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Rathani's Stories?

Submitted by throwaway261 on Tue, 08/09/2011 - 10:07

So, with the new tagging system in place, I've been spending perhaps an unhealthy ammount of time tagging images and stories with some of my favorite tags, specifically "floating", "tied down", and "clothes bursting".  I've also been tagging images that I know to be story illustrations with "story illustration" and the title of the story, and tagging the story in question with its title as well, so that when the tag is clicked both the story and the illustration show up in the search.

I found an old Critical Volume piece called Air Spell ([url=http://bodyinflation.org/node/21113]link[/url]), an illustration to a Rathani work by the same name, so I tagged it "story illustration" and started searching for the story.  Problem is, the story is gone.  Worse yet, it appears all of Rathani's written works are gone.  There were 2 full pages, going on 3, of stories written by Rathani, with the only ones missing being the last 6 chapters of her "Inflation Diary" series, and the story "Temple in the Mountain", which she deleted from her DeviantArt account not too long ago and which I foolishly forgot to save.

Is it a bug?  Rathani, did you request to have them removed?  I'm not trying to shame you or anything, but it was nice being able to read all those stories again.

Tue, 08/09/2011 - 13:43
#2
Rathani

Yes, I asked for them to be taken down. They were posted without anyone asking me first, and I don't want to be represented on this site by work I did a long time ago, when I had much less experience as a writer.

I'll be submitting the ones I'm willing to have up here later, but that won't include any that aren't already on my DeviantArt page.

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Wed, 08/10/2011 - 16:54
(Reply to #2) #3
throwaway261

Would you be willing to reconsider?

I realize that you may have reservations about your old work.  All artists do.  A few years from now I suspect I will look upon The Factory less fondly than I do now.  Thing is, however, I think it is important to keep one's old works around.  More importantly, I don't think your old works are bad.  Far from it.  City in the Clouds was just okay, I'll give you that one, but only because it ended without resolution.  Your other works, like Across the Sea, Temple in the Mountain, and the Aprentice's Challenge, that is where your talent began to shine.  All writers have a compentency, a style unique to them that is not easily reproduced.  Yours is your ability to create fantasy worlds that do not fall deeply into cliche yet effortlessly tell the reader what the world is about, what is going on, and why things happen the way they do.  You have a tallent to blend fantasy with our interest in a believeable, gripping way.  Even better, you have shown you can blend fantasy and a modern environment just as easily with your Inflation Diary series.  I'm gonna come out and say that our community is worse off without some of your classic stories.  Yes, classic.  Three names stick out in my little odyssey into this odd fasination we all share: Airtankgirl, SvenSvenson, and yours.  You were one of the first authors whose stories I read, and I largely consider your stories to be must-reads.

Don't think for one moment that I am saying you have not improved.  Far from it.  You have most definitely improved over the years, specifically in the conciseness of your words.  I just think that your old works are no less influential than they were back then, and that they should continue to be shared.  Maybe not City in the Clouds, unless you decide to finish it, but your other stories, most definitely.

Formerly known as unknown.

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Thu, 08/11/2011 - 00:08
(Reply to #3) #4
Rathani

Thanks for the praise.

My current project uses a lot of themes and elements similar to those in my older work; think of it as the story I would have written all along if I'd had the experience to do so. I don't want to diminish it by having it alongside similar, worse things I've written.

And remember, the only reason they were up briefly at all is because they were up without my permission, which was an extremely unpleasant surprise when I'd thought they'd gone quietly into obscurity. The work I've done is what represents me in the community, so on a community-focused site like this, I want to choose for myself the "face" I put forward. I'm glad you got enjoyment out of my older stories, and I know once something's on the internet there's no way to take it back, but I don't want to make it easier for them to be what people think of when they think of me.

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