The Comfy Chair

I don't see it as foremost a feminist commentary, though I see that thread, nor do I see it as sad because they do work it out, the romantic goal of mutual understanding and acknowledgment of love is achieved, a typically grumpy and abrasive Helen kind of romance, but romance just the same.

For me the story is primarily about Rodney and John finding their way to each other and understanding each other. All the rest, fascinating as it is, is the frame that makes it possible to write these words and these interactions to show this scene with Rodney and John and that and to tie them together scene by scene to get to the payoff, the acknowledgment, the emotional payoff.

Xanthe's story is using the bdsm theme to write a glorious, well-lubed slippery slide of romance, where friction is barely acknowledged and John has to be emotionally ept while Helen's story takes them opposite and mirrored, beyond canon characterisation - John in particluar, not so much Rodney - in the other direction.

What interests me in reading other opinions and thinking about my response is how much it underlines how narrow my focus can be. Sure, feminist commentary, very clever but hey, more important: hard won, emotionally inarticulate romantic payoff.