“One of Jeff’s earliest published works, and it’s bleak as hell. I would’ve loved it 10 years ago. Maybe now I don’t have the stomach for the relentless bleakness that I used to? It’s not like this thing was repulsive, it just leaves you feeling like, welp, that happened and I sort of wish it didn’t.
Reading it is a little like seeing a dead dog on the side of a country road. The dog’s long gone, there’s nothing you could’ve done about it, and you’re sort of like, “Eh, I could’ve done without seeing that.”
You know what’s weird? How often fiction involves cage fighting, bareknuckle boxing, fight clubs, all that shit. I just saw Pig, and it was good, but it had a weird fighting scene. Jeff Lemire’s Descender has robots fighting in an arena. Planet Hulk starts out with that stuff (replicated in Thor: Ragnarok). Walking Dead has it.
What is it about these Roman gladiator things?
Here’s a list of things we haven’t seen go gladiatorial, to my knowledge, in case you want to try it:
Academic Conference
Daycare (I think there may have been a real-life news story about toddler fights, probably in Florida, but I don’t think they had armor and shit)
Yarn Store
Reality Chef Competition
Literary Magazine Submission Process
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