Best listened to with headphones/earphones.
Here is the podcast version of “the silk farmer.” My horror fairytale I wrote in 2022—a Southern Gothic tale. Originally found on the 2023 October Newsletter ~ Ghost Edition.
This work was short-listed in the Ghost, Fable, and Fairytale Prize for Fractured Lit in 2022.
Content warnings: whimsical child death, reference to chattel slavery, reference to childhood neglect, protohuman body horror, cosmic horror
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the silk farmer is a short horror/fairy tale about a liminal being and what they do for a living.
They’re inspired by tales of “Hags,” fae or witches that are the villains in stories, making horrific deals and games, particularly dangerous to children, eldritch magick!
I love them.
Tiny archetype rant: Hags are a part of the crone archetype, the elder feminine energy that appears time and again in our stories. Patriarchal history has villainized this archetype; what is the use of feminine energy, of a person/woman, if they are not providing for a man/bearing offspring? Turn that energy into a villain, into a consumer of children—the anti-woman. Sometimes, you gotta eat some kids. Sometimes, an elder subjects the youth to a trial to catalyze their growth, even sacrificing their body so that the children can become heroes, grow, replace them. The Hag can help you develop or swallow you whole, both valuable.
This story is not about the Hag-like entity sacrificing themself for a hero child.
This story is about death as transformation.
This story is about the children who don’t “make it” and what happens to them, at least in this case.
I hope it haunts and delights you.
Writing, Performance, Art, and Direction by Me
Production and Music by Honey House Records
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