ReviewStack: McAllister's Mates Sixteen
Hi all
Sorry for being quiet recently - some technical issues, some personal issues. I’m finding the pace required by Substack and my professional life a bit exhausting at the moment. But these works deserve better - so no more complaints from me!
These reviews are part of Reviewstack run by the great writer and pillar of the Substack Community : Thaddeus Thomas
An ongoing series of reviews of some of the wonderful articles, poems, and stories I’ve discovered on Substack (and other places) and more importantly the beautiful souls behind the works.
Please take a few moments to read the works of these authors and if you find their work as life-affirming and life changing as I do, then please let them know. We need to support and cherish these voices.
You can meet some of my other friends in the previous instalments: 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
If you want to keep me in caffeine (and keep the ghostly voices whispering for the poetry side of things) - consider clicking below. For any who do so, you have my deepest gratitude.
Laura McKenzie Atkins
Most pictures (photos, paintings, sketches etc) aim to pull us into one definitive moment. The best succeed at making us feel that emotion, living that incident, shifting us into an unknown, but perhaps static world. Some works, however, are more ambitious. They trap us for years and lifetimes in their worlds as we gaze at them for a few earthly minutes.
These works are rare though, the fantastical and terrifying worlds of Hieronymus Bosch, the sweep of monarchy and battles in the Bayeux tapestry, and now the fascinating works of Laura McKenzie Atkins.
Laura creates painstakingly realised ink and paper renderings of historical sites, transcribing minute details of ancient architecture, but more importantly hundreds of years of life. Every millimetre of her impossibly detailed work teems with the loves, joys, comedies, and tragedies of our ancestors.
Her latest triumph is a Wimmelbild (teeming picture) of Carrickfergus Castle. This is a work of not only deep historical knowledge and masterful intricacies, but also one of joy, humour and love for the ancient castle.
A vast crowd of characters brimming with detail and personality cover the vast sweep of history. Medieval knights and damsels, musketeers, pirates, wild-eyed prisoners, and modern day carnival workers and revellers populate the scene. The castle itself is no less evocative, rough brickwork and eroded stone give the facade an air of a wise seer, whose furrowed brow and laughter lines stand testament to lifetimes of victories, dangers, and many many secrets. There is certainly romance, adventure, and humour aplenty to be found in this beautiful drawing, but I would be amiss not to point out Laura’s depth of knowledge. The care and detail in these tiny exquisite figures is matched only by their historical accuracy. The supporting notes for this artwork make it not only beautiful but also highly educational.
As well as the main body of the castle itself, there is a wealth of detail on the surrounding beach, the ocean, and the skyline above. Spitfires zoom, the Titanic’s portholes gaze hauntingly into our souls, and a pie eating contest takes place at one of the trestle tables scored with lovingly etched woodgrain. I cannot over-emphasise the care, craft and love put into this artwork. One can imagine Laura’s (no doubt) straining fingers fighting valiantly to realise those tiny lines countless hours into a drawing session. A mirror image of the intricate figure of John De Courcy dueling with over a dozen advancing guards with no more than a wooden cross! (A reference to another one of the picture’s charming inhabitants). One more thing I really must mention is the witches hiding within the painting yet another charming, and perhaps dangerous facet of this miniature world.
This is of course just the latest of Laura’s spectacular portfolio and her website is a storehouse of fascinating miniature worlds. Each one realised beautifully with an architect’s eye, a poet’s whimsey, and a historian’s scholarship. I implore you to explore these beautiful works (or should I say worlds).
Remember when Black Mirror was ACTUALLY good? Now imagine that with a dose of hard science fiction, much more well-rounded characters and you have something close to Mkwawa's writing. Sharp awareness of modern events and a dedication to futurism studies meet the powerful dialogue and tense relationships of playwrights like Samuel Beckett and Anton Chekov. This is psychology over spectacle. The explosions here are quiet, internal, and much more colourful and shocking than run of the mill laser soldier fare.
The story takes place in a beautifully described moonbase. A shining prison of glass and light that traps the body, much like our handheld devices trap the mind. We're introduced to characters wrestling with pangs of home sickness and boredom through social media networks. However what starts out as a natural and healthy release from a gruelling mission takes a sinister turn, when it is revealed that views, likes, and comments are key to the mission's survival. What follows is a tense build-up to an intriguing moral dilemma.
There's something uniquely chilling about seeing scientists tempted by that world of Machiavellian expediency and all-consuming self promotion. They are after all perhaps the last thin line between an honest, disciplined society and all out decadent narcissism. If they fall? This story gives a crystal clear vision of the very real threat of the depths science may have to stoop to, for that most vulgar of forces: money. In a world where attention equals affluence the sciences may be forced to turn over some very grubby rocks for their much needed funding.
We're already in a world where scientific study is all too often made beholden to industrial paymasters with their eyes on a marketable product. This story imagines something even worse, science in service to the dwindling attention spans of social media. The sheer passion to know and understand that may not meet short-term corporate profit goals or generate exciting thumbnails, but it may reap untold benefits in the decades to come, even if it just keeps us honest and focused on the truth.
This story is important, it's an all too plausible hypothetical and a dire warning. We look back in horror at the denial of Galileo's earth-shattering revelations to appease a conservative regime. Now we face a different peril, scientific progress exaggerated and fabricated to feed headline churning algorithms - replacing withheld knowledge with barefaced lies. Please support Mkwawa’s writing - his writing is thrilling, moving, and pertinent, all the more so as he is using the Substack network to shine a light on its own shortcomings.
I hope you enjoy these beautiful works as much as I enjoyed reading them and writing about them.
You can meet some of my other friends in the previous instalments: 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Substack has proven to be a treasure trove and I already have a few more gifted writers lined up for my next review newsletter.
Thank you!! 🙏🏿♥️😊