Tales of the Parodyverse >> View Post
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HH thinks it's good that a piece of work can stir up comment and controversy, as long as it doesn't crack the internet in half
In Reply To
CrazySugarFreakBoy!

Member Since: Sun Jan 04, 2004
Posts: 1,235
Subj: Don't feel bad (if you do). It's not a major criticism or anything. Just a view.
Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 at 06:30:59 pm EDT (Viewed 3 times)
Reply Subj: There are a few reasons I posted that story as a reply, rather than doing anything to distinguish it as an "in-continuity" story ...
Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 at 03:35:34 pm EDT (Viewed 409 times)


> ... One of which was the collection of credible continuity issues that Jay raised in his reply, since I also doubt that Caphan society would adapt to the new status quo quite that quickly, and the other of which was the potential out-of-characterness of it, although I have to admit, with that one, I was thinking more along the lines of not disrupting whatever you had planned for the next installment of this chapter.

It worked out just fine, and there's no reason why it shouldn't take place, either on the night of the party or at a subsequent time.

> That being said, Shrike is absolutely right; Glitch is an alien, and moreover, as much as we've explored and challenged many aspects of Caphan society, I'd argue that we've all danced around other potentially offensive aspects of it, either for narrative convenience or for comedy (please note, this is not a criticism), to the point that I think we could (and should) get away with at least one broadly comic "turnabout is fair play" scene of Caphan slavery applying to the other gender.

I'll be covering a much more unpleasant aspect of Caph in the next Untold Tales as our cast expands.

> Indeed, in many ways, Glitch and the Caphan male slaves were on a much more equal footing than gender-reversed scenarios that we've read and written regarding Caphans before, because both Glitch and the Caphan male slaves are eager young virgins. While the majority of men in Caphan culture would obviously have problems with the concept of women owning men, I contend that there would be some minority of men, however small, who might not mind the prospect of female domination as much.

Very likely.

one key issue to hold on to is the very slight difference between Caphan slavery, which resembles the kind of things that happened in the Greek, Roman, and Arabic cultures, and modern sex slavery. The Caphans are supposed to have social contracts which protect slave and owner, and although sex can be part of that relationship - at least for pleasure slaves and other good-looking chattels - it's not neccessarily the primary component of service. Those trapped in the modern sex industry are only there to be exploited (I'm speaking here of poor children sold to third world brothels and other examples of coerced prostitution, not neccessarily the people who cater for the Mayor of New York).

I suppose the other SF trope that muddies the waters comes from the Gor books and their imitators, which posit a world of pliant dominated women and the men who rule them. I admit to having a rather limited knowledge of the genre, but I's like to think that the Parodyverse has once again taken a concept deeper than its source material.

> Hell, William Moulton Marston made that the basis of a significant percentage of his stories in the Golden Age Wonder Woman comics, and it's a point that even a number of the character's feminist fans have admitted to finding problematic in the years since; after all, if you're framing feminism as a war against a male patriarchy, and asking men, "How would YOU like it, if YOU were the ones who were objectified and reduced in status?", it's got to be a bit disconcerting when a few male voices say, "I'd prefer it," and they actually mean it.

Marson really shouldn't have been let anywhere near children's publications though.

> As for Glitch's willingness to "take advantage," this fits with my idea of her paradigm.

You've made this case before, and made it well again here. I think my response here is that this scene feels like the start of a story, not the resolution; that there's a progression of understanding somewhere behind the laugh line.

Don't think I'm attacking you or your story. After all, I've just sent Harlagaz off to be thanked by a number of grateful Caphans, and we can infer from a future section that Fashion Accessory at least might have liaiased with a nicely-groomed Caphan nobleman after the party.