While I admit other words could have been used in place of the term “whore”, I disagree with the concept of my story (at this stage) depicting violence. The rules state that there is to be no excessive violence, blood, or gore. There was no actual excessive violence here. Mere exercises that would train these women in the arts of violence. I mean it’s all good I suppose. You don’t want my stuff, you don’t want my stuff. I shall simply take my work elsewhere. Thank you for taking the time to discriminate against y art.
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I read your comment last night and am responding this morning because it made me think. Discriminating against art is not my style. I'm a little bit more flexible in my interpretation of genres and art forms than most people, I would say. I'm really flexible about lifestyle and philosophy. A throwback to the 60s (when I came of age). However, I am a person who reacts subjectively to material. That's what art does. It affects us subjectively. That's the best test of art. Does it move us? Even if it makes us gag, it can be art because it moves us.
Your piece does not make me gag, but I reacted viscerally to all the punching and kicking:
As I read the piece now, it still upsets me. But that's me. There are two other curators here and many, many readers in the Ink Well. I gave you my opinion as an individual, and I wrote my opinion personally, not as Ink Well. I think another curator might not have felt the same way.
This has been a lesson for me. When I read a piece that feels very violent to me, I'm going to ask another curator to read it.
Life experience molds each of us. I have a very low threshold for violence. You ran into that threshold and this may not have been fair--which is why I will pass the story on to another curator.
The word whore, though, really is not one that I (as a woman) find appropriate. You and I agree on that.
Hope my explanation helps you, as an artist, to feel you are getting a fair vetting.
Keep creating, pushing boundaries. These boundaries are not fixed in stone. They are dynamic and respond to the actions of creators and audience.
Thank you for taking the time to respond. Yeah, the Valkyries kicking each other was to show how green they were in the fighting arts and it was meant to be something of a clumsy start. Now that’s not to say that later parts don’t get violent, but no more than say Cobra Kai on Netflix (which I drew inspiration from for this piece).
Hello fellow writer :)
Thank you for your openness. Artists (even if I don't write great fiction, I'm still an artist) have to be open to each other. That's how we grow.
Hope to see you around.