![\"gin-and-other-options\"](\"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/gin-and-other-options-590x235.jpg\")
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So, I have been thinking about my story, “If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love<\/a>,” for obvious reasons. I\u2019ve spent a lot more time thinking about that story than probably anything else I\u2019ve ever written, which is amusing, given how short it is. On the plus side, that makes textual analysis relatively simple.<\/p>\n There are a lot of legitimate critiques of \u201cDinosaur\u201d and I\u2019m cool with people disliking it. I\u2019m not cool with some other stuff that\u2019s going on, but I don\u2019t have a problem with people disliking it. (Which, for the record, is not limited to the puppies \u2013 the story actually has a mixed track record with \u201cSJWs\u201d. It was initially rejected by a market specializing in \u201cdiverse\u201d fiction, as being too much like other queer fiction that\u2019s been done before, and therefore not really surprising. Nick Mamatas dislikes it on aesthetic grounds, although I\u2019m not sure if he counts as an SJW or not. Etcetera.)<\/p>\n Anyway, I have thinky thoughts about a lot of the story, and maybe I\u2019ll write those down at some point. But maybe not, because internet arguments, meh. <\/p>\n What I wanted to address in this post is the criticism of my use of the word \u201cgin.\u201d The assailants in the story are described as gin-soaked.<\/p>\n This has been interpreted as a class marker. Initially, I didn\u2019t pay much attention to this, as some of the framing of the way it was brought up was irritating. However, that doesn\u2019t really matter. If it\u2019s a problem, it\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n I will say that I did not intend \u201cgin\u201d to be a class marker. My primary association with gin is hipsters. I have friends who make their own. (I pictured a college bar when I was writing the story, although I didn\u2019t want that image\u2014or any distinct markers–to be in the story itself.) My secondary association with gin is bathtub gin as discussed in musicals about the 1920s. My third is the inappropriate anecdote that Eliza tells about gin in My Fair Lady–which, I suppose, should have clued me into the class association.<\/p>\n I did not want the assailants to be marked at all, except that they were into beating people up with flimsy excuses, an activity of which I disapprove. <\/p>\n So: what can I do? My intent to not be classist isn\u2019t significant. Some of my previous trespasses have been totally unintentional, such as the fact that the dwarf in \u201cThe Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen\u2019s Window\u201d is easily read as an evil stereotype. (My intention was that, since the main character is evil, her judgment is unreliable.) Readers of Alas, a Blog brought that to my attention after the story had been published. I apologized but didn\u2019t revise–it would have required substantial change, and I feel like the best way I can actually address that problem is to do a follow-up story from his perspective sometime. (Though my writing ambitions, alas, outstrip my productivity.)<\/p>\n However, this is where the brevity of \u201cDinosaur\u201d is helpful. The change would be tiny. The story is online, which is a medium that allows for revision. People are still reading it, apparently, so revision is also potentially useful. I can\u2019t do anything about printed copies, but I can ask the editor of Apex Magazine to switch out the word. (And leave a note in comments about having done so, which would allow people to easily trace the history.) He might decline, but I doubt he will.<\/p>\n So: what alcohol is unmarked? Pabst is definitely too distinct. Is Vodka too dourly Russian? Tequila too college party? Rum too, I dunno, piratey? Whisky too hardcore masculine? Wine sounds sort of melancholy poet, and beer seems Homer Simpsony. (From this list, rum seems like the most likely candidate to me.)<\/p>\n I don\u2019t drink a whole lot, and when I do, I drink girly fru fru drinks because I\u2019m a wimp. So, I don\u2019t really know what the subcultures of alcohol are. Help me out. Sad Puppies welcome to contribute, especially since you\u2019re the ones who spotted it. <\/p>\n (I assume it\u2019s a given, but I\u2019ll note anyway: please stay on topic and civil. That means everyone.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So, I have been thinking about my story, “If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love,” for obvious reasons. I\u2019ve spent a lot more time thinking about that story than probably anything else I\u2019ve ever written, which is amusing, given how … Continue reading