The Rite of Spring: The Author

The Rite of Spring: Fragment 40

The Author
in which I relate how Aonan was honoured and made welcome by her tribespeople

It has become something of a convention, in works of fantasy of the vulgar sort, in the years since it has become acceptable to mention sex at all, for the heroine to experience, towards the end of the middle passage of the plot, a particularly unpleasant and brutal rape. This convention, often embellished with lurid description, is adopted by authors of both genders. I'm not altogether sure why.

It was never my intention that Aonan should become a heroine; she's always seemed to me rather prissy and faintly ridiculous. If she has become a heroine, that is due to her own integrity and strength of character. She would take no pleasure whatever in describing for you what happened to her in the barracks of the Guard; I should take no pleasure in writing such a description; and if you, gentle reader, would take pleasure in reading it, then I pity you.

It is sufficient for you to know that she was raped, brutally and repeatedly, by many men, several of whom were known to her. She wishes the manner of it to remain unknown, and I am more than happy to accede to her wishes in this.

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