Is a beast a tailed monster or a victim of oppressive framing?
This is essentially the question that the anthology, Under the Belly of the Beast, edited by Cori Bratby-Rudd works to answer. An electric collection of short stories, poems, and experimental literature, the anthology takes the reader on a journey to discover the very bestial nature of society. Some works such as Ryka Aoki’s “Geranium” explore this by introducing characters who possess animalistic or feral tendencies and inserting compelling framing onto them, whereas others such as Sarah Sophia Yanni’s “Mutt” or Christine Imperial’s “Taxonomy” explore this by turning the label of a “beast” onto marginalized members of society. The latter reveals the bestial way in which white supremacy, cissexism, misogyny, heteronormativity, and other forms of oppression encourage us to intentionally disregard those around us. Throughout the anthology, the reader is forced to examine their social location and conditioning to ascertain the extent to which they themselves might possess some of these monstrous mindsets. It truly begins to beg the question if anyone is truly separate from the “beast”—whether it’s because we ourselves are framed as one by others or because we are the ones framing others as beasts without acknowledging the fangs that protrude from our mouths and the claws that line the end of our fingers while we do so.
In line with the monstrous, arguably chaotic energy of the anthology, the syntax and visual depiction of words followed a similar unpredictability in many works. Words were crossed out, passages jumped across the page, ideas were separated by “/” to demonstrate the free flow of separate, yet aligned ideas in a way that made for a reading experience as dynamic as it was thought-provoking.
Under the Belly of the Beast comes from a writer’s collective known as The After School and was published by Dissonance Press, which both work to challenge the very nature of the literary machine and the conventions of writing itself. The writers come together to craft a bold and very necessary collection of works that would benefit any reader looking to explore the chaos that underlies the human experience.
To learn more about my and Ako’s thoughts on Under the Belly of the Beast feel free to check out our episode going into further detail here!