🚁 Helicopter Story 🇺🇸¶
What is this?¶
The following is Isabel Fall’s I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter (hereinafter ISIAAAH,) also known as Helicopter Story for the purpose of nomination for the 2020 Hugo Award.
Annotations are mine and appear as marginalia. [1] (To view them on narrower viewports, or on mobile, tap the “1” appearing immediately before this parenthetical.)
Since I have no military affiliations whatsoever, these notes are probably very incomplete. Contributions are welcomed; write ifall1988 AT protonmail DOT com. [2]
At no point was AI used in the generation of this page.
Why did you do this?¶
I believe ISIAAAH is the greatest short story to appear in at least a generation.
ISIAAAH is the blood-curdling, stomach-turning scream of a trans woman living in a country that regularly commits crimes against humanity for any reason at all, or failing that, none. It says: You cannot have gender liberation and a military-industrial complex at the same time.
Good writing is a force multiplier. So is anger.
So is love. And I love ISIAAAH. And we sorely need more writing like it.
But ISIAAAH is one of one. After Isabel was harassed off the Internet and into a psych ward by those who read the title but not the story, she vowed never to write anything else like it again. Let there be no doubt: she was silenced, and she was failed, by the SF/F community; in fact I hold that she was killed, insofar as the person of “Isabel Fall” ever existed in the first place.
This webpage is my act of protest against both those who killed Isabel and a nation that has for a quarter of a millennium tried and failed to prosecute genocide against anyone it dislikes.
Isabel, if you’re reading this, this is for you. Think of it as a love letter. Your memory is a blessing. Wherever you are now, and whoever you are now, may you find peace. My work on this website is dedicated to you personally and to all the others who perished on the climb.
Everyone else — please enjoy.