The Ongoing Wonder of the (New) Decameron Project

[jesse_the_k]

Even while quarantined, isolated, sick, or anxious about COVID-19, we can still tell and share stories! The New Decameron project plans to post a story every day, to share art and aspiration during this crisis and bring our community together.

https://www.patreon.com/projectdecameron

Although it’s hosted on Patreon, all the content is free to read. Organizers include Jo Walton, poet and author Maya Chhabra, and librarian, singer, and SF/F fan Lauren Schiller.

Since 16 March they’ve published 57 short stories in the science fiction/fantasy genre, including many authors on my insta-buy list: Naomi Kritzer, Marissa Lingen, Rosemary Kirstein, Laurie Marks.

Decameron has also introduced me to some wonderful new writers, for example:

The Hemlock That Was Afraid of Heights by E Lily Yu

https://elilyyu.com/

The full story is a quick sip, less then 1400 words, and I totally believed that it was a tree-point-of-view story.

This ought to have been the fate of the hemlock that was afraid of heights, except that the slope was so steep, and its neighbors so obliging, that shafts of sunlight penetrated even to its low and anxious needles. And so it lived, bark steaming in the rainy springs, roots digging down, and was content.

For the hemlock that was afraid of heights was not half so afraid of depths. It wove itself into the mycorrhizal network, mixing root hairs with mycelium, and listened to the forest’s gossip and warnings of fire and deer. It drank from aquifers and fresh-filtered rain. And when it could, it passed sugared sips of the best vintage to its neighbors and the fungal lacework that fed them all.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-decameron-e-36796847

Comments

[tarasacon]

Ah, thank you! I’ve been meaning to check out these stories and this was a good reminder.

[jesse_the_k]

<3

[sonia]

Thanks for the story link! I liked it, and at the same time I didn't entirely buy what happened with the tree's fear in the end.

[jesse_the_k]

Perhaps it's wishful thinking: great trauma can uproot an old way of living and fearing?

[sonia]

Whether that's what the story is asserting, or something else, I think both the great trauma and the uprooting of the old way deserve at least a sentence of acknowledgment. For me the story loses its emotional through-line right there, just drops it entirely. Which is a shame, because it's a great story otherwise.