consent and comprehension
Mar. 13th, 2003 11:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
incandescensErotica. Heroism. Hm. (Why these associations, you ask? My mind's on a weird freewheel. Let me see if I can work it out.)
The hero has to go consenting. That's a common trope of most hero stories. He has to have at least some idea of what he's agreeing to, what danger he's risking. That's part of what makes him a hero, given the situation.
However, a trope that often comes up is the hero who consents to something while not realising the full implications of the situation, or not fully informed, or finding the situation changing and thus altering the consequences of what he's agreed to do. In this sort of case, quite often he displays his heroism (or ethics, or both) by keeping his word despite the altered circumstances, or paying the altered price because he did consent earlier, on some level, in some way.
And so to erotica, where the trope of someone who's agreed to more than they realised and then has to go through with it turns up not infrequently and carries a certain weight. Maybe it's the hint of sacrifice, of going outside one's usual limits. The element of self-domination, self-control, voluntary submission, while still retaining self-mastery, because the character forces himself to go through with it. The moment of comprehension and acceptance.
Maybe it's just kind of erotic to be heroic. ;)
The hero has to go consenting. That's a common trope of most hero stories. He has to have at least some idea of what he's agreeing to, what danger he's risking. That's part of what makes him a hero, given the situation.
However, a trope that often comes up is the hero who consents to something while not realising the full implications of the situation, or not fully informed, or finding the situation changing and thus altering the consequences of what he's agreed to do. In this sort of case, quite often he displays his heroism (or ethics, or both) by keeping his word despite the altered circumstances, or paying the altered price because he did consent earlier, on some level, in some way.
And so to erotica, where the trope of someone who's agreed to more than they realised and then has to go through with it turns up not infrequently and carries a certain weight. Maybe it's the hint of sacrifice, of going outside one's usual limits. The element of self-domination, self-control, voluntary submission, while still retaining self-mastery, because the character forces himself to go through with it. The moment of comprehension and acceptance.
Maybe it's just kind of erotic to be heroic. ;)
no subject
Date: 2003-03-14 06:28 pm (UTC)I grabbed the wrong book last night before going out to an evening babysit, and got Tales of Samurai Chivalry instead of the one that might have contained white snakes. ToSC has the story of two young pages, friends, one of whom, dying of grief at being parted from his older lover, begs his friend to find the man and become a 'younger brother' to him in his friend's place. The other boy does so, though it takes some years. The older man is now over sixty and not attractive any more. Further he has renounced the world, and he refuses the proffered (sexual) relationship. At which the young man takes out his sword to cut his stomach open, because he cannot keep his promise to his friend. Older man then consents to become his lover, even though he has no desire for the youth. 'What was asked of the young man was unreasonable,' the writer comments, 'but he kept his promise in spite of his distaste, and all men praised him.' Which may be taking heroic eroticism to lengths a westerner finds more Pythonesque than admirable.
-mjj
no subject
Date: 2003-03-15 12:10 pm (UTC)