GAH

[bloodyrosemccoy]

I haven't linked to Scalzi's painful but brilliant post yet because I always assume that everybody on the entire internet reads Scalzi anyway, but today I decided I ought to boost the signal for anyone who missed it. (A warning: the piece is GROSS. It is very, very effective, but you may not want to read it--and if you do, you might need a shower afterward. That is perfectly all right, unless you're one of those conservative politicians, in which case it should be played on a constant audiotape loop at you.)

Plus, it's a nice segue into this. I've been kicking around the idea of satirizing the whole abortion debate using xenomorphs--something about a panel of xenomorph queens blocking a guy from getting the nice simple chestbursterectomy procedure before he explodes into blood and acid, and maybe that same panel of ALIEN QUEENS discussing why inoculations against alien fetuses should not be covered by insurance--but I haven't been able to pull it together. Fortunately, somebody else did it far more pithily than I could have. Sometimes Something Awful hits it right on.

Comments

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

It's a helluva piece of writing. In one of his later posts, Scalzi mentions that he basically squicked himself out.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I saw that, yeah. Not an easy thing to write. (He also said he waited till he'd finished his latest novel so he could keep a very close eye on the comment thread.)

[childthursday.livejournal.com]

This is only tangentially related, but it's mostly for encouragement on the creepy-dystopian-abortion debate satire thing.

Last week I was explaining ethical issues to a group of students, and noted that populations with special protections include children, prisoners, the mentally ill and pregnant women. All innocence, a student asks, "Because the mother may be stressed?" and I answered without thinking, "No, it's because the fetus cannot consent."

The room fell silent for a few minutes, and then all of the women shared a collective shudder. You become the fetus, as long as you carry it. The mother does not exist. Aiee!