Not enough warning
Mar. 1st, 2018 04:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI'm reading Jan/Feb 2018 Analog, and the story Endless City by David Gerrold starts with
NOTE: This story contains content that some readers may find disturbing.
It is not kidding, but it is not specific enough.
Warnings for rape, blood, gore, violence, and murder, with a suggested motive of transphobia, though the story portrays that as an implausible minority creepy idea.
And that's just the third page. I have no idea where else this is going. Do I want to see it?
Given that the starting point is a guy who crossplays in immersive VR being raped to death by his own sex toys I'm kind of thinking not.
It is also creepily fetishising to say about the victims avatar "a woman designed by a man knows exactly how to please another man, usually better than a woman". I mean, there's layers of wrong there.
...
I skipped to the end and it turned out the murder was staged so the 'victim' could get surgery and change their identity, because they had a lot of money and someone else wanted it so they feared for their life.
They grew and murdered a clone. That's the whole story.
That means that all the details that need warnings? Any mention of trans people? It's pure red herring, irrelevant to the plot.
And, also, stupid. I mean the investigator says the clue that gave it away was that the clone was wired for pleasure, but if someone wants to stage their own death then wirehead wasting away for lack of reason to move is in universe plausible. The staged violence is foolish as well as creepy.
So the writer put that image in our heads for what reason?
Senseless story with no good points. Avoid.
NOTE: This story contains content that some readers may find disturbing.
It is not kidding, but it is not specific enough.
Warnings for rape, blood, gore, violence, and murder, with a suggested motive of transphobia, though the story portrays that as an implausible minority creepy idea.
And that's just the third page. I have no idea where else this is going. Do I want to see it?
Given that the starting point is a guy who crossplays in immersive VR being raped to death by his own sex toys I'm kind of thinking not.
It is also creepily fetishising to say about the victims avatar "a woman designed by a man knows exactly how to please another man, usually better than a woman". I mean, there's layers of wrong there.
...
I skipped to the end and it turned out the murder was staged so the 'victim' could get surgery and change their identity, because they had a lot of money and someone else wanted it so they feared for their life.
They grew and murdered a clone. That's the whole story.
That means that all the details that need warnings? Any mention of trans people? It's pure red herring, irrelevant to the plot.
And, also, stupid. I mean the investigator says the clue that gave it away was that the clone was wired for pleasure, but if someone wants to stage their own death then wirehead wasting away for lack of reason to move is in universe plausible. The staged violence is foolish as well as creepy.
So the writer put that image in our heads for what reason?
Senseless story with no good points. Avoid.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-02 10:13 pm (UTC)I'm not sure I've read more than one book by Gerrold, but yep, this sounds like the same guy.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-04 11:59 am (UTC)