Metamorphica: Fiction
Zachary Mason
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Metamorphica: Fiction
Zachary Mason
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Unlike Ovid, Mason seems less interested in merely recounting stories than in getting inside the heads of the mythological figures themselves. Hence, the chief power, mystery, and resonance of many of these tales comes from their first-person perspective.
Like the ancient texts he is inspired by, Mason humanizes each figure, whether godly or mortal.
The title of his new work, Metamorphica, nods to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and Ovid bookends the collection.
Using constellations as a framing device, Mason writes each account as its own self-contained myth, but in aggregation the stories form imaginary lines that constitute a pattern.
...misses the mark more than it hits it. Essentially, these retellings envision a dour reading of Ovid’s work.
Amid the shape-shifting throughout this work, there’s an immutable quality.
Mason...reworks Greek myths into mostly melancholic fragments in this impressive collection of flash fictions that accentuate the pain, frustrations, and regrets of well-known and unfamiliar myths.