"A creation feigning confusion about the nature of its creator"

Featuring denovation, revetation, imitation, the one (& only!) original Fifth Dimension, lovesick obsessives, detective novels written by poets, spinach dip, & White Chicks (2004)

/ Now at AC: Joe Sacksteder, “Ex-Hotel to Exhibition: Walking Backwards Through The Ghosts of Orsay”

Just in time for Halloween, a story, or review, or multimedia poem, about haunting and being haunted by Sophie Calle and Jean-Paul Demoule’s The Ghosts of Orsay.

Read—or better yet, wander through, haunt—Joe Sacksteder’s “Ex-Hotel to Exhibition: Walking Backwards Through The Ghosts of Orsay,” now at Always Crashing.

/ From the Archives: Nico Teixera, “28 Cubes”

From days of Halloween past, Nico Teixera’s exhilarating and unsettling mashup of Jim Henson and Cube (not to mention Cube 2: Hypercube + Cube Zero), “28 Cubes”:

1.

Hole. Let’s do that one first shall we? The Cubby’s Veneer
Screen. [Hollow echoing] Work. Scary, right? [Scraping] O
pen X. Fiction. Science. Creep in. Jimmy, Jerry, HELP US|
me OUT OF HERE! How does it work? This sonnet? This
I M I T A T I O N fix. Willy, it’s wonked! Lost remote con
troll, you got a Golden Ticket? Full access? What to do w/
it? Behind scenes is a fatal trap. You’re gonna die. Can you
visualize all golden ratios of torture before it happens? Shut
down black mirrors. No disturbance. Futures pray to dogs, 
son. Jesus bled for account’s net-worth of sun-network sin.
There you have it? It is Twilight Zone (one & only) original
Fifth Dimension. Ouch! I’m not gonna hurt you, tho it hurts!
@least you don’t have to flip out single sides. HELP! [Honk]
Get me out of here! STOP! [Honk] My e glasses broke. I can’t

2.

see. Why r you afraid of the rooms? How many peeps r in
this Thing? R we caught? Some Thing— some one just cut
my head off! Cruel comments. Take care of your cats! Make
sure they r all right. It’ll b worth it. Don’t worry. Help some
user tie #laces. You’re a doctor now. [High-pitched whistle]
Do you remember how you got here? In a ravioli? One from
the freezer in the middle of the night. Only the government
could have built a ploy like this. Alien. God. You hope it’s a
god? Let us concentrate. We won’t solve any problem sitting
still. Keep the line moving. Work. There’s got 2 b a way out.
Invest screen time, buy an app to exit, or hold my hand thru
haunted house. I just want to wake up already! Should I trust
cop? Family? Why not? [Door slides open] I flashback to guy
in TV Tech who turned into a cop. He was always in trouble

/ Elsewhere

“Manic, obsessive, lovesick”—AC contrib Alex Higley’s collection True Failure is available for preorder from Coffee House. (You can read Higley’s “Don’t Talk,” one of the first pieces we ever published, in our archive.)

Virtual launch for AC contrib John Trefry’s Massive on Dec 2. No details as yet. Unless the details are “Make some spinach dip and watch WHITE CHICKS (2004) alone in your pajamas,” which, like, possibly? I mean, I’m not opposed.

“A detective novel written by poets…”: Inside the Castle announces new book by Zoe Darsee and AC contrib Elise Houcek.

Chicago: Reading @ The Whistler, Nov. 6, featuring AC Issue 2 contrib Meghan Lamb and hosted by Benjamin Niespodziany. Doors @ 6, reading @ 6:30.

New work at Major 7th Magazine by Avee Chaudhuri, who wrote one of my favorite stories it’s ever been our honor to publish.¹

Black Sun Lit is now reading submissions for Vol. 7 of Vestiges.

For the—seventh? eighth? year in a row, AC editor Tadd Adcox has been engaged in a one-movie-a-night horror marathon this October and microblogging about it, this year on Bluesky. The theme for this year is “the Uncanny.” Feel free to yell suggestions at him as you see fit.

/ Today’s Soundtrack

1. Look, obviously all of the stories we’ve published are my favorite story we’ve ever published, it’s like asking a parent to choose between their kids, but also: Seriously, go read Chaudhuri’s “Pleasure-Dome.”