[ SECRET POST #2707 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2707 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 066 secrets from Secret Submission Post #387.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 (also a repeat x 3) - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: Fingersmith Discussion

[inevitableentresol]

Christopher Lilly I came to hate as much as the asylum nurses.

I thought his part in the story was a really interesting commentary on erotic fiction. A common thing that's said about written porn is that it doesn't hurt anyone because it's all fiction. I thought this was a clever way of discussing this, because Maud is terribly hurt by her exposure to it, although mostly through how it's done and not by the material itself.

What disturbed me, was how much I really wanted to like Maud Lilly's uncle purely because of his interest in Victorian erotica. It's an interest which I share and which gets short shrift from the general population.

His cruelty was unveiled so slowly and so shockingly that by the end of it, I did want Maud to kill him.

I couldn't decide if the writer had meant her uncle's obsession with written porn to be a symptom of his extreme cruelty or not. Added to that, if his cruelty to her was meant to be a commentary to the treatment of all women generally in erotic stories. Or was the subject of his obsession irrelevant?

I have confused thoughts about it, even though I know I definitely hate him.

Re: Fingersmith Discussion

[cushlamochree]

That's an interesting point.

I don't think the story can possibly be a critique of erotica as such, given the ending, and given that the book is not lacking in erotic moments for itself. At the same time, its portrayal of Lilly and his friends is definitely not positive - none of the men associated with erotica in the book come off well at all. IE, that specific kind of erotica, and the obsessive cataloging interest in erotica, in a society that gives so little agency to women, is harmful. It reduces women to objects, entrenches them in their accustomed roles, etc. So it's bad as part of a larger social context but not intrinsically. Just a thought tho.

God, though. Lilly. Such a hateable character. Just gave me the creeps constantly when I was reading stuff to do with him.

Re: Fingersmith Discussion

[inevitableentresol]

I didn't miss the irony of the terrible effects of the men's obsession with erotica being in a book which in itself is quite erotic. I liked the layering of that, but it bent my brains a little.

Standing back, it's clear that Maud is damaged by the social context of the erotica and how it is forced upon her rather than the erotica itself, but in the middle of the story, the two did start to feel interwoven.