Littlewit Philips
Bio
Short stories, movie reviews, and media essays.
Terribly fond of things that go bump in the night.
Stories (78/0)
On the Branches of the Great Tree
The Cult of the Ancient Mother claims that humans weren't made to live in the branches of the Great Tree, but I don't buy that. Believe me. I've seen most of the Great Tree, from the upper canopy down to the lowest branches. At the risk of implicating myself, let's say that I've been around when people got forcibly removed from the lower branches of the great tree, and when they fell they just kept falling until they disappeared in the swirling grey sea that billows around the great tree's trunk.
By Littlewit Philips3 years ago in Fiction
Lines Written Upon the Discovery of a Corpse
The day my mother died I tried to write a poem. When my grandmother had passed away three years before, I had written a little poem to read at her funeral. No one had asked me to, but the words appeared in my mind even as she lay in her hospital bed, each of her tortured breaths coming with the assistance of thousands of dollars of machinery. Wearing a black blouse and a black skirt, I stood in front of all of her friends and descendants and read:
By Littlewit Philips3 years ago in Fiction
Hockey Players Don't Kiss Hockey Players
Maybe there's a thin line between love and hate, but there's no ref to call offsides. Johnny Caro and I only lived a couple streets apart, but the gap was big enough to land us in different schools. We first met on the rink, and even as a little kid the rink gave me incredible clarity. There might only be a thin line between love and hate, but a hockey game has a way of putting its thumb on the scale.
By Littlewit Philips3 years ago in Fiction
With Subscriptions Vocal Takes a Huge Step in the Right Direction
I first found out about Vocal through an ad for the Doomsday Diary contest. The prospect of winning $20k for a short story was enough to blow my mind, and since it only cost a buck to enter, I thought What the hell?
By Littlewit Philips3 years ago in Journal
7 Reasons Why I Fell in Love With You (And 1 Why I Can't Anymore)
1) I Fell In Love With Your Courage I read your stories, and your stories rang with truth. They pierced the static from our mutual friends like the cutting shriek of a siren. I read one of your pieces and slumped back in my chair, whispering, "Damn," with the sort of jealous awe that's reserved for artists.
By Littlewit Philips3 years ago in Fiction
The Campaign of Rot
When I think back to the year when we moved into the house where we found the skeletons, my only memory is the flowers. To call the backyard wild when we took possession would be too flattering. Wild makes it sound like there was a natural jungle full of potential, when in reality there was just decay and neglect. Someone had tried to turn this backyard into something beautiful, and maybe for a few years they'd succeeded, but now the bench they'd built was broken down the middle, and the fire-pit they'd dug had collapsed in on itself, and a heap of garbage was piled up in the corner. When you saw the gazebo, you couldn't ignore that maybe this could have been an idyllic little slice of paradise once, but those days were gone. The gazebo always smelled foul, and my mother strictly instructed us not to play there.
By Littlewit Philips3 years ago in Fiction
ESCAPE ROOM (2017) vs ESCAPE ROOM (2019): Who Wins?
When you see the Google Trends graph showing how frequently people searched for the term "escape room" between 2010 and 2016, you probably think something to to the effect of, "huh. I guess people were getting excited about escape rooms."
By Littlewit Philips3 years ago in Geeks
Death of a Patriarch
I expected to have more warning before the death of any of my grandparents, although in hindsight I suppose their age should have tipped me off. I was in my late twenties before I lost my first grandparent, and few of my peers could say the same thing. Still, the call from my father surprised me.
By Littlewit Philips3 years ago in Fiction
Bo Burnham Is Not Your Friend
Made Happy? It's hard to avoid hyperbole when discussing Bo Burnham. After gaining notability through YouTube in 2006, now he disappears for years at a time before releasing a major project. However, every time he releases something, it sends out shockwaves. The first film he has written and directed, Eighth Grade, received widespread acclaim. His most recent offering, Inside, has been nominated for six Emmys. As a longtime fan of Burnham's work, I think he deserves all of this praise and more, but these waves of interest cause people to take parts of his creative output out of context, as they may not have heard of Burnham until whatever most recently put him at the center of cultural discourse. Because of that, important aspects of Inside are being overlooked, particularly in the relationship Burnham creates between the artist and audience.
By Littlewit Philips3 years ago in Geeks