Continued recs for time travelers. For those of you packing for 2010, we suggest "The Things" by Peter Watts ~6800 words.
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/
This has the distinction of being our most widely-read story (1 mil+). You can find more of Peter's work at https://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm
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@clarkesworld I remember reading this and liking it…up until the last sentence: “I will have to rape it into them.”
It destroyed the enjoyment by being utterly unnecessary, contrary to the rest of the story, and it made it almost too human by treating sexual assault as deliberately cruel violence and as a punchline.
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@WhiteCatTamer @clarkesworld I read that as a lack of understanding by The Thing. Penetration/merging was a form of communication for it with no violence component before it encountered humans & while it had started to learn about individual-on-individual violence, it hadn't yet internalised its meaning. As for sexual violence, it didn't need sex so how could it understand twisting it into violence for power.
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@NudelnAlDente @WhiteCatTamer @clarkesworld it's both. Watts has written similarly uncomfortable-but-apt material into his Rifters books.
I try to include a CW whenever I share/recommend the story, because I can understand why it would sour folks on it.
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@SnoopJ @WhiteCatTamer @clarkesworld Yeah, it's definitely worthy of a content warning, but an excellent story nonetheless.
Dare I say, I like it better than the film & that is probably my favourite horror film.
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