Conjunctions: 78 / Fear Itself

Spring 2022

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Two Stories
Bronka Nowicka

The Nature of the Beast
Stephen Graham Jones

Like a Disease Whose Threshold No One Can Cross, She Says
Coral Bracho

Flying
Julia Elliott

Introduction to the Reading of Hegel
Bennett Sims

Watch Your Sister Disappear
Akil Kumarasamy

Two Poems
Jessica Reed

The Order of the Flaming Crows
Rick Moody

House of Rashomon
Kristine Ong Muslim

Fluke
Kathryn Davis

The Seed of the Wicked
Brandon Hobson

Ben Turns Into the Botusfleming Hedwigkraken
Monica Datta

A Propitiation
Michael Harris Cohen

Gate 9
Jeffrey Ford

The Baby-Monitor
Joyce Carol Oates

Four Poems
Shane McCrae

Four Poems
Shane McCrae

Good Night, Sleep Tight
Brian Evenson

Studies in Mortality
Elizabeth Robinson

Twelve Nightmares
Barbara Tomash

The Cult of Ciudad Mitad
Matthew Baker

Remember When We Were Holy
Tori Malcangio

Four Poems
Bin Ramke

Ghost Soliloquies
Rebecca Lilly

Gimmer
Genevieve Valentine

Don't Look Now
Terese Svoboda

In the Woods Behind the Market
Rob Walsh

Messages
Mary Kuryla

Behind the Curtain
Troy Jollimore

The Consequence
Quintan Ana Wikswo

Pan Frontispiece 
Eleni Sikelianos

Description

Conjunctions: 78, Fear Itself

Edited by Bradford Morrow

Humans have a genius for fear. Its range and registers are as vast and old as life itself. And fear—whether founded or irrational—is present in the myths, songs, arts, literatures, and historic legacies of every culture. Being alive is a chancy business, and with every passing year it seems our reasons for feeling existential fear only grow. Terrors of every imaginable kind surround us, as often as not the wily demons of our own creation, and grow more ghastly, untenable, and malignant with every passing generation.

Conjunctions:78, Fear Itself explores fear in its countless guises. We fear violence and injury, betrayal and abandonment, falsehoods and persecution. We fear failure, but also success. Some fear flying, others diving, yet others fear needles, cellars, spiders, public speaking. Devils, ghouls, fiends of every sort provoke fear. We sometimes fear our hellish selves yet, as Sartre has it, L’enfer, c’est les autres. The fear of thunder and germs, of clowns, chickens, and mirrors afflict us. We fear the unknown, but also fear what clearly looms before us—climate catastrophe, a global pandemic, social and political upheaval, wars never ending. Some fear living alone. Some fear dying alone. Some fear just waking up to face another day. Phobias of every stripe abound, some of them admittedly unusual. Arachibutyrophobiacs fear peanut butter while nephophobiacs fear puffy clouds and optophobiacs are afraid to open their eyes. There are diabolic fears that cause others (thus all of us) to suffer—xenophobia and homophobia come to mind. For all our fears of what does exist, nihilophobiacs fear what does not. And lest we forget, we can even fear fear itself.