| Title | : | The Trans Space Octopus Congregation: Stories |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 315 |
| Publication | : | First published July 1, 2014 |
| Awards | : | Lambda Literary Award Transgender Fiction (2019) |
Lethe Press is excited to be releasing the debut short story collection by Bogi Takács. Takács may be known more for their recent editorial efforts, winning a
The Trans Space Octopus Congregation: Stories Reviews
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(Goodreads seems to have merged some of the individual stories with the book today, with confusing results. This was my original post in 2019:)
I wrote this! Coming this year from Lethe Press. You totally want more weirdness in your life.
Here is my announcement:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/25643735
Update: Now a Lambda Literary Award finalist book! Yay \O/
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Source of the book: I wrote it -
Full disclosure: I received an ebook of this collection from the author, and I know Bogi on here/on Twitter; I think my review is largely unaffected by our acquaintance.
This was my last Pride Read, and perhaps the queerest of them all - and that is definitely a compliment. Bogi's writing forces the reader to rethink their perspective, surprises, pushes boundaries, defamiliarises and estranges and at the same time, seems focused on the intimate, the bodily, the sacred. It's very much in step with significant 21st century literary and theoretical concerns: the stories engaged with body as affected by our environments and power relations, history and religion, and on cognition as negotiated and strange. The human and non-human are not obvious or simple.
They were also very, very distinctive, and engaging with so many other texts. I am sure if I had more than a very, very cursory (think: one or two reads) knowledge of Hungarian or Jewish literary traditions (and history, and so on), I would get much more out of them. But I still found plenty to think about.
I didn't enjoy all the short stories equally; I found the ones about kink largely "this is fine but not my thing" and some of the early stories cerebrally enjoyable on the level of language and images but not terribly affecting emotionally. However, the later stories, and particularly Standing on the Floodbanks, as well as stories focusing on the tensions and productive intersections of various identities with Jewish identity and history, to speak to me and my own experiences. The hauntedness of Eastern Europe, for example, was very well rendered.
I read the collection quickly even though I was actually quite busy with a family visit and work. I hope that attests to my enjoyment as well. -
Interesting collection of speculative fiction stories highlighting the key theme: the strength of connections. The stories in the second half are a bit better on the whole, than the first half. A few stood out for me, especially having studied a bit of Hebrew terminology in the study of the OT. I found the weaving of Jewish traditions with futuristic space situations fascinating. And it makes perfect sense that all beings in the future might have an official respect for all genders. The use of magic, mysticism, neuroplasticity, and shapeshifting round out many of the stories.
IMHO, the strongest stories were:
"A Superordinate Set of Principles,"
"The Secular Technology"
"Three Partitions"
"The Oracle of Darpa" -
Before reading this it never occurred to me even to want stories taking place in the intersection of queerness and Judaism, so I had no idea how much I needed it. More than a few times I was brought to tears, feeling seen and represented in ways and at depths I never have before.
These really aren't stories for normies. This isn't the normative sort of pride that makes straight folk comfortable. The moral of the story isn't "we're all the same so let's all get along." It isn't even that we all should get along. This is what infinite diversity in infinite combinations really looks like - messy and gritty and aberrant and grotesque (but only from the outside). This is the they're-throwing-rocks-at-us-but-we're-marching-anyway sort of pride. This is "let's celebrate diversity for real and support and lift each other up and get the hell away from spaces and people where support is conditioned on conformity."
Many of the stories, even ones that don't explicitly touch on Judaism, do more to illustrate what it's like to be Jewish in a way that's accessible to gentiles than I think I've ever seen. It's actually almost a little uncomfortable to see this piece of myself laid out for anyone to see, after having kept it hidden and safe from the other nations all my life. But I've never really been able to communicate to gentiles what it's like to be Jewish, I've always gotten the sense they tend to think of it as pretty much the same but with different holidays. It's obviously not comprehensive, but it's so much more than I've ever had before.
The only thing I wish were different is that the content warnings are all at the end - it would have been a lot more useful to have it at the front, or even to have the warnings for each story listed with the story. -
I'm cheating a little because I got to blurb this but it's a fantastic collection. The original stories are sharp and good and the collected works have been among my favorites perennially. Just a stunning collection that I can't recommend highly enough!
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Delightful and intriguing collection.
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This is the first book for which I requested an advanced review copy from the author. I did so because I've been bowled over by the stories of Bogi Takács ever since I read "Four-Point Affective Calibration" in Lightspeed Magazine. I also enjoy their blog and posts on Twitter.
As a Hungarian-American immigrant who is agender, Jewish, autistic and physically disabled, Takács finds ways to put all of their selves into the stories in this collection. This is admirable because as the late poet extraordinaire Pat Parker said, when you can bring all parts of who you are --racially, ethnically, sexually, etc.--to the party, that's when you really have a revolution.
Takács plays around with form in many of the fiction works in this book as well. There's quite a few flash fictions, some that read like poems, others more like impressions or scenes. Only one of these flash fictions really irked me for reading more like the beginning of a story and not a full work, "All Talk of Common Sense." That story and "Standing on the Floodbanks" (the last two in the book, interestingly) were my least favorite.
"...Floodbanks" didn't float my boat (sorry, couldn't resist) because it was the last of a number of stories in the book that shared some common themes: an intimate-but-nonsexual bond between two magical people, one a dominant and the other a subordinate/submissive, war, politics, the stress on the body and mind from conjuring magic, a younger person learning from an older person about their personal power. The other stories that shared these themes were more compelling to me and had a lasting impression.
My favorites in the book were "Increasing Police Visibility," "The Need for Overwhelming Sensation" and "This Secular Technology." The rest are all worth reading, though you may have to have Wikipedia open and ready to look up some scientific, technical and historical references, as well as Jewish faith and culture if you are not Jewish. And I don't have a problem with that. Hell, make me learn something :-D
In fact, I value this entire book for making me learn something. Bogi Takács is a SFF writer at Samuel R. Delany levels of genius. Yeah, I said it. Like Delany, Takács boldly goes to areas of gender, sexuality ethnic identity and human relationships other SFF writers haven't gone before, and they can make you ask yourself after reading one of their works, "Uh, did I get this?" That question leads me to doing the work of educating myself so I can answer it in the positive.
Entertain me, move me and teach me--Bogi Takács, you're doing it all right by me. -
This is a short story collection, and the title accurately shows how weird and queer these stories are. They have widely varying topics, both fantasy and science fiction- sentient octopuses, resistance against alien invasion, a failing memory archive… Frequent themes are nonsexual kink, Jewish faith, community, disability and, well, all forms of queerness. Read this if you want unconventional queer short stories!
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While I was reading this book, I often forgot that I was reading a collection of short stories, and got so immersed in each universe that the end of the chapter surprised me. While I was a little sad to move on from each one, and secretly hoped some of these will turn into novels one day, in the end I am happy that I got not one, but a whole bouquet of universes to venture into, each more fascinating and exciting than the last. Bogi Takács has a knack for creating worlds in concise and eloquent ways, and populating them with likable characters. I was also personally happy for the Hungarian cultural references I found in some of them, and the rich diversity of relationships, identities, and cultures that color the stories. It would be extremely hard to pick a favorite.
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A stunning, beautiful, and compelling collection of stories. Highly recommended!
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I got this ARC ebook from the author when Bogi offered a ARC in exchange for reviews. I know of Bogi from lists of queer books which I have had liked/retweeted into my Twitter feed by those I follow there, and when I saw the title and the cover art, I just had the feeling I *had* to read this book. So I applied to the form, I did not really expect to get a ARC - but I did! I'm excited to share my thoughts on the short stories within.
I noticed (and thought it odd) that the trigger warnings were after the index, I believe they would be more helpful/effective below each short story rather than all grouped together.
This Will Serve As A Demarcation - Enhyoron takes and remakes and guides someone who once destroyed, with magic and technology, to build a barrier between sea and land.
Some Remarks on the Reproductive Strategy of the Common Octopus- "Seaweed", a human left behind in a pod, is found by alien octopus who developed sentience because of - or despite - mankind of the Old Empire.
A Superordinate Set of Principles - Ishtirh-Dunan, Anihemer and Mezvamar encounter humans and grow despite it, helping Interstellar Alliance find a threat.
Forestspirit, Forestspirit - "Gabi" was once a soldier in a long ago war but now dwelling in a forest as a shape shifting "spirit" which a young man calls upon to save his uncle's forest home from the Consentience.
Given Sufficient Desperation- Vera finds herself supposedly labeling objects for aliens, aliens that supposedly bombed Earth, but want to use the data to rebuild but her desperation leads to unexpected truths.
Changing Body Templates - A breakthrough in technology and biology leads a confrontation with sadly predictable bureaucratic ending.
For Your Optimal Hookboarding Experience - Bees and something like snowboarding (only with hooks attached to lines) with magic.
Increasing Police Visibility- Kari and Jano work - Jano at a airport and Kari to prove to government bureaucrats that detecting ETs isn't working, has never worked and may never work with the gates.
Good People In A Small Space - A forced stop at a station due to solar flare and a meeting between strangers and a exchange makes them good people in a small space.
Recordings of a More Personal Nature -Idriwu, a Achievist of the Temple and Athlaniyo her Maiden seek to save from the Achieve, Idriwu's self and memories and with her help, to record with writing what their people are being cut off from by the stars. (This one reminded me of old works by Andre Norton, wished there was more as it seemed almost connected to the cataclysm and Atlantis/fled ruined cities theories, although with the origin of writing implied)
This Secular Technology - Leah uses secular technology to fight the sheidim on a gevurah day.
Three Partitions- Chani and Adira seek to help her community that without Adira among them the planetmind will devour them. To save themselves they must change.
Unifications - Sara tries to make whole what was broken in a passageway's history.
The Size of a Barleycorn, Encased in Lead- What is the shamir, builder of the Temple? How similar it may be to the origins of fission/fusion weapons.
To Rebalance the Body- Biruyan's magic and bond with Master Viiren of Hairen Hills gives Benurh a unique view when Biruyan falls ill. (I loved this one and hope there's more, a novel or short stories some day.)
Shovelware- More modern day, the collaboration between Tamas, a artist, and Liliane, a lucid dreaming game maker, beginning to collaborate for a horror/dark game to deal with a reality.
The Oracle of DARPA- A weapon made by a oracle, makes men cold to it's use, is revenge or a answer to war.
Toward the Luminous Towers- Magic makes a biotech controller of weapons, and may damn or save someone who just wanted to be a librarian in another life.
Wind-Lashed Vehicles of Bone - Araana dreams of what could bes of fast vehicles and Ujabir makes it so with magic and rides with him.
The Need for Overwhelming Sensation - Miran Anyuwe a hunted politician, seeks a ride in Master Sanre's ship and neither Iryu nor Sanre is pleased when Miran Anyuwe interferes in their relationship and the ship. (Liked this one, it also seemed to be Alliance, maybe related to Changing Body Templates or A Superordinate Set of Principles?)
Spirit Forms of the Sea- Delin knows too well the secret of Reka's spirit guide and just what a taltos is to it. (I enjoyed this one and wished there were more short stories)
All Talk of Common Sense -Bihan is a fool in the court of King Abrany and Court Mage Marekas, but even a fool can tell Marekas has no magic.
Standing on the Floodbanks - Aniye a survivor and weapon of the Crimson Army, is turned apprentice to High Mage Oresuy, her master, who is not mastered by King Abrany's court or the Mages' Guild even when waters run over. (Would like to see Aniye and Bihan and Marekas interact) -
This is an exciting, smart and overwhelmingly creative collection of speculative fiction stories! I loved reading this book, and was swept away time and again by Takács’ thoughtful and exhilarating writing. Eir stories have such range I’m struggling to integrate it all in a sentence - science fiction, powerful but difficult to control magic, Jewish faith, Hungarian culture, humans both now and in the far flung future, the octopi suggested by the title, magic meets BDSM, warfare and the psychological results of being used as a weapon, the uncomprehending gaze of outsiders on queer relationships, love and devotion. Occasionally the stories were a little underspecified, and I struggled to fully grasp the worldbuilding and follow the plot, but the ideas were exciting nonetheless, and I greatly look forward to reading more of eir work in the future!
Some of my favorite stories were ‘Given Sufficient Desperation’, which builds on the idea of human-aided computing in image recognition and tells a story of a person held captive to identify items after an alien invasion; ‘Recordings of a More Personal Nature’, which grapples with the aftermath of the Archive used to maintain knowledge becoming difficult to reach; and ‘This Secular Technology’ and ‘Three Partitions,’ which both imagine Jewish people in new parts of the cosmos.
Would recommend this one, especially to fans of any flavor of SFF, or if anyone looking for something pretty different from the usual. -
A marvelous, fiercely original, and compelling collection of short stories that traverse space and time and worlds, where bodies and individuals shapeshift and mingle, and where the boundaries between lifeforms and the world around them might be re-drawn and re-imagined. Bogi Takács has a gift for writing stories that bend and twist speculative fiction in new an unexpected ways, with stories that delve deep into issues of language and identity, exploring the way alien life, technology, artificial intelligence, and human life might come into conflict, but also co-exist in new forms of harmony.
With prose that can be both gentle and piercing, this collection is a must-read for anyone with a love for speculative fiction in general, and for science fiction in particular. -
Oh how I wanted to love this, I really did. I almost abandoned it halfway through, but I’m glad I finished it as I enjoyed the second half far more than the first.
For me I found the majority of the stories somewhat inaccessible- I’m not from a Jewish or Hungarian background, and felt the first half was challenging to read as result. Some of the stories were so short I had just barely begun to understand the universe, and then it was over. The stories that did captivate me I wished were longer, or a whole book themselves!
Overall I would say it was worth it, but I wish I had consistently enjoyed each story rather than being jolted from universe to universe so quickly. -
Let's get the obvious out of the way first: titles don't come much better than this. Takács' debut short fiction collection (I believe e has also released a poetry collection this year) is the very best kind of "does what it says on the tin": the kind where the tin has an exquisite purple octopus on the front and the word "space" in a cursive font and queerness front and centre in the title. Its a cover holding a dense and varied set of stories, ranging from near-future slice of life to magical space speculation, all wound through with some fascinating thematic resonance and centring characters whose nuanced identities require no explanation or excuse, regardless of whether the characters experience marginalisation in their own contexts (and often they do). Themes of marginalisation and difference in all their forms are ever present, whether they are front and centre of the narrative or just another consideration for characters to work in, and there's a nuanced treatment of how characters communicate across experiential divides, usually handled with sympathy though not always with success, that makes for some great interpersonal arcs packed into the small packages here.
Another theme that jumped out of me while reading was the many stories that deal with how people maintain community and tradition: whether it be the octopus protagonists of "Some Remarks on the Reproductive Strategy of the Common Octopus" or "A Superordinate Set of Principles", the deeply affecting refugee/alien invasion story of "Given Sufficient Desperation", or the many stories centring Jewish communities (spacefaring and otherwise). Takács makes an art form of offering up windows into worlds which don't feel the need to overexplain or overcomplicate their specific, nuanced traditions, while still ensuring that everything feels deliberate and well-placed within the story contexts. Particularly in more overtly science fictional stories, it feels like there's a deliberate rejection of the dichotomy between the behaviour of "rational" human behaviour and the traditions of myth, belief and ritual which often get left at the door as soon as there's a spaceship involved. It helps that the prose is so consistently beautiful, offering an otherworldly quality even to more straightforward tales. I came out of The Trans Space Octopus Congregation feeling like in many ways I'd only skated the surface of what Takács had to show me in this collection, and I'm keen to see what e comes out with next.
Review Link:
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2019/10/... -
I had been following Bogi online for months, appreciating eir commentary on trans/nb/intersex issues and representation in science fiction and fantasy. So when I saw e had a book coming out with this FANTASTIC title and cover, of course I had to jump on eir Patreon to sign up for a personally autographed copy.
I didn't know at the time that I would get the chance to see Bogi in person at ConFusion shortly after finishing this book, and get to hear eir read from one of my favorite stories in the book!
Anyway, I know I have a tendency to be super critical of short story collections, but something about this collection just worked for me, even when a few individual stories left me feeling nonplussed or unmoved (sometimes it felt like my unfamiliarity with Judaism/Hebrew was a significant barrier -- but only for a few stories). I enjoyed the themes of body modification and integration/community issues with "alien" species, as well as relationships with power differentials, some of which had BDSM elements (nothing really explicitly sexual or erotic, though). Many of these stories had real staying power in my head, and I can bring many scenes easily to mind months later.
Some favorite stories: "Forest spirit Forestspirit" in which a conscious cluster of automata decides to protect a bit of forest from a networked intelligence which has decided to destroy it, and "Standing on the Floodbanks" a longer piece (the one I heard Bogi read from) about magic, control, and respect. -
4 and a half stars. these stories were uniformly original, coherent, and concise, and bringing them all together in one volume allows the reader to form new connections between ideas along the way. mostly in the genre of sf, with a few fantasy stories, the interests of the author range from gender roles, aliens, and magic to intergalactic war and jewish communities in space. this is stimulating and important work we're lucky to have.
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I didn't know there even was a literary nexus between alien first contact stories, body horror, sexual politics, and gender orientation issues, let alone that one book could encapsulate such a gloriously unhinged intersection. But you learn something new every day.
I also learned that Bogi Takács is a sui generis talent to be reckoned with. That's two things in one day! -
I forgot to update this when I posted my review -- but here it is
https://forestofglory.dreamwidth.org/... -
Truths from these stories:
"Gently reach further outward, in the direction of the densing, the intensification. But I do not feel another presence, just this pure thickening. I push my mind outward with an effort, bulging out of myself. In the direction of the object, there is more self, but also more field — a paradox, a knot I do not know how to disentangle...I feel more of myself, more awareness, but also more field-memory; more of everything." ("Some Remarks on the Reproductive Strategy of the Common Octopus")
"...I knew I would be first in line to get thrown into a ditch. How do you throw a raincloud? The military had made me into something they thought would remain loyal, but I modified myself, shook off my trackers, and floated away." ("Forestspirit, Forestspirit")
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Review for Twin Cities Geek coming soon!
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This is some of the most expansive science fiction I've read, full stop. I loved the interconnections within the stories of Jewish, ecological, queer, and gender themes. This science fiction is creative and smart in the world of science fiction, but the science fiction cannot be separated from the parts that are queer and Jewish.
Like many science fiction collections, it's very much "go big or go home", asking questions about memory, interspecies encounters, life as individual vs. and ecosystem, gender exclusion, political oppression, and the pairings of technology and religion. Some stories also deal with trauma, trauma recovery, and kink, and there are content warnings in the back of the book. I'm recommending it to fans of speculative and "hard" science fiction (world-building and concept driven more so than character). It really wrestles with gender and traditional Jewish observance that was personally meaningful.
I loved so many of the stories that when I was marking stories that were my favorites, I realized that my "top favorites" were like 75% of the book! -
Very creative and very different stories, e can build a world in 4 pages.
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A collection of science fiction flavoured speculative fiction short stories, although some stories are quite long, and others so short to be more snippets or flash fiction. This is quite long for a short fiction collection, and contains a deep breadth of concept and work, from "hard" sci-fi about algorithms and alien invaders to more fantastical magical apprenticeships and octupus civilisations.
Overall, I think Takács is more interested in concepts than stories, as several of the stories deliver more on concept than on plot or character, and some of them move so quickly as to only briefly sketch the concept. This can lave you wanting more, or finding some stories a little empty of anything to hold onto. Several of the more well-developed stories are interesting and engaging - the orthodox Jewish community who have re-located to an alien planet where they must incorporate the planet's living avatar into halakha, the temple that uses meditation and trance to access databases of memory, the alien invaders using human labour to categorise items for their algorithms. These stories seem to work best when Takács invests in the relationship at the heart of the story, and e has a rich gift for showcasing the contours of a loving, committed intentionally unbalanced bdsm or domination/submissino relationship, which are some of the emotional high points of the collection. This does serve, however, to highlight the stories or snippets that don't pack the same punch emotionally.
Overall, an enjoyable collection showcasing new thinking in SF and fresh concepts, but lacking a little in story. -
Meh. Not my cup of tea. Gave up after about ⅓.
The stories go from incomprehensible to unreal.
One of the more understandable is
It appears that different stories have different backgrounds (»universes«), as far as they have any at all.
Also odd that there apparently isn’t an e-book edition, at least not off Kindle.
My copy is, i think, print-on-demand. The book design and tipografy ar fine, but i am wondering if it is the tipeface Baskerville in general, this variant of it, or the on-demand printing that made it look unharmonious: things like thin unspaced em-dashes near thick hifens, stems of I’s that ar thicker than those of l’s. Just looks odd. -
I totally picked up this book because of the title... that and it would fulfill a category in a reading challenge. I really wish I could say I liked it. I didn't hate it, but I certainly did not like it.
This is a collection of short stories by the author. They seem to have a central theme of gender, body shape and form and a look at power exchange relationships. None of that bothered me. What did was that it felt like every single story just ended. Not even a soft conclusion. Just stop.
I can't say I'd recommend this book but I would not dissuade someone if they wanted to read it. And honestly... it's got a cool title. -
As is typical with short story collections, some I enjoyed and others not so much. Nothing really stood out for me, until I got to the last story. Which was also the longest, this one was my favorite. The story drew me into it and I was saddened when it ended.
'Standing on the Floodbanks' was my favorite story in this collection.
A battle mage, trained to kill. Her handlers dead. Is rescued by an enemy mage and is ultimately trained on how to be human.