Hi Pia. Questions 1 & 18 for the writing ask please!
1. What themes would you like to write about that you feel don’t get explored very often?
Oh this one is tough. Hmmm.
Probably that trauma isn't healed after a single cathartic cry, which is a mainstream media staple that I find incredibly frustrating. One therapy session, one big talk, one big cry, I get that it's a metaphorical stand-in, but it has trained a lot of people to expect that they can resolve all their issues in a way that just doesn't exist.
I don't think there's a ton of works out there that explore sadism from a place of sadism instead of say, service topping or service dominating, where we get to see from the POV character that they are genuinely aroused from causing pain and it's not giving them like, mental breakdowns because of it. Especially in a more serious story vs. a PWP where the sadistic POV is just like 'evil guy doing evil stuff and having a grand old time.' Writing 'level-headed compassionate man who happens to be a kinky sadist who feels gleeful when partner screams/writhes for him' I genuinely feel is not super common.
"Bad victims" deserve love, comfort, compassion and care. Mainstream media has this unfortunate thing where "good victims" of trauma etc. tend to get rewarded. I.e. Meek, soulful, earnest, trembling, vulnerable good people, who cry politely and never throw tantrums and are never angry and who do everything Right. Meanwhile bad victims are sometimes actually the villain of the entire work that revolves around the good victim (see Gwyn and Efnisien vs. each other in Spoils of the Spoiled, it is a fairly classic 'good victim v bad victim' narrative, mildly subverted by the fact that Augus is a "bad victim" and Efnisien gets his own story later).
"Bad victims" are often defined as people who, after trauma, become angry, bitter, mean, perhaps they take drugs or experience other addictions, they can gamble, be cruel, be intensely self-destructive, and many readers (and people!!!) tend to dismiss bad victims or treat them like they're not equally as deserving of the same amount of care/attention/comfort/love as the good victim (which, they are! They are deserving of that!)
This gets explored through The Ice Plague too, it was wild how many people didn't like Mosk and the reasons they cited were almost always under the umbrella of "because he's a bad victim" even if the reader didn't realise that's what they were basically saying. Likewise, Gwyn and Augus show the difference between "good" and "bad" victim. Mosk and Eran. Gwyn and Efnisien. And then of course we have Nate, who is a "bad victim" (he gets meaner as he heals, he gets angrier, he lashes out more. Exploring his concept of good vs. bad omega is also his exploration of good vs. bad victim).
I remember reading about good v. bad victim theory a long time ago, and how in reality, this creates situations where people who have been through horrendous things, who need significant support, are deprived it because basically their tone isn't correct. They are not tonally performing being a victim of violence and trauma correctly. And obviously, that's bullshit. We don't justify the abuse they've done, but they're not going to heal in the absence of care or compassion. ALL of Falling Falling Stars is a treatise into how the bad victim gets to have care too.
Anyway, yeah, I care about that one a lot, lol, I don't see me not writing it while the good/bad victim divide exists so badly irl and in fiction, and is one of those invisible things that operates on all of us, and of course, is even more likely to oppress people who are already members of minorities - queer bad victims, POC bad victims, religious minority bad victims are all far more likely to be less resourced and cared for overall, because they aren't "performing" the results of their trauma correctly. And I'm very 'fuck that shit' about it, lol.
18. What writers have inspired you with their use of language? What are some of your favorite quotes?
I am not someone who saves favourite quotes or anything from authors, but I do have a ton of faves who have inspired me with their use of language. Probably too many to list, from over the years (I've read over 2,800 books/manga/manhwa not including fanfiction).
Specifically in terms of use of language, I really enjoy Ursula K Le Guin, Cecilia Dart Thornton for her descriptions (especially The Ill-Made Mute), Robin Hobb for her ability to build tension and release, Scott Heim for his ability to weave delicate stories with big themes and emotions, Robert Holdstock for his ability to create breathtakingly beautiful natural settings that always feel a tad ominous and sinister, Katherine Addison / Sarah Monette for her complex, deep descriptions, well-realised characters and rich symbolism, especially in The Doctrine of Labyrinths, Randall Jarrell for his ability to create tender warmth amidst prose that is deceptively simple while evocative, Ann-Marie MacDonald for writing the kind of family epics that are like taking 400 bullets to the chest, Tanith Lee for being willing to go to and inhabit very dark spaces in a way that has inspired countless other authors often without credit, Keri Hulme for some of the most poignant capturing of love and domestic violence while writing affectionately for the New Zealand landscape, Kurt Vonnegut for all the obvious reasons, and NK Jemisin for having a cool approach to unconventional protagonists and feminist speculative writing overall.
From the Unique Writing Asks meme!
