GaPJaxie Reviews: The Airlock · 11:35pm Feb 9th, 2020
So, I run a speedwriting contest once a week or so. Our contests have prizes, and one of those prizes is that I review any fic of the winner's choice. The Seer's writing skills won him the gold a few weeks ago, and he asked me to review The Airlock, a story about child abuse.
Okay, well, it's not really about child abuse. Nothing harmful or wicked occurs in the story itself. Really, all that happens is Sweetie Belle visits home and gets a little emotional.
So I suppose it's a story about living with the memory of what happened, long after the events themselves are over.
People who follow my stories or blog probably won't be surprised to hear that I don't have a good relationship with my parents. I was never physically abused, but there's tension there. Things happened. I don't like them, to be honest. I don't go home. Just hearing their voices gives me a hit of adrenaline.
But they're still my parents. My life would be easier if I could forget they exist, and forget those things ever happened. But I can't. There's some part of me that thinks I'm a bad person if I don't love my family, or that simply insists they need to be a part of my life, for whatever reason.
This is the essence of this story. Of what Sweetie Belle is going through. The abuse, the shame, the terrible acts that drive this story, they're all years in the past. If she could forget they existed, she'd be happy. But she can't forget. She can't even avoid going home. She doesn't need to go home and see her mother. She could avoid the issue entirely, and it might be better for her if she did.
But she goes anyway. She sees the places where it happens, and feels her muscles tense up, and yet she doesn't leave. This is a part of her life and she can't turn away from it.
Ponies tell her that these things eventually get better, but when this story starts, she doesn't see how.
In case it's not clear, I highly recommend this story. It's simple, it's short, not a lot happens, but it captures something real and meaningful, and it spoke to me. Hopefully it speaks to you as well.
Also it was written in an hour which is super impressive.
Looks good, I'll add it to my RIL for when things in my life are going too well and I need some fresh despair.
Peter S. Beagle wrote a novella called Lila the Werewolf and Spider Robinson reviewed it with "It makes you want to send the author a get-well card."
Which would have meant something else coming from, say, Dorothy Parker, but it didn't. I think what Robinson meant was that this work seemed to come from a lot of pain, and he wished the author to be healed of it.
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Get well soon, The Seer.
I'm sure you already know this, but you're not, and they don't.
Obviously, it'd be great if the world were perfect and you all loved each other and respected each other and were close friends, but that's not something you have direct control over. Unless they're good people you pushed away for no reason or something, you aren't obligated to be there. You don't need to feel guilty.
I know I'm amazingly fortunate that my parents are two of my closest friends. It doesn't often work out like that.
Ah, I'm sorry about your difficulties with family; good luck.