Megan describes herself as looking like a Whitley Streiber alien and protects herself from emotional hurt by projecting an aura of invisibility. But then Megan meets a man to whom she wants desperately not to be invisible.
This story was published in issue #142 of INTERZONE magazine in the UK and was nominated for the 1999 British Science Fiction Award.
Beauty and the Beast was the first story Mother ever read to me. I have read it myself a myriad times in a variety of forms and seen countless dramatic renditions of it. At each telling or showing or reading, I have felt, for a moment, a sense of contentment. That is, until I fathomed that this was a fairy tale and had nothing whatever to do with me. Oh, it’s not just that it’s a fairy tale--everything is a fairy tale from my vantage point--it’s that the Beast is a man and I am a woman.
What difference? Merely this: An ugly man may be saved by character; even the most hideous of men, as the fairy tale illustrates, can be loved for kindness and humor and a host of other qualities that fall neatly into a package labeled ‘inner beauty.’ But an ugly woman ... well, I quickly learned that by no combination of graces or talents or virtues can she be considered lovely.
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Just as life during the pandemic was color-coded with different hues representing different levels of danger, life in its aftermath has become shaded in similar ways. As a self-styled “Seeker of Beauty with Beauty,” (borrowing from a quote by W.E.B.
Beauty and the Beast was the first story Mother ever read to me. I have read it myself a myriad times in a variety of forms and seen countless dramatic renditions of it. At each telling or showing or reading, I have felt, for a moment, a sense of contentment. That is, until I fathomed that this was a fairy tale and had nothing whatever to do with me. Oh, it’s not just that it’s a fairy tale--everything is a fairy tale from my vantage point--it’s that the Beast is a man and I am a woman.
