Special Issue 10

Error creating thumbnail: File missing

Cover for Shousetsu Bang Bang Special Issue 10, by DragonReine

Shousetsu Bang*Bang special issue 10 was released on March 23, 2015. The theme is Some Enchanted Evening.

The issue can be found at http://bb-shousetsu.livejournal.com/107531.html and is mirrored at http://www.shousetsubangbang.com/mirror/frontpage/bangbang-special-no-10/.

This issue is also available as a free ebook on Smashwords at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/761167

Signups for this issue are posted at http://bb-shousetsu.livejournal.com/106631.html.

Contents

The cover artist was DragonReine. The issue contains the following stories:

• Current, by Himawari
• Knife Edge, by Matsuoka Haruka (in memoriam) and Kimyō Tabibito
• Timepiece, by shukyou
• Queen of Come-What-May, by T.F. Grognon
• Synergy, by Iron Eater
• The Way That The Sunshine Gleams From Your Wedding Band, by Aosora Hikaru
• Invisible data, by Hyakunichisou 13

This issue also contains the following standalone art:

• Captured Swan, by cloven

Cover Artist's Comments

From dragonreine.deviantart.com:

Since the theme/title for this issue was "Some Enchanted Evening", I decided to pay homage to the theme of racism and interracial romance that was explored in South Pacific, with an added flavour of religion thrown in.

South Pacific was based in Southeast Asia during WW2, and I happen to be Malaysian, so I decided to make these two characters a Chinese girl and a Malay-Muslim girl, given that these two race groups are often in conflict politically here, and there's a lot of racial and cultural tension between these two groups in this country. As recently as this year (February 2015), we have things like this:

"A minister's call for traders to lower the price of goods in line with the drop in oil prices took a racial tone when he called on Malays to boycott Chinese businesses, singling out the Old Town White Coffee cafe franchise because of its alleged DAP links." (DAP is an opposition party in this country, traditionally linked to the Chinese)

Interracial marriage/romance is kind of frowned upon, especially if it involves a Muslim (because in this country, a non-Muslim can only marry a Muslim if they've converted, and once they've converted " they have virtually no way of officially un-converting should things change.

The LGBT community also faces heavy prejudice from the majority Muslim government, and there are no laws protecting LGBT communities from discrimination. Malaysia still maintains section 377 of the Penal Code where sodomy and oral sex are illegal, a holdover from the colonial era.<

377A - Carnal intercourse against the order of nature: Any person who has a sexual connection with another person by the introduction of the penis into the anus or mouth of the other person is said to commit carnal intercourse against the order of nature.

377B - Committing carnal intercourse against the order of nature: Whoever voluntarily commits carnal intercourse against the order of nature shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to twenty years, and shall also be liable to whipping.

I just want to shine a bit of light on that, since it's not something that is spoken of often in the English-speaking internet community ^_^