pktechgirlbackup (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pktechgirlbackup) wrote2012-06-27 07:20 pm
pktechgirlbackup) wrote2012-06-27 07:20 pm
You'll be the road/rolling below/the wheels of a car
There's a scene in The Sparrow where one character asks the protagonist, Emilio Sandoz, if there wasn't maybe something he did that caused him to be throne in an alien whorehouse and raped for months. Sandoz, who believes he either deserved it or the loving G-d he believed in was a lie, nonetheless tells this guy to go fuck himself, his skirt was not that short. The other people in the room support him, and shame the guy for asking the question. But there's a very subtle sense that what they've rejected is the idea that rapes were justified, but not that they were a response to Sandoz. There's no excerpt that would convey this, but I feel like I'm on very solid ground asserting it. At some level, they still feel the the events in question were "about" Sandoz. Sandoz looks at one decision he made, that he didn't even realize he was making due to language difficulty, and thinks it makes him responsible, if not culpable.
What the reader knows is that one alien gave Sandoz as a gift to advance his own agenda. Sandoz was raped because of alien #1's desire for kids, the social structure that gave alien #2 the power to grant this, alien #2s sexual tastes (themselves shaped by culture), the random chance that put Sandoz in alien #1's care, and above all, timing. Two years later and Alien #1 already has breeding rights and doesn't need to sell Sandoz. Two years later and maybe they best thing for him is to use Sandoz to establish trade with Earth and secure breeding rights that way. It doesn't have any more to do with Sandoz than a tidal wave would I think it's the great tragedy of the book, and I didn't even notice it the first time I read it.
Meanwhile, I'm reading a really great book on introversion (The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World, by Marti Olsen Laney ), that posits the following scenario: introvert goes to her daughter's soccer game. Other mothers are all clustered around talking, but the introvert sits by herself, and reads or listens to music during the game. The other mothers, who are extroverts or maybe introverts who have bought into the extrovert-written American value system, feel rejected and angry. They think the introvert is being alone at them. But her behavior really has nothing to do with them at all. This is true even if the introvert would have the energy and inclination to talk to a different group of people. The other soccer moms might think they're the independent variable, but really, it's a long chain of the introverts recent experiences, past experiences, and innate inclinations.
Which is to say; I think when we ask "Why?", we tend to assume the answer will involve us in some way. And that's just not true.
What the reader knows is that one alien gave Sandoz as a gift to advance his own agenda. Sandoz was raped because of alien #1's desire for kids, the social structure that gave alien #2 the power to grant this, alien #2s sexual tastes (themselves shaped by culture), the random chance that put Sandoz in alien #1's care, and above all, timing. Two years later and Alien #1 already has breeding rights and doesn't need to sell Sandoz. Two years later and maybe they best thing for him is to use Sandoz to establish trade with Earth and secure breeding rights that way. It doesn't have any more to do with Sandoz than a tidal wave would I think it's the great tragedy of the book, and I didn't even notice it the first time I read it.
Meanwhile, I'm reading a really great book on introversion (The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World, by Marti Olsen Laney ), that posits the following scenario: introvert goes to her daughter's soccer game. Other mothers are all clustered around talking, but the introvert sits by herself, and reads or listens to music during the game. The other mothers, who are extroverts or maybe introverts who have bought into the extrovert-written American value system, feel rejected and angry. They think the introvert is being alone at them. But her behavior really has nothing to do with them at all. This is true even if the introvert would have the energy and inclination to talk to a different group of people. The other soccer moms might think they're the independent variable, but really, it's a long chain of the introverts recent experiences, past experiences, and innate inclinations.
Which is to say; I think when we ask "Why?", we tend to assume the answer will involve us in some way. And that's just not true.