I Read Trav McGee! Part 1

[seriousfic]

"Who he?"

I made it a bored question, as indifferent as her response had been.

"Sort of a bastard, dear. A Cuban bastard. Very close to Batista. A collector. Those five you picked out, he bought them from us." She yawned, snuggled more comfortably against me and gave a little snorting sound of derision and said, "He collected me, too. In a sort of offhand way. I guess women were a lot more abundant than gold for Senor Menterez. I hated him for a while. I don't any more."

"How did it happen?"

"Because I was a stupid young girl and he was a very knowing man. I was when I was working at the place, before I married Tony. We had two items he was interested in. I was on salary and two percent commission. He said he couldn't make up his mind. He had a suite at the Waldorf. He called up just before we closed and asked me to bring the photographs over. Drinks and dinner in the suite, of course. He was very charming, very amusing. He didn't make the mistake of begging or insisting or arguing. He just seemed t oassume that I was going to go to bed with him, and that I wouldn't have come to the suite if I wasn't willing, and it all seemed to be so settled in advance, I just didn't know how to handle it. I couldn't seem to find the right moment to set my heels and pretty soon, there I was in bed, scared, confused and apologetic. A knowing man can manage it that way with a green girl."

It helps if you're a date rapist.

"How old was he then?

"Mmm. Eight years ago. Early forties. Twenty years older than I was."

"Nice-looking man."

"No. Not very tall. Sort of portly, even. Thin little moustache and going bald. Very nice yes. Long lashes. Beautiful suits and shirts, and beautiful grooming. Manicures and facials and cologne and massages. A car and driver picked me up after work the next day too. He was in New York on business with several other Cuban businessmen, but he had the suite to himself. He bought me an absolutely beautiful gown. He wanted me to go back to Havana with him. He said he could set me up with a little shop of my own there. He had me in such a confused daze, I almost made that much of a fool of myself. I didn't even really like him. I couldn't understand why I kept doing exactly as he asked me to do. He didn't seem… very intense about me. Just sort of jocular and fond, like people are toward dogs."

I've never seen a book play Charades before, much less with the idea of rape or abusive relationships.

"Was he married?"

"Yes. After he left it took me about two weeks to come out of the fog. You know, had always wondered how reasonably attractive girls ever got themselves into entanglements like that with older married men. I just had a kind of anxious, earnest desire to please him. I didn't want him to be disappointed in me in any way. A vassal state. Then I woke up and knew it had been a very dirty business."

I'm not kidding, every single villain in these books is like this. I guess a lot of writers think having their villains rape people makes the story more mature, or dramatic, or heightens the conflict, but I think most of the time it just makes the story come off as sleazy.

Also, the book kinda calls the lady in question out on being a slut, so God knows what you can read into that. McGee certainly doesn't emphasize with her. In fact, since McGee is already after the guy for killing a friend of his, I don't see the point in making him a rapist. It's like revealing that Hitler beat his kids. Enough is enough, you know?

Comments

[dharma-slut.livejournal.com]

After a while you have to decide if literary masochism is enough for you... or if you should quit with the JD Macdonald books, and get an account on fetlife instead, meet some real tops. *_^

every single villain in these books is like this.

Yup.