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The New Abject: Tales of Modern Unease
Something has fallen away. We have lost a part of ourselves, our history, what we once were. That something, when we encounter it again, look it straight in the eyes, disgusts us, makes us retch. This is the horror of the abject.
Following the success of Comma’s award-winning New Uncanny anthology, The New Abject invites leading authors to respond to two parallel theories of the abject – Julia Kristeva’s theory of the psychoanalytic, intimate abject, and Georges Bataille’s societal equivalent – with visceral stories of modern unease. As we become ever-more isolated by social media bubbles, or the demands for social distancing, our moral gag-reflex is increasingly sensitised, and our ability to tolerate difference, or ‘the other’, atrophies. Like all good horror writing, these stories remind us that exposure to what unsettles us, even in small doses, is always better than pretending it doesn’t exist. After all, we can never be wholly free of that which belongs to us.
Following the success of Comma’s award-winning New Uncanny anthology, The New Abject invites leading authors to respond to two parallel theories of the abject – Julia Kristeva’s theory of the psychoanalytic, intimate abject, and Georges Bataille’s societal equivalent – with visceral stories of modern unease. As we become ever-more isolated by social media bubbles, or the demands for social distancing, our moral gag-reflex is increasingly sensitised, and our ability to tolerate difference, or ‘the other’, atrophies. Like all good horror writing, these stories remind us that exposure to what unsettles us, even in small doses, is always better than pretending it doesn’t exist. After all, we can never be wholly free of that which belongs to us.
257 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 25, 2020
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235 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 7, 2020
I reviewed this for Sublime Horror. Read the full review here: The New Abject: Tales of Modern Unease review – a broad-ranging and diverse anthology
The New Abject is a sort-of-sequel to The New Uncanny, a 2008 anthology of stories written in response to Sigmund Freud’s famous essay on the unheimlich. This time, the theme is the abject, as defined in the work of two philosophers: Julia Kristeva, whose Powers of Horror situates the abject in ‘disgust-inducing ‘border objects’ which trouble the distinction between self and other’, and Georges Bataille, whose writings on social abjection apply the term to ‘things and people that society expels’.
There are some great stories here, especially Lucie McKnight Hardy’s ‘Wretched’, a prescient dystopian tale with excellent worldbuilding and character development. Christine Poulson’s ‘Teeth and Hair’ is a gripping ghost story with dashes of body horror and nods to The Turn of the Screw. ‘The Universal Stain Remover’ by Gaia Holmes is about a woman’s obsession with stain removal, but the story it’s really telling is her escape from an abusive relationship. I enjoyed Adam Marek’s ‘It’s a Dinosauromorph, Dumdum’, an entertaining slice of near-future SF with a dark final twist. The contributions from Saleem Haddad and Lara Williams are also good. But I didn’t think the anthology felt thematically coherent, and with 19 stories it’s more than a little baggy.
It’s possible that the prompt itself is a fundamental problem. Freud’s theory of the uncanny is pretty easy to understand. Kristeva’s theory of the abject is tricky enough (certainly way more complex than what it's boiled down to here), and Bataille’s interpretation is completely different, essentially creating the potential for ‘the abject’ to be defined as basically anything that exists outside the self... which surely is a description that could be applied to about 95% of horror/weird/SF/suspense stories. The introduction feels like it’s herding cats as it tries to tie the idea to just about every issue that currently exists: UK and US politics since 2016, Covid-19, racism/xenophobia, poverty, the influence of social media, and so on. The anthology Outsiders, also from an indie press and also published this year, has a concept that’s very similar, albeit stated much more simply, and is, I think, a more successful treatment of a similar theme.
I received an advance review copy of The New Abject from Sublime Horror, courtesy of Comma Press.
TinyLetter | Linktree
The New Abject is a sort-of-sequel to The New Uncanny, a 2008 anthology of stories written in response to Sigmund Freud’s famous essay on the unheimlich. This time, the theme is the abject, as defined in the work of two philosophers: Julia Kristeva, whose Powers of Horror situates the abject in ‘disgust-inducing ‘border objects’ which trouble the distinction between self and other’, and Georges Bataille, whose writings on social abjection apply the term to ‘things and people that society expels’.
There are some great stories here, especially Lucie McKnight Hardy’s ‘Wretched’, a prescient dystopian tale with excellent worldbuilding and character development. Christine Poulson’s ‘Teeth and Hair’ is a gripping ghost story with dashes of body horror and nods to The Turn of the Screw. ‘The Universal Stain Remover’ by Gaia Holmes is about a woman’s obsession with stain removal, but the story it’s really telling is her escape from an abusive relationship. I enjoyed Adam Marek’s ‘It’s a Dinosauromorph, Dumdum’, an entertaining slice of near-future SF with a dark final twist. The contributions from Saleem Haddad and Lara Williams are also good. But I didn’t think the anthology felt thematically coherent, and with 19 stories it’s more than a little baggy.
It’s possible that the prompt itself is a fundamental problem. Freud’s theory of the uncanny is pretty easy to understand. Kristeva’s theory of the abject is tricky enough (certainly way more complex than what it's boiled down to here), and Bataille’s interpretation is completely different, essentially creating the potential for ‘the abject’ to be defined as basically anything that exists outside the self... which surely is a description that could be applied to about 95% of horror/weird/SF/suspense stories. The introduction feels like it’s herding cats as it tries to tie the idea to just about every issue that currently exists: UK and US politics since 2016, Covid-19, racism/xenophobia, poverty, the influence of social media, and so on. The anthology Outsiders, also from an indie press and also published this year, has a concept that’s very similar, albeit stated much more simply, and is, I think, a more successful treatment of a similar theme.
I received an advance review copy of The New Abject from Sublime Horror, courtesy of Comma Press.
TinyLetter | Linktree
January 31, 2021
Comma Press bring us a new collection of horror with ‘The New Abject’ and being such a fan and supporter of their first outing ‘The New Uncanny’ I for one couldn’t wait to get tucked into this offering. They have a few writers returning to the fold and have also added some stunning writers to the mix. Let’s see how I got on shall we?
Stool - Bernardine Bishop
I enjoyed the who done it element, the internal struggle but it appeared to just get going as the story finished.
Teeth and Hair - Christine Poulson
Nell - is an au pair, looking after Polly (11 year old) as Polly’s father (Matthew) works away, and Polly’s mother had died recently. Nell begins to investigate the house. Polly showing her a locked room that contained her mother’s possessions... things begin to get eerie as items from the room start to appear around the house and creeping and brooding unease sets in.
The Universal Stain Remover - Gaia Holmes
‘Most of my stains were his doing and they are heavy stains that curved my spine, pushed me down to the level of the low with worms and things that crawl on their belly. They are stains that flattened me, crushed me, turned me into a slanting italic version of myself. Stains of humiliation. Stains he made with words.’
An absolutely stunning story of a house sitter... sounds quite dull right? This is anything but. A masterful, heart-wrenching , soul destroying brilliance. Our main protagonist is cleaning stains in houses and we realise that the darkest stain of all is her past and what he’d turned her into. An unflinching look at emotional domestic abuse.
( ) ( ( - Lara Williams
Our main protagonist is a hoarder, but she hoards her body’s sheddings (eyebrow hairs, eyelashes, nail clippings that sort of stuff) but her cravings to rid herself of these things progresses and when her secret is discovered it reveals horrors one doesn’t expect.
The Reservoir - Meave Haughey
Meredith is concerned about the reservoir near their home, worried of the floods, worried of being a parent to the second child she’s carrying - worried of the waters that will pour from her and the failing reservoir.
The Leftovers - Margaret Drabble
A landlord returns to her property during the start of the pandemic, her thoughts plagued by the past tenants, how they’d looked after her house, the things they broke, the things they bought and she’s plagued by the things they left.
An Enfleshment of Desire by Saleem Haddad
Protests, sex obsession and carnal desires - an interesting concept but I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the others.
Bind - Matthew Holness
Our protagonist is stuck in an endless loop of an exhibition, and exhibition that’s items are pieces of his life, items of importance - the delicate balance of grief, loss and hopelessness are very well executed, but I feel the fundamental message of this story was lost on me slightly.
Rejoice - Sarah Schofield
A grieving mother and daughter struggle with the passing of her husband and daughters father, a backdrop of Covid and questions of adequate PPE, the fingerprints of a life, the comfort one girl finds in something out of place - an eerie story that I thought would go one way but went in a completely different direction.
It’s a Dinosauromorph, Dumdum - Adam Marek
Told in Marek’s wonderfully striking and engaging prose. Here we get a huge slice of unsettling science fiction, where a couple head to a friends house, where on arrival they are told to wear Augmented Reality glasses on entering their home. Something isn’t right, but we can’t help but wonder what, until Marek reveals to us the true extent of this make believe world - a world of smoke and mirrors.
Misisedwuds - Karen Featherstone
A mother struggles with the attachment to her child and her monotonous life, desperate to change the things she can and live with the rest - but she’ll try to break free from the chains that bind any way she can.
The Honey Gatherers - Gerard Woodward
A husband and wife run and Apiary - they’re doing well, selling their produce and making money. Their honey based products are a real hit, you see their bees are able to collect the nectar from rare flowers that bloom near their site. But someone’s moving in on their property and setting up a competing Apiary - which is causing their own livelihood to fall into question, so what will they do about it?
Adobo - Paul Theroux
A retired man in Hawaii decides to get himself a wife, his friend hooks him up with a Filipino woman, a farmers daughter. Their married life starts well, it’s the companionship he’s sought for a long time, but things turn sour when she wants to kill the wild pigs that frequent his front garden, the pigs that he’s grown to love, she wants to cook him ‘Adobo’ a delicacy from where she’s from. When he submits to her requests he suddenly realises that things have escalated and can’t return to the way they were however much he wishes they could.
On Monkeys Without Tails - Mike Nelson
A man who collects old objects for his shop sits at an antique desk and reminisces about its past owners. He reflects on how the past and its objects are made redundant for future advancement.
The Room Peels by Alan Beard
A recently divorced man moves into a cramped bedsit, where his life seems to slide away from him. Haunted by the memories of visits from friends and lovers and others that have crossed his sorry existence, they seem to have left a stain that lasts. He finds himself hearing their impressions, feeling their presence years after as his room slowly becomes his tomb as he begins to fear the outside world, and craves the safety and security of his shitty little bedsit - here he’s safe, but for how long.
O Death - Mark Haddon
Our protagonist returns home to pick up their father who’d fallen down the stairs. They soon discover more about the house and family they’d tried so desperately to get away from. Being back there with a father who has dementia, a mother who still treats them as a twelve-year-old and a brother who’s still living at home causes old pains to surface. Proving that going home is sometimes the nightmare you know it’s going to be, but like a dog returning to its vomit, we continue to do it out of some innate reason.
Wretched - Lucie McKnight Hardy
McKnight Hardy rips up the form book here, delivering a breathtaking slice of science fiction / horror. This story is one of creeping unease, blending perfectly thematic elements from 1984 / Handmaids / Clockwork Orange to craft a very atmospheric piece and one that leaves its mark on the reader. One can’t help but see the parallels of our current plight with regards to Covid (although this is not stated) it’s rather inferred knowledge but makes for a strong and atmospheric piece and shows a possible future that’s dark and disturbing. And again showcases perfectly why I adore McKnight Hardy’s words!
Out of the Blue - David Constantine
‘We’re not made to withstand what we do to one another.’
A stunning story, Constantine delivers a masterful story that unravels slowly into the most elegant and sorrowful tale in the collection. This story focuses on adultery, shame, love and striving for completeness. After an act of God our main protagonists life is thrown into the unknown. She soon answers a call that she wasn’t expecting, which blows her tiny world wide open. This shows how worlds collide and the serendipity that surrounds us all and how people can sometimes collide together, creating beauty from the ashes of human emotions.
Extending the Family - Ramsey Campbell
Ramsey Campbell brings this unsettling collection to a close with a story reminiscent of Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’. An elderly man becomes infatuated with a father, son and baby that live in the run down property opposite his window, his voyeurism isn’t taken kindly to this ghastly family, where our protagonist is privy to many failings, abuse, drug use, antisocial behaviour. He’s determined to get to the bottom of this, help if he can or set something in motion that will cause an end to this situation. Such a fabulous story, which has a sting in the tail!
A fabulous collection again from Comma Press, I felt though that a few of these offerings drifted from the brief (which is set out in the detailed introduction) it’s not as clear cut as their first collection ‘The New Uncanny’ where each story is unsettling and devastating, but ‘The New Abject’ does deliver in many of the stories, just not all of them.
This is a fabulous collection though and with some very masterful offerings included. My favourites from the collection were the work of Ramsey Campbell, Lucie McKnight Hardy, Gaia Holmes and David Constantine.
Gaia Holmes’s ‘The Universal Stain Remover’ should be winning awards later in the year for its brilliance and it has worked its way into my top short stories ever (so much so I even emailed the author to tell her how brilliant it was).
Stool - Bernardine Bishop
I enjoyed the who done it element, the internal struggle but it appeared to just get going as the story finished.
Teeth and Hair - Christine Poulson
Nell - is an au pair, looking after Polly (11 year old) as Polly’s father (Matthew) works away, and Polly’s mother had died recently. Nell begins to investigate the house. Polly showing her a locked room that contained her mother’s possessions... things begin to get eerie as items from the room start to appear around the house and creeping and brooding unease sets in.
The Universal Stain Remover - Gaia Holmes
‘Most of my stains were his doing and they are heavy stains that curved my spine, pushed me down to the level of the low with worms and things that crawl on their belly. They are stains that flattened me, crushed me, turned me into a slanting italic version of myself. Stains of humiliation. Stains he made with words.’
An absolutely stunning story of a house sitter... sounds quite dull right? This is anything but. A masterful, heart-wrenching , soul destroying brilliance. Our main protagonist is cleaning stains in houses and we realise that the darkest stain of all is her past and what he’d turned her into. An unflinching look at emotional domestic abuse.
( ) ( ( - Lara Williams
Our main protagonist is a hoarder, but she hoards her body’s sheddings (eyebrow hairs, eyelashes, nail clippings that sort of stuff) but her cravings to rid herself of these things progresses and when her secret is discovered it reveals horrors one doesn’t expect.
The Reservoir - Meave Haughey
Meredith is concerned about the reservoir near their home, worried of the floods, worried of being a parent to the second child she’s carrying - worried of the waters that will pour from her and the failing reservoir.
The Leftovers - Margaret Drabble
A landlord returns to her property during the start of the pandemic, her thoughts plagued by the past tenants, how they’d looked after her house, the things they broke, the things they bought and she’s plagued by the things they left.
An Enfleshment of Desire by Saleem Haddad
Protests, sex obsession and carnal desires - an interesting concept but I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the others.
Bind - Matthew Holness
Our protagonist is stuck in an endless loop of an exhibition, and exhibition that’s items are pieces of his life, items of importance - the delicate balance of grief, loss and hopelessness are very well executed, but I feel the fundamental message of this story was lost on me slightly.
Rejoice - Sarah Schofield
A grieving mother and daughter struggle with the passing of her husband and daughters father, a backdrop of Covid and questions of adequate PPE, the fingerprints of a life, the comfort one girl finds in something out of place - an eerie story that I thought would go one way but went in a completely different direction.
It’s a Dinosauromorph, Dumdum - Adam Marek
Told in Marek’s wonderfully striking and engaging prose. Here we get a huge slice of unsettling science fiction, where a couple head to a friends house, where on arrival they are told to wear Augmented Reality glasses on entering their home. Something isn’t right, but we can’t help but wonder what, until Marek reveals to us the true extent of this make believe world - a world of smoke and mirrors.
Misisedwuds - Karen Featherstone
A mother struggles with the attachment to her child and her monotonous life, desperate to change the things she can and live with the rest - but she’ll try to break free from the chains that bind any way she can.
The Honey Gatherers - Gerard Woodward
A husband and wife run and Apiary - they’re doing well, selling their produce and making money. Their honey based products are a real hit, you see their bees are able to collect the nectar from rare flowers that bloom near their site. But someone’s moving in on their property and setting up a competing Apiary - which is causing their own livelihood to fall into question, so what will they do about it?
Adobo - Paul Theroux
A retired man in Hawaii decides to get himself a wife, his friend hooks him up with a Filipino woman, a farmers daughter. Their married life starts well, it’s the companionship he’s sought for a long time, but things turn sour when she wants to kill the wild pigs that frequent his front garden, the pigs that he’s grown to love, she wants to cook him ‘Adobo’ a delicacy from where she’s from. When he submits to her requests he suddenly realises that things have escalated and can’t return to the way they were however much he wishes they could.
On Monkeys Without Tails - Mike Nelson
A man who collects old objects for his shop sits at an antique desk and reminisces about its past owners. He reflects on how the past and its objects are made redundant for future advancement.
The Room Peels by Alan Beard
A recently divorced man moves into a cramped bedsit, where his life seems to slide away from him. Haunted by the memories of visits from friends and lovers and others that have crossed his sorry existence, they seem to have left a stain that lasts. He finds himself hearing their impressions, feeling their presence years after as his room slowly becomes his tomb as he begins to fear the outside world, and craves the safety and security of his shitty little bedsit - here he’s safe, but for how long.
O Death - Mark Haddon
Our protagonist returns home to pick up their father who’d fallen down the stairs. They soon discover more about the house and family they’d tried so desperately to get away from. Being back there with a father who has dementia, a mother who still treats them as a twelve-year-old and a brother who’s still living at home causes old pains to surface. Proving that going home is sometimes the nightmare you know it’s going to be, but like a dog returning to its vomit, we continue to do it out of some innate reason.
Wretched - Lucie McKnight Hardy
McKnight Hardy rips up the form book here, delivering a breathtaking slice of science fiction / horror. This story is one of creeping unease, blending perfectly thematic elements from 1984 / Handmaids / Clockwork Orange to craft a very atmospheric piece and one that leaves its mark on the reader. One can’t help but see the parallels of our current plight with regards to Covid (although this is not stated) it’s rather inferred knowledge but makes for a strong and atmospheric piece and shows a possible future that’s dark and disturbing. And again showcases perfectly why I adore McKnight Hardy’s words!
Out of the Blue - David Constantine
‘We’re not made to withstand what we do to one another.’
A stunning story, Constantine delivers a masterful story that unravels slowly into the most elegant and sorrowful tale in the collection. This story focuses on adultery, shame, love and striving for completeness. After an act of God our main protagonists life is thrown into the unknown. She soon answers a call that she wasn’t expecting, which blows her tiny world wide open. This shows how worlds collide and the serendipity that surrounds us all and how people can sometimes collide together, creating beauty from the ashes of human emotions.
Extending the Family - Ramsey Campbell
Ramsey Campbell brings this unsettling collection to a close with a story reminiscent of Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’. An elderly man becomes infatuated with a father, son and baby that live in the run down property opposite his window, his voyeurism isn’t taken kindly to this ghastly family, where our protagonist is privy to many failings, abuse, drug use, antisocial behaviour. He’s determined to get to the bottom of this, help if he can or set something in motion that will cause an end to this situation. Such a fabulous story, which has a sting in the tail!
A fabulous collection again from Comma Press, I felt though that a few of these offerings drifted from the brief (which is set out in the detailed introduction) it’s not as clear cut as their first collection ‘The New Uncanny’ where each story is unsettling and devastating, but ‘The New Abject’ does deliver in many of the stories, just not all of them.
This is a fabulous collection though and with some very masterful offerings included. My favourites from the collection were the work of Ramsey Campbell, Lucie McKnight Hardy, Gaia Holmes and David Constantine.
Gaia Holmes’s ‘The Universal Stain Remover’ should be winning awards later in the year for its brilliance and it has worked its way into my top short stories ever (so much so I even emailed the author to tell her how brilliant it was).
October 31, 2020
I have a story in this lovely anthology, so won't review it, but it is a terrific read. Here's an article about it: https://www.theskinny.co.uk/books/boo...
I'll post more reviews as they come up.
I'll post more reviews as they come up.
December 28, 2024
Alan Beard's "The Room Peels" starts in his familiar style with lusty, sympathetic characters, but gradually slips into a kind of oppressive unease and dissolution; deftly executed, and I wasn't surprised to find the dedication to Joel Lane. I liked the idea behind Ramsey Campbell's dark and funny "Extending the Family", but would have preferred a tighter treatment. Most of the rest were entertaining enough, but did not leave much of an impression.
January 12, 2021
3.5 stars
For the most part, the stories were great. There were a few that dragged.
For the most part, the stories were great. There were a few that dragged.
December 3, 2020
A collection of short stories will always vary in quality. It is far more subjective because the reader has less time to get used to the author's style. Luckily the 19 stories in this collection are remarkably consistent, capturing our discomfort with so much of the modern world.
We move from realist tales with gross-out sections to darker stories examining the psychological effects of letting parts of ourselves go. Each author approaches the topic differently, and while there are a few common threads, there's no sense of repetitiveness.
Standouts are '() ((' by Lara Williams, 'An Enfleshment of Desire' by Saleem Haddad, 'Bind' by Matthew Holness, 'O Death' by Mark Haddon and 'Out of the Blue' by David Constantine, but all the stories collected here are nasty, little gems.
We move from realist tales with gross-out sections to darker stories examining the psychological effects of letting parts of ourselves go. Each author approaches the topic differently, and while there are a few common threads, there's no sense of repetitiveness.
Standouts are '() ((' by Lara Williams, 'An Enfleshment of Desire' by Saleem Haddad, 'Bind' by Matthew Holness, 'O Death' by Mark Haddon and 'Out of the Blue' by David Constantine, but all the stories collected here are nasty, little gems.
January 5, 2021
This is one of those anthologies that you will remember, with some stirring surprise, to be a great find in hindsight. One that will even outlast — via whatever osmosis senility supplies — your future memory of it.
The New Abject, the New Noumenon of Now.
The detailed review of this co-vivid book posted elsewhere under my name is too long to post here.
Above is its conclusion.
The New Abject, the New Noumenon of Now.
The detailed review of this co-vivid book posted elsewhere under my name is too long to post here.
Above is its conclusion.
August 8, 2023
Wide range of stories, and I adored most of them - the last one really gripped me!
April 13, 2024
Fantastically macabre selection of stories.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews