“Dark” is a word Kimberly King Parsons often uses to describe the short stories collected in her first book, Black Light. But make no mistake: These are not horror stories. They don’t follow any particular gothic tradition, they frequently take place underneath the blazing Texas sunshine, and if they suggest a threat of death it’s only of the ambient variety that is implicit in any excavation of human condition. Parsons likes the word because, as she told Jezebel, her stories deal with “edgier themes or maybe things people don’t typically like to investigate, parts that people like to keep hidden.” The darkness, then, is straightforward: These are themes, characters, and observations rarely discussed in the light of day.
. But make no mistake: These are not horror stories. They don’t follow any particular gothic tradition, they frequently take place underneath the blazing Texas sunshine, and if they suggest a threat of death it’s only of the ambient variety that is implicit in any excavation of human condition. Parsons likes the word because, as she told Jezebel, her stories deal with “edgier themes or maybe things people don’t typically like to investigate, parts that people like to keep hidden.
The primary failing of the human body is that it only allows its inhabitants one perspective. In this book, you jump into the minds of over a dozen characters. That’s a primary function of a short story collection, even more so than in novels. The ability to have multiple points of view strikes me as something like godliness. Does writing these stories make you feel powerful?I feel kind.
Exactly. They’re extremely judgmental, they’re definitely flawed. All of these characters are. But I think that’s it too: It’s sort of setting up this situation whereas a reader, when you’re plunged into the head so thoroughly, you understand why they’re like that. You understand their views of the world if I’ve done my job. Even people are who are terrible and judgmental deserve to be heard. That’s something that’s very tricky politically and socially right now.
It’s exhilarating for me to see some of the things they say. It feels wild in a good way. With tweeting, there’s a sort of performative aspect to almost everything that we say, and these characters are removed from that in these moments. They’re being true to themselves, even if their true self isn’t the kind of person that you want to be or hang out with.The truest revelations of my life that I’ve ever felt as a human being have come through fiction.
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