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    The Macabre Modern and Other Morbidities
    The Macabre Modern and Other Morbidities
    The Macabre Modern and Other Morbidities
    Ebook130 pages1 hour

    The Macabre Modern and Other Morbidities

    By Kyla Lee Ward

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    About this ebook

    Award-winning poet Kyla Lee Ward invites you to whistle past the graveyard and get on your dancing shoes! Inspired by the fourteenth century "Danse Macabre" (the Dance of Death), The Macabre Modern updates for contemporary readers the allegorical, medieval concept of the universality of death. Defy death with the doctor. Mourn with the soldier. Indulge in the rich, weird traditions of Ancient Egypt and the Victorians, as you trip over the unspeakable at your own front door. Chuckle at the grotesque and the fallible, but remember - the last laugh will be on you!

     

    Contains the Australian Shadows winners, "Revenants of the Antipodes" and "The Danse Macabre - an essay.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKyla Lee Ward
    Release dateJul 30, 2022
    ISBN9780645507911
    The Macabre Modern and Other Morbidities
    Author

    Kyla Lee Ward

    Kyla Lee Ward is a Sydney-based creative whose writings have garnered her Australian Shadows and Aurealis awards. She has placed in the Rhyslings and received Stoker and Ditmar nominations. Reviewers have accused her of being “gothic and esoteric”, “weird and exhilarating” and of “giving me a nightmare.” A long-time roleplayer, she freelanced for White Wolf and Eden Games, and programmed the horror stream for the 2010 Worldcon. As an actor, she is your Guide to Deadhouse: Tales of Sydney Morgue and a host with the world famous Rocks Ghost Tours. As an artist, she appears on occasional book covers as well as illustrating her own work. A practicing occultist, she is a member of the House of Shadows and likes raptors, swordplay and the Hellfire Club. To see some strange things, visit Kyla's website at http://www.kylaward.com

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      Book preview

      The Macabre Modern and Other Morbidities - Kyla Lee Ward

      The Macabre Modern and Other Morbidities

      Kyla Lee Ward

      Edited by Charles Lovecraft

      Award-winning poet Kyla Lee Ward invites you to whistle past the graveyard and get on your dancing shoes! Inspired by the fourteenth century Danse Macabre (the Dance of Death), The Macabre Modern updates for contemporary readers the allegorical, medieval concept of the universality of death. Defy death with the doctor. Mourn with the soldier. Indulge in the rich, weird traditions of Ancient Egypt and the Victorians, as you trip over the unspeakable at your own front door. Chuckle at the grotesque and the fallible, but remember - the last laugh will be on you!

      Contains the Australian Shadows winners, Revenants of the Antipodes and The Danse Macabre - an essay.

      A grotesque figure with the head and claws of a skeletal raven and an Elizabethan gown with ruff and panniers.

      Published by Kyla Lee Ward

      Kyla Lee Ward sits at her desk with glasses in hand, gazing ominously at the reader by the light of a single lamp

      Kyla Lee Ward

      With each new work she produces, Kyla Lee Ward makes clear why she should be regarded as one of the preeminent exemplars of contemporary weird poetry.

      —S. T. Joshi, 2019

      Kyla Lee Ward puts satisfying meat on the Gothic's bones. Her well-honed metrical and narrative skills, enhanced by a deep sense of history, make this collection a must for aficionados of literary dark verse.

      —Ann K. Schwader, 2019

      The works in this volume are wicked, witty, poignant, whimsical, hilarious, keenly intelligent and deeply disquieting by turns, and often in combination.

      - Laura E. Goodin, exploringritual.com, August 2019

      "The Macabre Modern is a welcome addition to the field of contemporary weird poetry and should be savoured with a crystal goblet of dark wine in a candlelit room..."

      - Earl Livings, November 2019

      Ward's book is accessible to all readers, not just poetry lovers... a fabulous read for anyone ready to confront the most unnerving truth about life.

      - Megan Kelly, Aurealis #127, February 2020

      A piquat fusion of traditional and modern, an important addition not just to the poetry of the weird, but to Australian literature as a whole.

      - Leigh Blackmore, Dead Reckonings #27, Spring 2020

      ...various visions of Death and the macabre across cultures ranging from Ancient Egypt through modern times. Ward is an exceptionally gifted verse poet.

      - Frank Coffman, September 2020

      First published by P’rea Press, Sydney Australia. Paperback published 2019. First edition ebook December 2021.

      Second edition ebook (this edition) published by Kyla Lee Ward 2022.

      Poetry and Essay The Danse Macabre © by Kyla Lee Ward 2019, 2022.

      Introduction © by Gillian Polack 2019, 2022.

      Afterword © by S. T. Joshi 2019, 2022, 2022.

      Cover and internal illustrations © by Kyla Lee Ward 2019, 2022.

      All rights reserved. Reviewers may quote short passages.

      Book designed by David E. Schultz. Ebook by David Schembri.

      Second edition ebook (this edition) prepared by Kell Shaw https://kellshaw.com

      Cover designed by David Schembri Studios from author’s art.

      Email: [email protected]

      Frontispiece photo taken by Zak Campbell.

      Set in Baskerville Old Face 11.5 point.

      NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA PREPUBLICATION DATA SERVICE ENTRY:

      Author: Ward, Kyla Lee.

      Title: The Macabre Modern and Other Morbidities / Kyla Lee Ward; Dr Gillian Polack; S. T. Joshi; Charles Alveric Lovecraft, editor.

      ISBN: 978-0-6455079-1-1 (Second edition ebook)

      Gothic poetry (Literary genre)

      Australian poetry—21st century

      Dedication

      to my friends

      What lies behind the mask

      Is what all masks reveal,

      And like a maze of mirrors

      This secret sets its seal

      Of fantasy, of deepest fear,

      Or dark desire low,

      And what you seek is what you find;

      And now ’tis you should know

      What lies behind the mask . . .

      Introduction

      Christianity was originally a cultus. Its members collected the bones of saints. In worshipping them, it celebrated Death. This led to many things, some of them sacred and holy and some of them . . . worrying.

      What do people do when faced with the fear and the ludicrousness of their own past? What do they do when faced with the impossible contradictions in something so very close to home? A dramatic answer to these questions would make a wonderful sound bite, but it wouldn’t explain Kyla Ward’s Macabre Modern, a contemporary update on the medieval Danse Macabre theme.

      The original danse macabre was a series of late medieval descriptions of images. It was a visual, visceral reaction to a world plagued by death. And Death, in this milieu, wasn't Terry Pratchett's curry-loving gentleman—a skeleton, a scythe, a symbol. A monstrous corpse, Death led the dead in a helpless, jerky dance.

      In an earlier incarnation and under a different name Death led a fearsome hunt, with his entourage torturing souls along their road to doom. Hellequin’s Hunt was a reason to stay in bed and not to wander the forest after dark. Each rider and walker in the Hunt was explained by the form of their punishment, and those punishments reflected their lives. Simple allegories to explain, darkly, that the pain individuals suffered on their way to Judgement was deserved. A black frisson of warning for the rest of us; a hell journey for the adulterer or liar.

      Kyla Ward’s Macabre Modern is not a simple updating of an old theme. Nor was the late medieval one a simple updating of the allegorical poems of the High Middle Ages. Both works tell us that Death waits for us all, while leaving us in the hope that our part in the dance may

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