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Rachel Swirsky climbs inside the mind of a violent misogynst

Harpy1

A couple of days ago, Rachel Swirsky — an award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer who posts at Alas, A Blog and sometimes comments here on Man Boobz as well — sent along a link to a brilliant, brutal, and horrifying short story she’d recently published in Apex Magazine. Titled “Abomination Rises on Filthy Wings,” the story is essentially her attempt to get inside the mind of a violent misogynist.

As the editor’s note to her story explains:

Swirsky wrote this piece after talking to multiple editors who worked with horror stories, all of whom reported receiving many submissions about men murdering their wives or ex–wives. Despite the fictional veneer and supernatural justification [for the murder], many have the feel of personal revenge fantasies, and most characterize the women through disturbing, misogynist stereotypes. Swirsky wanted to see if it was possible to write a story that included all the markers of the trope but nevertheless subverted it.

In writing the story, Swirsky told me, “I drew heavily on Manboobz for mood and imagery, to try to get the sense of the narrator.”

So, enjoy. But first, I should warn you that the story is very violent, very disturbing, and could very well be triggering. So giant TRIGGER WARNING.

Here’s the LINK.

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LBT
LBT
11 years ago

RE: MordsithJ

Creepy stories! Note that most of these are not creepy snuff porn, just general terror and heavy subtext of Bad Things Happening. The following books involve horrible child murder, mind-rape, and other such pleasantries.

John Connolly’s The Book of Lost Things. A WW II-era Irish boy who’s obsessed with fairy tales gets sucked into a world cobbled together from the stories he loves. Unfortunately, he’s fond of the grimmest of Grimm…

Spider Robinson’s Mindkiller. People can stimulate the pleasure centers of the brain, leading to a wave of addiction and suicides. A man with no memory and a woman who botched her suicide try to take down the company, but… well… horror and mind-rape ensues.

Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. You probably already know about that one.

Roald Dahl’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar has a short story called ‘The Swan,’ where a bullying goes awry.

Bryan Talbot’s The Tale of One Bad Rat. A young girl lives on the streets of London, trying to escape incest and stay alive. Comic book.

RE: kittehserf

That book cover is hilarious. Thanks for sharing!

RE: katz

LBT is making me think we should obviously put together an anthology of good alien sex stories.

YES! The sexy part isn’t even really necessary, anything that involves humans and non-humans making friendly is something I enjoy reading.

RE: Freemage

That’s such a great program! Thanks for letting me know about it.

LBT
LBT
11 years ago

And yeah, I went through a period of fantasizing violent revenge on my rapist… but I was a hemisphere away, and I also learned to let it go. I CERTAINLY wouldn’t have written it down and tried to get it published, Jesus.

Regarding unreliable narrators… I assume every narrator is unreliable, and was shocked when in high school I learned that not everyone saw things that way. For me it was obvious: narrators are mostly human. Humans are fallible. Ergo, narrators are fallible and unreliable.

AK
AK
11 years ago

Oh yeah, sending it to a publisher is just creepy no matter what the situation. I never even wrote mine down, I don’t think.

katz
11 years ago

Bryan Talbot’s The Tale of One Bad Rat. A young girl lives on the streets of London, trying to escape incest and stay alive. Comic book.

I read that one. Considering the subject matter, it actually ends up being a rather sweet and hopeful story. Recommended for all Beatrix Potter fans.

YES! The sexy part isn’t even really necessary, anything that involves humans and non-humans making friendly is something I enjoy reading.

You’ll appreciate this picture.

freemage
11 years ago

On the creepy reading list:

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

The author found a treasure-trove of crudely manipulated antique photos–they make the children in them look like they’re floating, or have a mouth on the back of their head, or whatnot. He turned the collection into a cast of characters (the “Peculiar Children” of the title), then writes the story from the point of view of a seemingly normal boy who discovers the home and has to deal with his world being spun upside-down. Creepy and disturbing at times, though not quite ‘horror’ as such.

I’m waiting eagerly for the sequel, Hollow City.

pecunium
11 years ago

Howard: Hey, who DID see Cabin in the Woods?

I did. Hated it. On all levels I thought it failed. It has potential, but doesn’t live up to it.

When all was said and done it felt no different than any other horror flick.

pecunium
11 years ago

re Falasha: I am informed it’s not a good word to use; it means, “dirty” and is often used as a slur against Ehtiopian Jews.

pecunium
11 years ago

ikonografer, if one story means you will never read anything the author writes again, I don’t believe you are much good as an editor (you may be a fine reviewer, in that a reviwer shares their opinions on a work): an editor’s job is to make a piece the best it can be; for what it is. Yes, an editor is entitled to say, “I can’t work with this story for whatever reason, but to 1: reject all future work, and 2: dismiss her award as given by idiots because your sense of self is somehow offended that she wrote this story means that you lack the ability to take each work on it’s own merit.

About which I am shocked, shocked I tell you, to discover this to be so.

freemage
11 years ago

pecunium: I’d argue that Cabin in the Woods is “no different” than any other horror flick because it’s meant to be the explanation for every other horror flick. It is quite literally an attempt to account for the constant use of specific tropes, to the point of making it clear when those tropes are being forced without good reason.

That said, to be clear: You didn’t like it means you didn’t like it. It’s certainly not going to appeal to everyone, even those who get the point, if they dislike the point itself.

Kim
Kim
11 years ago

@Noadi
Seriously? How about a SPOILER warning before blurting that out about a movie that people had just said they hadn’t yet seen?

Michael Søndberg Olsen

I’ve read it twice now, and I’m, I’m not sure… It’s certainly not badly written, it’s just that the well written parts don’t match with the character. I think making it a first person story was either a mistake, or his observations shouldn’t be so, I wouldn’t call it flowery, but so descriptive. As for the story, it is vile, but meant to be. It reminded me of Last Exit to Brooklyn.

pecunium
11 years ago

freemage: I got that. I’m a really informed movie watcher (I used to be a studio projectionist, my primary partner has a degree in filmwriting from Columbia, etc.).

But it didn’t really do anything with that. We get the McGuffin, and the “escape montage”, and that’s about it. Even the sattelite stories they referred to (Japan being the only one in detail) failed to explore the question (and they way that piece of the story failed; (in that the McGuffin aspect wasn’t carried off there; raises more questions than it’s occurence justifies the final confrontation in the main story).

So, from a critical standpoint I think it didn’t do it’s job; and that’s why I don’t think it rises out of the genre to the point of being subversive (but it may be I’ve seen too many horror flicks, as well as too many movies). I wanted to like it. I wanted it to be subversive, and when it came to the credits I was massively disappoint.

MordsithJ
11 years ago

@LBT
Thanks! I have read Coraline and “The Swan,” but not the others so I’ll add them to my list.

I don’t have violent revenge fantasies against ex-lovers. Now ex-bosses, on the other hand…*cracks knuckles menacingly*

pecunium
11 years ago

I’ve only had violent fantasies about an ex once, but she was being emotionally abusive, we were still sharing living space, and I was both emotionally, and financially, vulnerable.

As soon as I was able to get out, that went away.

kittehserf
11 years ago

AK – that’s cool; I was speaking in general about the unreliable narrator. In this case, it’s like several people have said already: I don’t need or want to read a pretend version of violent misogyny when there’s so much of the real stuff around. I don’t want to read that, either, but like all the regulars here, I don’t need fiction to be made aware of it.

🙂

kittehserf
11 years ago

(I only think about men in a can’t-stop-thinking-about way if I really want to fuck them. So that would be about 1% of the male population. The kind of vengeful obsessive thinking MRAs specialize in – nope, not even right after a break-up.)

Never had break-ups to deal with, but yeah, Louis’s the only man who’s ever been on my mind that much. Only person come to that.

Michael Søndberg Olsen

Oooh, revenge fantasies, forgot about those! Mine are tame, of the Living well is the best revenge variety. I just seem to suck at living well, but hey… I’m trying, still breathing.

Argenti Aertheri
11 years ago

Oh I’ve got a few ex’s who’d be amazed I’m not dead yet (hell, rapist ex #2 pretty much said as much when he appeared out of the stalker woodworker)

Pecunium — first, That Ex? I don’t even know her and I’m not inclined to be charitable, that whole thing about hurting my friends.

Second, the gaslighting narcissist, it’d be better if I were the violent sort and just entertained fantasies. No, I wanted to get him how he got me, emotionally. Well, I did one day. That ended with him discovering he had to catch me to hit me and then threatening my life. As I think you know, I’m more than a bit thrilled to see his latest mugshot is obviously post-getting-his-ass-kicked. Idk if that’s better or worse, I mean, I didn’t do it, but it isn’t just fantasy either (of course, getting arrested for sex crimes involving minors does tend to result in plenty of people wanting to see you beat)

kittehserf
11 years ago

katz, I love that first contact picture! 😀

pecunium
11 years ago

Argenti: That was my first fiancée. It was 20 year ago. I’m better now.

Argenti Aertheri
11 years ago

Yeah ok, that’s who I thought, and why I grumble.

LBT
LBT
11 years ago

RE: katz

I read that one. Considering the subject matter, it actually ends up being a rather sweet and hopeful story. Recommended for all Beatrix Potter fans.

Yeah. First read that comic in ’04, and every time I reread it, I find something new in it. That book helped get me through the past year.

I think I’ve seen that image before, but it is still awesome and hilarious.

LBT
LBT
11 years ago

Oh, MordsithJ! Read the comic Beasts of Burden Hill. Yes, it’s expensive to buy, but it is worth every penny; the kids here LOVE it. It’s traditional horror stories, only the stars are a bunch of dogs and a stray cat. The illustrations are gorgeous watercolors, and the animals are soooo cute and THEN HORRIBLE THINGS HAPPEN.

LBT
LBT
11 years ago

(PS: do NOT, under any circumstances, read Beasts of Burden–not Burden Hill, just Burden–if animal cruelty upsets you.)

LBT
LBT
11 years ago

RE: Зэк (formerly Z)

Ah, XXXenophile. It’s my hubby’s favorite porn; we traded a fresh Kindle for three volumes, two ashcan comics, and the card game. I still feel we came out the better for that deal!