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Other Minds and Other Stories
From the award-winning author of A Questionable Shape and White Dialogues , a brilliant, anxious, and hilarious new collection.
A man lends his phone to a stranger in the mall, setting off an uncanny series of Unknown calls that come to haunt his relationship with jealousy and dread. A well-meaning locavore tries to butcher his backyard chickens humanely, only to find himself absorbed into the absurd violence of the pecking order. A student applying for a philosophy fellowship struggles to project himself into the thoughts of his hypothetical judges, becoming increasingly possessed and overpowered by the problem of other minds. And in “The Postcard,” a private detective is hired to investigate a posthumous message that a widower has seemingly received from his dead wife, leading him into a foggy landscape of lost memories, shifting identities, and strange doublings.
Cerebral and eerie, captivating and profound, these twelve stories expertly guide us through the paranoia and obsession of everyday horrors, not least the horrors of overthinking what other people might be thinking. With all of Sims’s trademark virtuosity, innovation, and wit, Other Minds and Other Stories continues to expand the possibilities of contemporary fiction.
A man lends his phone to a stranger in the mall, setting off an uncanny series of Unknown calls that come to haunt his relationship with jealousy and dread. A well-meaning locavore tries to butcher his backyard chickens humanely, only to find himself absorbed into the absurd violence of the pecking order. A student applying for a philosophy fellowship struggles to project himself into the thoughts of his hypothetical judges, becoming increasingly possessed and overpowered by the problem of other minds. And in “The Postcard,” a private detective is hired to investigate a posthumous message that a widower has seemingly received from his dead wife, leading him into a foggy landscape of lost memories, shifting identities, and strange doublings.
Cerebral and eerie, captivating and profound, these twelve stories expertly guide us through the paranoia and obsession of everyday horrors, not least the horrors of overthinking what other people might be thinking. With all of Sims’s trademark virtuosity, innovation, and wit, Other Minds and Other Stories continues to expand the possibilities of contemporary fiction.
202 pages, Paperback
First published November 14, 2023
30 people are currently reading
804 people want to read
About the author
Bennett Sims
7 books61 followersBennett Sims was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His fiction has appeared in A Public Space, Tin House, and Zoetrope: All-Story. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he currently teaches at the University of Iowa, where he is the Provost Postgraduate Visiting Writer in fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
February 26, 2025
4.5
This book arrived as part of my Two Dollar Radio subscription and I’m grateful for it, as it might not have come my way otherwise. It’s one thing to have a brilliant mind, as Sims obviously does; it’s another to craft brilliant stories in a readable way, as these are. The only story that took me ‘too long’ to read was “Introduction to the Reading of Hegel,” not because I haven’t read Hegel (neither has the narrator), but because it’s a 30-page long paragraph of being in someone’s head.
Many of the stories have something to do with not only the way human brains work, but the way technology works on them, things taken for granted now: cell phones, talking GPS devices. Sims de-familiarizes these things as if we are hearing of them for the first time, and maybe recognizing for the first time (or again) how unsettling it all is.
The penultimate piece, “The Postcard,” with its rooms and doubling reminded me of Paul Auster. It’s not derivative of him at all; but if you enjoy Auster, I think you will like Sims as well.
This book arrived as part of my Two Dollar Radio subscription and I’m grateful for it, as it might not have come my way otherwise. It’s one thing to have a brilliant mind, as Sims obviously does; it’s another to craft brilliant stories in a readable way, as these are. The only story that took me ‘too long’ to read was “Introduction to the Reading of Hegel,” not because I haven’t read Hegel (neither has the narrator), but because it’s a 30-page long paragraph of being in someone’s head.
Many of the stories have something to do with not only the way human brains work, but the way technology works on them, things taken for granted now: cell phones, talking GPS devices. Sims de-familiarizes these things as if we are hearing of them for the first time, and maybe recognizing for the first time (or again) how unsettling it all is.
The penultimate piece, “The Postcard,” with its rooms and doubling reminded me of Paul Auster. It’s not derivative of him at all; but if you enjoy Auster, I think you will like Sims as well.
March 25, 2024
I devoured this fantastic collection of short stories from Bennett Sims via Two Dollar Radio. Some of these stories have a tilt toward the supernatural or uncanny, while others veer into a suspense/horror lane. All of them deal in some way with how we as human beings connect, or are unable or unwilling to connect, with other people or "other minds," as well as how we sometimes obsess over them.
A special mention of the writing here - I lost track of how many times I read a sentence and noticed how perfect a particular word choice was for putting just the right spin on things. It was clear throughout that Sims put lot of care into the prose to build and control mood. This is my first exposure to Sims' work, but it won't be the last.
A special mention of the writing here - I lost track of how many times I read a sentence and noticed how perfect a particular word choice was for putting just the right spin on things. It was clear throughout that Sims put lot of care into the prose to build and control mood. This is my first exposure to Sims' work, but it won't be the last.
March 16, 2024
The first few stories are impressive, mostly involving our troubled tech-mediated daily lives. I see a number of my GR friends have enthused about this already, so I'll be relatively brief.
"Unknown": love the sustained tension. The unsettling event that causes the protagonist's life to unravel, the struggle with texts, the false alarm at the play, and the circular ending.
I tend to have a hard time with multipage paragraphs, but "Other Minds" was riveting. The narrator's voice is nicely done, and I've certainly struggled with similar thoughts as I thumb through my e-reader. (If I really care about a book, I really try to read it on paper.)
"Pecking Order" starts:
Unfortunately the multi-page paragraph binge starts at this point in the collection. (They have to be on the order of Robert Lopez's brilliant Good People, for me to stay engaged). I couldn't handle 30 pages of the Hegel piece, sorry.
"A Nightmare" works pretty well, but it's only a single paragraph 4 pages long. Then "The Postcard", all one-sentence paragraphs. Very Aickman-like, but the voice is very different. I really liked it.
So 4 stars for my favorite stories, 2 for the rest.
"Unknown": love the sustained tension. The unsettling event that causes the protagonist's life to unravel, the struggle with texts, the false alarm at the play, and the circular ending.
I tend to have a hard time with multipage paragraphs, but "Other Minds" was riveting. The narrator's voice is nicely done, and I've certainly struggled with similar thoughts as I thumb through my e-reader. (If I really care about a book, I really try to read it on paper.)
"Pecking Order" starts:
It fell to Kyle to kill the chickens.What follows could happen to any well-meaning person, but so horrific. And incredibly funny.
Unfortunately the multi-page paragraph binge starts at this point in the collection. (They have to be on the order of Robert Lopez's brilliant Good People, for me to stay engaged). I couldn't handle 30 pages of the Hegel piece, sorry.
"A Nightmare" works pretty well, but it's only a single paragraph 4 pages long. Then "The Postcard", all one-sentence paragraphs. Very Aickman-like, but the voice is very different. I really liked it.
So 4 stars for my favorite stories, 2 for the rest.
July 12, 2024
4.5*
____________
La 'mummia di Grottarossa'- 5*
Unknown - a story like the Penrose triangle (it was a smart choice to place this story at the beginning as it really makes one curious about what the rest of the volume would offer) - 4.5*
Portonaccio Sarcophagus - such a clever story - +5*
Minds of Winter - this was very clever also - +5*
The Postcard - 4.5*
The other stories were not as good as those above, but they were not bad either. Loved the parallels between technology and how the human mind perceives reality. I had thought reading these tales would be somehow similar to watching episodes from Black Mirror, but it wasn't exactly so. The experience was different (even though many of the stories are as uncanny as the mentioned episodes, they are different in scope), but not necessarily less intriguing.
This author is as clever as they come, and boy, is he interested in understanding other minds.
____________
____________
La 'mummia di Grottarossa'- 5*
Unknown - a story like the Penrose triangle (it was a smart choice to place this story at the beginning as it really makes one curious about what the rest of the volume would offer) - 4.5*
Portonaccio Sarcophagus - such a clever story - +5*
Minds of Winter - this was very clever also - +5*
The Postcard - 4.5*
The other stories were not as good as those above, but they were not bad either. Loved the parallels between technology and how the human mind perceives reality. I had thought reading these tales would be somehow similar to watching episodes from Black Mirror, but it wasn't exactly so. The experience was different (even though many of the stories are as uncanny as the mentioned episodes, they are different in scope), but not necessarily less intriguing.
This author is as clever as they come, and boy, is he interested in understanding other minds.
____________
December 13, 2023
I haven't been this excited by a book of short stories since first encountering George Saunders a decade ago. The title of the collection really says it all: here are twelve stories about other minds. The infinite possibility they present. The impossibility of inhabiting them. The joy and terror of recognition. The joy and terror of recognition's total absence. The immense focus, creativity, and, yes, love inherent in the serious work of "learning to look into an other's mind."
November 9, 2023
This is the most intimidating review I've ever written.
Even though I finished Other Minds and Other Stories 10 days ago,
I'm still petrified by Mr. Sims’s writing talent.
I wasn't supposed to like this book.
I read it as an insipid PDF on my kindle.
And I don't usually like short story collections.
The literary gymnastics bore me.
I’m not even supposed to be reading Bennett Sims.
It's not easy to find his books in Dubai, my city of residence (Amazon US will ship to Amazon AE).
I only heard of him because I was watching YouTube videos on how to apply to The Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Rather than writing my own application.
As an institution associated with staid literary fiction,
I was curious when one of the speakers mentioned Bennett Sims.
His first novel - A Questionable Shape (2013) -
is often described as ‘Philosophical’ Zombie Fiction.
So I got it.
And it punched harder than any debut.
The descriptions
(Post-apocalyptic, terrifyingly reminiscent of covid).
The lexical range (Autotelic - Algid - Photic. These words - and more - now add zest to my vocabulary. Bennett Sims truly is the spice kitchen of language).
The naked recognition of oneself in his characters.
(In this 2013 zombie novel, characters frequently argue over adapting to the 'new normal’).
I had never read a writer that invaded my personal space like Bennett Sims.
Reading his descriptions of the undead made me feel their noxious breath over my shoulder.
Made me hear their undying moans in my skull.
A Questionable Shape was beautiful.
Creepily prescient. But also slow.
I couldn't say it was for everyone.
The novel is too beautiful. The pace too relaxed and pleasurable.
Despite my biases, I could not see A Questionable Shape being appreciated by most people.
To writers it would be incredible.
To lovers of literature it would feel brilliant.
But in the case of the materially necessary and easily distracted common reader,
I couldn't imagine them sinking into the prose.
Shortly thereafter, I picked up Mr. Sims’s second published work; a short story collection
titled White Dialogues (2017).
There was more of Mr. Sims’s capacity with lexis.
And one of the short stories - The Bookcase - was so funny,
that for a month I went about urging my friends to read it.
But again, there was a ton of literary experimentation.
An artistic courage too bold for a mass audience.
Dishearteningly, I could not imagine the average reader patiently relishing the premium fiction
Mr. Sims brews.
And then there is Other Minds and Other Stories (2023).
Short story collections are not for everyone.
I've personally felt flaccid when reading some masters of the form.
But Other Minds doesn't read like the typical collection.
This isn't a discordantly curated mishmash of stories published in a book
just for the sake of monetizing a writer's former magazine publications.
Other Minds doesn't feel like the norm.
Other Minds feels like a concept album.
Think Rubber Soul
or (more recently) Dawn FM.
Every story in this collection focuses on his character's mental world.
How they experience dread & love.
How they experience anxiety & fear.
How they see places & people.
And how - they negatively overthink - other minds may be experiencing those same emotions.
You can tell a lot about a person from how they presume other people.
In this collection Mr. Sims doesn't just write saccharine passages that showcase
the beauty of the Earth and water.
In this collection Mr. Sims criminally infects his reader’s sub-conscience.
You read the words and the sense they evoke is not just taste, sight, smell, and sound.
You read the words and you feel trapped in his character's cerebrum.
Mr. Sims doesn't just churn your guts.
He churns the folds of your grey matter.
This capacity to microscopically fixate isn't only limited to the psychological.
Mr. Sims also takes his readers on a unique journey to the quantum.
Imagine what it would feel like to be a languidly falling snowflake of winter (Minds of Winter).
Or an ant-man walking along the wrinkled crevasses of a dog’s jowls (Afterlives).
These stories don’t just bring the reader circus conflicts that the characters somersault through;
- Is my girlfriend unfaithful to me? (Unknown)
- As a locavore, how am going to euthanize my chickens? (Pecking Order)
- I have one day left. Should I write my fellowship application? Or, for crucial insight, should I read the judge's favourite work? (Introduction to the Reading of Hegel)
These stories serve as zoom lenses into our inescapably irrational souls.
They serve as a mirrors for us to compare
what we think of ourselves against
what we frighteningly are.
But my most beloved quality of Mr. Sims is his ekphrastic blackholes.
In his literary dissections,
Mr. Sims copies the anatomy of a nuclear reaction.
One anxiety splits into two.
Two anxieties split into four.
His paragraphs take you round and round the circle of a blackhole.
Until you find yourself crushed into dense singularity with his character’s fear.
All the pages gone.
All the time forgotten.
Graciously, Mr. Sims doesn't just leave us in this total dark.
The last story of this collection is titled Medusa.
As the patron saint of the House of Literature in Rome,
she wards off time to preserve our words.
Literature as an art form is unrivalled in the psychic depth it can take its travellers to.
And as Medusa can turn our work to stone,
she makes literature the edifice most immune to erosion.
This sunrise warmth is what we take with us at the end of this 200 page book.
And this is why I believe Other Minds is the rare collection that readers will keep coming back to.
And capturing that storm,
capturing that hurricane Mr. Sims has brewed.
With equals parts paranoia & optimism,
and comedy cloaked in morbid fascination.
Capturing that in a written review,
makes this incredibly intimidating work.
Even though I finished Other Minds and Other Stories 10 days ago,
I'm still petrified by Mr. Sims’s writing talent.
I wasn't supposed to like this book.
I read it as an insipid PDF on my kindle.
And I don't usually like short story collections.
The literary gymnastics bore me.
I’m not even supposed to be reading Bennett Sims.
It's not easy to find his books in Dubai, my city of residence (Amazon US will ship to Amazon AE).
I only heard of him because I was watching YouTube videos on how to apply to The Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Rather than writing my own application.
As an institution associated with staid literary fiction,
I was curious when one of the speakers mentioned Bennett Sims.
His first novel - A Questionable Shape (2013) -
is often described as ‘Philosophical’ Zombie Fiction.
So I got it.
And it punched harder than any debut.
The descriptions
(Post-apocalyptic, terrifyingly reminiscent of covid).
The lexical range (Autotelic - Algid - Photic. These words - and more - now add zest to my vocabulary. Bennett Sims truly is the spice kitchen of language).
The naked recognition of oneself in his characters.
(In this 2013 zombie novel, characters frequently argue over adapting to the 'new normal’).
I had never read a writer that invaded my personal space like Bennett Sims.
Reading his descriptions of the undead made me feel their noxious breath over my shoulder.
Made me hear their undying moans in my skull.
A Questionable Shape was beautiful.
Creepily prescient. But also slow.
I couldn't say it was for everyone.
The novel is too beautiful. The pace too relaxed and pleasurable.
Despite my biases, I could not see A Questionable Shape being appreciated by most people.
To writers it would be incredible.
To lovers of literature it would feel brilliant.
But in the case of the materially necessary and easily distracted common reader,
I couldn't imagine them sinking into the prose.
Shortly thereafter, I picked up Mr. Sims’s second published work; a short story collection
titled White Dialogues (2017).
There was more of Mr. Sims’s capacity with lexis.
And one of the short stories - The Bookcase - was so funny,
that for a month I went about urging my friends to read it.
But again, there was a ton of literary experimentation.
An artistic courage too bold for a mass audience.
Dishearteningly, I could not imagine the average reader patiently relishing the premium fiction
Mr. Sims brews.
And then there is Other Minds and Other Stories (2023).
Short story collections are not for everyone.
I've personally felt flaccid when reading some masters of the form.
But Other Minds doesn't read like the typical collection.
This isn't a discordantly curated mishmash of stories published in a book
just for the sake of monetizing a writer's former magazine publications.
Other Minds doesn't feel like the norm.
Other Minds feels like a concept album.
Think Rubber Soul
or (more recently) Dawn FM.
Every story in this collection focuses on his character's mental world.
How they experience dread & love.
How they experience anxiety & fear.
How they see places & people.
And how - they negatively overthink - other minds may be experiencing those same emotions.
You can tell a lot about a person from how they presume other people.
In this collection Mr. Sims doesn't just write saccharine passages that showcase
the beauty of the Earth and water.
In this collection Mr. Sims criminally infects his reader’s sub-conscience.
You read the words and the sense they evoke is not just taste, sight, smell, and sound.
You read the words and you feel trapped in his character's cerebrum.
Mr. Sims doesn't just churn your guts.
He churns the folds of your grey matter.
This capacity to microscopically fixate isn't only limited to the psychological.
Mr. Sims also takes his readers on a unique journey to the quantum.
Imagine what it would feel like to be a languidly falling snowflake of winter (Minds of Winter).
Or an ant-man walking along the wrinkled crevasses of a dog’s jowls (Afterlives).
These stories don’t just bring the reader circus conflicts that the characters somersault through;
- Is my girlfriend unfaithful to me? (Unknown)
- As a locavore, how am going to euthanize my chickens? (Pecking Order)
- I have one day left. Should I write my fellowship application? Or, for crucial insight, should I read the judge's favourite work? (Introduction to the Reading of Hegel)
These stories serve as zoom lenses into our inescapably irrational souls.
They serve as a mirrors for us to compare
what we think of ourselves against
what we frighteningly are.
But my most beloved quality of Mr. Sims is his ekphrastic blackholes.
In his literary dissections,
Mr. Sims copies the anatomy of a nuclear reaction.
One anxiety splits into two.
Two anxieties split into four.
His paragraphs take you round and round the circle of a blackhole.
Until you find yourself crushed into dense singularity with his character’s fear.
All the pages gone.
All the time forgotten.
Graciously, Mr. Sims doesn't just leave us in this total dark.
The last story of this collection is titled Medusa.
As the patron saint of the House of Literature in Rome,
she wards off time to preserve our words.
Literature as an art form is unrivalled in the psychic depth it can take its travellers to.
And as Medusa can turn our work to stone,
she makes literature the edifice most immune to erosion.
This sunrise warmth is what we take with us at the end of this 200 page book.
And this is why I believe Other Minds is the rare collection that readers will keep coming back to.
And capturing that storm,
capturing that hurricane Mr. Sims has brewed.
With equals parts paranoia & optimism,
and comedy cloaked in morbid fascination.
Capturing that in a written review,
makes this incredibly intimidating work.
March 9, 2025
holy shit this book is boring!
Read
January 19, 2024Update: just got shortlisted for the Story Prize alongside Yiyun Li and Paul Yoon, I’m a genius, go read this book
Ekphrasis, self-hatred, Hegel, that portentous feeling at sunset at the edge of the woods… Bennett Sims checks off the wishlist I hadn’t dared make for a story collection. Influenced by Sebald, Bernhard, and, among many other pieces, Ishiguro’s “A Village After Dark”, this is a bold and heady little book I’ll be reading over and over.
Ekphrasis, self-hatred, Hegel, that portentous feeling at sunset at the edge of the woods… Bennett Sims checks off the wishlist I hadn’t dared make for a story collection. Influenced by Sebald, Bernhard, and, among many other pieces, Ishiguro’s “A Village After Dark”, this is a bold and heady little book I’ll be reading over and over.
December 29, 2023
A really enjoyable and light read. From poignant 1-pagers to a mystery story to a 50 page internal monologue of a frustrated academic (reminiscent of the failed writer in The Information) Sims is very good at evoking that "I've never had an original thought" feeling. He pinpoints those little fleeting moments of experience and feeling that otherwise slip between the cracks of description. The author, however, DOES have a prodigious amount of original thoughts himself, amounting to a very creative short story collection. I only wished some of the stories that built up a lot of tension and intrigue hadn't petered out a bit at the endings. Then again, maybe I was looking for cheap thrills in the wrong place. I want to read his other works!
February 8, 2024
Wow... I don't think there was a single story in here I didn't enjoy.
Sometimes it felt like reading my own subconscious, I've thought some of these things without thinking them (?), they just feel inherently true to me (Other Minds, Minds of Winter, and Introduction to the Reading of Hegel). In other words, I felt very seen as a chronic overthinker.
The rest of the stories were what I would describe as quietly unsettling. Nothing in these stories was "scary", in fact they all evoke a peaceful feeling but uncertainty and discomfort both creep in gradually in a way that feels gratifying.
Would absolutely read this again.
Sometimes it felt like reading my own subconscious, I've thought some of these things without thinking them (?), they just feel inherently true to me (Other Minds, Minds of Winter, and Introduction to the Reading of Hegel). In other words, I felt very seen as a chronic overthinker.
The rest of the stories were what I would describe as quietly unsettling. Nothing in these stories was "scary", in fact they all evoke a peaceful feeling but uncertainty and discomfort both creep in gradually in a way that feels gratifying.
Would absolutely read this again.
November 30, 2023
Probably my favorite book of the year—especially with that last story.
May 29, 2025
By my estimation, Two Dollar Radio is rapidly becoming a prestige publishing house and Bennett Sims is leading the charge.
June 7, 2024
Fucking loved this collection. The stories stick, they’re interesting theoretically and on the plot and craft levels, so really firing on all cylinders. Bennett Sims does this thing where he does light social theorizing in every one of his short stories. Kind of like Ben Lerner. Like in the middle he’ll drop into a section thinking through the “fiction of the rude theatergoer” or whatever. Intensely analytical. At the same time, there’s a Borges-like experimentation with form that I really enjoyed. Modern technology (cameras, social media, phones, GPS) is a presence through all the stories— the way I say it sounds like it’s boring but really he distorts the technologies we depend on in an interesting, uncanny way. The stories are also loosely linked (mostly by quasi-meta ones set in Italy involving the observation of sculpture and/or art and/or film, thinking about how art is a starting point for various impositions and meaning). I wish I had these kinds of thoughts when I was traveling in Italy. Makes me want to go to Europe again.
La Mummia di Grottorosa — cool ditty I guess
Unknown — one of my fave short stories of all time and one I continually return to to ask myself, how did he do it. So fucking creepy. Read this first in Kenyon Review and think about this story all the time.
Other Minds — this is what some other guy called him a stud for writing. I mean I guess…
Pecking Order — crazy scene of killing a chicken, kinda funny. I’m not sure what I was supposed to take from this but it was maximalistic I guess.
The New Violence — I didn’t really feel one way or another about this one
Portonaccio Sarcophagus — the best way to describe a lot of this collection is shower thoughts. But this was a really good shower thought. I feel like it explores the way we form narratives (out of omens), both in stories and in real life. The omen in question is the mother’s death as portented by a photographic error on film that makes it look like she’s taking a pic with the Grim Reaper — but of course everyone dies. Pretty smart. One of my faves of the collection I think, which is saying a lot. This story feels miraculous to me in the sense of, how do you even come up with this. Brilliant little bit of POV switch at the end too.
Afterlives — meta isn’t the right word but this was like the textual form of the core image of the story. like the core action is all about zooming in and to appreciate this story you have to… zoom out. trippy.
Minds of Winter — another fun meta one
Introduction to the Reading of Hegel — a caricature of every humanities student and professor ever. Legend.
Nightmare — went completely over my head
The Postcard — creepy. But so, so texturally satisfying. One of my faves of this collection though I feel it could be more concise
Medusa — another one of those compact Italy reflections
La Mummia di Grottorosa — cool ditty I guess
Unknown — one of my fave short stories of all time and one I continually return to to ask myself, how did he do it. So fucking creepy. Read this first in Kenyon Review and think about this story all the time.
Other Minds — this is what some other guy called him a stud for writing. I mean I guess…
Pecking Order — crazy scene of killing a chicken, kinda funny. I’m not sure what I was supposed to take from this but it was maximalistic I guess.
The New Violence — I didn’t really feel one way or another about this one
Portonaccio Sarcophagus — the best way to describe a lot of this collection is shower thoughts. But this was a really good shower thought. I feel like it explores the way we form narratives (out of omens), both in stories and in real life. The omen in question is the mother’s death as portented by a photographic error on film that makes it look like she’s taking a pic with the Grim Reaper — but of course everyone dies. Pretty smart. One of my faves of the collection I think, which is saying a lot. This story feels miraculous to me in the sense of, how do you even come up with this. Brilliant little bit of POV switch at the end too.
Afterlives — meta isn’t the right word but this was like the textual form of the core image of the story. like the core action is all about zooming in and to appreciate this story you have to… zoom out. trippy.
Minds of Winter — another fun meta one
Introduction to the Reading of Hegel — a caricature of every humanities student and professor ever. Legend.
Nightmare — went completely over my head
The Postcard — creepy. But so, so texturally satisfying. One of my faves of this collection though I feel it could be more concise
Medusa — another one of those compact Italy reflections
July 21, 2024
“Other Minds and Other Stories” by Bennett Sims
In this collection of stories, Bennett Sims zooms in on the human tendency toward obsession through characters who seem to have a singular focus. A man is compelled to butcher his chickens himself. An anonymous person magnifies their perception of a single snowflake. A philosopher agonizes over the application letter for a fellowship. Sims lets these and other characters examine their subjects of obsession with manifold angles and points of view by doing what so few writers do well: he seems to downplay (or abandon) plot in favor of a total immersion into what these characters perceive.
I had to really think about whether I liked this collection or not. On one hand, it could come across as a bit solipsistic, Sims often leaning into his sesquipedalian (using big words) tendencies, which can come across as garish and pretentious in some authors’ hands. On the other hand, the trope of human obsession feels as if it completely justifies the language and the unusually meandering structure of some of the stories, letting the characters wander their thoughts to the deepest places of their mind where those words reside. I also really enjoyed how many of the stories had an obsession with how they were perceived by others, touching down in theories of symbolic interactionism and the looking glass self which are fascinating to a communication scholar. Of these stories, I especially enjoyed “Portonaccio Sarcophagus,” “The New Violence,” and “Introduction to the Reading of Hegel.” Though I will note, my enjoyment of these was primarily rooted in how I “got” these stories, how they touched down in my life and I recognized some of my own obsessions in them. Many other stories were enjoyable as well.
All in all, I do not think this is a collection of stories for everyone. Some are barely recognizable as short stories, instead wandering into the field of philosophical essay. But it is a collection I will be thinking about for quite some time and that I probably need to keep on my shelf for a re-read in the near future.
In this collection of stories, Bennett Sims zooms in on the human tendency toward obsession through characters who seem to have a singular focus. A man is compelled to butcher his chickens himself. An anonymous person magnifies their perception of a single snowflake. A philosopher agonizes over the application letter for a fellowship. Sims lets these and other characters examine their subjects of obsession with manifold angles and points of view by doing what so few writers do well: he seems to downplay (or abandon) plot in favor of a total immersion into what these characters perceive.
I had to really think about whether I liked this collection or not. On one hand, it could come across as a bit solipsistic, Sims often leaning into his sesquipedalian (using big words) tendencies, which can come across as garish and pretentious in some authors’ hands. On the other hand, the trope of human obsession feels as if it completely justifies the language and the unusually meandering structure of some of the stories, letting the characters wander their thoughts to the deepest places of their mind where those words reside. I also really enjoyed how many of the stories had an obsession with how they were perceived by others, touching down in theories of symbolic interactionism and the looking glass self which are fascinating to a communication scholar. Of these stories, I especially enjoyed “Portonaccio Sarcophagus,” “The New Violence,” and “Introduction to the Reading of Hegel.” Though I will note, my enjoyment of these was primarily rooted in how I “got” these stories, how they touched down in my life and I recognized some of my own obsessions in them. Many other stories were enjoyable as well.
All in all, I do not think this is a collection of stories for everyone. Some are barely recognizable as short stories, instead wandering into the field of philosophical essay. But it is a collection I will be thinking about for quite some time and that I probably need to keep on my shelf for a re-read in the near future.
March 6, 2024
I don't normally read short stories, but this book fit the size requirement for fitting in my backpack for a week, so short stories is it!
And these were odd short stories, all focused on 'Other Minds' with a slightly unsettling vibe. Some of them were 2 paragraphs long while other stretched over two dozen pages offering a variety of tales and characters. The ones that stuck with me the most were the second one about a man spiraling about his cell phone and partner, the one where a character had to brutally murder a chicken, the one about a struggling adjunct professor coming to terms with his own failure and life's journey and the postcard one where a detective gets stuck in a dementia narrative. So nothing particularly heart-warming, but certainly well written (if a bit pretentious) and captivating.
And these were odd short stories, all focused on 'Other Minds' with a slightly unsettling vibe. Some of them were 2 paragraphs long while other stretched over two dozen pages offering a variety of tales and characters. The ones that stuck with me the most were the second one about a man spiraling about his cell phone and partner, the one where a character had to brutally murder a chicken, the one about a struggling adjunct professor coming to terms with his own failure and life's journey and the postcard one where a detective gets stuck in a dementia narrative. So nothing particularly heart-warming, but certainly well written (if a bit pretentious) and captivating.
December 26, 2023
I throw the word haunting around a bit too much, but the word feels worthy for this collection. It deals heavily with the mind and what happens when it's ripped out of your hands, replaced with a new mind you now have to navigate with.
What it lacks for physical, timeline action it makes up for with internal sprinting. I'm floored by how much Sims can conjure with a character looking out of a window for twenty pages. I see recognizable paths my own mind takes, shapes and gaps that I've never put into words.
What it lacks for physical, timeline action it makes up for with internal sprinting. I'm floored by how much Sims can conjure with a character looking out of a window for twenty pages. I see recognizable paths my own mind takes, shapes and gaps that I've never put into words.
March 18, 2024
Highly impressed with this collection, especially "Portonaccio Sarcophagus" and "Minds of Winter" in which the line between essay writing and fiction writing is blurred. It is, however, "Introduction to the Reading of Hegel" which takes the crown as the best story in this collection and shows Sims' prowess as a skillful writer.
March 2, 2024
There's a story here about beheading a chicken which is one of the funniest things I've eve read. Other, shorter efforts have interesting things to say about art as a defiance of time and mortality, and find clever ways to frame what could be dismissed as a miscategorized and halfbaked essay within a character's viewpoint and situation. Two pieces though that by their length are obviously supposed to be pillars of the collection are foolish recursive attempts at horror that land exceptionally flat.
January 29, 2024
Cerebral and series. Some of the stories remind me of Paul Auditor's City of Glass but Sims is even more interior and more interesting. Hard to imagine many places other than Two Dollar Radio that would say, "This book needs to be in the world."
Read
December 15, 2023Each of these stories felt like the equivalent of having 2 beers with a good friend. “Portonaccio Sarcophagus” and “Winter Minds” (my favorites) read like hyper-compressed Proust and somehow gave me the sensation of having slight vertigo— like, I was physically dizzy when I put the book down, but in a good way.
Read
April 29, 2024So spooky, so thoughtful, very very good
December 31, 2023
This is one where the rating system doesn’t work. 5 of the 10 stories — Unknown, Other Minds, Pecking Order, A Nightmare, and The Postcard — are absolute knockout, home run, 5-star stories that make this collection one I absolutely recommend. These stories are inventive, disorienting, and full of paranoia and tension. Unknown and The Postcard are MIND-BLOWING. I love the way Sims plays with time, identity, and memory. Some of these had me blocking out the bottom half of the page with my hand so I wouldn’t see what was about to happen. Of the other five stories, Minds of Winter and Introduction to the Reading of Hegel would rate as 4s that I really liked on the strength of atmosphere but didn’t resonate like the best of the bunch. The other three stories which I won’t list really didn’t work for me, closer in tone with the didactic vignettes bookending the collection, which were stronger in idea than execution.
September 25, 2023
I loved this collection. Fits very well for those who like the short-form vibes of Samanta Schweblin and Brian Evenson. A spooky, David Foster Wallace-y attention to detail, like taking a microscope and roller-ruler to a Build-A-Nightmare.
February 27, 2024
Picked this up randomly at the library for something different. A bunch of short stories. Felt like something I would’ve been assigned to read in highschool English class, not my vibe at all but maybe for people who are really into writing in a more academic/philosophical way?
November 18, 2023
wasn’t the biggest fan sadly. “white dialogues” was so much better. only story i ended up enjoying was “unknown”.
April 8, 2024
An interesting collection of writing, a combination of short stories and essays, some with accompanying photographs. Something I noticed from the juxtaposition of fiction and non-fiction in this particular collection as that both cast doubt on each other. Which is to say, many of the pieces that present as fiction have a character who seems to match the biography of the author and so you wonder how truly fictional it is, how much of the author's own experiences went into it; and even for the stories that definitely do not feature the author, what seed of personal experience lies at their heart; conversely, for the pieces that present as essays they are all embodied, the author describing a specific place and time and the observations and thoughts that came from it, but set amongst the fictions you realize that these experiences must themselves be fictionalized, that even if they sprang from a real event, did things really happen just that way? or was it modified to fit the unfolding of ideas as the essay was developed over time?
One thing that really stood out to me is that despite all the erudition evident in the writing and the remarkably diverse and interesting choice of words is that the author is apparently confused about if fish are vertebrates or not, which seems baffling to me.
One thing that really stood out to me is that despite all the erudition evident in the writing and the remarkably diverse and interesting choice of words is that the author is apparently confused about if fish are vertebrates or not, which seems baffling to me.
January 25, 2025
Having not read any of Bennett Sims’ work before, I was struck by the eerie yet grounded quality of this collection of short stories evoking a sort of “everyday horror.” That concept has a definite appeal to me and I found Other Minds and Other Stories captivating and inspirational for my own work. Working with themes of time and history, juxtaposing examinations of the ancient world like “Portonaccio Sarcophagus” with malls and smart phones like “Unknown,” Sims explores perennial human fears and anxieties, especially for someone concerned with the ways that literature can both capture and analyze these ideas.
In pieces like “The New Violence” and “Minds of Winter,” “The Postcard” and “Introduction to the Reading of Hegel,” whether satirical and funny or bleak and thoughtful, Sims wrestles with these questions in ways I found both relatable and unsettling. His recurring use of the motif of “other minds” throughout the collection, for instance, whether those of a distant reader responding to your work or that of attempting to understand the written words of others through time, draws the reader into a mysterious place to consider what literature is for. While occasionally feeling fragmented or abrupt, the stories in Other Minds and Other Stories are effective in drawing the reader into their interior moods and ideas, and gave me a lot to consider.
In pieces like “The New Violence” and “Minds of Winter,” “The Postcard” and “Introduction to the Reading of Hegel,” whether satirical and funny or bleak and thoughtful, Sims wrestles with these questions in ways I found both relatable and unsettling. His recurring use of the motif of “other minds” throughout the collection, for instance, whether those of a distant reader responding to your work or that of attempting to understand the written words of others through time, draws the reader into a mysterious place to consider what literature is for. While occasionally feeling fragmented or abrupt, the stories in Other Minds and Other Stories are effective in drawing the reader into their interior moods and ideas, and gave me a lot to consider.
November 11, 2024
I really enjoyed this collection of "stories," though some of them skate around the whole question of narrative as being an engine of story. They are experimental and weird, exploring puzzle environments as much as anything else, but they are often really fun. In some of them, Sims leans a little into genre territory. So the stories "Unknown" and "The Postcard," for example, have an almost Twilight Zone circularity/ twist ending feel to them. Something like that even animates a story as interior as "Introduction to the Reading of Hegel." Others, like the opening and closing "stories" and Portonaccio Sarcophagus" are closer to essays, though putting them in a collection of fiction does introduce complexity into the way we read them. Sims vocabulary in these stories is formidable-- these are academic exercises as much as they are intellectual, and some reader might find that forbidding. I enjoyed it, maybe because it feels of a piece with the self-consciousness of the whole project, which rarely invites you to get lost in the story.
Fun, good stuff. Maybe for fans of Gabe Blackwell? Or vice versa?
Fun, good stuff. Maybe for fans of Gabe Blackwell? Or vice versa?
February 14, 2024
Five stars for four of the early stories: Unknown, Pecking Order, Other Minds, and The New Violence. Almost Hitchcockian at times, anxiety induced by commonly underlined passages in an ebook, letting someone at a mall use your phone. The chicken descriptions in Pecking Order were spot on (we have a coop in the backyard) and the story overall ridiculously gory fun, reminiscent of Mishima’s Patriotism. (Our chickens are my wife's responsibility but I'm sure if we ever have to put them down the task will fall to me.) Ordered the author's previous collection immediately after finishing that story. The stories upfront seemed more engaging, compelling, "greater" etc, than the often denser, paragraphless, quasi-Sebaldian, abstracted pages in the latter stories. But I appreciated the carefully constructed phrases throughout even if I didn't always have the necessary patience. Looking forward to White Dialogues.
May 1, 2024
A random library selection. True to its title, this collection comprises minds and stories, although perhaps it focuses too much on the former, largely overlooking the latter.
A majority of the stories in this collection offer a sort of densely woven, moodily self-conscious streaming conscience narratives that play well with critics and awards but in the wild can come across as rather … torpid? The author definitely knows how to write, in fact, he teaches how to write for a living, but while readable, his narratives are seldom properly engaging.
This is all the more noticeable once you hit the penultimate story, Postcard, where he finally steps away from his previous inner monologuing and actually writes good fiction, a sort of meta detective story about navigating the shifting planes of memory and love.
Overall, the book read quickly, but (with the notable exception of Postcard which elevates this rating to 3) underwhelmed. User mileage may vary.
A majority of the stories in this collection offer a sort of densely woven, moodily self-conscious streaming conscience narratives that play well with critics and awards but in the wild can come across as rather … torpid? The author definitely knows how to write, in fact, he teaches how to write for a living, but while readable, his narratives are seldom properly engaging.
This is all the more noticeable once you hit the penultimate story, Postcard, where he finally steps away from his previous inner monologuing and actually writes good fiction, a sort of meta detective story about navigating the shifting planes of memory and love.
Overall, the book read quickly, but (with the notable exception of Postcard which elevates this rating to 3) underwhelmed. User mileage may vary.
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