enne📚 reviewed Slow Communication by Dominique Dickey
Slow Communication
4 stars
This short story can be read here: www.fantasy-magazine.com/fm/fiction/slow-communication/
This is a trans story (by a trans author). It's about a family where once a generation a mysterious leviathan will contact a woman in the family who will hear one question and give the answer to the previous generation's questions. The tension here is between Darla who feels pulled to change her appearance and self to be less of a woman and more male, and the connection to and exhortations of her family to not change in a way that will cause the leviathan to not recognize her and cause her to miss her chance.
I love this idea of a multigenerational slow conversation with a mysterious entity. However, I especially really like the positioning of transness not just with respect to normal gender expectations but also as a threat to connection to family and family history as well. The ending …
This short story can be read here: www.fantasy-magazine.com/fm/fiction/slow-communication/
This is a trans story (by a trans author). It's about a family where once a generation a mysterious leviathan will contact a woman in the family who will hear one question and give the answer to the previous generation's questions. The tension here is between Darla who feels pulled to change her appearance and self to be less of a woman and more male, and the connection to and exhortations of her family to not change in a way that will cause the leviathan to not recognize her and cause her to miss her chance.
I love this idea of a multigenerational slow conversation with a mysterious entity. However, I especially really like the positioning of transness not just with respect to normal gender expectations but also as a threat to connection to family and family history as well. The ending is also excellent.
I also really appreciated the author spotlight here: www.fantasy-magazine.com/fm/non-fiction/author-spotlights/author-spotlight-dominique-dickey/