The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2024, pt. 7: Erin K. Wagner

 

 

Photo by Kathryn DeZur

 Annual Pleasures 2024

 by Erin K. Wagner

 

 

   

     Another year passed—and yet my TBR pile, my want-to-watch list, is higher and longer than ever. I have dedicated more time to truly unplugging from work so as to read and view the narratives that sustain me. And I find it immensely satisfying and optimistic that I never need to worry about running out of those stories. I think, at the end of this year, I am reminded more than ever how much it is art that keeps us going even as current events might make the work of creating art feel more pointless than ever. Don’t believe it. Keep going. Keep creating and keep consuming the art that nourishes us.

Check out what I enjoyed reading and watching over this past year. I finally sat down and read some classics/hits.

And, if you’re so inclined, check out my latest novel, Mechanize My Hands to War, forthcoming December 17.

 

What I Read

Babel-17 (Samuel R. Delany, 1966)

I had never read Delany before now—despite having studied him in association with the concept of Afrofuturism. Babel-17 feels like the forebear of Story of Your Life (or the movie Arrival). Ultimately, this is a Sapir-Whorf story that examines how the language we use shapes our reality. And its female protagonist is satisfyingly kickass. 

 

The Best of All Possible Worlds; The Galaxy Game; The Blue, Beautiful World (Karen Lord, 2013-2022)

This trilogy is just the best. It felt like I had been missing it, like a favorite before I had even finished it. It is an optimistic series but one that doesn’t shy away from the big, gritty problems. 

 

Chain-Gang All-Stars (Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, 2023)

This book feels like we’re zoomed-in close, mimicking the videoed combats (a near-future gladiatorial prison complex), intimately close to the competitors vying for their lives.

 

Lincoln in the Bardo (George Saunders, 2017)

This book hardly needs my praise on top of all it has already received. But it is a uniquely formatted book, and I am sucker for odd narrative choices. A celebration of life and death. 

 

The Mercy of Gods (James S.A. Corey, 2024)

A new entry into sci-fi/space opera that is smaller in scope—if still expanding across galaxies—because its interest lies so much in the personal experience of a displacing, dehumanizing event from which our characters must claw back. 

 

The Mountain in the Sea (Ray Nayler, 2022)

A quiet book with just the right combination of natural and man-made mystery. An investigation of what we mean by intelligence. 

 

The Poisonwood Bible; Demon Copperhead (Barbara Kingsolver, 1998 and 2022)

I finally read Kingsolver this year—despite the fact that the title of The Poisonwood Bible had long intrigued me (and, for seemingly no reason, I had associated with Sherlock Holmes). It was not a Sherlock Holmes story—but both Poisonwood Bible and Demon Copperhead—deftly explore privilege and marginalization, whether in Africa or Appalachia.

 

Translation State (Ann Leckie, 2023)

As usual, Leckie has provided a masterclass in crafting perspective—one which plays with gender and social construct in multiple ways.

 

The Wood at Midwinter (Susanna Clarke, 2024)

I am a Clarke fan. So even though her new work is slight—a beautifully-illustrated short story—I made sure to order it as soon as I heard of it.

 

What I Watched

Alien (dir. Scott, 1979)

A classic, obviously. I rewatched it this year in anticipation of seeing the new addition to the series. But seriously, Ripley is just such an awesome character.

 

Civil War (dir. Garland, 2024)

Gutwrenching. Brace yourself before watching this. A movie about art, news, and the consumption of both that stays with you.

 

Deadloch (Amazon Prime, 2023- )

For the crime/mystery fans. A truly intriguing mystery—but the mystery is overshadowed by the interpersonal relationships and the investigation of how toxic masculinity suffuses the police structure.

 

Dune: Part Two (dir. Villeneuve, 2024)

Beautiful. In many ways, less acutely but more deeply tragic than the first—where the scale of destruction is both personal and planetary.

 

English Teacher (FX, 2024- )

As a professor, I am a sucker for a series about educators. English Teacher is not a sappy, “they taught me more than I taught them” series. It’s a direct and witty exploration of modern educational dilemmas.

 

Fallout (Amazon Prime, 2024- )

Turns out cannibals and a nuclear wasteland is a perfect setup for comedy. My friends tell me it was dark?

 

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (dir. Miller, 2024)

You feel Miller’s stories in your gut with their frenetic action. And it’s nice to see Furiosa take even more center stage.

 

Godzilla Minus One (dir. Yamazaki, 2023)

A Godzilla movie that is as invested in its characters as the monster (but the monster is also oh-so-fun). And one that questions the glorification of war.

 

 

The Kitchen (dir. Tavares, 2024)

I watched this early in the year. A near-future glimpse of class warfare, dwindling resources, and the market of death/funerals. Tender and violent in turn.

 

One Cut of the Dead (dir. Ueda, 2017)

Hilarious. A love letter to and critique of the zombie genre. 

 

The Other Two (Comedy Central/HBO, 2019-2023)

How? How did this often-crude comedy end up tugging at my heartstrings and leave me almost crying at the end? Give it some time for the characters to open up to you.

 

The Quiet Place: Day One (dir. Sarnoski, 2024)

The theme of my watches and reads this year seems to be the examination of the small human experience against the vast backdrop of conflict or crisis. Lupito Nyong’o absolutely deserves an Oscar for her performance in this movie. The movie’s not unpredictable—but it hits the emotional beats well.

 

Rebel Ridge (dir. Saulnier, 2024)

An action movie that questions violence as a solution? It’s a paradox—and the movie’s presentation of race, gender, and structural violence elevated it.

 

Reservation Dogs (FX, 2021-2023)

I finished this series a bit late since I didn’t watch it as it aired. The last season was even more explicit in its exploration of how the past impacts the present—and how we can’t escape its systemic and personal consequences. A brilliant show. 

 

Return to Oz (dir. Murch, 1985)

A surreal trip that I saw for the first time this year. Despite generally being wary of surrealist film, this movie is just so over-the-top and keyed into my childhood Oz obsession that I couldn’t help but like it.

 

Search Party (TBS/HBO, 2016-2022)

Another dark comedy that manages to switch up genre season-by-season and deliver on its apocalyptic ending. We ended far from the simple murder with which we began.

 

Triangle of Sadness (dir. Östlund, 2022)

A critique of the rich--pointed and, in some places, crude. Thus, effectively spot-on.

 

Woman of the Hour (dir. Kendrick, 2024)

I didn’t expect to like this movie as much as I did. But I think it captured its theme well: the large and small terrors that haunt femme-bodies in our capitalistic (and game-show) world. 

Erin K. Wagner grew up in southeast Ohio on the border of Appalachia, but now lives in central New York, where she hikes in the Catskills and listens for ghostly games of nine-pins. She holds her Ph.D. in medieval literature and teaches literature and writing in the SUNY system. Her stories have appeared in a variety of publications, from Apex to Clarkesworld, and her novella The Green and Growing is available from Aqueduct Press. Her second novella, An Unnatural Life, was released by Tor.com in September 2020. Aqueduct published her collection of short fiction, When Home, No Need to Cry, in 2022. Her novel, Mechanize My Hands to War has just been released in hardcover from DAW. You can visit her website at https://erinkwagner.com/.