Black Jewels: Brushing Past It
Feb. 20th, 2016 01:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beroliAnd another two months passed, so I'm going to just summarize the bit I'm having a hard time figuring out what to say about, and hopefully I'll be able to get back to regular posting after that.
Surreal's flashback continues. She remembers Daemon tracking her down and offering to pay for her to learn proper, dignified work: how to be a professional assassin. They became friends, and one day, while tipsy, Surreal attempted to seduce Daemon and talked about what a feather in her cap (as a sex worker, not as an assassin) it would be for her to have had sex with "Hayll's--" She doesn't finish, but Daemon fills in the rest of the epithet that's apparently one of his titles later: Hayll's Whore.
And even brushing over this part because it's been blocking me from continuing, I want to draw attention to something here. Prostitution is legal in the Realms, has been for as long as Blood society has existed in any recognizable form. There's no reason for it to draw negative judgment at all. And yet, no one respects sex workers. No one ever uses the term "sex worker" or even "prostitute," just "whore," which is a mortal insult. In this as in many other places, Bishop's world-building is paper-thin: the cultural attitudes toward sex work are imported wholesale from particularly whorephobic people in our world, with sex work not being and never having been illegal dropped on top of that fact with no concern for logical consistency.
Anyway, back to summarizing: Mortally offended by Surreal's words, Daemon ties her to the bed and teases her for a long time without letting her come. I lied, I do need to quote one part, because it's important to understand. Warning, this is going to be disturbing.
He played with deadly seriousness. Each time his hands or his tongue gave her some release, the gauze veils of sensuality were ripped from her mind and she was forced to drink cup after cup of his contempt.
[...]
...That was fifty years ago, and he had never forgiven her.
Eventually, we'll find out that he feels guilty, that he thinks he overreacted then. I know, because I saw, that fans came up with that idea independently well before Bishop ever put it in a book; I wonder if, had she not seen it, she would have blithely acted as though no one could possibly think Daemon did anything wrong. Daemon will not apologize, but that's almost incidental; no one ever really apologizes in these books.
And now you know what stalled me for four months.
Surreal's flashback continues. She remembers Daemon tracking her down and offering to pay for her to learn proper, dignified work: how to be a professional assassin. They became friends, and one day, while tipsy, Surreal attempted to seduce Daemon and talked about what a feather in her cap (as a sex worker, not as an assassin) it would be for her to have had sex with "Hayll's--" She doesn't finish, but Daemon fills in the rest of the epithet that's apparently one of his titles later: Hayll's Whore.
And even brushing over this part because it's been blocking me from continuing, I want to draw attention to something here. Prostitution is legal in the Realms, has been for as long as Blood society has existed in any recognizable form. There's no reason for it to draw negative judgment at all. And yet, no one respects sex workers. No one ever uses the term "sex worker" or even "prostitute," just "whore," which is a mortal insult. In this as in many other places, Bishop's world-building is paper-thin: the cultural attitudes toward sex work are imported wholesale from particularly whorephobic people in our world, with sex work not being and never having been illegal dropped on top of that fact with no concern for logical consistency.
Anyway, back to summarizing: Mortally offended by Surreal's words, Daemon ties her to the bed and teases her for a long time without letting her come. I lied, I do need to quote one part, because it's important to understand. Warning, this is going to be disturbing.
He played with deadly seriousness. Each time his hands or his tongue gave her some release, the gauze veils of sensuality were ripped from her mind and she was forced to drink cup after cup of his contempt.
[...]
...That was fifty years ago, and he had never forgiven her.
Eventually, we'll find out that he feels guilty, that he thinks he overreacted then. I know, because I saw, that fans came up with that idea independently well before Bishop ever put it in a book; I wonder if, had she not seen it, she would have blithely acted as though no one could possibly think Daemon did anything wrong. Daemon will not apologize, but that's almost incidental; no one ever really apologizes in these books.
And now you know what stalled me for four months.
