If you’ve been following me online for any amount of time, then you likely know that I have a short story featured in Issue 04 of Tax Magazine. And if you have been following me in person, then please stop. I don’t think I like the back of my head very much.
I had the pleasure of working with the team at Tax for the second time, and wanted to be very transparent about the experience and shed some light on the story I wrote — which I am extremely proud of — and is quite simply about a gay man turning into a worm.
The idea for this story had been mulling around in my mind for a few months before I ever wrote anything down. Embarrassingly, I was at the gym listening to a Kim Petras song and sweating profusely when it first came to me. I know what you’re thinking. Gregg sweating? Sounds hot. And I assure you, it was. You’re also probably judging me for listening to a post-“Slut-Pop” Kim Petras, and yeah I totally understand that. I don’t really have any explanation for that part. I hope you’ll still read my piece even though I have questionable taste.
Somewhere during my “12,3,30” the idea for “Bait” was born, or I suppose I should say, it hatched. Because worms hatch. Just stick with me on this one.
I wanted to combine several different references and ideas for this piece. The first, and probably most obvious is Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” which follows Gregor Samsa waking up to realize he has transformed into a gigantic insect. I have always been drawn to this absurdist body-horror, and feel it has a lot to say about feeling alien in one’s own body. This is a natural cipher for many queer readings, and so I wanted to use this character’s transformation to create a sort of similar allegorical experience.
Another reference I utilized was the "Giving Tree,” which is a tragic children’s book about martyrdom and of giving oneself to others. Although this is obviously a bit juvenile in nature, I felt the concept translated naturally to my own short story. I was really interested in borrowing some of the structure of a children’s book to mirror that of short form narrative. Marrying this more childlike sentiment with the more gruesome and darker aspects of my story I think also offers an interesting dichotomy. This decision was also very deliberate, as I set out to write something of a discomforting fairytale.
Finally, I was inspired by the Dune Popcorn bucket and the idea of fucking a worm.
Mostly, I wanted to write about the things gay people often have to do to survive in a heterosexual society. Living in a world that often sees us as grotesque, or in many cases, just something leech off of. Queer people are all too familiar with this idea; of having to perform, of needing to prove their worth and value, of being all used up by a world that hates their very existence. I hope you’ll read my story and the rest of the awe-inspiring work in this issue of TAX.
xx Greggy
An excerpt from “BAIT”
Finn slept on the barn floor covered over with scratchy hay beside the broadfork. In the mornings Mr. Kelley would load him up, lifting his substantial heft into a cart, and the two would wheel into town early. It wasn’t lost on Finn that this was the first time they had left their own private world of the bait shop together. He’d long dreamt of being public with Mr. Kelley, only in his dreams he was less of a monstrosity. Still, Mr. Kelley had been treating him differently—more preciously. He was the prized wyrm of Ballyvaughan, a spectacle costing £0.14.
It was slow going at first, but word travels fast in Ballyvaughan, and before long nearly everyone was stopping by their tent to see the beast. “I call it Son of Caoránach,” Mr. Kelley said in a showman’s voice that replaced his own gravelly booze-soaked one. After that initial week, the onlookers started wanting more. So Mr. Kelley would pinch and probe at Finn’s body, causing him to convulse painfully at the crowd. They cheered as the serpent rose up impressively and shuddered as its body flopped back down. Before long, Mr. Kelley began charging to touch the Son of Caoránach—even more still for a private viewing. Most just wanted to rake their nails over the slimy skin of the creature, but some, the ones Finn grew to recognize from their scent alone, wanted more of him in that tiny darkened tent. The perversions of Ballyvaughan never failed to surprise him.
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Loved this piece!! So excited to share <3