Comments | feral_shrew: Far From The Tree: Part 3/3

feral_shrew

Far From The Tree: Part 3/3

Dec 13, 2010 18:45

Original credit for the idea and background still belongs to avocado_love. I would love to know what you've thought about this story, and if you think that anything should have happened differently. "What if..." is one of my favorite questions when it comes to stories, and I usually can go into far too much detail about why I chose A instead of B ( Read more... )

atla, fic:far from the tree, character:sokka, fanfiction, character:zuko, rating:adult

Comments 47

yukinoomoni December 14 2010, 16:18:37 UTC

I, too, think you captured the tone. Viewing it from Zuko's POV was a nice touch, especially when it came to the details and learning about just how harsh it all was for him, all without going into too much detail. Sokka's caring but silent understanding was so apt it was heart-breaking. Very nicely done.

feral_shrew December 14 2010, 17:22:32 UTC

One of the biggest pieces of advice that advocacy services tell family/friends of people who have been sexually assaulted is very easy. "Believe them." Sokka doesn't go into denial about what he saw and what happened, and he knows more than enough about what happened. He's also taken on the role of protector, so it's easy to extend that to one more person. (Sokka's conversation with Toph, when he talks about his mother... anybody with that much empathy is going to muddle through things just fine.)

I'm really happy that so many people have liked the tone of this story, because that was one of the things that I really wanted to focus on.

redrikki December 14 2010, 16:33:05 UTC

Wow. Literal tears in my eyes during sections of that, specifically Iroh's death and the end. Just beautifully and powerfully written.

I know you're new to LJ, so I'll give you tip that will help link your chapters. One of the things that I do to make it easier to go forward to the next chapter is to create a link at the bottom once I've posted the next section. You can do it, for example, by going Next Chapter. Also, I love your use of tags. Yay metadata and easy searching!

redrikki December 14 2010, 16:35:10 UTC

Okay, I tried typing out those handy instructions and LJ generated a link instead. Here goes again. Create a link by doing at the end.

feral_shrew December 14 2010, 17:11:58 UTC

I've tried to use HTML coding in LJ, but I've had way better luck using the button for links when it comes to posting. I'm still new to this format, but when in doubt I have friends that speak programming.

feral_shrew December 14 2010, 17:15:05 UTC

I'll definitely work on adding in links next. I completely forgot about that the first time through, and it would be a useful thing to have around. I'll definitely try to get to that this week.

(It makes me very happy when people have organized tags. I feel no shame in ripping off systems that I've seen/liked, and the option while posting to look at tags you've used before is a beautiful thing.)

It might have made a lot more sense to just leave it in one giant chunk, but I wanted to add in that extra space between some scenes.

beboots December 14 2010, 18:22:16 UTC

I came here through Avocado_Love as well, and read this entire thing all in one go despite the fact that I really should have been studying for my final exams. >_> I just wanted to say that I second all of the motions that Avocado said about what was absolutely lovely about this fic ( ... )

feral_shrew December 14 2010, 18:56:19 UTC

I formatted/posted the thing instead of studying for my finals, so we're in good company ( ... )

beboots December 14 2010, 20:03:43 UTC

Oh, don't worry, I don't think you're strange to be fascinated with the anthropology of medicine. I'm writing my honour's thesis on the history of medicine, specifically the crazy stuff going on with ideas about miasma and infections and amputations and such in the mid-nineteenth century. It has its own logic to it which I find fascinating ( ... )

feral_shrew December 14 2010, 20:18:06 UTC

I did my undergraduate degree in the history of medicine. I only know a very small variety of topics, but I know them very well. My favorite paper was a cultural history about the tampon. The teacher said we could write any technology, and she was the one that taught us the full history of the vibrator. (That's fascinating in itself, because women could have a "hysterical paroxysm" induced by the doctor, by way of a hand job, and it was not at all a sexual transaction ( ... )

Thread 25

kimberly_t May 25 2011, 03:06:48 UTC

This was powerful and completely in tune with the original story. Reading it actually hurt a couple of times... (that was meant as a compliment, really.)

feral_shrew May 25 2011, 06:54:31 UTC

It kicked my ass to write, and it's really meant to hurt. I do NOT profess to be an expert, but I drew this out of a lot of work with survivors of sexual assault. I'm on call again tomorrow ( ... )

anonymous October 17 2011, 02:07:47 UTC

A hard topic you wrote really well. People like glossing over hard topics, and making it someones fault. A person can't just be the victim because that means it could happen to anyone. If it's just about power, and not the attractiveness of the victim, then it could be anyone. People think 'it was something they did, they didn't wear a shirt that covered enough/they went to a bad part of town' anything that won't let it be anyone, anything to keep it from possibly being them next. Because if it's not the victims fault, one can't help but think, it could be me ( ... )

feral_shrew February 13 2012, 00:06:14 UTC

I wrote this story out of a few years of doing crisis counseling for sexual assault. If I can get someone to "I didn't deserve this" within the few hours I have with them, then I've done pretty well. Getting to that stage takes a lot of work. It was cathartic to write this story, and I'm glad that other people have been having something like that response to reading this.