Below, Issue Eight contributor Edmond Caldwell discusses his favorite piece from this latest collection of words:
“I feel dirty just saying this but I really enjoyed ‘You Enjoy Myself,’ by Frank ‘Not Her Real Name’ Hinton. Actually I feel dirty even thinking it because I felt dirty reading it, really, really dirty, like bad dirty, but in a good way, like I’d been really naughty and needed to be punished, maybe by being read a bedtime story like ‘You Enjoy Myself’ by Frank Hinton. All the books on proper story etiquette say you shouldn’t begin a story with someone waking up in the morning, but ‘You Enjoy Myself’ started with the main character waking up in the morning, or near enough anyway, ass up in the air and about to wake up in the very next paragraph. Then the same etiquette manuals tell us that under no circumstances should you describe a character by having them look in a mirror, but Frank Hinton totally makes it work. There’s other violations of good story etiquette, too, like how come there’s no ‘hook’ in the first paragraph, no clear conflict right off the bat, and making the character a writer (even a frustrated one like Yem) which is a huge no-no because then only another writer will like your story and even then probably not, and also making the main character unsympathetic and someone the reader can’t ‘relate’ to (Yem is revolting). I like stories that make me question what a story is, but this one made me question why a story is, especially this one. It violated so many things that it made me feel violated, in a good way. It enjoyed me.”