[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]http://minotaursspotlight.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/DiCicco_BlackWhite.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Christopher David DiCicco loves his wife and children—not writing minimalist stories in his attic. But he does. It’s something he has to do, like sleeping or living in Yardley, Pennsylvania. Visit him @ www.cddicicco.com[/author_info] [/author]
Earlier this year Gigantic Sequins, a Philadelphia-based literary magazine, published a wonderfully bizarre excerpt of author Matt Tompkins’s The Journal of Hybrid Morphology. And really, it wasn’t bizarre because Tompkins casually explores the lives of patients living with animal appendages (although he did do that)—but because Tompkins captures the sad cost of weirdness, the price extracted for standing outside the norm. Underlining his odd, amazing medical scenarios, are consistent touches of honesty, subtle, even depressing in their effect. It’s the weird fun sad of Tompkins that makes this excerpt, published by Gigantic Sequins, worth reading, worth clicking on; I hope that you do, that you experience what it’s like to be a boy rejected by the military for having the eyes of a Red-Tailed Hawk, that you read what it’s like to love a caring man with lobster claws, that you understand the reality of Tompkins’s fantasy. Check out www.giganticsequins.com or Matt Tompkins @ www.needsrevision.com
As originally published in issue 4.1 of Gigantic Sequins:
From The Journal Of Hybrid Morphology
Assessments of Success in the Outcomes of Human-Interspecies Transplant Procedures: Excerpts of Selected Case Studies
Subject A
Age: 34
Sex: M
Donor Species: Homarus americanus
Narrative excerpt:
In emergency surgery, A’s severed hands were replaced with lobster claws. These were all the doctors had at their disposal at the time. A’s wife, who was also A’s medical proxy, decided that even claws would be preferable to bare stumps. (Since it is the nature of horrific accidents that one cannot plan them around the availability of spare appendages, A’s wife and the doctors agreed that at certain times one must attempt to choose the lesser of two hardships.) Now A reports that all of his dreams are of gurgling, murky darkness and cold saltwater. He also reports that he has become quite adept and comfortable performing most everyday tasks with the red-brown pincers. A’s wife reports that he only occasionally, inadvertently inflicts pain upon her when attempting to express affection…
– – –
Subject B
Age: 37
Sex: M
Donor Species: Ara macao
Narrative excerpt:
B was born lipless, and congenitally lacked the ability to grow teeth. In light of this, doctors told B’s parents that B had almost no chance of living a normal life. B’s parents, willing to try anything to give their child a fighting chance at happiness, arranged to have B’s mouth exchanged for the beak of a Scarlet Macaw. This makes for a striking visual impression. And although he is unable to kiss his wife, and his speech is badly clipped, B makes a good living as an artisan tinsmith. He admits that this is some significant consolation, as he cites his work as a source of deep, genuine pride and lasting satisfaction…
– – –
Subject C
Age: 29
Sex: F
Donor Species: Avian, unknown
Narrative excerpt:
C, who suffered from severe hirsutism, arranged to have all of her considerable body hair removed by an experimental genome-altering technique. The physician who administered the treatment expected permanent results, and experience bore out her hypothesis. But in place of each gone hair, a fledgling feather grew, and C is now blanketed in soft, pillowy down. Seemingly unfazed, she gave away all of her bedcovers…
– – –
Subject D
Age: 48
Sex: F
Donor Species: Equus caballus
Narrative excerpt:
After twenty years as a triage nurse, on her feet for twelve-hour shifts, D’s legs ached constantly. Finally she said, ‘Enough is enough,’ and opted to have them replaced at the hip with the legs of a thoroughbred Clydesdale. During interview, D stated with apparent satisfaction that her new locking knee joints are “blessedly sturdy” and pain-free, and that her patients always know—“by the soft clopping of hooves on tile”—when she is coming to take their vitals…
– – –
Subject E
Age: 23
Sex: M
Donor Species: Buteo jamaicensis
Narrative excerpt:
E—who from boyhood aspired to become a sharpshooter in the Marines, but who suffered from congenital myopia and night blindness—elected to have his eyes replaced with those of a Red-Tailed Hawk. E was later severely disappointed when he learned that hawk eyes, though lovely for spotting rodents in far-away fields, disqualify one from active military service…
– – –
Subject F
Age: 30
Sex: M
Donor Species: Ichthyoid, unspecified
Narrative excerpt:
The surgical installation of gills made F functionally amphibious. F was thrilled with this, and boasted unendingly. However, he has since sought the counsel of several psychologists regarding an accompanying nagging sense—whether on land or in water—of constant, subtle suffocation, and a keening, conflicted, locational ambivalence…
– – –
Subject G
Age: 45
Sex: F
Donor Species: Avian, unclassified, genetic construct
Narrative excerpt:
G yearned to soar. But when she selected her wings, she neglected to account for the density of her solid human bones. As a result, the wings are wholly ineffectual for the purpose of flight. With a false tone of levity evidently calculated to hide her apparent bitterness, G frequently tells questioners that the wings are “the most expensive accessories [she has] ever purchased”…
– – –
Subject H
Age: 21
Sex: M
Donor Species: Furcifer oustaleti
Narrative excerpt:
The victim of a hit-and-run car accident, H received a lifesaving transplant of chameleon blood. Newspapers and medical journals worldwide prominently featured the story of the groundbreaking procedure. H, himself, appeared in no photos. H reports having since struggled with “serious questions of identity.”…
– – –
Subject J
Age: 25
Sex: F
Donor Species: Canis familiaris
Narrative excerpt:
Having one’s olfactory glands replaced with those of a Bloodhound has become trendy among aspiring chefs. J followed suit, hoping this move would lead her to fame, fortune, and her own cooking show. J’s powers of culinary discernment are now, as she hoped, exceedingly acute. However, she rarely makes it to work, as she is easily sidetracked by the scents of birds and squirrels…
– – –
Subject K
Age: 57
Sex: M
Donor Species: Vulpes vulpes
Narrative excerpt:
K, a successful used car salesman, was afflicted, beginning in middle age, with alopecia universalis. All of the hair on his body and scalp—including his trademark bushy eyebrows—spontaneously fell out. After seeing a corresponding drop in sales following the onset of hairlessness, K elected to have his scalp and eyebrows grafted with live fox fur. The procedure was a success, and K now has lush, glossy, red shocks of hair above each eye and running across his head. However, his stature as a salesman and his annual profit margin have since continued to diminish, because every time he speaks deceitfully, his brows and scalp twitch visibly with delight….
