Q: What hero (of any gender) would you name your child after, if we lived in a society with names like that?
A: Honestly, I don’t much believe in heroes. I’ve never been a fan of the Chosen One trope, and the protagonists in my stories are mostly ordinary people who are forced by circumstance to do extraordinary things despite being manifestly unqualified for the job. That said, I’ve always had a soft spot for Jonah from Cat’s Cradle. If I had a son, maybe I’d go with that?
Edward Ashton’s story “A Bear, or a Spider, or an Elephant”
in Metaphorosis Friday, 9 August 2019.
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