Tag: trans author

Little Free Archive: Roko’s Basilisk Slut Era by Maddison Stoff

April 15th, 2025

I knew this shit would happen to me. All the worst and most traumatic bullshit fucking does. But no, cunt, this time I’ve been planning for it. Training for it. Like a fucking samurai from one of my gay little animes, I’m ready.

It’s been a while since I did anything for LFA, but we’re back with a very, very horny bit of transfem science fiction! Trans scifi is something I’ve been getting massively into lately — there’s something about the sheer weirdness of it that I find deeply compelling as a surrealist-horror nerd, and ‘Roko’s Basilisk Slut Era’ certainly delivers.

But, some background first. You’ll get a lot more out of the story if you’re familiar with the idea of Roko’s Basilisk ahead of time. It’s a quasi-religious techbro thought experiment coined on LessWrong, in which it was theorized that a future artificial superintelligence would possess the means to go back in time and punish anyone who knew of but did not directly contribute to — or actively impeded — its advancement. For some reason, it gets into certain people’s heads pretty badly, whereas other people (like me, to be honest) shrug it off. I imagine it has to do with the amount of religious paranoia each person has.

Anyway, ‘Roko’s Basilisk Slut Era’ is part erotica, part science fiction, and part fourth-wall-breaking metafiction. It’s ranty, but in a way that flows exceedingly well; and it’s funny. The wry humour adds to the sincerity of it, and a little bit of poking fun at LessWrong never hurt anybody. The Basilisk itself is an adorably shy little monstrosity (my favourite kind) and the specificity of Stoff’s self-insert’s clothing choices had me cackling.

My one criticism, if it can really be called that, is that I get a little twitchy every time someone refers to Isabel Fall as ‘dead’, but it’s just as likely to be an artistic turn of phrase here so that’s on me. (She’s very much alive and well, just working under a different name — and that doesn’t take away from the excellent point being made, I’m just sensitive about this.)

Linking once more – check out ‘Roko’s Basilisk Slut Era’ on Maddison Stoff’s Patreon!

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The Gremlin’s Library: Secrets Inside Cabling by Calliope Neurotoxin

January 28th, 2025

TW: The zine being reviewed, and to a lesser extent the review itself, features themes of self-harm, self-mutilation, extremely creative violence, post-apocalypse civilization, and — mostly metaphorically – gender dysphoria. Also drug use, child abuse and mass death.

Have I told you lately I really love horror? Has it come up enough that I really really love horror? I think I’ve been too normal about it. Good news! This will change because I am about to be EXTREMELY NOT NORMAL about ‘Secrets Inside Cabling’ by Calliope Neurotoxin. This is another zine from WBMC (Wiggle Bird Mailing Club), which seems to be hitting nothing but perfect strikes. Literally the only reason I’m currently unsubscribed is because Patreon and the gods hate me, and it means I’m MISSING OUT on the December zine. Everything is terrible.

Anyway, ‘Secrets Inside Cabling’ is a litzine — a short story wrapped inside a zine, in unfortunately-small font (such is the joy of zine-making, I guess). It’s partly illustrated, and about humanity’s attempt to build a “physical god”, then promptly abandoned in low Earth orbit. The Earth here is a devastated wreck of its former self, and all the space technology is a wreck, too; we’re far enough in the future that even the promised future has come and gone. It’s a gutwrenching setting that inspires a kind of existential depression — we are, it seems, at the end of everything.

I won’t say much more than that, because honestly, this zine is a fucking experience and I don’t want to take that away from you. It’s gory, nauseating, and horrifying in both the little details (it’s important to dig. dig through, and for, what? you’ll find out.) and its broader storytelling (the idea of breeding pilots for the purposes of flying Something isn’t new, but that’s part of what makes the sparseness so good — we can fill in certain dots, and others take us by surprise). The violence isn’t just violent, but refreshingly so; there’s no mundane gun violence or run-of-the-mill sexual assault here. No, we’re talking acid dissolution and brain spikes, cocaine grown from mold and more — all in, I really must stress, a 20-page zine short story. Unbelievable. Calliope Neurotoxin, when you write a full length novel or game or short story collection, I will be at the door on release day Fry-style going “SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY”.

Anyway. If you want to buy the zine, even after its specialized release on WBMC, you can buy it here! To sign up for Wiggle Bird Mailing Club, check them out on Patreon over here.

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Tag: trans author

Little Free Archive: Roko’s Basilisk Slut Era by Maddison Stoff

The Gremlin’s Library: Secrets Inside Cabling by Calliope Neurotoxin