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Posts Tagged ‘twitter’

thoughts on the depiction of rape in fiction

WARNING: this post is about rape in fiction, and considerations to bear in mind when including it.

Last week I posted some thoughts on Twitter about rape scenes in fiction — specifically, thinking about the possibility (the likelihood, sadly) that someone in your audience is a rape survivor, and contemplating what effect you want to have on that person. Those thoughts are the epiphany I arrived at while thinking through the larger issue; I want to write about that larger issue now.

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The #3Things story

Earlier today, I posted the #3Things story to Twitter. Here, in its random glory, is the whole thing:

Buffeted by storm winds, the little lost hummingbird whirled and spun through the air, incapable of even falling. #3Things (1/14)

Her ordeal ended when the winds blew her into a screen of leaves. There she stayed until the storm ended & she fell down. #3Things (2/14)

Where am I? she thought (but did not say — hummingbird tongues are not good for speaking with). #3Things (3/14)

“Why, you are on an aspidochelone.” #3Things (4/14)

The hummingbird looked around to see who had spoken. She saw nothing except a lethal-looking spiky thing on the ground. #3Things (5/14)

“Yes,” I spoke,” the object said. It communicated by means of a revoltingly strong, nauseating odor. #3Things (6/14)

What’s that? the hummingbird wondered. She didn’t know whether hummingbirds could vomit, but she thought she might find out #3Things (7/14)

“I am a durian — the King of Fruits,” the spiky thing said proudly, emitting a wave of raw-sewage smell. #3Things (8/14)

The hummingbird wished desperately for some nectar to clear her palate and wondered what an aspidochelone was. #3Things (9/14)

“It’s a huge creature mistaken for an island because of vegetation,” the durian said. (It had looked this up on Wikipedia.) #3Things (10/14)

“You’ll never return to your eggs or your favorite flower. The aspidochelone is swimming out to sea with us atop its back.” #3Things (11/14)

The hummingbird leapt into the air, desperate to fly home before it was too late, but the durian shot her with its spikes. #3Things (12/14)

These were tipped with sleeping poison, and so the hummingbird fell to the ground once more, dazed and weak. #3Things (13/14)

“I may be the King of Fruits,” the durian said, “but I am a mere servant of this island, and its flowers need pollination.” #3Things (14/14)

***

Many thanks to @lrushlau for the hummingbird, @KarenMemory for the aspidochelone, and @charlesatan for the sentient durian! #3Things

Reminders: chat and giveaway

#TorChat on Twitter starts in an hour or so; I’m @swan_tower there, and will be fielding questions about steampunk and With Fate Conspire.

Also, you’ve got about twelve hours to enter the giveaway for A Star Shall Fall over on GoodReads.

Me at 140 characters or less

So my publicist finally found a way to prod me into getting off my butt and joining Twitter: from 4-5 p.m. EST tomorrow, I’ll be participating in the #torchat discussion of steampunk, alongside Lev A.C. Rosen (@LevACRosen) and George Mann (@George_Mann), with Ay-leen the Peacemaker (@writersyndrome) running the show.

But ignore the bit where that post says my username is @marie_brennan; I inconvenienced my publicist by changing it after making my account. It’s @swan_tower instead, for consistency with my LJ and website names.

I’ve been on Twitter for a little less than a week now, dabbling my toes in the water and getting a feel for what I can say in the space allotted. (Answer: not much.) This is going to be a particular challenge tomorrow, I think; if people ask interesting questions, my impulse is going to be to respond with a paragraph. Wish me luck!