Speech Sounds, 1983, Bethany Collins

The Loss series by Bethany Collins is a search for the language of “The End,” or an end in Black literature. The series includes James Baldwin’s 1972 non-fiction book No Name in the Street and Octavia Butler’s 1983 science fiction short story “Speech Sounds,” which describes a pandemic that limits the capacity of citizens to read, write, or speak. Collins writes and erases passages from these works except for the exact moment when writers describe the end of the world.