Thanks very much, all, for your interest in my story.
The setting was the East Coast of an alt-history North America colonized by the Chinese, with the six-hundred years ago reference pointing toward the era of the Ming Dynasty Treasure Ships that had explored as far as Africa in the early 1400s before internal political strife ended their voyaging.
I modeled the general ethnic situation on actual America's West Coast, because it is likewise located farthest away from the original homeland of the colonizing civilization (real West Coast farthest from Europe; alt-history East Coast farthest from China).
I was trying to link that colonized aspect of the setting with the psychological theory of the colonized mind, which one psychologist used to try to explain the actions of the Va Tech gunman. I tried to cast that analysis within the Confucian social ideals that I thought a Chinese-settled alt-America might have. I also tried to inject my own commentary as well--that psychology and such can only attempt to explain these things,
( ... )
Scott, thank you so much for replying (and for setting me straight)!
I hope I didn't imply, or outright say, that your story didn't have a theme at all, I just felt it didn't "fit" in with the rest of the stories in the chapbook; however, I understand perfectly why you chose the chapbook as the venue rather than traditional publication (though it would've been interesting to see how it fared via the traditional route). And don't feel bad about not keeping the "Homeless Moon" theme--only Mike and Erin actually had moons in their stories, the rest of you didn't, so I just assumed that there had been no obvious theme, as much as I wanted one to be there.
I'll post an amendment to my review, correcting my mistake and point people down to the comments, which has sparked some interesting discussion. Scott, again, thank you for commenting!
The setting was the East Coast of an alt-history North America colonized by the Chinese, with the six-hundred years ago reference pointing toward the era of the Ming Dynasty Treasure Ships that had explored as far as Africa in the early 1400s before internal political strife ended their voyaging.
I modeled the general ethnic situation on actual America's West Coast, because it is likewise located farthest away from the original homeland of the colonizing civilization (real West Coast farthest from Europe; alt-history East Coast farthest from China).
I was trying to link that colonized aspect of the setting with the psychological theory of the colonized mind, which one psychologist used to try to explain the actions of the Va Tech gunman. I tried to cast that analysis within the Confucian social ideals that I thought a Chinese-settled alt-America might have.
I also tried to inject my own commentary as well--that psychology and such can only attempt to explain these things, ( ... )
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I hope I didn't imply, or outright say, that your story didn't have a theme at all, I just felt it didn't "fit" in with the rest of the stories in the chapbook; however, I understand perfectly why you chose the chapbook as the venue rather than traditional publication (though it would've been interesting to see how it fared via the traditional route). And don't feel bad about not keeping the "Homeless Moon" theme--only Mike and Erin actually had moons in their stories, the rest of you didn't, so I just assumed that there had been no obvious theme, as much as I wanted one to be there.
I'll post an amendment to my review, correcting my mistake and point people down to the comments, which has sparked some interesting discussion. Scott, again, thank you for commenting!
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