Screw you Piers Anthony...
…in so many words.
Hey Piers? You know that book you wrote, waaaay back in 1990? A little sump’ sump’ called Firefly? Welll, I’ve got a few bones to pick with you.
Your main female protagonist was molested as a child. I didn’t flip out at that. I take no issue with your topic. I’m not one of those people who condemn a work solely on its subject. No, my issue is with how you treat it.
She, the protagonist, is being sodomized by her older brother and involved in “touching” (no intercourse) with her father. She runs to a neighbor’s to hide from her brother. Understandable.
She tells this kindly gentleman about her plight. The kindly gentleman is…well, kindly and seems understanding to her plight. She asks him what’s happening to her. Understandable.
Does he…
A: Immediately get the proper authorities on the phone?
B: Sympathize with her plight and comfort her, though he realizes it is not within his power to intercede?
Or C…have sex with her?
If you were like me, you’dve said A or B, or even a combination of the two, and would’ve treated the matter with the delicacy and maturity it deserves, describing with subtle nuance the slippery slope that is CM and the consequences one must deal with.
Instead, you chose C. God damn you, you chose C.
No, the man makes no attempt to really comfort her(I don’t count sex as comfort, jackass) makes absolutely no attempt to teach her to defend herself, or even contact the proper authorities. He has sex with her. Let me describe to you the various ways that is fucked up.
She would not initiate the sex. If she did, it would be because she does not have a full understanding of what sex actually is and there are much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, MUCH, much, much better ways to teach her. I asked my dad to explain dimensions to me when I was eight. He didn’t drive me to a physics lab or give me a ten-hour lecture, he explained it to me. In simple terms. There. Done.
If she’s curious about sex, she doesn’t need a “hands on” demonstration. But I can already tell she’s not going to get that from the man, because he’s already been to prison for molesting another girl! Do I have to spell out how bad that is?
This is not an innocent man being propositioned by a lusty nymphet, this is a man seeing a child who has already been taken advantage of and taking further advantage of her! He makes minimal efforts to stop her, and then describes the acts in a way that a curious five-year-old would probably want to pursue!
This is not a natural order, he’s fucking baiting her. This is not two people taking comfort in each other. This is a full-grown man who should know better, and a girl who has had her boundaries violated already and has a pretty fucked-up definition of the world.
This is biologically impossible. Any full-on penetration would be very painful(for both participates) and would involve blood and tearing. A five-year old is not just a miniature woman. That is a person that is still developing, emotionally, physically, and psychologically. She just is not equipped to deal with sex, nor is her body.
But, after reading just about every other sex scene in the book, I’ve decided you write in pseudo-flowery prose to disguise your lack of knowledge as to human anatomy and how it works.
Also, no one who describes ejaculation as “a big, white fountain” should be having sex. She’s too young to say penis, doesn’t that clue you in to the fact that she’s not ready for this?!
This is not helping her. In any way. Comfort is not “well, your brother and dad are molesting you. Here’s my cock, go crazy.” He is not helping her.
In fact, their dialogue together is, in essence “you’ll get in trouble.” and “we mustn’t tell!”
Do you know why child molesters say things like that, Piers? It isn’t because mean ol’ society’s got them down, it’s because they’re predators. Pre-da-tors.
He’s preying on the child, and the only way he can keep doing it is if no one knows. Of course he’s going to tell her she’ll get in trouble, because that’s how they twist it around and pin it on the victim! The few people I know who’ve had to deal with shit like this have this thread in common: their predator made them feel like they would be the ones at fault if anyone found out, so they feel like they must keep it secret!
And so they’re discovered and there’s a trial and the girl commits the crime of telling. I’m paraphrasing. You actually refer to it as a crime. I’m so fucking full of rage at this point that I’m starting to manifest fire from my gullet.
The little girl grows up thinking that it was her fault that he went to jail and was later killed by another inmate. You treat that as a natural guilt, which it is. But, you also treat it as a justified guilt, and it isn’t. She didn’t commit a crime. She didn’t have the reasoning capabilities or emotional complexity then and probably still doesn’t. She is broken and shall remain broken, and it will take more than penis to help her get over it.
This is not a tragic romance. When you tell us that her mother watches her face as she delivers the news, and “she knew that [her mother] wanted to see her suffer for her disgusting crime of liking sex,” and tell us the defending attorney’s Parthian shot that her family should be on trial, dammit! you don’t succeed in rousing my sympathy. Your characterizations became so ridiculously over-the-top that I kind of mentally checked out at that point.
That man did not give her love when no one else would. He broke down what little normalcy she had left, took her self-confidence and security for himself. If he had been a rational adult, he would’ve looked at her and realized that the last thing in the world this little person needed was more goddamn sex in her life! How about a bit of being a kid, when clearly her family won’t afford her the time? How about he becomes a father figure to her, tragically accused by her rapist? How about he teaches her to be strong, and she stands up for herself and becomes a better human being for it?
No, she’s crippled for life, boo hoo. Cue wangst and healing!cock. And any respect for you as an author died, writhing in its own waste, unspeakably fouled and crippled.
Yes, her family was in the wrong.
Yes, her father should’ve been arrested too.
Yes, her mother is a stupid cunt who has no business having a daughter.
No, the fact that she was already molested does not excuse the man.
No, the fact that “they were in love” does not justify his clear lack of self control.
No, two wrongs do not, as you say, make a right.
I would compose a letter to you, but I know it would be met with the same smug self-assurance that drips from your afterword and every interview you do. Yes, Piers, we’re too sensitive. It’s us. Not you. You’re just handling an issue no one wants to talk about, so naturally we’re getting upset and blaming your writing. It’s not your ham-fisted and misogynistic take on sex at all. It’s us.
I would like to invite you to do as another notorious author suggested, to wit: “bend over in a prison and whistle Dixie.”
Fuck you, Piers Anthony. Fuck you in the mouth. Fuck you and your pseudo-fantasy porn, your inappropriate puns, and your ability to make Anne Rice look well-reasoned and eloquent.
Fuck you,
Sincerely, me.