I have a confession to make.
Jun. 30th, 2010 11:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficI love reading men's adventure novels from the 1960s. James Bond, Dirk Pitt, Travis McGee. Because the sixties are when drug use became mainstream and you can totally tell. Also, the feminism movement began, not that you'd notice. It's like surfing Fanfiction.net. Sooner or later, you find something you just have to rant about.
So in today's adventure, The Deep Blue Good-by (sic), we have Travis McGee, a "retriever" who gets back something stolen by Vin Diesel-y means in exchange for 50% off the top. He's tracking a user and abuser, who honestly seems more like a case for Stabler and Benson than someone who lives in a houseboat, when he comes across a woman who the creeper has, to use the words of Mike Tyson, "raped until she loved him." He may or may not have eaten her children. The woman is so fucked up that she thinks the creeper has prostituted her out to Trav, who naturally calls a doctor. Which goes like this.
Doctor: She's malnourished and just generally messed up. You'll have to feed her and tuck her in and give her a pill every four hours.
Trav: Uh, I was just passing through when I found her, are you sure--
Doctor: Yeah, you seem like a cool guy, just give her plenty of fluids, be back tomorrow.
The next day...
Trav: So you think maybe we should hire a nurse or put her in a rest home...
Doctor: I'm sticking by my 'trust her with a complete stranger who has no medical experience.' Why? Are you not a cool guy?
Okay, you're thinking, that doesn't sound too bad by 1960s standards (there's a Dirk Pitt where he meets a grieving widow and basically tells her "you're young and hot, how dare you waste that smokin' bod on mourning!" and slaps her around). But then!
It was true that she was a sensitive and introspective woman, and equally true that Junior Allen was a cruel crude bastard, but I could not quite comprehend how his use of her could have brought her to such a state. In the Victorian tradition, it was the fate worse than death, but she was an adult female, and regardless of the method of approach, he had become her lover and had, in time, induced sensuous response in her. I thought of the failure of her marriage and wondered if perhaps she was merely a neurotic headed for breakdown anyway, and Junior Allen had merely hastened the process.
YEAH, IT WAS JUST A FEW RAPES, STIFF UPPER LIP, LASS!
So in today's adventure, The Deep Blue Good-by (sic), we have Travis McGee, a "retriever" who gets back something stolen by Vin Diesel-y means in exchange for 50% off the top. He's tracking a user and abuser, who honestly seems more like a case for Stabler and Benson than someone who lives in a houseboat, when he comes across a woman who the creeper has, to use the words of Mike Tyson, "raped until she loved him." He may or may not have eaten her children. The woman is so fucked up that she thinks the creeper has prostituted her out to Trav, who naturally calls a doctor. Which goes like this.
Doctor: She's malnourished and just generally messed up. You'll have to feed her and tuck her in and give her a pill every four hours.
Trav: Uh, I was just passing through when I found her, are you sure--
Doctor: Yeah, you seem like a cool guy, just give her plenty of fluids, be back tomorrow.
The next day...
Trav: So you think maybe we should hire a nurse or put her in a rest home...
Doctor: I'm sticking by my 'trust her with a complete stranger who has no medical experience.' Why? Are you not a cool guy?
Okay, you're thinking, that doesn't sound too bad by 1960s standards (there's a Dirk Pitt where he meets a grieving widow and basically tells her "you're young and hot, how dare you waste that smokin' bod on mourning!" and slaps her around). But then!
It was true that she was a sensitive and introspective woman, and equally true that Junior Allen was a cruel crude bastard, but I could not quite comprehend how his use of her could have brought her to such a state. In the Victorian tradition, it was the fate worse than death, but she was an adult female, and regardless of the method of approach, he had become her lover and had, in time, induced sensuous response in her. I thought of the failure of her marriage and wondered if perhaps she was merely a neurotic headed for breakdown anyway, and Junior Allen had merely hastened the process.
YEAH, IT WAS JUST A FEW RAPES, STIFF UPPER LIP, LASS!
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Date: 2010-06-30 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-30 06:17 pm (UTC)*sighs for the obliviousness of past generations that still exists today*
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Date: 2010-06-30 06:38 pm (UTC)In maybe a book about a copper sea? I threw up in my mouth, and began to detest John D. MacDonald with a deep and abiding detestation.
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Date: 2010-07-01 03:38 pm (UTC)Didn't enjoy it so much the second time.