Autochthonous Rite

This story was published in Volume 5 Issue 4 of Worldbuilding Magazine.

"Autochtonous Rite" was originally published in my high school literary magazine. That version is a rough draft which I made during my freshman year, which was also my first year back in the East Coast. Being here was a stark contrast to the environment and kinds of people that I had grown used to, and Spanish was barely spoken—much less read! So, once more, I started writing in English. In hindsight, it seems natural that this resulted in a story about culture, transmission of culture, all taking place on backdrop as remote to me as it was to my peers.

Over time, and with revision, the story grew into proper shape—the setting and nature of the ritual became clearer and the elements of the story which were symbolically important revealed themselves to me. So, I turned a new eye toward it. This resulted in the version that Worldbuilding Magazine published, and to which they asked me to write an analysis/addendum for. After revising this addendum, and re-incorporating some material which was cut from the published version, the full addendum—titled "Orality, Mythology & Ritual: An Attempt at Self-Vivisection"—can be downloaded here, too! 

Thank you to my friends and comrades at the TerraGenesis Collective for their writing feedback and suggestions, and to the Worldbuilding Magazine editors for helping me polish this piece!

"Aurora" by Getty Images — Banner
"Das Eismeer" by Caspar David Friedrich — Cover