October 2022 Issue: Fear (Digital Edition)
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For Every City a Sculpture
"Below a thirty-story office building in downtown Milwaukee, a fountain in the adjacent sunken courtyard is turned off. In place of water, a ripple of rock fills the emptied basin. Resembling the quiet passage of waves, the gravel bed proceeds in uniform crests and troughs oriented at a diagonal. These pebble swells are not the consequence of rough winds, or the pull of the sun or the moon, but the sculpting of human hands. Conceived by acclaimed architect and artist Maya Lin, the installation, "Courtyard Sea" (2022), revives her preoccupation with billowing artificial topographies." (Alexandra Drexelrius)
Fear
When Humans Ruled the Earth
The Inevitability of Mass Extinction
"In the hierarchy of things that keep people awake at night, mass extinction may not rank very high. There are immediate calamities to contemplate: job loss, illness, broken relationships and all the other reefs upon which we so frequently shipwreck. Mass extinction—the wholesale disappearance of species across the biological spectrum—seems abstract by comparison." (Robert Rodi)
A Killer and A Movie
When Two Brutal Murders Brought Fear to Chicago
"On October 18, 1955, two weeks before Halloween, the naked, dead bodies of three boys, two brothers aged eleven and thirteen, and another boy aged fourteen, were found in the forest preserve near the border of the city’s Northwest Side. They had been bound, gagged with tape, sexually assaulted and murdered. Little more than a year later, the naked, frozen bodies of two sisters, aged fifteen and thirteen, were found in a wooded creek bed just outside of Chicago’s Southwest Side. While the city had seen its share of crime, it had been largely confined to gangsters or in ethnic enclaves. Both crimes were committed in neighborhoods known for quiet bungalows." (David Witter)
Fear on LSD
Based on a “Terrifying” True Story
“'Newcity,' I tell my wife as we turn northbound onto Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable Lake Shore Drive, 'is doing a special issue on fear.' 'Oh,' she says, 'that’s right up your dark alley. You’re afraid of everything.' 'I’m afraid,' I reply, 'that’s not true. Can you name even five things I fear?' (Patrick Roberts)
Where the Dogs Run
The Suburbs Scare the Hell Out of Me
"On a recent work Zoom a colleague bragged about having barbecue for breakfast. 'Burnt ends with a bourbon sauce. Better than Eggo any day.' 'Oh man, no fair!' a coworker chimed in. 'I want barbecue for breakfast!' 'Come on out to the suburbs,' my colleague said. 'You’re all welcome at my table!' " (Jacob Knabb)
But How Does It Taste?
Feasting on Fearsome Foods
"Friends, of course, were grossed out by this bug eating, and I get that, but so many food aversions are due to a lack of familiarity with the foods in question. In many parts of the world, including Mexico and Asia, bugs are a recognized part of the diet, easy to harvest, inexpensive, a low-fat source of protein, and, with the right seasoning, genuinely, and I kid you not, tasty." (David Hammond)
I’m Not Afraid of Public Speaking
I’m Afraid of You
"If you’re scared to death of public speaking, you’re hardly alone. Many surveys rank public speaking at or near the top of the list of our most pervasive fears, higher than death itself. To cite a Seinfeld routine, 'This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy'.” (Emerson Dameron)
Fear of Death
And Everything Else
"There is fear of pain, fear of shame, fear of humiliation, of poverty, of want, of not getting (love, fame, riches, your due). My college friend was afraid his tombstone would say, He had potential." (S.L. Wisenberg)
Made for Horror
"This is a significant moment for women working in genre films. Women are very well suited for horror in particular. We have a personal relationship to fear from a very young age and we are able to bleed for days and not die. Additionally, I know from direct experience that there is something distinctly genre about childbirth. (Jennifer Reeder)
Not Amused
Horror Is A Whole Day Waiting In Line
"Nostalgia can be deceptive. Only grade-A, unadulterated nostalgia could explain why I thought it was a good idea to drag my husband and six-year-old son to an amusement park while we were vacationing in Brazil, my home country; why I forgot about the long lines, the overpriced subpar fast food, the abundance of cranky kids and grumpy adults, and, last but not least, why I overlooked the nadir of the experience: the horrifying, panic-inducing rides." (Isa Giallorenzo)
The Philatelist
How A Typewriter Brought A Writer Back to Life
"Two-and-a-half years ago a close friend gifted me a manual typewriter, a 1964 Royal Safari, completely reconditioned by a genius in California named Kenneth Alexander, after my unceremonious departure from the Latin School of Chicago, where I taught for eleven years. I have had eight teaching jobs in the last two-and-a-half years. I lost friends over it, lost contact with others, bailed out on plans with still closer ones. I feel disappeared, alone, and because of all of the jobs I’ve had since Latin, I feel like I exist everywhere and nowhere at the same time." (Frank Tempone)
In the Cards
Finding the Art in Tarot
Fear Of Sighing
Afternoons With Gene
"I was never afraid. But the caustic bald man wanted to be feared. I was never afraid of him; only slightly startled, sometimes amused, mostly bemused. From the first confrontation when I had just started college. He was always... concerned. And he knew best. Boy, did Gene Siskel know best, and better than any of you." (Ray Pride)
Arts & Culture
Reviews
The fall season's first harvest
Comics
Poetry
"On the Fast Train from Jerusalem to Tel-Aviv," a new poem from Dina Elenbogen