I often think about orangutans when I’m driving to work. Although I’m sure I first saw this anecdote on Twitter, I’ll give you a real citation: Jacobus Bontius, a physician with the Dutch East India Company, wrote in 1658 that the Malays believed the apes had the ability to speak but chose not to, “lest they be compelled to labor.” [1] Bontius was incredulous, but the orangutans are onto something given the resonance of that quote centuries later amongst doomscrollers. For his part, José Maria de Eça de Queirós muses at the end of his Adam and Eve in Paradise—when Adam and Eve become “irremediably human” and “will progress with such speed and impetus towards the perfection of the Body and the glory of the Mind”—on whether the orangutan, who “lingers idly on the soft moss, listening to the limpid songs of the birds, savoring the rays of sunlight,” is worthier of admiration than humans, when one considers all the pitfalls of God’s gifts granted the latter through evolution (pp.

Carson Winter shapes his horror novella around the friction between the bourgeoisie and proletariat.

Honeymoons in Temporary Locations can be as subtle as an anvil, but to quote an old internet staple TV Tropes, “some anvils need to be dropped.”

Familiar stories can often be reinvented for renewed emotional impact, but they require precise handling.

Chan portrays community tensions, prejudice, and xenophobia with nuance, but her simplistic depiction of leftist violence made me uneasy.

What is this show about?

A Power Unbound is about healing from grief and trauma.

Blythe is a reflective practitioner, generously guiding us through the craft that underlies Necessary Poisons.

North Continent Ribbon takes full advantage of the opportunities afforded by short fiction while still coming together to tell a cohesive and elegant tale.

This short story is completely fascinating in terms of structure and presentation, content and concept.