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Pastorale in E
Pastorale in E
11.3k Views 358 Favorites 22 Chapters 0 Chapters/Week 137 Readers
5.0 (21 ratings)
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Synopsis

Summertime in their small sleepy town is pretty dull for twelve year old friends Eddie and Mickie, until a magical talisman starts trying to set some things right. The world begins to shift, but magic can be mysterious and maddening. Will it fizzle out before it's complete?

Genre
Gender BenderHistoricalRomanceSlice of Life
Tags
Child Protagonist Childhood Friends Childhood Love Coming of Age Complex Family Relationships Cute Story Family Family Conflict Female to Male First Love Friendship Magic Male to Female Transgender
Table of Contents 22
Reviews 3
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    This story is one that has some highlights in it, and some really beautiful moments, but is also poisoned by an undercurrent of gender essentialism, s*xist stereotypes, and a very outdated view of the differences between girls and boys that goes unchallenged throughout the entire story.

    I'm going to spoiler this review pre-emptively since I plan to talk very much about the actual content of the story itself and the themes presented inside it.

    I also want to say that none of this is a dig on the author. I give this review solely for the author's consideration of the impact of their work and to have them think about the viewpoints and themes presented in this story.

    Spoiler

    It's clear that the author is a talented writer and this shows up in their prose. The MC Eva and her best friend Mike are both interesting characters. Unfortunately that's where it ends. Every other character is a stereotypical representation of the gender they are and the conservative Christian culture of the town the story takes place in. Ironically the only character that challenges gender norms is a minor character who appears in only one chapter and who comments on how a woman should be able to use a gun to defend herself.

    This story elicited many heavy emotional responses from me. I cried at some parts from the metaphors for the experience of realizing one's gender present in the story. These were the well written and beautiful parts. However, I also cried and was triggered at the consistent gendered language used in this story. The gendering of genitals in particular as "boy parts" and "girl parts", especially since we're talking about the genitals of 12 year olds, made me uncomfortable and presented a very transphobic viewpoint on what makes a girl a girl and what makes a boy a boy. 

    Eva is constantly confronted with this fear to express or enjoy anything viewed as "feminine". This is pretty consistent with my own early life experiences as a trans woman. But never is she told that her ideas of what is actually feminine are things that are okay and allowed to be enjoyed by anyone, regardless of gender. Everyone only affirms these beliefs of hers, and it only serves to further her uncomfortableness with her life as Eddie and her gender dysphoria. 

    While Eva is still "Eddie", she is never really affirmed in her gender at all. Sure we have people start to see her and treat her as a girl, but they don't treat her as herself. They treat her as a cis girl version of herself that never existed. Her transness is ignored and never recognized by any of the characters in the story outside of Mike and her younger sister Rosemary. The only characters that ever acknowledge any of this is her father, who takes a long time to accept her as a girl and is very transphobic and s*xist toward her during the "in-between time" (which in and of itself is presented as a very negative viewpoint towards transition in general) and Mike's mother, who is similarly transphobic and s*xist.

    This feeds into the very anti-trans nature of the entire story and the language used. We see some beautiful narrations of trans experiences regarding Eva growing to understand and accept her true self and her gender. But her trans nature is always viewed as this negative aspect of her life. Something awful that needs to be erased and removed. She's told and earnestly believes that she is a girl with a "boy's body" and "boy parts", and none of that is ever challenged by any character or theme in the story. If anything it is only affirmed and eventually "cured" by her transformation.

    Eva is physically transformed into a "cis girl" at the start of chapter 13. And I say "cis girl" here because any trans nature of Eva's body is erased. And not only her body, but her entire history. The world sees her as only ever having been a girl. They never remember her as "Eddie". Even her father completely forgets the struggle and mini-journey he had towards accepting his daughter as his daughter, and just believes she was always his daughter, which erases completely some character growth on his part.

    In conclusion, "Pastorale in E" is a story that had a lot of potential to tell a story about two pre-teens going on a journey of self discovery and learning about what gender really is and how it applies to them. They could have been taught that the way the society and culture of the 1970s views gender, gender roles, and even themselves as transgender children is problematic, toxic, and ultimately harmful. Eva and Mike could have learned to accept themselves as the girl and boy they are respectively long before any sort of actual physical transformation occurred. Instead, the story ends up only affirming the stereotypes, s*xism, and transphobia of the times that the characters have been taught themselves.

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    Azura
    Status: 22 – dance with me

    Pastorale in E is beautifully written. The two protagonists are are wonderfully full of personality, and their interactions are continuously delightful. 

    The story itself has excellent pacing. Never managing to feel like it's lagging or leaving you behind. And the magical transition is perhaps my favorite I've read.

    Spoiler

    Midnightsunflower managed to capture this wonderful little microcosm of what it's like to transition in the journey Eva and Mike go through. The awkward in-between, and moments of delight are all wonderful. And the two's burgeoning relationship is tastefully done, and just adorable.

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    Very excellent work.

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    I really enjoyed this, and although I see the point of FinallyFeminine's criticisms, I think I am inclined to cut the author more slack given the setting, the age of the POV characters, and the narrative structure (which makes it difficult if not impossible to show a modern perspective on the events of the story, given that we're immersed in Eddie/Eva's POV for almost the entire story, after a brief bit of omniscient scene-setting exposition near the beginning).  Possibly it would have been wiser to have Eva tell us the story in first person retrospective, where she could comment on how she feels now with fifty years more experience and a modern perspective on the events of her tweenhood, but that would also have its drawbacks, as that kind of retrospective POV can be emotionally distancing compared to an immersive POV if one isn't careful.I thought the use of magic in the story was interesting and original, and gave structure to the first half of the story by making the magical transition sort of parallel a mundane transition in miniature.  The small child characters, especially the MC's little sister, were super adorable as was Eva in her moments of gender euphoria. In short, I'd be glad to read more of the author's work.

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