A hybrid, experimental, multimedia, queer, and South Asian American quest narrative, "Into Oblivion" employs a variety of genres, styles, design/color schemes, and forms to explore the emotional extremes and grievances of the human condition, as well as the various paths to eternal “wraithhood” (defined here as a state of simultaneous living/unliving, dying/undying, and ongoing fragmentation). "Into Oblivion" applies and personifies themes such as euphoria, anguish, agony, autonomy, assault, ecstasy, suicide, self-harm, substance abuse, suffering, the invented state of “sweet suffering” (where the suffering is just manageable enough to encapsulate art, beauty, thought, and creation), subjecthood, objecthood, and, of course, oblivion. Literature, videogames, philosophical theory, pharmaceuticals, and psychology are also explored for the sake of this journey.

The narrative is split into three sections: 1) Blood, 2) Gore, and 3) Ectoplasm. All three parts refer to separate aspects of this bleak adventure: a bleeding, a goring, and the eventual acceptance by the speaker of their perpetually undead state, which remains mostly immaterial outside of their formerly-human, now-phantasmal ectoplasm.

Praise for INTO OBLIVION:

“Into Oblivion is a fever dream. Weaving together a myriad of voices and styles, Ami J. Sanghvi takes you on a whirlwind journey pondering the limitations of human phenomena and emotions — suffering and euphoria collapsed into one, melting into oblivion. Sanghvi's writing is otherworldly, ambitious, and thrilling." — Daniel Spielberger, Writer

“Phantoms and formless narrators possess new forms and become multitudes. Multimedia artist Ami J. Sanghvi’s Into Oblivion is equal parts story, study, and queer South Asian-American deep dive into what it means to unbecome. Through psychedelic imagery, s h a t t e r i n g verses, and a visceral, relentless narrative arc tied together through everything from poetry to prose to profoundly personal parafiction, Ami guides us through their narrator’s odyssey towards wraithhood with intense, blood-curdling feeling — couched within a surprising gentleness.

Into Oblivion is dark, graphic, and oftentimes haunting — but from the very first page it finds ways to make you feel cared for. Simultaneously, it knows exactly when to claw at your discomforts and to make them an integral part of the reading experience. It takes a tremendous mastery of craft(s) to put together a text like this — and Ami’s voice here displays all of those masteries and then some.”— Aaraf Afzal, Author of The Great Will of the Universe (CalArts Emi Kuriyama Thesis Award '21