemicals, flaming viruses, maybe nuclear - whatever it is, California is burning on the television and burning across the country.'
"But that's not the apocalypse Lucy Corin wants to draw your attention to. Or rather, it's not the only one.
"The apocalypse is being a white, suburban, fourteen-year-old, American boy whose world suddenly cracks open when the stability and normalcy such a boy expects is disrupted.
"Becoming aware of sex is apocalyptic. Feeling like your parents are aliens can be apocalyptic. Starting to hang out with the troubled, biracial, slightly older neighborhood girl can definitely lead to something apocalyptic."
About the author:
Lucy Corin is the author of the short story collection The Entire Predicament (Tin House Books) and the novel Everyday Psychokillers: A History for Girls (FC2). The collection One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses is out now from McSweeney's. Stories have appeared in American Short Fiction, Conjunctions, Ploughshares, Tin House, New Stories From the South: The Year's Best, and many other places. She's been a fellow at Breadloaf and Sewanee, and a resident at Yaddo and the Radar Lab. She spent 2012-13 living at the American Academy in Rome as the John Guare Fellow in Literature.
About the Guest Editor:
Mcsweeney's is a publishing company based in San Francisco.
About the Publisher:
Electric Literature is an independent publisher working to ensure that literature remains a vibrant presence in popular culture. Electric Literature's weekly fiction magazine, Recommended Reading, invites established authors, indie presses, and literary magazines to recommended great fiction. Once a month we feature our own recommendation of original, previously unpublished fiction, accompanied by a Single Sentence Animation. Single Sentence Animations are creative collaborations: the author chooses a favorite sentence and we commission an artist to interpret it. Stay connected with us through email, Facebook, and Twitter, and find previous Electric Literature picks in the Recommended Reading archives.
Genre: Science Fiction
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