Early Stories

K. B.

Description

Collected here are the early stories of Kiran Bhat, stories written between his college days and his backpacking experiences around the world. The stories of a young writer in between Western and Asian culture, stretching largely across the United States, Europe, and India, these stories demonstrate Bhat's commitment to stylistic experimentation, artistic growth, and getting into the heads of people quite different from himself, all the while remaining true to his voice.

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 20 avril 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 3
• EAN13: 9781456616571
• Langue: English

Extrait

Early Stories
 
by
K. B.
 
Copyright 2013–2019 K. B.,
All rights reserved.
 
 
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
 
 
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-1657-1
 
 
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Early Stories of Kiran Bhat
Contents
Preface
The Jihad of the American Fool (2010)
THE AURORA OF EDEN
JODY’S ANNUAL DINNER PARTY
WAITING FOR THE WORLD TO EXPLODE
A FACEBOOK MESSAGE FROM THE ONE THAT LOVES YOU
THE JIHAD OF THE AMERICAN FOOL
UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN
TWO EPISODES CONCERNING THE TREATMENT OF MR. AND MRS. BARTH
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON
THE SONG OF JACK
THANKLESS CALL
LAST CHANCE ON EAST 75TH STREET
Twelve Flash Stories and One Poem (2010)
AVE MARISCHE
A SPECIAL KIND OF JEWELRY STORE
ELECTRICITY
THE ROLLER COASTER
A LITTLE LIFETIME BEFORE THE GAME
COUSINS
LOSING WITH GRACE
GORDON
THE ADVENTURES OF X-GAMER AND HIS SIDEKICK DOUG
A MODERN VAMPIRE STORY
BEN, WHERE ARE YOUR HORNS?
UNEXPECTED
THE ONE NIGHT STAND OF FLOWERS
Jesús Lives in Madrid (2011)
JESÚS REMEMBERS
JESÚS BUYS SOMETHING
HOW JUAN BETRAYED JESÚS
JESÚS LIVES IN MADRID
JESÚS SEES HIS FATHER
JESÚS FELL IN LOVE WITH A GYPSY ONCE
JESÚS AND THE BULL
JESÚS DIES
We (2011)
WE
A Walk through Western Streets (2012)
A WALK THROUGH WESTERN STREETS (AND OTHER STORIES THAT TRAVEL WITH LOVE)
THE QUEEN OF COIMBRA
16735 KILOMETERS
NEVER WILL I EVER
THE AGE OF VIRGO
THE FINAL DISTANCE
BIRTHDAY WISH
THREE STOPS FROM BELFAST
THE JOURNEY OF POACHED EGGS
HOW WE PROCEED TO DANCE AROUND EACH OTHER
WHEN THE PERSON WHO HATED YOU MOST NOW LOVES YOU
THE CURATOR OF VENICE
What Remains of Monstropolis (2012)
WHAT REMAINS OF MONSTROPOLIS
Returnee (2013)
A MANUSCRIPT FROM THE RUINS OF NALANDA UNIVERSITY
A DIGITAL GIRL
A GHOST
A PHONE CALL
A WRITER AND A READER
LEARNING TO BE A GRANDFATHER
LOLITA
MOHAN RAY
MY CONFESSION
RETURNEE
SIX KARATS
THE CLOWN
THE RICKSHAW
Landscapes (2013)
HONG KONG
NOODLES
SALVADOR
THE OCEAN’S BREEZE
LANDSCAPES
SMOKE
 
 
Preface
I began writing in 2007 because of the depression that came when my parents reacted poorly to the disclosure of my sexuality. I mostly wrote poetry, and it wasn ’ t very good, but it inspired intrigue and admiration from my classmates and teachers, which made me believe I could be a writer. Between this time and 2010, I wrote hundreds of poems, short stories, flash pieces, and essays, but for the wrong reasons. I wanted people to see me as a person of value rather than socially awkward and overly talkative. I wanted to please others rather than please myself. Most of this work, predictably, was trash, but I am proud to say that at least a handful this work became work worth reading. Those stories are divided between the collections, The Jihad of the American Fool, and then Twelve Flash Stories and One Poem.
Between the fall of 2010 and spring of 2011, I studied in Madrid. Intrigued by the unique crisis of Spanish immigration and globalization, I was inspired my first month there to write the short story cycle, Jes ú s Lives in Madrid. I consider Jes ú s Lives in Madrid stylistically and emotionally weaker than my first short story collection, yet I consider the stories important for my development, as they were written while I lived for the first time in a culture that was outside of my own. At the time, I wanted to completely integrate into Spanish life, but my skin color, facial features, and accent made it hard for most to believe I was Spanish. I wouldn ’ t be surprised that the dejection stemming from the unfortunate, but true fact that identity comes from the views that people place on the Other rather than an affirmation of one ’ s image of oneself was the schizophrenic seed that inspired this collection.
I was inspired by various travels around Eastern Europe in summer 2011 to begin the novel that would later become We, of the Forsaken World … The novel went through several reincarnations. The story We is what I would consider the best elements of my first draft. I have included it as a story here because edited properly I think it stands alone as its own work. After I left Spain and returned to New York to finish my degree, I went through a stage of depression. I graduated in January of 2012 and moved to Portugal, and while I didn ’ t find a job and wasted a lot of money, I was inspired both by my new base in Europe and my own emotions to write the stories of A Walk Through Western Streets, an exploration of various forms of love as stories travel across Western Europe. Most of these stories are autobiographical, and all of them deal in some way with me getting over some emotional crisis that was pulling me back from accepting myself. The stories culminated with me writing the short novella, “ What Remains of Monstropolis. ” It is the story out of this batch that I am the proudest of.
Between 2012 and 2013, I began to backpack throughout India. Though I was born and raised in the United States, I have always had a soft spot for the country of my parents, and consider it equally as much my country as theirs. I spent about three months backpacking through Northern India and Tamil Nadu. I felt a lot of emotions seeing my motherland without the influence of my parents. I decided to write a set of 13 stories set in various parts of the country. Because I myself am an Indian-American returning to my roots, I entitled the collection, Returnee.
Finally, in 2013, after my travels in India, I traveled over Eastern and Southeastern Asia. I was becoming aware that the short story was starting to feel like a limited form for me, but I felt the need to express a last handful of ideas in the form. I have chosen to call these stories Landscapes. These stories have very little of a unifying concept between themselves other than that they are all stories invested in a more global topography and play with the relation of globality with time and space. Aesthetically, they are certainly between the stories I wrote in Europe and the vision of my novels. I consider the last of these stories, “ Smoke, ” one of my best. I also consider it the best place to end my career as a young writer of short stories.
While I have little faith in the aesthetic worth of the stories I wrote during my apprenticeship, I consider them the best compass to see how my mind matured as I approached adulthood. Since I graduated NYU, I have been interested in shifting the terms of narrative towards a vision of art I call “ alter-globalism. ” I consider alter-globalism an alternative pathway to understand globalization in art. For me, as a person who has truly never fit into a national space, it involved creating a type of art that moved back and forth nations, blurred and jammed the way that national cultures construct or involve a national literature, or simply completely through away a national paradigm in the act of telling a story at all, constructing an imagined world that could be any place in any section of the world, a place where only people who are nation-less like me would dare to imagine. I think most of my art experiments between the postmodern, the post-postmodern, and as I call it above, this alter-globalist aesthetic.
Most importantly, they ’ re stories that are fun to read. I thank Irini Spanidou for being the greatest mentor a writer could have, as well as Nashita Karim, J.T. Kent, Antonella Lettieri, Luke Fiske, Eric Ozawa, David Ellis, Myfanwy Collins, Krys Lee, Michael David Lukas, Michelle Dent, and members of the Zoetrope Workshop for work-shopping The Jihad of the American Fool . I also thank Joyce Carol Oates, Ben Okri, and the staff of the Granta, The Kenyon Review, the Paris Review, A Public Space, and the New Yorker for support they don ’ t remember giving me. Paco Layna, Alejandra Ocampo, and Eugenio Suarez-Galban did wonderfully in making sure the stories of Jes ú s Lives in Madrid resonated as authentic to Spanish culture. I am definitely grateful for the support of my friends, at that time Nicole Fazio, Bri Dimas, Ishita Patel, Bobo Bose-Kalanu, Janaki Challa, Rose Mauch, and Natalie Wright. Lastly, I extend my eternal gratitude to my family and parents, for raising me and trying their best to support me, even with their doubts in my career as a writer. Without the love, charity, and encouragement of Subrahmanya and Annapurna Bhat, I would be nothing.
“ In the beginning when God created Kiran, Annapurna ’ s womb was a formless void and darkness covered the face of its deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of her ovaries. Then God said, “ Let there be Kiran, ” and there was Kiran, on April 21 st , 1990, in Jonesboro, Georgia. And God saw that the Kiran was sad, so God gave Kiran the gift to complain. And God said “ Let there be complaint, for with your complaint, you shall annoy. ” So God gave Kiran the power to annoy, and Kiran annoyed, and it was good …” (Kiran Bhat, 2008)
 
 
The Jihad of the American Fool (2010)
THE AURORA OF EDEN
Let ’ s not talk about this character, a Mr. Brian Finkle, who thinks it ’ s cool to make me wait for him inside the movie theatre next to the popcorn and not even show up. Why did Brian have to be just like him?
Stevie Jones, the hottest guy on the football team, a face that looked a little bit like Brad Pitt, without the box jaw and with black hair instead of blond. He was a stud, but he knew it. So many girls wanted to ask him out for Prom that he had a locker stuffed with Valentine ’ s Day cards saying “ Hey, you ’ re cute. Wanna go out? ” or “ <3 ya pick me up sometime sugar, ” and there had to be one that said “ Sup, dude, yeah, my name ’