Blake Butler
Scorch Atlas
PRAISE FOR BOOKS
Blake Butler’s Scorch Atlas is precisely that — a series of maps,
or worlds, “tied so tight they couldn’t crane their necks.”
Everything is either destroyed, rotting or festering — and not
only the physical objects, but allegiances, hopes, covenants.
Yet these worlds are not abstract exercises, he is speaking
of life as it is, where there might be or may be, “glass over
grave sites in display,” and where we will be forced to make
or where we have “made facemasks out of old newspapers.”
The sole glimmer of light comes in recollection, as in:
“a bear the size of several men… There in the woods
behind our house, when I was still a girl like you.”
— JESSE BALL, author of The Way Through Doors and Samedi the Deafness
There’s something so big about Blake Butler’s writing. Big as men’s heads. Each inhale of Blake’s wheeze brings streamers of loose hair, the faces of lakes and oceans, whales washed up half-rotten. You can try putting on a facemask made out of old newspaper. You can breathe in smaller rhythms. But you won’t be able to keep this man out once you’ve opened his book. Open it!
— KEN SPARLING, author of Dad Says He Saw You at the Mall
I am always looking for new writers like Blake Butler and rarely finding them, but Scorch Atlas is one of those truly original books that will make you remember where you were when you first read it. Scorch Atlas is relentless in its apocalyptic accumulation, the baroque language stunning in its brutality, and the result is a massive obliteration.
— MICHAEL KIMBALL, author of Dear Everybody
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Gracious thanks to the editors of the journals in which these stories previously appeared in slightly altered forms, including:
‘The Many Forms of Rain ___ Sent Upon Us’ appeared in DIAGRAM’s 2008 Innovative Fiction issue. Thanks to Ander Monson.
‘The Disappeared’ appeared in New Ohio Review (/nor). Thanks to John Bullock.
‘Smoke House’ appeared in Hobart. Thanks to Aaron Burch and Elizabeth Ellen.
‘Gravel’ appeared in Quick Fiction. Thanks to Adam and Jennifer Pieroni.
‘Damage Claim Questionnaire’ appeared in Lake Effect. Thanks to George Looney.
‘Want for Wish for Nowhere’ appeared in New York Tyrant. Thanks to GianCarlo DiTrapano.
‘Television Milk’ appeared in The Open Face Sandwich. Thanks to Alan Bajandas and Benjamin Solomon.
‘The Gown from Mother’s Stomach’ appeared in Ninth Letter. Thanks to Jodee Stanley and Andrew Ervin.
‘Seabed’ appeared in Phoebe. Thanks to Ryan Call.
‘Tour of the Drowned Neighborhood’ appeared in Harpur Palate. Thanks to Barrett Bowlin.
‘The Ruined Child’ appeared in Barrelhouse. Thanks to Dave Housley, Matt Kirkpatrick, Mike Ingram, Joe Killiany, and Aaron Pease.
‘Bath or Mud or Reclamation…’ appeared in Avery Anthology and in Proximity as a mini-book. Thanks to Andrew Palmer, Steph Fiorelli, Adam Koehler, and Mairead Case.
‘Water Damaged Photos of Our House Before I Left It’ appeared in LIT. Thanks to Emily Taylor.
‘Exponential’ appeared in Willow Springs. Thanks to Sam Ligon.
Sections from‘Bloom Atlas’ appeared in Ellipsis as‘Coma Ocean’ and in Oranges & Sardines as‘Bloom Atlas’. Thanks to Carl Evans and Didi Menendez.
SCORCH ATLAS
Caught by the rain far from shelter Macmann stopped and lay down, saying, The surface thus pressed against the ground will remain dry, whereas standing I would get uniformly wet all over, as if rain were a mere matter of drops per hour, like electricity.
On the other hand, the sky on hot dustless days would leap with light, nails would wink in their boards, pails blaze like beacons, and the glass of the several stores would shout the sun at you, empty your head through your ears with whistling sunshine.
For anyone, most likely, & in memory of Jeff
WATER
We watched our dirt go white, our crop fields blacken. Trees collapsed against the night. Insects masked our glass so thick we couldn’t see. The husks of roach and possum filled the gutters. Every inch mucked with white film. All spring the sky sat stacked with haze so high and deep it seemed a wall, a lidless cover sealing in or sealing out. Those were stretched days, croaking. I don’t know what about them broke. I don’t know why the rain came down in endless veil. It streaked the cities, wiped the wires. It splashed the dust out from our cricked knees. It came a week straight, then another. The earth turned to mud and grass to slick. Minor homes sucked underground. Children were washed out in the sloshing. The streets and theme parks bubbled brown. Some long weeks it went on that way. The air began to mush downtown. We’d just taken up wearing knee boots and canoes to market when the soft water turned to ice. Our once parched apartments saddled under gleaming. The fat white bricks pounded the face of anything uncovered. It was the last week of July. Ice dented buildings, ruined car windshields, ripped limbs clean off of trees. I saw an old man clobbered in the street, his glasses shattered, his dentures flush with blood. The backyard stacked knee-deep around me. The drum woke tones deep in my ear. I couldn’t sleep right. You never knew what might cave in. Frost killed the power, ruined the highways. Those who tried to drive were mostly mauled — run together in gagging slicks of solid liquid. Many neighborhoods froze enclosed. We spent uncounted ugly evenings with nowhere to look but at each other. When the TV finally came back, the news stations had such a backlog they began to list the names of the dead between commercials like the credits to some movie we wished we’d never seen.
THE DISAPPEARED
The year they tested us for scoliosis, I took my shirt off in front of the whole gym. Even the cheerleaders saw my bruises. I’d been scratching in my sleep. Insects were coming in through cracks we couldn’t find. There was something on the air. Noises from the attic. My skin was getting pale.
I was the first.
The several gym coaches, with their reflective scalps and high-cut shorts, crowded around me blowing whistles. They made me keep my shirt up over my head while they stood around and poked and pondered. Foul play was suspected. They sent directly for my father. They made him stand in the middle of the gym in front of everyone and shoot free-throws to prove he was a man. I didn’t have to see to know. I heard the dribble and the inhale. He couldn’t even hit the rim.