The Reality Issue
Dear Readers,
Triangle House Review’s 33rd Issue is here.
I’ve had occasion to confront reality recently- I’m rebuilding my life now that my marriage is over—and what I learned is that there is nothing more surreal than facing someone else’s truth. Annie Ernaux once said, “There is no such thing as a lesser truth,” and that’s exactly why it’s so difficult…
We’ve been working on the Reality issue of the Triangle House Review for too long. Lexi and I went to Sarah Manguso’s book launch for LIARS, and when we were speaking to her after the event, Sarah turned to me and said, you’re not divorced, are you? No, I said, I’m not. Huh, she responded, that’s weird.
Soon I will be, and now her paperback is about to be out!
Even if our personal circumstances can be all consuming, so much has changed in the wide world. The reality is, our futures are a complete blank question mark, no matter how much you might think you know what’s in store for you, whether in your own small life, or the world writ large. But the huge shifts we’ve all experienced alone and together made the issue feel more urgent as we continued our work on it.
And it turned out so, so strong. Really.
With essays by Stacey Streshinsky and Helen Holmes, fiction by Grace Byron and Armon Mahdavi, Criticism by Philippa Snow and Sebastian Castillo, an interview between Sarah Manguso and Lexi Kent-Monning and an epic roundtable discussion between Jamie Hood, Rayne Fisher-Quann, Zoe Hu, Julia Hava, and poetry by Olivia Muenz and Anna Dorn, how could it not be?!
In reality, things have gotten demonstrably worse over the past year. There’s been yet another vibe shift, sure. Some people are saying another spin around a republican presidency won’t affect them, not personally. I guess you could say that’s the vibes shifting, but meanwhile, many people are suffering and it’s going to get worse. I don’t need to list all the bad things- you’re either well aware, or you’re not because you don’t want to be.
I haven’t been on Twitter since November, when the Apple store logged me out trying to fix my phone. What a gift, I thought, I’m never going back! So that’s why I didn’t know that Carrie Underwood performed at Trump’s inauguration when I sang “Before He Cheats” at karaoke last week. A woman got very mad at me. “In these dark times, do you think singing Carrie Underwood at karaoke is the right thing to do?” she slurred, and I said, “I didn’t know!” She wouldn’t leave me alone, accosted me, the bouncer got involved, and I told her she didn’t know me, I didn’t know her, I wasn’t interested in having this conversation, and to go back to her table. “Are you OK?” the bouncer asked, as the woman filmed me with her phone and glared at me drunkenly from her corner.
What a dumb reality! On one hand we have full grown adults going full monkey hands over mouth, ears, and eyes emoji about the rise of fascism, and on the other we have people fixating on a stranger’s song choice as a way to heal the world. The realities within this issue are much more complex, cerebral, and interesting, if not as entertaining. But could they be more confrontational?
Love,
Monika (and the rest of us here at THR)