Rant on whores.

May 06, 2007 20:43

And courtesans, harlots, streetwalkers, ladies of negotiable virtue, and other various hangers-on.

Here we go )

rants on power dynamics, characterization rants: protagonists, characterization rants: secondaries, gender rants, fantasy rants: spring 2007

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Comments 92

xianghua May 7 2007, 00:54:19 UTC
I'd argue that Phedre's best sex was with Melisande, but otherwise a nifty rant.

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shadenv May 7 2007, 01:18:02 UTC
I disagree. I think her best was with Joscelin, but her greatest conflict and therefor greatest fulfillment of being Kushiel's Dart came with Melisandre. Although there were times when J and M were on equal footing in the 2nd book.

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alexmegami May 7 2007, 01:42:57 UTC
I dunno. I think even up through the third book, and even into Imriel's series, there's a definite sense that Phèdre's love for Melisande is [maybe] deeper and [definitely] even more inexplicable than her love for Joscelin.

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kutsuwamushi May 7 2007, 01:09:52 UTC
Hey, neat.

I see fewer prostitutes in original fantasy than in fanfiction--perhaps because I've managed to avoid reading really bad books, lately. Usually, there's no thought put into what the profession would look like, given the setting and culture. Characters are kidnapped and sold into a brothel as if that's the only form prostitution can take.

(Protagonists never choose to become prostitutes.)

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re: never choose neutrinobunny May 7 2007, 17:29:20 UTC
Not a novel, but in Carla Speed McNeil's 'Finder' series (print comics recently become online comic www.lightspeedpress.com) which take place in a sort of fantasy/scifi possibly alternate future, one progtagonist does. She's the main character of the 'Mystery Date' side stories.

In this particular society prostitution is treated as an 'art'. It's also considered therapy in some cases. There are guilds, and training halls, and 'artists' will have patrons. Everything is liscenced and regulated.

Now there are 'unliscenced' houses as well. And that partially ties into the class system.

It's an interesting take.

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Re: Mystery Date otookee September 29 2011, 11:14:19 UTC
Interesting and (as advocated in the main article) very complicated. The heroine is from a foreign culture (more "vaguely India-like" while the local culture is closer to "vaguely German/Slavic") and her social instincts don't "fit" well - e.g., she constantly gives to beggars, treating them as mendicant holy men, while the cops, disgusted at her "thickheadedness" keep lecturing her "dammit girl, you're gonna get robbed, raped, and/or killed if you keep handing out money to these scum". She was trained as a temple dancer (NOT a "temple prostitute", an actual dancer), and teaches dance classes in addition to working in a sexguild hall, all in order to pay for college...

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girlnamedxena May 7 2007, 01:14:37 UTC
I enjoyed reading this and I think you made lots of good points. Thanks.

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amazon_syren May 7 2007, 01:20:06 UTC
Whee! What fun! :-)

Thought on Phedre:
Despite the fact that she definitely has very religious sex with Joselin, I always felt she was just slightly disappointed with it due to the lack of pain.
As such, I always figured the sex she most enjoyed was what she had with Melisande on that Longest Night when the fleshettes came out.
(Sadly, the narative goes from "You" to "She was well pleased and let me stay" without filling in any of the details. Then again, who knows what wonderful religious stuff happened during the bit we didn't get to hear about? ;-)

Re: Maybe they aren't hookers all the time: This, I think, is a particularly good point. I've got a book called The Madame about a woman whose husband abandons her (and their three kids), who sets up shop as the madame of a whore house. The gals who work in the house also have factory jobs and/or other seasonal work (and, it seems, deadbeat husbands who they have to support, more often than not).

Whee! :-)

- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)

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mistressnaoko May 7 2007, 01:27:00 UTC
Maia by Richard Adams, is one example of a prostitute story that tries to paint them as human. Its premise is of slave girls who are sex slaves to the people who buy them, but these girls can become shearnas, or courtesans. The idea is that they can rise from their circumstances.

Very good rant, and it reminded me a lot about Maia. Thank you.

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jonquil May 7 2007, 01:47:30 UTC
I have Issues with Maia because her fate is to settle down happily in quasi-poverty and raise babies.

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mistressnaoko May 7 2007, 01:51:24 UTC
Meh, true.

I'm more intrigued by a culture where a woman is not looked down because she's a prostitute, though I would agree that that seems a bit too idealistic.

Personally I loved Occula, but who didn't love the bad girls?

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swiftgold May 8 2007, 20:49:07 UTC
Ahh, that one! I liked that book the first time I read it, but when I tried to re-read it recently, I couldn't STAND Maia from the beginning, her personality and Sueitude, and I wonder what changed in my perception from then to now :P Maybe at some point I'll skip ahead and see if I can start reading again from some later part...

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