On the Subject of Goblins

A tale exploring the culture of monsters - primarily that of goblins - through the events transpiring around the leader of the first monsterkind sanctuary.

The monsters in this story have escaped lives of what we will simply refer to as slavery. While we shall refrain from exploring the horrors of such a life, most tension in the story is born from the painful and confusing process that is healing from trauma.This story is written as a comedy of manners, a genre most recognized in the works of Jane Austen. The dynamics of an early country house novel include characters who explore and express themselves within a culture of restrictive, hierarchical social mores. For comparison, when two goblins hiss at and sniff one another, a human audience sees nothing more than what was presented to them. However, through narrative interpretation we can see such an occurrence as a battle of wit and exploration of two characters constricted in their communication by centuries of tradition. What are they allowed to express? What would they wish to express if only they had the tools and safety to do so? These questions have inspired me to explore monster culture through this fiction.