Saturday, November 12, 2005
sounds like....
dumb.
Will I ever learn: NEVER look at reviews? Just wait for your friends to tell you about the ones that are good. Someone was disturbed by Claudia's dark demon sex. Oh. Well, sorry about that. That's a strong scene, and I don't mean craft-wise (although I'm sure it is :P ) It's a scene that is probably politically incorrect. Oh, well. I guess I don't care about that too much. The whole damn book is un-PC. I admit it.
Could there be some gender bias here?
The guy's a demon and they have this bond thing going on both sides, and now that I think about it, although the review refers to claudia's rape, the reviewer did not see that Lath (the demon) also falls into that category. He doesn't want anything to do with a human yet he's compelled by his demon nature to do what is anathema to him. Why isn't it disturbing when a male is having sex against his will? Claudia feels much the same as Lath, her body says she must while her mind is saying - how can I want this? Why is that horrible for her but not horrible for him? Why didn't the review note the preceding scene containing issues of sexual compulsion? (Technically, I suppose, it did in a broad sense, by warning the book was dark. Yup. I do dark.) The hero is possessed by a (different) demon who, among other things, wants to have sex with the heroine. One of those other things is to make her a vampire without her consent. Which is worse? Possession sex or being made a vampire when you don't want it? Well, that's a whole 'nother can of worms because that scene used to be a whole lot stronger than it is in the published version. You can read about the
possession sex controversy if you want to.
There are some rather obvious answers. Men do not suffer from the same history of sexual repression (which is not to say they haven't suffered any from their own sexual histories). Once upon a time, men got away with saying, she said no, but she meant yes. Or, that a woman needed to be forced in order to reach enjoyment. But the tides turn. 500 years ago, women were thought to be lascivious by nature and thus incited men to lustful acts that imperiled their male souls. Damn women! making men want them and think sinful thoughts and perhaps even commit sinful deeds. To have the issue of desire - mind - body raised in such a way must make some people profoundly uncomfortable. Was Claudia raped? Was Lath? Or was it something else entirely? I guess my book isn't for everyone. But, more particularly, I guess the way my mind works isn't for everyone.
Edited to add: I think I need to clarify the above. I'm not saying that one day we'll be back to no means yes or that it was ever a good thing. What I meant but did not say well, was that once it was men blaming women for male sins because female nature is inherently and incite-fully sinful. Then a few hundred years later, along come the Victorians who give us women without sexual feelings. Close your eyes and think of England. And then the days when a woman's "consent" had little to do with what she actually consented to. Have we moved past that? How far?
Why does the mind so thoroughly trump the body? I have no immediate answer to that. But does it? Is that even a true statement?
Now remember, this whole story is totally made up. There is no demon world and there are no demons. Is it really a rape scene? I'm not so sure. It's a scene of moral ambiguity, I'll grant you that, and I think the reviewer failed to appreciate the depth of the ambiguity. Some people are going to fall on the "that's wrong (it's rape)" side and others not. Also, to digress a bit, I suspect that some (many?) of these site reviewers do their review and then go to Amazon and post their personal review which, naturally, reflects many of the same opinions. Just a stupid suspicion and, really, who cares.
On to the Good News!
I went to my local RWA chapter meeting today and the bookseller there had 4 copies of A Darker Crimson. They told me they ordered 12 (that's a lot!!) sold out in a week and ordered 8 more. Those four were the ones left. Three of those sold at the meeting. They're going to order more.
Also, This just in! Writing News
I have already gotten some major work done on my new proposal. It think it's going to be fab.
