mataglap -- an Indonesian word meaning "dark eye" or, probably, "dilated eye." It is an indication that someone is about to go berserk and start killing people at random. Used in Walter Jon Williams' novel Aristoi as the name of a berserk form of nanotechnology that devoured the planet.

You can e-mail Mataglap SF at mataglap@yahoo.com

 

Here's an odd little existentialist story, more a collection of vignettes and observations surrounding Aimee and her 26 monkeys, who travel around performing at local fairs.  The big finale of their act involves getting all the various types of monkeys into a bathtub, from which they abruptly disappear.  No one knows how they do this, least of all Aimee, but they always come back over the course of the next few hours, usually with some interesting little objects.  Aimee seems to enjoy this life, after having impulsively acquired the monkeys and all the trappings of the act from the previous owner, but she exists mostly in the present, she's not quite sure how she got to that point or where to go from here.  The abyss could be the unknown dimension into which the monkeys vanish, or more metaphorically it could also be the emptiness from where the monkeys seem to be rescuing Aimee.  Within a short space Johnson puts together an interesting glimpse into a larger continuity, and at the end you get something of a clue as to where the monkeys go when they disappear, and maybe even why.  She presents the story in a series of 23 (why not 26?) numbered sections which are disconnected yet come together nicely to strike an appropriate evocative tone.  Basically simple but with a larger purpose, which is exactly what a short story should be.


posted by Mark at 10:41 AM