rescue, bandages, and smoke
March 12, 2023 5:37 PM Subscribe
A few very different wish-fulfillment pieces of speculative fiction. Stories by lyricwritesprose and by dalekteaservice give us alien points of view on what humans could offer to a troubled universe. And in "Burning Men" by Maria Farrell, certain people start spontaneously combusting. (Author's commentary: it's "about a world where the cost of sexual violence is born by the perpetrators and how that changes everything" as well as "the mood music of brexit and covid.")
From lyricwritesprose:
From lyricwritesprose:
“You what?” I said faintly. Who would do that?From dalekteaservice:
“Oath,” the being explained.
“What kind of oath? To what deity?”The shoulders of the being moved up and down. “Several different. Also none. For me, none. Just—oath.”
....
“And you—what?” I asked. “Just fly around looking for battles and rescuing victims?”
The being seemed to consider this. “Best invention of soil,” it said finally.
We knew about the planet called Earth for centuries before we made contact with its indigenous species, of course. We spent decades studying them from afar.From "Burning Men":
The first researchers had to fight for years to even get a grant, of course. They kept getting laughed out of the halls. A T-Class Death World that had not only produced sapient life, but a Stage Two civilization? It was a joke, obviously. It had to be a joke.
And then it wasn’t. And we all stopped laughing. Instead, we got very, very nervous.
Late on Wednesday afternoon, just after a desultory Prime Minister’s Questions in which the leader of the opposition failed once again to achieve cut-through, the Prime Minister sagged into the backseat of his car, sighed at a red traffic light on Parliament Square, and spontaneously combusted.....Also check out the comment section on the author's commentary for, among other things, her reflections on Children of Men and Naomi Alderman's The Power. Maria Farrell previously on MeFi.
Not for the first time, our country chose in full public view to tear itself apart rather than admit it had fallen for an insultingly stupid lie.
All of these are very powerful. Burning Men in particular.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:54 PM on March 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:54 PM on March 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
This line, from "Burning Men":
People stopped getting into a lift if a man was already in it. (For some, this had long been their practice.)posted by Halloween Jack at 9:24 PM on March 12, 2023 [8 favorites]
I had read all three of these already (a rarity these days for posts on the blue, and particularly for stories brainwane finds! so good!) and I recommend all three of them. Burning Men in particular blew me away. I love the lecture conceit as well as the actual story.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 11:06 PM on March 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by gentlyepigrams at 11:06 PM on March 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
I get that Burning Men is all about power and agency and moving forward, but as someone who's transgender, I can't help but connect the lines between 'wouldn't it be great if we culled all the predatory men who were sex criminals', and how certain factions in contemporary Britain have spent a great deal of time and money to depict trans people (especially trans women) in a similar light.
I read the line 'People stopped getting into a lift if a man was already in it', and while it's not mentioned in the story, I have to wonder about the larger ramifications of this world, and the place trans people inhabit within it... and how much more alone and isolated it would be for people like me, now that this kind of factual threat is something that can be pinned to our bodies on top of everything else.
I can't help but think about the world that's shaped by this kind of justice. When you have a world that accepts the heuristic 'Men who harm women, nonbinary people and girls will burn', you need to ask yourself some questions: For the people of this world, who do they think is a woman? Who do they think is a man? Who is fair game, because you know justice is going to come for them with the same surety as gravity?
...and if you know that, why wait?
posted by mikurski at 11:10 PM on March 12, 2023 [5 favorites]
I read the line 'People stopped getting into a lift if a man was already in it', and while it's not mentioned in the story, I have to wonder about the larger ramifications of this world, and the place trans people inhabit within it... and how much more alone and isolated it would be for people like me, now that this kind of factual threat is something that can be pinned to our bodies on top of everything else.
I can't help but think about the world that's shaped by this kind of justice. When you have a world that accepts the heuristic 'Men who harm women, nonbinary people and girls will burn', you need to ask yourself some questions: For the people of this world, who do they think is a woman? Who do they think is a man? Who is fair game, because you know justice is going to come for them with the same surety as gravity?
...and if you know that, why wait?
posted by mikurski at 11:10 PM on March 12, 2023 [5 favorites]
Mikurski, I noticed that line too and the underlying assumption that men and boys are not often also victims of sexual violence was a missing chasm in the story that broke it for me. Men underreport and also under-acknowledge sexual assault in a way that is patriarchal-reinforcing and harmful. I believe women-aligned people are more likely to be sexually assaulted and less likely to commit assault but that it’s not as binary as the story suggests and that felt like a deliberately political choice by the author.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 2:28 AM on March 13, 2023
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 2:28 AM on March 13, 2023
Mikurski, I noticed that line too and the underlying assumption that men and boys are not often also victims of sexual violence was a missing chasm in the story that broke it for me
I was a little put off by that line as well, but a few sentences later I think the author tries to fill in exactly that gap, maybe too subtly:
Six per cent of the burned had occupied positions that put boys and young men in their charge. Here, the breadcrumbs were harder to follow but still indicative of long and studied careers of violent, sexual abuse.
I'm as hypersensitive to TERFY dog whistles from otherwise well meaning especially British authors as the next person but it reads like this author is taking advantage of some perfect prescience in who is burned and who is "warned" with the smell and its implied threat. When you have a perfect oracle like that, my read is the author is pretty clear it punishes any gender who perpetrates and supports the violence, it just happens the vast majority are cismen and the author chooses to focus on the vast majority of their victims being not-cismen but - given the implied abuse with harder breadcrumbs to follow, and since the author is ultimately in charge of their universe - it's a detail they made a choice to include.
My read was that abuse of boys is also present (and perfectly punished but with more research required as to why) but somehow better hidden in part because it needs to be, compared to the brazen entitlement to non-cismen bodies. Even in abuse the patriarchy protects its self image by burying (while perpetuating) abuse of future patriarchs as more shameful compared to abuse of everyone else.
Wow and I also read that passage several times and missed the "six percent". Off to go see how that number comports with statistics on sexual abuse. Again, the author chose to include it so I think it probably means something.
posted by abulafa at 6:06 AM on March 13, 2023 [8 favorites]
I was a little put off by that line as well, but a few sentences later I think the author tries to fill in exactly that gap, maybe too subtly:
Six per cent of the burned had occupied positions that put boys and young men in their charge. Here, the breadcrumbs were harder to follow but still indicative of long and studied careers of violent, sexual abuse.
I'm as hypersensitive to TERFY dog whistles from otherwise well meaning especially British authors as the next person but it reads like this author is taking advantage of some perfect prescience in who is burned and who is "warned" with the smell and its implied threat. When you have a perfect oracle like that, my read is the author is pretty clear it punishes any gender who perpetrates and supports the violence, it just happens the vast majority are cismen and the author chooses to focus on the vast majority of their victims being not-cismen but - given the implied abuse with harder breadcrumbs to follow, and since the author is ultimately in charge of their universe - it's a detail they made a choice to include.
My read was that abuse of boys is also present (and perfectly punished but with more research required as to why) but somehow better hidden in part because it needs to be, compared to the brazen entitlement to non-cismen bodies. Even in abuse the patriarchy protects its self image by burying (while perpetuating) abuse of future patriarchs as more shameful compared to abuse of everyone else.
Wow and I also read that passage several times and missed the "six percent". Off to go see how that number comports with statistics on sexual abuse. Again, the author chose to include it so I think it probably means something.
posted by abulafa at 6:06 AM on March 13, 2023 [8 favorites]
Yeah to me the story implied that this is a sort of almost-divine punishment -- the governments are simply obsessed with "terrorists" and plots because they refuse to see the plain truth. Justice isn't being meted out by other flawed humans with their biases to anyone when the fancy strikes.
Additionally the author notes that a small percentage of the burned are women, though it doesn't say explicitly who the women harmed (or allowed to be harmed).
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:20 AM on March 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
Additionally the author notes that a small percentage of the burned are women, though it doesn't say explicitly who the women harmed (or allowed to be harmed).
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:20 AM on March 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
I get that Burning Men is all about power and agency and moving forward, but as someone who's transgender, I can't help but connect the lines between 'wouldn't it be great if we culled all the predatory men who were sex criminals', and how certain factions in contemporary Britain have spent a great deal of time and money to depict trans people (especially trans women) in a similar light.
The story explicitly calls out that kind of transphobia: All sexualities and genders break loose to party, parade, dance, and just lie in the grass thinking of nothing in particular, no longer categorised by what they are not or fearful of what will be done on account of it. The women who policed those boundaries and tried to shut our sisters out of the few safe spaces available to us have sat down to weep, at last, in sorrow and bitter, bitter shame.
posted by yasaman at 8:06 AM on March 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
The story explicitly calls out that kind of transphobia: All sexualities and genders break loose to party, parade, dance, and just lie in the grass thinking of nothing in particular, no longer categorised by what they are not or fearful of what will be done on account of it. The women who policed those boundaries and tried to shut our sisters out of the few safe spaces available to us have sat down to weep, at last, in sorrow and bitter, bitter shame.
posted by yasaman at 8:06 AM on March 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
(BTW Farrell is Irish.)
I appreciate people being careful here -- I know this is a really thorny set of topics. I also noted the lines that yasaman and abulafa mentioned, along with:
Some unsavoury women had also burned. and People still burned, mostly though not entirely men.
at least eighty-three percent of the burned had materially and repeatedly harmed the bodies, minds and life-chances of women, nonbinary people and girls [which implies the other 17% had hurt boys and men]
For this, our daughters’ countless possibilities were spilled onto dry dust. So many boys’ ease and love of themselves and the world was crushed. Those who are not just one gender but contain swirling multitudes, they suffered the most. So many—powerful, cis women the worst of them—policed the hard boundaries that squeezed sex, gender and all innate, invented and delightfully divergent human variety into accounting categories to more easily sort, sell, spend and discard us.
But! The broad strokes of the story are definitely about a supernatural justice coming for men who have hurt women and girls. And if that makes the story not work for you, then I am absolutely not trying to argue you into liking the story or thinking it's good. I hope you enjoy the other 2 stories in this post, about doctors bringing hope to people who need it.
Separately: I also really appreciated the echoes, in "Burning Men," of reactions to and grief about COVID:
All of society, the economy and the great ship of state must turn on a pin like an elderly elephant who, it turns out, could stunt-ride a unicycle all along
The aloneness. The gathering inevitability. How it could happen to anyone, any time. The drip of names on social media like melted wax rolling down the candle.
Who we once were is irretrievably gone. Nothing feels real. Each moment is hyper-charged and estranged from itself. The necklace is yanked and split, beads scattered across the floor. Surely we can fix this? I feel I could pinch the air into a curtain and pull it back to reveal what was solid before, to step back into that scene. I know you feel that, too.
posted by brainwane at 8:18 AM on March 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
I appreciate people being careful here -- I know this is a really thorny set of topics. I also noted the lines that yasaman and abulafa mentioned, along with:
Some unsavoury women had also burned. and People still burned, mostly though not entirely men.
at least eighty-three percent of the burned had materially and repeatedly harmed the bodies, minds and life-chances of women, nonbinary people and girls [which implies the other 17% had hurt boys and men]
For this, our daughters’ countless possibilities were spilled onto dry dust. So many boys’ ease and love of themselves and the world was crushed. Those who are not just one gender but contain swirling multitudes, they suffered the most. So many—powerful, cis women the worst of them—policed the hard boundaries that squeezed sex, gender and all innate, invented and delightfully divergent human variety into accounting categories to more easily sort, sell, spend and discard us.
But! The broad strokes of the story are definitely about a supernatural justice coming for men who have hurt women and girls. And if that makes the story not work for you, then I am absolutely not trying to argue you into liking the story or thinking it's good. I hope you enjoy the other 2 stories in this post, about doctors bringing hope to people who need it.
Separately: I also really appreciated the echoes, in "Burning Men," of reactions to and grief about COVID:
All of society, the economy and the great ship of state must turn on a pin like an elderly elephant who, it turns out, could stunt-ride a unicycle all along
The aloneness. The gathering inevitability. How it could happen to anyone, any time. The drip of names on social media like melted wax rolling down the candle.
Who we once were is irretrievably gone. Nothing feels real. Each moment is hyper-charged and estranged from itself. The necklace is yanked and split, beads scattered across the floor. Surely we can fix this? I feel I could pinch the air into a curtain and pull it back to reveal what was solid before, to step back into that scene. I know you feel that, too.
posted by brainwane at 8:18 AM on March 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
mikurski, you asked: in this universe, once a few waves of conflagration have happened,
* abuse victims setting fire to their abusers
* transphobes declaring that the fires were a consequence of Mother Earth or God or somebody punishing us for "upsetting the natural order" in particular re: gender
* transphobes attacking trans women, as you laid out
* complicated survivors' guilt among men in situations where nearly all the men in their neighborhoods, workplaces, etc. died
* various religions weighing in, including cults promising to protect you from burning; also snake-oil nostrums being sold as a preventative
* medical researchers, analyzing people who are sparkling/smoking, running into the same issue that the Ministry of Defense researcher did -- the higher-ups are pretty averse to the study's results
posted by brainwane at 8:44 AM on March 13, 2023
For the people of this world, who do they think is a woman? Who do they think is a man? Who is fair game, because you know justice is going to come for them with the same surety as gravity?I think that transphobes might well seize on an opportunity to try to further their agendas, yes. A lot of people in the story do not react well to the facts in front of them. The UK government, along with probably many others, reacts incredibly counterproductively. Abusers "ruminated and lashed out viciously at those they’d harmed yet held to blame." And, later in the story, we learn that even knowing the consequence doesn't stop some people from committing sexual assault. So yeah, if I were working out further ramifications to the premise Farrell sets up, they'd include, during maybe the 2nd and 3rd waves of combustion (uh I just realized that maybe Farrell is trying to make a point about 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. waves of feminism):
...and if you know that, why wait?
* abuse victims setting fire to their abusers
* transphobes declaring that the fires were a consequence of Mother Earth or God or somebody punishing us for "upsetting the natural order" in particular re: gender
* transphobes attacking trans women, as you laid out
* complicated survivors' guilt among men in situations where nearly all the men in their neighborhoods, workplaces, etc. died
* various religions weighing in, including cults promising to protect you from burning; also snake-oil nostrums being sold as a preventative
* medical researchers, analyzing people who are sparkling/smoking, running into the same issue that the Ministry of Defense researcher did -- the higher-ups are pretty averse to the study's results
posted by brainwane at 8:44 AM on March 13, 2023
Is there a way to read the second story (dalekteaservice) without logging in/signing up?
posted by librosegretti at 10:11 AM on March 13, 2023
posted by librosegretti at 10:11 AM on March 13, 2023
Here's a reblog of the dalekteaservice post on a different Tumblr that's set up so it won't demand you log in. Argh; evidently some public Tumblr posts are now behaving weird depending on the blog owner's setup.
posted by brainwane at 10:33 AM on March 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by brainwane at 10:33 AM on March 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
In "Burning Men", I was most disquieted by this part, which I think speaks to the terror and horror of the story's divine and wrathful justice, and how the longer it goes, it becomes less about some measure of justice and more about punishment:
"Our boys. Our questing, testing boys. Will I say the names? There are too many names. But I cannot say the numbers because numbers bury names and hide their precious faces, the faces of the boys who looked eagerly to us for guidance, to reveal to them the truth beneath the ugliness we took for order, and who we turned away. We failed them. We were embarrassed and confused. We didn’t find the words, words like consent, pleasure, respect. We expected them to muddle through, trusted we’d never hear if they didn’t. For that, they burned.
...
Their deaths took place in Tube carriages while it still ran, in sixth form colleges, university residences, chicken shops, shared bedrooms, while taking the driving test, reading set texts, gaming, lining up for a shot at goal; while smoking weed and looking out a grey-flecked window onto a rubbish-strewn carpark, wondering when his life would finally begin; on the way back from a party, mind awash in uppers, dance endorphins and a faint sense of looming emptiness, barely an hour after the deed."
Of course, it's meant to be disquieting! As grim as it is, I like that it was included, as it kind of had echoes of the Plague of the First Born to me, though these boys and young men were of course still culpable for their crimes of sexual violence, in a way the first born children of Egypt weren't in Exodus. This phase of the conflagration seems more about punishment and warning than it is about justice, a kind of "shape up and learn and teach some lessons, or more of your teens and young men will burn." It speaks powerfully to how patriarchal violence hurts everybody.
The idea of he ones who "met their doom" was also pretty moving to me. It's interesting to me that in this set up, the only chance for some form of redemption is simply to meet your doom courageously, that there's no other way to avoid burning once the crime has been committed, and that "lesser" crimes of complicity or cyber harassment still leave their mark. And something that keeps the story from being a one-note revenge fantasy is the complexity of the sorrow for some of the burned, that along with the people we'd all rightly consider monsters, that the "one youthful mistake" or grey areas and what have you people also burned, and they were truly mourned.
Also interesting to me: despite the fact that this reads almost like a Biblical story of divine wrath, there's no mention of attempts at divine propitiation or attempting to negotiate with god or anything like that. Like, you'd think people would take it as proof that there is really and actually some sort of higher power and they're PISSED. Now, obviously, this is not attempting to tell a religious story, but I think that would be an interesting angle on this premise. Like, the Catholic church alone, wow. Some real reckonings at religious institutions.
I'd also be interested in a more fantasy version of a similar story so that we could get enough distance to avoid the whole "okay, but what about this" aspects of directly correlating things to our current world. What stories could you tell about a world that is suddenly faced with undeniable divine wrath against the people committing the "original sin" of their society?
posted by yasaman at 1:31 PM on March 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
"Our boys. Our questing, testing boys. Will I say the names? There are too many names. But I cannot say the numbers because numbers bury names and hide their precious faces, the faces of the boys who looked eagerly to us for guidance, to reveal to them the truth beneath the ugliness we took for order, and who we turned away. We failed them. We were embarrassed and confused. We didn’t find the words, words like consent, pleasure, respect. We expected them to muddle through, trusted we’d never hear if they didn’t. For that, they burned.
...
Their deaths took place in Tube carriages while it still ran, in sixth form colleges, university residences, chicken shops, shared bedrooms, while taking the driving test, reading set texts, gaming, lining up for a shot at goal; while smoking weed and looking out a grey-flecked window onto a rubbish-strewn carpark, wondering when his life would finally begin; on the way back from a party, mind awash in uppers, dance endorphins and a faint sense of looming emptiness, barely an hour after the deed."
Of course, it's meant to be disquieting! As grim as it is, I like that it was included, as it kind of had echoes of the Plague of the First Born to me, though these boys and young men were of course still culpable for their crimes of sexual violence, in a way the first born children of Egypt weren't in Exodus. This phase of the conflagration seems more about punishment and warning than it is about justice, a kind of "shape up and learn and teach some lessons, or more of your teens and young men will burn." It speaks powerfully to how patriarchal violence hurts everybody.
The idea of he ones who "met their doom" was also pretty moving to me. It's interesting to me that in this set up, the only chance for some form of redemption is simply to meet your doom courageously, that there's no other way to avoid burning once the crime has been committed, and that "lesser" crimes of complicity or cyber harassment still leave their mark. And something that keeps the story from being a one-note revenge fantasy is the complexity of the sorrow for some of the burned, that along with the people we'd all rightly consider monsters, that the "one youthful mistake" or grey areas and what have you people also burned, and they were truly mourned.
Also interesting to me: despite the fact that this reads almost like a Biblical story of divine wrath, there's no mention of attempts at divine propitiation or attempting to negotiate with god or anything like that. Like, you'd think people would take it as proof that there is really and actually some sort of higher power and they're PISSED. Now, obviously, this is not attempting to tell a religious story, but I think that would be an interesting angle on this premise. Like, the Catholic church alone, wow. Some real reckonings at religious institutions.
I'd also be interested in a more fantasy version of a similar story so that we could get enough distance to avoid the whole "okay, but what about this" aspects of directly correlating things to our current world. What stories could you tell about a world that is suddenly faced with undeniable divine wrath against the people committing the "original sin" of their society?
posted by yasaman at 1:31 PM on March 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
I found Burning Men really interesting, but I think the author left out a huge issue in the form of the millions of misogynistic men in Britain who haven't yet sexually assaulted anyone.
They're definitely going to be seeking revenge for their friends who burnt to death and I doubt they trust women to have sex with them consensually. What are millions of angry and fearful incels going to do when they find out there's no divine punishment for murder?
posted by zymil at 1:26 AM on March 14, 2023
They're definitely going to be seeking revenge for their friends who burnt to death and I doubt they trust women to have sex with them consensually. What are millions of angry and fearful incels going to do when they find out there's no divine punishment for murder?
posted by zymil at 1:26 AM on March 14, 2023
Hi everyone. Thank you so much for this active and deep engagement with my story. It is what every writer dreams of.
I 100% get that people's antennae are alert for terfy leanings in writing from the UK right now. Though as is pointed out, I'm Irish (but living in the UK, for my sins). Other commenters have already pointed out how the story deals with terfs and its strong point of view on cishet white feminism. It's possible that transphobes might try to take comfort from a story that magically makes rapists burn, but not one in which terfs' bitter, bitter shame is made manifest.
I'm grateful a commenter drew out the fact of boys and men as also being victims of systematic, institutional perpetrators. I have worried that this aspect gets lost in the info-dump paragraph it's part of and wondered if we should have dropped in a line break to emphasise it. (The 'facts' presented throughout are very grounded in research, including a regular UN global report on sexual violence, but I'm just guessing that the percentage of men and boys who are victims is 6-7%.) It was really important to me to include the suffering of everyone touched by sexual violence, and also how rape and the threat of rape are used to enforce masculinity. I don't think the story goes enough into that second part, but I hope to do more with it.
I've just started what might be a novel that grows out of this. And yes, the still permissible violence of MRAs and their ilk are definitely part of it! And the foul coalition of terfs, a certain kind of 2nd wave feminist, and the far right.
At the risk of puncturing something in progress, what's really important to me is - in addition to the world-building 'what ifs' that deliver justice or see how it's thwarted, and which also make pointed commentary on how things are right now - I want to keep sight of the basic premise: what could we achieve in a world without rape? On one hand, of course that is wish fulfilment, but OTOH, I want it to expose how fundamental this act and its force are to how we organise pretty much everything. And, most importantly, to use that to imagine different and better. It is a massive task and feels overwhelming, but the thoughtful and generous comments of everyone on this thread will be with me for a long time. Thank you all so very much, M
posted by mariafarrell at 4:02 AM on March 20, 2023 [10 favorites]
I 100% get that people's antennae are alert for terfy leanings in writing from the UK right now. Though as is pointed out, I'm Irish (but living in the UK, for my sins). Other commenters have already pointed out how the story deals with terfs and its strong point of view on cishet white feminism. It's possible that transphobes might try to take comfort from a story that magically makes rapists burn, but not one in which terfs' bitter, bitter shame is made manifest.
I'm grateful a commenter drew out the fact of boys and men as also being victims of systematic, institutional perpetrators. I have worried that this aspect gets lost in the info-dump paragraph it's part of and wondered if we should have dropped in a line break to emphasise it. (The 'facts' presented throughout are very grounded in research, including a regular UN global report on sexual violence, but I'm just guessing that the percentage of men and boys who are victims is 6-7%.) It was really important to me to include the suffering of everyone touched by sexual violence, and also how rape and the threat of rape are used to enforce masculinity. I don't think the story goes enough into that second part, but I hope to do more with it.
I've just started what might be a novel that grows out of this. And yes, the still permissible violence of MRAs and their ilk are definitely part of it! And the foul coalition of terfs, a certain kind of 2nd wave feminist, and the far right.
At the risk of puncturing something in progress, what's really important to me is - in addition to the world-building 'what ifs' that deliver justice or see how it's thwarted, and which also make pointed commentary on how things are right now - I want to keep sight of the basic premise: what could we achieve in a world without rape? On one hand, of course that is wish fulfilment, but OTOH, I want it to expose how fundamental this act and its force are to how we organise pretty much everything. And, most importantly, to use that to imagine different and better. It is a massive task and feels overwhelming, but the thoughtful and generous comments of everyone on this thread will be with me for a long time. Thank you all so very much, M
posted by mariafarrell at 4:02 AM on March 20, 2023 [10 favorites]
Maria Farrell, thank you for dropping by and sharing your thoughts and plans!
If you're open to sharing it: in "Burning Men" did you intend to use the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. waves of burnings to reflect on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. waves of feminism?
what could we achieve in a world without rape?
I appreciate this thought experiment and am looking forward to reading what you do further with it.
posted by brainwane at 8:30 AM on March 20, 2023
If you're open to sharing it: in "Burning Men" did you intend to use the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. waves of burnings to reflect on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. waves of feminism?
what could we achieve in a world without rape?
I appreciate this thought experiment and am looking forward to reading what you do further with it.
posted by brainwane at 8:30 AM on March 20, 2023
Hi Sumana! Thanks, I'd meant to say something about the waves - actually no, I didn't notice or intend the link between waves of burnings and waves of feminism. But when I saw you point that out I was "huh.... that's interesting, there's something to that". I was mostly thinking of infection waves, but there are parallels to be explored.
also I had been thinking about - in this speculative future - how people absolutely would take into their own hands to bring justice to those whose combustion hasn't yet happened. Additionally, it would be hideous to know what those people are but to have their continuing existence in that world imply that what they'd done wasn't .. what they'd done.
anyway, I'm kicking a lot of ideas around but mostly writing lots of terrible scenes and waiting for a bunch of characters to reveal themselves more fully. as the man said, "I may be some time."
posted by mariafarrell at 1:37 AM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
also I had been thinking about - in this speculative future - how people absolutely would take into their own hands to bring justice to those whose combustion hasn't yet happened. Additionally, it would be hideous to know what those people are but to have their continuing existence in that world imply that what they'd done wasn't .. what they'd done.
anyway, I'm kicking a lot of ideas around but mostly writing lots of terrible scenes and waiting for a bunch of characters to reveal themselves more fully. as the man said, "I may be some time."
posted by mariafarrell at 1:37 AM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
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