An Unorthodox Adoption gets even less orthodox
After that / Until then / Discussion
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I've said this before, but I love this. I've talked at length about various aspects of the piece, so I'll mention something I hadn't before.
It's possibly unintentional, but by retreading the events of the original, this feels like a healing piece, a chance to think about the past in a new light. You make it so our last image of the children, the one that will stick with us, is of them playing and learning in a safe environment, one where they're happy despite their nature.
It was important for me, when writing 2338, to make sure every child was represented, even if all they had was a name and age. That the story not focus heavily on Sun-Hee until it has to, and for the readers to feel that sudden cut-off of potential, of characters established and not developed. This does that in reverse, reintroducing us to the full set of 23 after spending time exclusively on Sato, Sun-Hee and Eomi, giving them another brief, bright moment in the sun.
Thank you.
Thanks so much for this comment, Rimple. It means a lot to me that you enjoyed the tale.
this feels like a healing piece, a chance to think about the past in a new light.
That is absolutely intentional - at least from the point at which I realised how the events of the attack would appear when seen in reverse. The rest of the tale is structured around that thought, so it's deliberate that we leave the children in a bright haze of nostalgia.
I found Ms Sato a really interesting character. She struck me in the skip as being really invested in the children and not having much of a life outside her work with them (although to be fair we see her only in her darkest hour). I wanted to contrast her damaged nature (she literally gives up her future to go and live in the past) with an element of hope for her (after she is returned to Australia, the "past" becomes unknown for her - it's essentially her new future, and with a new family). The aim was to try to capture the bittersweet tone of SCP-2338.
This had great emotional appeal, and it was mind-boggling and sad to think about how Eomi perceives time. Easily, this deserves a +1 from me.
This tale reminds me of the bombing of Dresden in reverse from Slaughterhouse Five. Really beautiful literary technique, making something dreadful happen in reverse so that it turns into something good. Excellent tale.
When I had the draft reviewed before the gift exchange, I think it was minmin who pointed out the similarity of that scene to Slaughterhouse Five. The rip-off is entirely unintentional - I could protest that I've never read S5, but that is even more damning of me as an author! It's like a catch-22.1
The context is that Rimple asked (as part of the gift exchange) for something to do with time travel, and so travelling backwards through time felt like the best option to incorporate SCP-2338. I'm pleased that you enjoyed the tale.
Footnotes
1. Which I have read!
This reminded me a lot of the movie Arrival. Beautifully written, and a good look at an alien perception of time.
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page revision: 3, last edited: 22 Sep 2018 03:57
