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Spar by Kij Johnson (Short Story Group Read)
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Here's a link to an interview with Johnson where she discusses the story.http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/johns...
Ok I read the story....weird! Like a wreck...you just have to keep reading.
Did you get a chance to read the interview?
I read the story and the interview. Quite a character she is (both the author and the story character)."This is a story I love without liking it at all." I liked this quote from Johnson. I can totally understand what she is saying.
Communication breaks down in so many relationships....
The story as analogy of a marriage or relationship works. Using sex to fill the boredom, using it to take something from another, to punish another, using it in place of talking, using it as a habit; the fear of leaving the comfort of the known for the unknown. What really hits home for me is the author's comment about "the cruelty of familiarity." If you've been with someone for so long, no matter how much you love them and respect them, little pieces of cruelty here and there creeps out. It's like it's innate to us and we just can't suppress it.
They were opposed because it was too graphic? Hey, it's sci-fi. Just a small piece of an alien encounter, but an alien encounter none the less.The story is non-stop violation of the body. Reading it tired me out as if it were happening to me.
What an intense story! It was clear it was written by a woman but it also sort of reminded me of Ellison's sci-fi, very cerebral.
Michael wrote: "But I do object to the genre violation of the misspelled "come" :) ..."
I noticed this too, lol.
Scott, I posted it a few years ago here but it got buried and forgotten. I liked it when I read it then and thought it may get some good discussion going this time. It's like you can't even come up for air while reading it because it starts right in the middle of the sex and never stops.
Amanda, it does remind me of Ellison's style.
I was so stunned by the visuals the story conjures up that I don't think I even tried to find meaning in it.
well...first thing's first, wrong story to eat during breakfast lolother than that...kick ass opening line,strong story and I was able to "get" the metaphor/moral behind it, but I think for me it was just too bluntly viscerally graphic to enjoy
It's odd. Of course I notice at first it's graphic, but as it goes along I get caught up in the woman's exhaustive struggle to orient herself of what happened and where she is, then to accept what's happening to her, then to try to numb herself to what's happening to her person, then to try to relate to the alien, then to try to violate him the same way she's being violated, etc., that I don't focus on the graphic words but just the actions of this woman to overcome this predicament. It was like jumping into the car in the middle of a roller coaster ride. There's no time to think, just endure it and get to the end of the line.
Does anyone want to start this Friday's short story read? Got a short story of any kind you'd like to post and discuss?
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/johns...