When he torches her wedding dress at the altar, Bridget calls it quits with Helios, the Greek sun god. As Eilethyia, godess of childbirth, takes Bridget out to dinner to comfort her, Helios goes to a bar with Apollo to seek solace in wine and women.
The story’s subject and tone is similar to that of last month’s On the Finding of Photographs of My Former Loves by Peter M. Ball, also published in Fantasy Magazine. But while that story’s mythical romances served as a metaphor for our own troubles, Marrying the Sun looks at what a relationship between gods and mortals might really look like. As a result, it packs less of an emotional punch but nonetheless Swirsky offers up some interesting characterisations of the gods.
A woman, recently released from a mental hospital, tries return to her normal life. But who’s looking back at her from her reflections?
A short, disturbing piece, beautifully written. You can read it as a dark fantasy or a glimpse into the mind of a schizophrenic person, but it works best as a metaphor for all the different roles each of us have to assume in our daily lives.
