Celebrate the Strangeness of Being Anything at All
Spotlighting the bizarrely beautiful and beautifully bizarre music and lyrics of indie folk rock band Neutral Milk Hotel, And One Day We Will Die features 22 short stories from the realms of weird, phantasmagoric, and speculative fiction, all inspired by the cult classic songs written and performed by Jeff Mangum and company. From alternate histories where happy endings are allowed and mythological re-imaginings that center love over destruction to awe-inspiring contemplations of the potential in the present and dark and unfathomable future visions, all featured authors selected one song from the beloved Neutral Milk Hotel songbook to use as a springboard for their tales.
Editor and publisher Patrick Barb has assembled a diverse array of authors and tales, with the love of Neutral Milk Hotel acting as connective tissue, solidifying into an all-star album’s worth of writing talent. Drawing from On Avery Island, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Ferris Wheel on Fire, and even some of the band’s bootleg recordings, these stories speak to the spark struck by Mangum’s haunting, inspiring, and perplexing creative output that burns with a passionate intensity through the prose offerings within.
Featuring fiction by:
Lillah Lawson
Helen Victoria Murray
M. Lopes da Silva
Camila Hamel
Briar Ripley Page
Joe Koch
Tiffany Morris
D. Matthew Urban
Christi Nogle
Tim Major
Dan Coxon
Matthew Kressel
Lindz Mc Leod
Erin Brown
Brian Evenson
Edward Barnfield
Dale Light
Corey Farrenkopf
Ai Jiang
Michael Horita
Richard Thomas
John Langan
And a Foreword by
Adam Clair (author of Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History of the Elephant 6 Mystery)
Inhoudsopgave
Editor’s Note
Foreword
Adam Clair
UNTITLED
Inspired by ‘Ghost’
Lillah Lawson
ARGYRIA (PROGRESS REVIEW)
Inspired by ‘Where You’ll Find Me Now’
Helen Victoria Murray
THE POLYAMOROUS HEART OF DEATH
Inspired by ‘Holland, 1945’
M. Lopes da Silva
TWINS
Inspired by ‘A Baby for Pree’
Camila Hamel
HER REFLECTION
Inspired by ‘My Dream Girl Don’t Exist’
Briar Ripley Page
THE CLOWN KING IN YELLOW
Inspired by ‘The Fool’
Joe Koch
NOT EVEN THE GHOSTS, NOT EVEN THE BIRDS
Inspired by ‘The King of Carrot Flowers Part 1’
Tiffany Morris
JUST THE MOTION
Inspired by ‘Little Birds’
D. Matthew Urban
THE PROJECT
Inspired by ‘Oh, Comely’
Christi Nogle
TRANSMISSION
Inspired by ‘Two-Headed Boy’
Tim Major
TERMINUS
Inspired by ‘Two-Headed Boy, Pt. 2’
Dan Coxon
WHITE ROSES IN THEIR EYES
Inspired by ‘untitled (‘Ghost’ coda)’
Matthew Kressel
STYX AND STONES
Inspired by ‘Someone Is Waiting’
Lindz Mc Leod
MIRRORBOY
Inspired by ‘Avery Island/April 1st’
Erin Brown
THE GARDEN HEAD
Inspired by ‘Gardenhead / Leave Me Alone’
Brian Evenson
THE OXYGEN THIEF
Inspired by ‘I Hear You Breathe’
Edward Barnfield
CRUNGUS AND LOEB – AN UNPUBLISHED
REVIEW
Inspired by ‘I Will Bury You in Time’
Dale Light
THE CHURCH OF OUR LORDS. THE CHURCH
OF DOGS.
Inspired by ‘The King of Carrot Flowers Part 2 and 3’
Corey Farrenkopf
ON THE BRIDGE ABOVE THE RIVER
Inspired by ‘In the Aeroplane Over the Sea’
Ai Jiang
PERFECT DREAM
Inspired by ‘Engine’
Michael Horita
NAOMI ASCENDING
Inspired by ‘Naomi’
Richard Thomas
FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES, WE WILL WAIT
IN YOU: A RECORD
Inspired by ‘You’ve Passed’
John Langan
Content Warnings
Biographies
Acknowledgments
Books by Patrick Barb