Oy. This story did NOT work for me. I think it was a story about the last moments of an astronaut's life before s/he hits the planet's surface. I barely understood what was going on midway in the story. Re: narrator. That was an interesting choice to have a male narrator portray Shawn/Sean. While my brain was trying to figure out the gender of the couple, common sense reminds me that it didn't matter. Trendane Sparks had a voice that pulled me into the story... a story of the terrible intimacy of a dying astronaut and her/his lover on the mother ship.
However, it did capture elements of such a jumping event.
In my mind's eye, I imagined Shawn/Sean as Felix Baumgartner. Mr. Baumgartner jumped from the top of our atmosphere (he leaves the capsule at timestamp ~3:48) and SURVIVED. I always show it to my classes, as the sense of scale is evident. Worth a watch!
https://youtu.be/vvbN-cWe0A0
Hi, Scuba,
So, my first reaction was "How interesting... I've certainly been assuming male homosexual couples and/or off-gender narrators as I've been assigning stories lately."
For example, In an upcoming story, I assumed two men, then realized it was vague enough that I ended up needing to ask the author what she'd had in mind (A: male or non-binary). And in my narration of 601 that I did that dropped today, you could probably have made a compelling argument for a female narrator (the original dog, after all was a "Daisy." Then again, it has grown into a "we." Also I wanted to do it and I love Jeremiah's work, so shur up.
)
Going back and reading it, though, this is 100% two men - both Sean and Eric. I have basically zero doubt. Admittedly, however, it could be easy to miss.
I make my case with a couple points:
"You wouldn’t have spent so much goddamn time in high school worrying about boys. About what boys thought about, cared about, wanted. About what they thought of you.
About what was involved in being a boy, what you should be doing in order to really be a proper one. You would have said fuck it to everyone’s expectations and you would have taken some Women’s Studies courses in college, because it’s silly but you think that might honestly have made a difference to the overall bleakness of your outlook on the world and your place in it." (Why worry about what it means to be a boy if Sean is not actually a boy?)
"You would have crossed the room and embraced her, pulled her into your big arms..." (Not impossible for a woman to have big arms, but less likely).
Eric talking: “Once upon a time there was this stupid asshole and his stupid asshole husband and they went to space and it was a really, really bad idea.” (The "stupid asshole husband" has got to be Sean. We are clearly talking about two men, unless "husband" has taken on a different meaning in this future).
-Adam