THE GREATER REALITY AREA

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fiction

A collection of 20 issues

DOWNWARD SPIRAL

“I mean, I think I’m remembering why I shouldn’t be dating right now.” Her fork had run out of bucatini to coil around itself. “I think Suzie was right, though, we should talk about these things. And your story about the ball pit, well. It rhymes with what

LIVING LANDSLIDES

According to legends written down in Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, the slide-rock bolter is a species of alpine whale that anchors itself high in the Rocky Mountains by its tail flukes, only to luge down the slope with an open maw, consuming everything in the path of the

ON MOUNT CHIXCULUB AND MARS MINOR

A WELL-PRESERVED SECRET

The vegetable lamb of Tartary did not bleat when bound by its hind legs, nor when verdant blood spilled from its neck into wineskins and jars. More fruit than beast, its flesh, ground with peppercorn and mandrake root, was stuffed into casings of dried artichoke intestine. From there, it was

THE TROUBLE WITH SAN FRANCISCO

It looms over the city like the abandoned lance of some dead Cold War god; perhaps the hills beneath it were formed from his irradiated corpse. It is the only civic landmark as obviously visible as the bridge to its north. This is by design. Sutro Tower, as it is

LIFE IN THE VAST LANE

Upon birth, the North American cumulonimbus cloud rolls down from the Rocky Mountains, and from there, ever eastward into its notorious adult form, scraping along the troposphere with its anvil-like plumage. Cloudforms throughout its abdomen whorl into temporary organs and heatsinks, which can sometimes be seen through the rotational

WINGS ON WALLS

When wandering through American cities, one will often find wings painted on walls, fully disconnected from a central body plan, yet anticipating their inevitable presence in photography. They are as diverse in their presentation as any lepidopterist’s collection of pinned specimens, aesthetically adapted to the character and conditions of

THREE COCKTAILS FOR BREAKING CURSES

AN ELEPHANT NEVER FORGETS

Bestiary writers from Pliny on through DaVinci wrote of the legendary battles between elephants and dragons; two titanic beasts, evenly matched, their corpses found entangled throughout Africa and Asia. We can presume the surviving species of Proboscidea eventually won their war, for there are no true dragons left, and contemporary

AN ENDANGERED SPECIES

The bicephalous jackalope leads a complex and short existence due to only one of its heads being materially real. Though it may at first seem cumbersome, this grants it an evolutionary advantage over its better known cousin, the common jackalope, as the second head allows it perceive threats both mythical