But I'm still puzzled by how reading it as a feminist critique lambasts Xanthe's story? They are quite different approaches in quite different styles describing very different responses to acculturated BDSM relations around which all of these worlds are structured.
The critique, after all, is not with Xanthe as much as it is a parable of real life...and Xanthe's isn't, certainly, but to say that Helen's feminism lambasts Xanthe's stories would be like saying that writing about Zelenka lambasts a McShep writer...just because it focuses on a different issue doesn't make it critical.
Now, granted, one could argue that the negative view of the dom/sub relations in Helen's story fly in the face of the ideal ones in Xanthe's, but for anyone to read it that way, they'd have to actually believe in the Romantic notions Xanthe puts forward rather than understanding them as revelling in a variety of tropes...I mean, if we actually believe that only our true mate can (and will) solve our life problems and that true love creates bonds so strong they'll overcome injuries and end in simultaneous death...then, yes, any questioning of a world that creates that might be read as criticism.
I for one,. enjoy it as a beautiful (if not even remotrely realistic) fantasy, and revel in the way physical action metaphorically represents and constitutes emotional closeness...but I still am cynical enough to understand that Helen's version of the dynamic may be going on at the same time...and might be hitting a little closer to home--in all its unpleasantness...
Re: no plato...but
The critique, after all, is not with Xanthe as much as it is a parable of real life...and Xanthe's isn't, certainly, but to say that Helen's feminism lambasts Xanthe's stories would be like saying that writing about Zelenka lambasts a McShep writer...just because it focuses on a different issue doesn't make it critical.
Now, granted, one could argue that the negative view of the dom/sub relations in Helen's story fly in the face of the ideal ones in Xanthe's, but for anyone to read it that way, they'd have to actually believe in the Romantic notions Xanthe puts forward rather than understanding them as revelling in a variety of tropes...I mean, if we actually believe that only our true mate can (and will) solve our life problems and that true love creates bonds so strong they'll overcome injuries and end in simultaneous death...then, yes, any questioning of a world that creates that might be read as criticism.
I for one,. enjoy it as a beautiful (if not even remotrely realistic) fantasy, and revel in the way physical action metaphorically represents and constitutes emotional closeness...but I still am cynical enough to understand that Helen's version of the dynamic may be going on at the same time...and might be hitting a little closer to home--in all its unpleasantness...