The Weight of a Blessing by Aliette de Bodard

August 30, 2013 6:29 PM

There’s a moment which comes every time Minh Ha enters the Hall of the Dead: a single, agonizing moment of hope when she sees the streets before the bombs extinguished the lanterns hanging in the trees—when she sees Mother and the aunts exactly as she remembers them, their faces creased like crumpled paper—when she hears them say, “Come to us, child,” in Rong, just as they once did, when handing her the red envelopes of the New Year celebration.

It never lasts.

posted by deathpanels (7 comments total)

That was beautiful.
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 6:59 PM on August 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

Wow.

Just...

wow.
posted by BlueHorse at 8:25 PM on August 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

Thank you for this
posted by Ber at 9:33 PM on August 30, 2013

A new Ted Chiang story and then a new Aliette de Bodard story - this is a good week! Thanks for the link; I have sent it to my ereader for later on today.
posted by daisyk at 12:13 AM on August 31, 2013

Too laboured, too trying to be interesting, but in the end it's just another orientalist allegory.
posted by MartinWisse at 7:43 AM on August 31, 2013

de Bodard is definitely someone to watch.
posted by doctornemo at 10:07 AM on September 1, 2013

Funny, this particular story reminds me a lot more of something that Yoon Ha Lee would have written rather than Aliette de Bodard.
posted by mdrosen at 6:56 PM on September 1, 2013