finally reading strangers in paradise
… was this written before polyamory was invented? the characters seem otherwise very liberal in their sexuality, but…
it has that same embarrassment-humor-about-watching-peopl
i feel like there's some thing about pushing at cultural blind spots, in stories. we're utterly fascinated by stories where a character falls in love with two people at once and has to choose! because of course you can't have both! i think in eastern cultures, and maybe even here until some time in the past (because i think the scarlet letter is this type of story too), it's considered perfectly possible to be in a situation where you're presented with only two choices and both of them are not just equally bad, but equally immoral, so immoral that you genuinely deserve death for being such a horrible person as to choose either one. and so there are a lot of stories about that.
like, you know, your lord commands you to do something immoral and so you'd deserve death for doing it but also for not doing it. here in the u.s., we don't hold with that, these days, so i don't think the contradiction holds as much fascination for us. (but i think it's why the scarlet letter was so frustrating for me, because it just alternated between "we are terrible people for having done this!" and "we could not possibly have not done this!" and i just wanted them to pick one and live with it already.)
it has that same embarrassment-humor-about-watching-peopl
i feel like there's some thing about pushing at cultural blind spots, in stories. we're utterly fascinated by stories where a character falls in love with two people at once and has to choose! because of course you can't have both! i think in eastern cultures, and maybe even here until some time in the past (because i think the scarlet letter is this type of story too), it's considered perfectly possible to be in a situation where you're presented with only two choices and both of them are not just equally bad, but equally immoral, so immoral that you genuinely deserve death for being such a horrible person as to choose either one. and so there are a lot of stories about that.
like, you know, your lord commands you to do something immoral and so you'd deserve death for doing it but also for not doing it. here in the u.s., we don't hold with that, these days, so i don't think the contradiction holds as much fascination for us. (but i think it's why the scarlet letter was so frustrating for me, because it just alternated between "we are terrible people for having done this!" and "we could not possibly have not done this!" and i just wanted them to pick one and live with it already.)