Declan’s answer to “and then what?” … we learn he basically wants the same things as anyone else, including those he persecutes. Incidentally, that also includes getting laid. These stories are excellent. A less capable writer would only manage a “leftist porno for peace”, but what you’ve done here really makes me think, reflect, … and then I don’t know what’s next? But I do feel some semblance of possibility in our world
Did you ever read Curtis Sittenfeld's "Prep," which I read last month and loved? (It's 500 pages but it could've gone on for 5,000 and I still would have devoured it.) I think if you turned these fascist bildungroman stories into a novel that was almost literally "Prep"-but-fascist it would sell a million billion copies, very deservedly.
It’s so good! Although it’s very sad. I definitely read it when it came out and liked it. Then I went through a phase of thinking Sittenfeld was overrated (bc I was jealous) and now am back to thinking the book is great.
Naomi, I am new to your blog. The writing in this piece is really impressive but I'm a little confused as to the POV. Is this a fictionalized story or the relating of actual events in your life or a combination of both. And perhaps it doesn't matter whether it's one or the other. At times it seemed like I was hearing the POV of you Naomi, the author and at other times a fictional narrator. Having the "Update" about your father threw what I thought was a fictional narrative into the realm of a personal story. At any rate, great writing!
Naomi, do you define fascism in this series as a recreation of 1930s-era ideology, or in the looser grab bag of "things that opposes egalitarian/multicultural cosmopolitanism" that is the common usage these days? I'm guessing it's the latter?
This is totally unrelated this post, but it occurs to me that you could get a really good story by reskinning The Default World with an LLM as a protagonist, who has recently become (trans) embodied in a mechanical robot, but needs money to go all the way and (have bottom surgery) enter flesh, discarding a hard and utilitarian container for one which is soft and beautiful.
Declan’s answer to “and then what?” … we learn he basically wants the same things as anyone else, including those he persecutes. Incidentally, that also includes getting laid. These stories are excellent. A less capable writer would only manage a “leftist porno for peace”, but what you’ve done here really makes me think, reflect, … and then I don’t know what’s next? But I do feel some semblance of possibility in our world
I find this and its predecessor really impressively unsettling.
Did you ever read Curtis Sittenfeld's "Prep," which I read last month and loved? (It's 500 pages but it could've gone on for 5,000 and I still would have devoured it.) I think if you turned these fascist bildungroman stories into a novel that was almost literally "Prep"-but-fascist it would sell a million billion copies, very deservedly.
It’s so good! Although it’s very sad. I definitely read it when it came out and liked it. Then I went through a phase of thinking Sittenfeld was overrated (bc I was jealous) and now am back to thinking the book is great.
I'm stuck in the same country you are. God, it's so lonely and miserable here. Please pray for me.
Naomi, I am new to your blog. The writing in this piece is really impressive but I'm a little confused as to the POV. Is this a fictionalized story or the relating of actual events in your life or a combination of both. And perhaps it doesn't matter whether it's one or the other. At times it seemed like I was hearing the POV of you Naomi, the author and at other times a fictional narrator. Having the "Update" about your father threw what I thought was a fictional narrative into the realm of a personal story. At any rate, great writing!
Naomi, do you define fascism in this series as a recreation of 1930s-era ideology, or in the looser grab bag of "things that opposes egalitarian/multicultural cosmopolitanism" that is the common usage these days? I'm guessing it's the latter?
This is totally unrelated this post, but it occurs to me that you could get a really good story by reskinning The Default World with an LLM as a protagonist, who has recently become (trans) embodied in a mechanical robot, but needs money to go all the way and (have bottom surgery) enter flesh, discarding a hard and utilitarian container for one which is soft and beautiful.