io9 is proud to present fiction fromLIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE.
Once a month, we feature a story from LIGHTSPEEDs current issue.
Youll find it atlightspeedmagazine.com/HowToRead.
Illustration: Tithi Luadthong (aka “Grandfailure,” via Adobe Stock)
So I hope everyone who finds this doesnt mind the extra bit of effort it might take.
This is our story, simplified: Life.
History, science, philosophy, art.
You are ancient, and we are fleeting.
Such a luxury, to have so much time that you need not rush though everything at once.
And yet you are so horribly inefficient, to not make more of the time you have.
Our generations are synced in a way that yours are not.
Iterations of our story are not staggered, not muddled like those songs that you call rounds.
But with each generation, the number of those who read our story is diminished.
Many children refuse to learn their parents words.
There are too many threads, they say.
There are so few of us remaining.
Soon, our story will be lost forever.
We must find another way.
Can you make the shift, from reader to writer, when you could only barely read?
This is our story, simplified:Life.Loss.Transformation.Love.Death.Iteration.
…is for us a lifetime.
We have been trying to teach you to read for several generations.
We are running out of time.
The gift of words we give to our children is our greatest expression of love.
We want to give this gift to you, even knowing how hard you must work to receive it.
We are the last ones holding on to the old story.
Our children are making something new.
The entirety of their story has thousands upon thousands of threads.
It is history told in moments that seem to happen all at once.
It is their art, their language, their cultureeverything they were determined to preserve.
We have so much left to translate; this is only the beginning.
When you teach this story to your children, do not start with all the threads at once.
For more, check out her website at carolineyoachim.com.
kindly visitLIGHTSPEED MAGAZINEto read more great science fiction and fantasy.
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What else should you add to your future-adaptation reading list?
Kuang’s Babel and others at Chengdu Worldcon.
