Writer Spotlight: Renan Bernardo
Welcome to the fifth installment of Writer Spotlight. This week’s focus is Renan Bernardo. I’ve reviewed ten of Bernardo’s short pieces on Inkfoundry’s “Get WYSR” feed. (In case you didn’t know, Inkfoundry is a wonderful and free resource that aggregates short fiction and poetry pieces!) In lieu of the other four short pieces I could read, I am reviewing his novella Disgraced Return of the Kap’s Needle.
Recurring Themes:
Brazilian Culture
Reflections on Nearing End of Life
Guilt / Loss Relating to Family
Technology As a Means of Both Separation and Connection
Transcending Death / Afterdeath
Day One - Jan 29
A rock 'n roll legend brought back to life after uploading his consciousness has decided he's playing his last gig.
“A Theory of Missing Affections”
Two sisters worlds apart in religion and space try to convince the other to move before it's too late.
These two stories are both science fiction overlaid with loss, grief, and guilt relating to family. Both also deal with a strong theme of absence, of a character yearning for someone they cannot be with, either because of death or distance. Technology is also used in both as a means of separation: Baron has trouble staying in the moment because of his hyperthymesia, which came from his re-download into a new body. In “Missing Affections" the gate is the main means of physical separation, but there is also, of course, the Byrnyan artifacts serve to separate the two sisters emotionally. Both also come to a realization that they need to let go of something that they’ve been holding onto.
Individually, “Baron” employs music themes, as well as the art of performance and rocking the stage. There’s a strong theme of guilt and grief mixed together.
“Missing Affections” deals with strained family ties, differing beliefs, and a push and pull between religion and science.
Day Two - Jan 30
3. “The Rift”
Sentient portals that take something from you when you use them.
Share your mind and energy with someone and your productivity at work will skyrocket!
Both of these stories have strong horror vibes. “The Rift” ends up being more cozy horror with a sweet ending, and “We Are Burnout” is much more dystopian. In both these stories, the magic/science takes something from the person.
“The Rift” is a micro fiction and packs a punch of emotion in less than five hundred words! But it also had a mention of family hurting the person they are transporting. This made me think of both the stories from day one, where the topic of family becomes a source of pain.
“We Are Burnout” goes straight into the topic of overwork, hustle culture, and the worship of productivity to the absolute detriment of the character. The format also does double duty in that it underlines the message of the story: most of the sentences are structured like a to-do list. Not in bullet points, but phrased like “do this, then that.” It’s freaking genius. This story also joins “Baron” and “Missing Affections” in that technology is used to negatively impact the character. Also, this story repeats the theme of memories leaking/intensifying where they shouldn’t as in “Baron.”
Day Three - Jan 31
5. “Hungry Mouth at the Edge of the Universe and the Goddess Knitting at Home”
Adelaide has become a ghost, and she fears she will never see her Vovó again.
6. “The Offer of Peace Between Two Worlds”
Alia and Offy - human and spaceship - were joined as children, and nothing will keep them apart.
These two stories had much in common. Both are science fiction, and both have themes of humans connecting to something inhuman in supernatural ways. Both also have characters that end up transcending or slowing the concept of death, much like in “Baron Quits the Payloaders.”
“Hungry Mouth” also had strong Brazilian cultural nods! I should mention that this reminded me of “Missing Affections” in how strong the culture was in the descriptions, though Byrnyan culture was of course speculative. There are also mentions of ghosts and have a haunting theme, like in “Baron.”
“Offer” reminded me of “The Rift” because of non-human POVs, and also a little bit of cosmic horror thrown in there, as well. It also called to mind “Baron” because of how Alia and Baron are both characters that reach the end of a long life and grapple with the concept of extending it or not. Also! There is a recurring theme of shared minds/mind melding as in “We Are Burnout,” though in “Offer,” it seems largely positive.
Day Four - Feb 1
The people of São João da Campânula can digest plastic, and it’s Elisa’s fault.
8. “A Short Biography of a Conscious Chair”
An oak chair becomes sentient and observes the lives of the people around it.
These two stories, though one is from the point of view of a chair, have many common threads. There’s a sense of guilt throughout, not in the POV character in “Chair,” but in the characters the chair observes. Also, in “Plasticity” there’s a real sense of blame and guilt that Elisa feels for her role in what she has done. There’s also, of course, the amazing cultural theme that I am coming to see in most of Bernardo’s stories.
"Chair” specifically was a beautiful story where the POV character is not, I believe, the main character, but an observer that brings out the story in others. It also I feel talks about the stages of end of life, which I feel like most stories don’t touch on or talk about, and this feels similar to “Baron” and “Offer.”
“Plasticity” by itself had a wise older woman character, which reminded me of “Hungry Mouth.” It also had fascinating morally gray areas including a failed utopia. This now-dystopian future is a mixture of “what hath science wrought?!” as seen in “We are Burnout” and also in “Baron,” but also, I would argue, reveals a bit more of the human side of the blame. “Plasticity” is from the POV of someone who wrought the science upon the world, and her journey through accepting the blame that comes along with that.
Day Five - Feb 2
9. “Great-Granny Bethany’s Memories of Space”
Bethany boards a spaceship to spend the rest of her life away from her family. But then she meets someone that changes her perspective.
10. “The Whittler”
Jasmya has lost her partner because of the Whittler, and she is angry.
These two stories are different in genre and theme, for the most part. But they both continue themes touched on in the past few stories!
“Great-Granny” definitely echoes “Baron,” “Offer,” and “Chair” in Bernardo’s contemplations and reflections on end of life and all the melancholy and difficult decisions that the elderly go through. And a bit on transcending death as well, considering that Bethany lives longer than she thought she would.
Day Six - Feb 3
11. Pages 1-35 of Disgraced Return of the Kap’s Needle (Spoilers below!)
A group of interstellar travelers find themselves on an uninhabitable world and have to turn back.
Oooh, a morally gray interstellar and interplanetary story with corruption, murder, and betrayal??? Already I’m interested to see where Bernardo takes this novella. Desperate times make antiheroes of us all, and I feel like that’s where we’re heading. Bernardo is not shying away from showing us some flawed and morally gray POVs, similar to what we saw in “Plasticity,” though the characters in “Kap’s Needle” are actively doing the bad things instead of simply feeling guilty for past actions.
I’m also noticing the theme of interstellar travel as seen in “Great Granny,” “Hungry Mouth,” and “Offer.” There are some nods to Brazilian origins, as mentioned in previous short pieces. Also, because of the Refrimine, I would add that “Kap’s Needle” echoes themes of transcending / avoiding death as in “Baron,” “The Offer,” and “Great Granny.”
Day Seven - Feb 4
13. Pages 35-88 of Disgraced Return of the Kap’s Needle (Spoilers below!)
Reva decides to take a daring risk to save her son’s life.
What a fast-paced science fiction/horror story! I was on the edge of my walking pad for the entire second half. (I read while I walk because otherwise I don’t exercise :D) Sean was such a wonderful character. He had so much empathy for Reva.
And the coverup about the Refrimine! Ughhh that made me so mad because it felt close to what happens all the time in the real word. There was no reason for so many people to die or suffer, except for one person’s greed for power and control.
Summary!
If I were to summarize Bernardo’s style in one sentence, I would say his work tends to hover around the topics of Brazilian culture, technology and how it can either separate or connect humanity, reflections around the ends of life and sometimes transcending it, and grief and resentment around family.
Interview Questions
What are the themes you tend to return to the most in your work overall? Why do think that is?
Bernardo: There are some themes I return to, either intentionally or not. One of them is old age. Stories like “Great-Granny Bethany’s Memories of Space”, “The Hungry Mouth at the Edge of Space and the Goddess Knitting at Home”, and several others are all about elderly protagonism. That is probably due to my aging mother and my own way of dealing with her age, but also with my own and with time itself.
Grief is also present in several of my stories, particularly those in the solarpunk and climate fiction genres. I think the climate crisis we are all facing is all about grief. Not only of losing those you love, but of losing places or habits.
Another theme that can be seen woven through some of my pieces like “Baron Quits the Payloaders!”, “We are Burnout”, and “The Plasticity of Being” are about our connection with work–what is work, what it means to us and how it can make us better or worse persons. In a sense, when I write about work I’m also writing about time (should we spend our lives doing things we don’t like?) and about grief (what do we lose when the system forces us to sell most of our time so we can eat?).
And, of course, I always return to my Brazilian-ness when I’m writing: My own culture, what it can add to a story, who I am, and what it means for me as a writer and for the readers.
2. What is one of the characters in your short stories/flash pieces that you relate to the most, and why?
Bernardo: That is a hard one! But I’m going to say Angélica in We Are Burnout simply because this story was inspired by my experiences working for my IT startup more than 10 years ago. It was all about the grind and little about the life. It’s not clear in the story, but I truly hope Angélica has given up that job :)
3. What short fiction author do you look up to? Why?
Bernardo: Another hard question! I look up to many short fiction authors, some of whom I’d like to say that I’m standing on their shoulders and others who are right now beside me on this journey publishing short fiction. Ken Liu, Aliette DeBodard, Sarah Pinsker, Ted Chiang, Hache Pueyo, and Anna Martino were some foundational names for me, who made want to actually write short fiction.
I also love how Jennifer Hudak builds her characters. I love how P. A. Cornell can craft a compelling piece. I really love the depth that Somto Ihezue employs in his narratives. I love how Eugenia Triantafyllou can crush my soul and make me like it. But there are so many more!
I can also cite Jana Bianchi, Fábio Fernandes, and, one lesser known name nowadays because he hasn’t been publishing too much: Rodrigo Assis Mesquita, who is both an inspiration and foundational name for me too.
Anything else you’d like to say about your work?
Bernardo: Not much! If you’re reading for awards, I’d be utterly happy that any of my work is considered! I know it’s not directly about my work but it certainly is all about my work at the same time: f*ck ICE, f*ck fascism.