Nature, Human is a collection of speculative and magic realism stories by JE Solo. These fourteen stories exist as a literary collection from House of Zolo, as audio book recordings, performance pieces, and videos. JE has merged multiple elements of their practice–writing, performance, and Virtual Reality–to create this multi-layered project. Over 2024 and 2025, performances have taken place in Second Life, NEOS VR, and VR Chat. JE collaborated with the talented avatar builder, Ultranique, to create custom avatars for the live events.
The machinima video for the story Hysteria was recently screened and is currently installed at Exhibit A Gallery, on the Odyssey Simulator. Currently, JE’s World of Warcraft character is delivering storytelling interventions around Azeroth.
About Hysteria
Hysteria is a dark and satirical animated short that blends magical realism with real-life experience to explore the medical gaslighting of women in Western healthcare. When Mabel’s treatment is abruptly taken away, her search for relief spirals into the surreal. What begins as a fight for survival turns into an uncanny transformation when Mabel discovers unexpected superpowers.
Created using machinima, Hysteria is a bold critique of how women’s bodies are controlled, questioned, and misunderstood.
Hysteria is adapted from Solo’s short story of the same name. The short story is about to be released (again) in the Second Edition of Solo’s story collection Nature, Human (House of Zolo).
ABOUT THE BOOK
Step into a world of haunting fiction with this expanded edition of Nature, Human by award-winning author JE Solo. Now featuring four new stories, this collection explores near and far-flung futures, unravelling the fragile and often dysfunctional ties between human beings and the natural world.
Delivered in JE Solo’s direct and energetic style, these stories blur the lines between the everyday and the extraordinary. From fragile bonds with nature to unexpected twists of fate, this collection contemplates our place in a shifting, uncertain future. Themes of separation, survival, and resilience echo throughout, asking how our individual choices shape the world around us.
Character-driver and imaginative, Nature, Human offers fourteen original stories that stay with you long after the final page.