I wrote a guest post over on Aborigen’s blog about what it’s like to derive sexual gratification from fantasies that feature death as a crucial element. Go read and tell me what you think.
Can A Sexual Fantasy Be Immoral?
Category: Aborigen
zHEIGHTgeist
My friend Aborigen has bestirred himself to start a Size podcast, zHEIGHTgeist. Dissatisfied with narrow and sensationalist depictions of Size Fantasy, Aborigen has talked with a wide variety of Size people to present a more fulsome appreciation of all the many ways Size Fantasy can be expressed. zHEIGTgeist is intended to be interesting and entertaining for normies and Size fans alike. The first two episodes dropped earlier today, and my contribution will appear in the future.
Go give it a listen!
SizeCon 2023 — After-Action Reports
It’s nowhere near as exhilarating as actually being there, but I always get a frisson of discovery when I read about other people’s SizeCon experiences. Misadventure seems to stalk staff and attendees alike, but when connections are made with fellow kinksters the joyous relief is palpable.
This post will be updated as additional reports become available.
World-Building, Author Ambitions, and Reader Expectations
I’m going to compose a background post for the story universe that I created for my first story, A Little Trouble in Big Sky. When I first wrote it I sketched out a couple of paragraphs as an explanatory prologue, and other world-building hints were scattered throughout the story. I’m happy with the amount of detail I provided at the time, and I think the story still stands on its own.
So why am I adding more detail now? Partly because, after almost nine years, I’m actively thinking about writing another story set in the same universe. It probably doesn’t strictly require more specification or elaboration, but I admire how Aborigen’s categories help save time and exposition by warning the reader up front that they are entering a size story and what kind of size differential to expect. I’m also looking forward to the sheer creativity of extrapolating from what I’ve written and finding room for different stories.
Another motive for creating a setting where size-differential is “expected” is to allow character development that is unencumbered by people having to acknowledge and process otherwise-fantastic size-differential. I want to show real people in real relationships, and having to spend time where they deny their own senses while trying to grapple with giants or tinies detracts from that.
Now, don’t get me wrong; the bewilderment and awe of encountering fantastic size-differential is an important and valuable element of size fantasy, and I certainly don’t want to eliminate it entirely. I also don’t plan to write stories exclusively set in constructed size worlds. I still get the urge to take a simple vision of a size encounter and describe it intensely without digression, and I plan to continue indulging such urges.
Paradoxically, I believe going to the trouble of fleshing out a size world can make the stories set in it more accessible to non-size-pervs. It helps you think about the motivations of your characters, which are always formed in the context of what other people do in similar situations. Consequently, your characters make more sense and are therefore more relatable.
I have decided against trying to formulate a size world for each of my stories; not all of them lend themselves to rich extrapolation, and of course many of them derive their juice from featuring unexpected and incomprehensible size-differential. Despite those aspects, however, some have managed to include favorite characters and/or relationships that could warrant sequels. I expect to rely almost entirely on my own passions to determine if any get expanded.
Anyway, look for the Big Sky category to get a background post soon and another story sometime this year.
UPDATE: My Big Sky background post is now up.
We Come From Somewhere This Was Real
My review of We Come From Somewhere This Was Real, a collection of size fantasy stories by Aborigen. Links to the book at the bottom.
This is a fine sampler of both Aborigen’s range and his facility with smut. Almost all the encounters are F/m in configuration, but a rewarding variety of perspectives is explored. This buffet approach demonstrates a depth to size fantasy that a curious newbie might otherwise miss. No author could feature every aspect of size fantasy over five stories or fifty, but Aborigen’s versatility with characters and scenarios establishes both the plausibility and the desirability of any encounter one might suggest.
Three of Aborigen’s stories here impressed me deeply. “They Make Great Pets” is the only one with a female protagonist: Luna, a single woman who takes in a handful of tinies and gives them shelter and food. Like all the stories in this collection, little or no time is spent explaining how or why size-difference exists in this scenario. Instead, we get to know Luna and watch her relationships with her pets develop dramatically but coherently through many gratifying stages. Aborigen’s characterization is at its best here.
I had previously read “The Giant, His Prize, and Her Lover” in another venue, and I distinctly remember Aborigen relating how writing it took him outside his comfort zone. It starts from a perspective familiar to longtime readers of Aborigen: a tiny man (Ulysses) devoted to his giant mistress (Rosann). It enters unfamiliar territory when we learn that Rosann herself lives the life of a tiny woman, kept by an even larger giant (Blacwin) who took her from her homeworld. Blacwin at last learns of Ulysses’s existence, and Rosann decides that her two men need to reconcile themselves to each other. In addition to the challenge of inhabiting the possessive Blacwin, Aborigen has to portray Rosann as what the size community has called (borrowing from the BDSM community) a “switch.” The dialogue between the two men veers between the bawdy and the philosophical and back, and Aborigen does justice to all parties. I don’t know if this version of the story is more polished than the first time I read it, but it somehow seems more at peace with itself.
The final story, “No Good Deeds,” is the longest in the collection and features the most protracted and detailed sexytimes. Striving academically at the public library, Elvin lets his idle lusts drive him to speak to Joellen, a tall woman having difficulty with one of the terminals. His reward is that she shrinks him without consent or explanation and takes him home for her amusement. As with Short Shrift, Aborigen is undaunted by the idiosyncratic logistics of mixed-size sex, and he is very resourceful in repeatedly immersing the reader in the sensations and emotions of a tiny man at the mercy of a reckless woman. High replay value in this one.
While the tropes Aborigen invokes are familiar to this veteran size fantasist, he does not rely on them so precariously that a normie reader would feel confused or neglected. This collection is a wealth of thrills, passionately and meticulously realized. By following his curiosity and appetites wherever they lead him, Aborigen is inspiring as well as entertaining.
Amazon Kindle | Smashwords | Goodreads | Barnes & Noble | Google Play
Short Shrift
My review of Short Shrift, an F/m story by Aborigen. Links to the story at the bottom.
This was an excellent read and a good wank. It’s an extended treatment of a single encounter that one might expect to end much more abruptly and gruesomely. A number of distinct sexual activities are depicted in compelling detail, and Aborigen makes the reader feel every secretion and clench. Aside from the variations, what keeps the physical descriptions from becoming tedious is the frequent interweaving of the two characters’ inner narratives. This is key, of course; we care about the smut because we care about the characters, and Aborigen takes the time to establish them for us.
The introductory perspective is that of Candice, the instructor of an exercise group. She gives us our first look at the two main characters (in whose perspectives we will spend the rest of the story), and she is also important in that she is the only knowing agent of the size change that makes the plot possible. I actually would have liked more foreshadowing of this, as it otherwise seems too out-of-the-blue, particularly for the non-fetishist reader.
Fortunately, both Melanie the novice exercise student and Rickey the misogynist predator are sufficiently recognizable and well-developed that when the size change occurs their responses ground it in realism. Crucially, neither Melanie nor Rickey react predictably or implausibly to the bizarre circumstances they find themselves in. We get our fetish itches scratched, not because either Melanie or Rickey seek them out, but because they honestly explore who we already know them to be.
Aborigen is in fine form here, with sophisticated streams of consciousness and wicked observations. Most gratifyingly, he is unsparing in both sensual detail and emotional depth. I don’t identify with either Melanie or Rickey, but I’ve now inhabited both of them, separately, during one of my most obsessing fetish scenarios. An abiding delight.
Amazon Kindle | Smashwords | Goodreads | Barnes & Noble | Google Play
MyHeavenOct20 — Feedback Submitted
So I finally submitted my feedback to all the stories featured in MyHeavenOct20, the final iteration of the Size Riot quarterly size fantasy flash fiction contest. Work and the election conspired to make my November extremely stressful, and I’m still under significant pressure so I definitely need the deadline extension. Nevertheless, I feel a great debt of gratitude to Aborigen and all the authors and readers who have made Size Riot such a profitable experience both as an writer and as a size perv. Providing my critical appreciation of all the other stories was an obligation I was happy to undertake.
Given the self-indulgent theme, I shouldn’t have been surprised to see so authors discard any concern for detailed exposition. Lots of snappy dialogue, lines that we probably have been reciting to ourselves for years. Intriguingly, it seemed to me that there was less focus on physical sexuality than on personalities, attitudes, and relationships. I think that actually made the smut hotter.
There are no categories or voting for this final round, but the category I always most wanted to win was “Would you suggest this story to someone outside the size fetish?” As I have argued before, I think the best smut relies least on assumptions that the reader shares one’s fetish. Accordingly, it has been my aspiration to express my size fantasies as accessibly as possible. That’s always the feedback I’m most interested in, if you have a mind to share your opinions.
Over the years I’ve become familiar with both the specific kinks as well as the writing styles of a handful of authors, and it was a wistful pleasure to recognize them in their stories this round as they let it all hang out. Others I didn’t recognize, but their stories were passionate and well-written enough that they spoke to me nonetheless. I most enjoyed those that clearly appreciated why their fantasies meant so much and expressed them with craft and joy.
It’s been said many times, but once more with feeling: THANK YOU, ABORIGEN. We are all better writers and readers because of Size Riot.
Size Rashomon
Benjithedreamer talks to Aborigen again, this time about the possibility of a large collaboration between size writers all working from the same narrative prompt but each offering different perspectives.
An Oral History of Size Riot
Benjithedreamer interviews Aborigen about Size Riot, writing, and the size community. Lots of good tangents followed up on here.
Size Riot October 2020 — The Last Shall Be The Best
That’s right, the October 2020 iteration of the Size Riot quarterly size fantasy flash fiction contest will be the last.
It is impossible to overstate how much the size fantasy community (such that it is) owes Aborigen for challenging us these past four years to vary our interests and stretch our muscles, both as writers and as readers. I know that his efforts have not been thankless, but neither have they been griefless. You can’t pay anyone to do this kind of work, because it requires both a community-minded spirit as well as a pride in craftmanship.
Speaking for myself, this contest has been both an invaluable exercise in editing and plotting as well as a forced reminder of how much I enjoy creative writing. I have had to ask myself, over and over, why I want to write and who am I writing for. I have also had to examine my expectations for others’ writing and what kind of feedback they need. Size Riot has been my main source of inspiration for developing a size aesthetic.
The final contest theme is “My Blue Heaven,” asking each author for their ideal, perfect size fantasy (in 2k words or less). There won’t be any voting or ranking or winners, but feedback is solicited nonetheless. That was always the more important part.
Sign-ups run from now through 30 Sep.
El Amante Menguante 