Five thoughts after reading Chapters 21-25 of The Rose Labyrinth
This took me a few extra days to get done because I've been having some (read: massive quantities of) trouble sleeping, because I decided Monday to take a spontaneous trip to the beach, and because this section of the book is not holding my interest all that much. Trigger warning for discussions of religion and right-wing politics in #2 and sexual assault in #3.
1) So, we begin Chapter 21 with Lucy stepping out of the bath, noticing a "delicately fading" rose, and, assuming it is something her boyfriend/doctor/rescuer/temporary landlord (being as this is his family's house they are staying in) picked the night before and brought up for her, saying, "You should have [picked it] today, the twenty-first--for the spring equinox." I can completely understand how someone might say this in a totally not at all serious sort of gently joking, self-deprecating, "I'm a calendar geek" way, but considering this is the same character who just told her boyfriend/doctor/rescuer/temporary landlord not to interrupt her while she was monologuing about things he might have some knowledge about, I'm left wondering what the hell her problem is.
2) Maybe it's because I'm American and they're British and I have had dealings with these people and they probably haven't, but I had trouble believing that the characters were having trouble believing that there are people who honestly believe they may be raptured at any time. "'Lifted off the earth? Just like that?' Lucy wondered if this was an aspect of Simon's ironic sense of humor." NO, LUCY, IT'S NOT. IT'S REALLY, REALLY NOT.
Now, it is probably because I consider it a matter of course that Rapturists exist, and can be disguised as everyday people* that I found the leaps Simon then made to "There is a vast conspiracy among the American Right to bring about Armageddon RIGHT NOW, and they think all they need is those papers you just found," a little hard to swallow. Not that I'm saying it's completely inconceivable, because I do actually know what that word means, and not that I can't believe that at least some of the most extreme politicians in the world today (and, let's be fair, I'm discussing extremists from *all* political stripes) are actively embroiled in covert, conspiratorial bullshit that is fundamentally fucked up. I'm just saying, knowledge that Rapturists exist might be enough of a "We're in VAST GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY FANTASY CRAZY-TIME LAND NOW" moment for an audience of intellectual British spiritualists to accept everything that comes after - I don't know, being as I do not spend a lot of time in the company of intellectual British spiritualists (I totally would if I were to get the opportunity, though) - but for this observant Southern American agnostic, this reads to me kind of like, "Some people believe Michael Jackson was the best musician of all time. Those people are willing to kill over their further belief that, if they use that letter opener you got from your great-grandmother to ritually sacrifice Fuzzball from Captain EO, an army of Michael Jacksons will descend from the heavens and give everyone on earth a free puppy and a lifetime supply of Crelm toothpaste." The first sentence is common knowledge - I don't agree with the belief, but I am fully aware that there are many people in the world who believe it - and it does not surprise me at all; the second is WILDLY IMPROBABLE, and I cannot get on board with the idea that the first belief gives rise to the second.
But then I return to the following passage and my disbelief wavers some because, dammit, this much at least is happening ALL AROUND ME, and, if they're not even trying to hide shit this despicable, I can see where people could believe what Simon says they're doing covertly:
"They strongly resist those Enlightenment values for which we enshrine your heroes, Alex--Kant and Voltaire, and the very principles of the American Constitution--which is ironic, don't you think, given that this wonderfully idealized liberal thinker's paradise is exactly where they've risen to power and has--arguably--allowed them a voice in the first place. And they have certainly seized the airwaves very effectively to get their message across. Remember, I'm not talking about someone in a cave in Afghanistan. These people are right-wing Christians who have a revenge fantasy which sees them winning out, in the most brutal way, over the rational, modern, scientific, and at least ideologically egalitarian world. Their verbal war is waged through their literature and control of the media against the liberal thinkers and the gays, women they would deem overeducated, Muslims, Arabs, and especially the United Nations" (213).
Politics today are SO FUCKING DEPRESSING I CAN'T EVEN. (Although at least most of the national media isn't actually controlled by the right by now. I can see why a British writer may have thought that a few years ago when this was published, but it's really just local media, Fox News, and some fringe radio and print these days.)
3) I honestly don't know if we were supposed to be surprised by the fact that Lucy got Will's heart, but I'm going to go ahead and say anyone who didn't figure that much out (or that the pictures on the back of the cards might be arranged to show a larger picture; I seriously cannot believe that the kid is the only one who even thought to try that; also, I totally called that the second Siân said Max had been playing with them) has never read a mystery.
Ever since I watched The Hunger a few months ago (weird, weird movie, not at all what I would call enjoyable, but worth a view if you are at all interested in vampire movies with something different to say about the genre), I have been ruminating on the aspect of vampirism that disturbs me the most (and which I was never quite able to pinpoint until I watched Catherine Deneuve put David Bowie in a coffin), and how it appears in other types of stories: having a fundamental aspect of your identity change without your consent.
DISCLAIMER BEFORE IT EVEN COMES UP - I AM NOT SAYING ANY OF THE THINGS I AM ABOUT TO DISCUSS ARE OBJECTIVELY WORSE THAN RAPE. I am saying that I, personally, am more squicked out by the idea of these things than by the idea of non-consensual sexual assault. This is not a measure of how little I am bothered by rape, it is a measure of how much I am bothered by these things. RAPE IS BAD. RAPE IS ABOUT THE WORST THING EVER. DO NOT RAPE.
What freaks me out about vampires is not that they can drain me of blood, it's that they have the ability to, without my permission, completely change who and what I am. In the world of The Hunger, that means that, without asking my opinion on the matter, Catherine Deneuve could make it so I live by killing people for a few hundred years, have all of those years of age descend on me out of the blue some day until I can no longer move without assistance, and then spend the rest of eternity mouldering in a box in the attic, fully conscious but unable to do anything at all. In the Buffyverse, a demon would possess me and permanently exclude me from any possible afterlife not involving torment, my personality only able to subtly influence the personality of the demon taking up residence in my body. The specifics differ based on the story, but a majority of them agree that you are eternally damned (in one way or another) because of something that may have been forced on you against your will.
This goes beyond rape; sexual assault does not alter the physiology of your brain, unless there is some very particular, very twisted penetration involved. It is unquestionably true that rape can and does change personalities, emotional states, and identities, but, tragic as that is, whatever response you have is YOUR response. You are still you.
An involuntary lobotomy, however, physically alters the way your brain works, how your thoughts are processed, everything about who you are. And, while this thing in The Rose Labyrinth where Lucy has gotten some of Will's personality and "muscle memory" and feels at home in his bedroom and recognizes things and people who were important to him... While none of that is on par with a lobotomy, and none of that was intentionally forced on her, it is still NOT OKAY with me that she signed up for a heart transplant and wound up having her SELF altered without her consent. I'm glad she's fine with it, but I don't like it, and I don't like that the creep factor hasn't even been addressed, aside from a few nods to the fact that people think it's gross that Alex is dating a girl who is kind of his brother (AND HIS PATIENT. Why isn't this a bigger thing? Can't you lose your license for this?) So, no, book. No thank you.
4) I'm also grossed out by the fact that Alex immediately went, "They're going to hurt my brand new girlfriend to get to me; I'd better warn her!" and never once even considered that they might target HIS SON. He even says it: "I didn't properly consider Max or Ana [Max's mother/Alex's ex-wife]" (252). WORST FATHER EVER.
5) I've got to say I love Alex's attitude re: Just give them what they want for goodness' sake, it's not worth anyone DYING over a few family secrets he didn't even realize were there to be kept until three days ago, and I was starting to think the book might take the relatively unheard of - because it actually makes some kind of sense - road of just not having the protagonists CARE about solving the mystery because it doesn't matter to them. I guess this all comes back around to the fact that I am just not at all convinced that there is any danger in these villains having the secret. I mean, yes, they're evil and should be put in jail, but GO TO THE POLICE and press charges (you're well-off white people in your home country; your privilege should make this a valid option) if you feel you need to do something to stop them. Sweet Tinkerbell Jebus, trying to race them to the ambiguous magic treasure chest or whatever is not going to do anything but put you in their way and get you killed. Also, doesn't thinking they're a legitimate danger if they have these keys necessarily mean that you believe in Armageddon and their ability to kickstart it?
* Given my well-publicized distaste for religion in general and my not-as-well-publicized differentiations between the concept of organized religion (which I want no part of whatsoever) and the actual people who practice various religions (who are, y'know, PEOPLE, and who therefore may be awesome or terrible or anything in between, and who will have no problem whatsoever from me on the religion front unless they bring their religion all up in my business), I feel the need to explain that I am, indeed, joking here. I have close friends and family who know that, if they're not dead yet when God gets a notion to go to war, they are getting Hoovered up to Heaven. And I say, good for them, so long as they don't treat me any differently just because they know I'll be the one standing here trying to clean up their mess while simultaneously fending off fire and demons and that nasty sulfur smell when they're gone. Because of where I live and the people I have come in contact with, I know that people who believe in the rapture aren't "disguised" as everyday people, they ARE everyday people. And if there's a single person reading this who doesn't yet have a Sly & the Family Stone earworm, I've failed.
For the record, that is a great song, and you should all go listen to it. I'll wait.
(The song that Myfanwy played after that one was over, Nelly Furtado's "Shit on the Radio (Remember the Days)", is excellent, as well.)
And a bonus thought that was actually from back in Chapter 19, the main male character rented a Citroën to drive around France. I know full well that Citroën is a major car manufacturer in Europe and that they make a number of respectable automobiles. But everyone who knows me at all should know that not one bit of that sentence prevents me from instantly thinking of this:
A year later, I finally watched HOP and pretty much loved it (with some reservations).
The musical numbers made me roll my eyes until I was dizzy, the opening scene made me seriously question my purchase**, and there were some very, very silly plot things that didn't really seem to go anywhere, but, for a handsome-but-goofy-actor-interacts-with-a-wise-cracking-CGI-animal-voiced-by-the-comedian-du-jour movie, HOP was quite enjoyable. It's all in Brian Lynch's wonderful dialogue (which is why I wanted to see the movie in the first place, but we all already knew that I'm an obnoxiously devoted Lynch fangirl) and in the way Marsden (who I am also pretty devoted to fangirling) just throws himself into the nonsense - literally, in more than one case. Also, I'm a total sucker for this type of finding your own way in the world story, and it can't be said that I'm not pretty much exactly Fred.
(I cannot think of any reason this is rated PG instead of G. Seriously, there's not a single swear word, there's no violence... Marsden's character falls down a couple of times, but that's the bulk of the action***. The box cites "some mild rude humor," but the only things that could even possibly be referring to are E.B. crapping jelly beans and sniffing Fred's sister's hair, and you cannot honestly expect me to believe that THAT warrants parental guidance. Good lord, what is the POINT of MPAA ratings?)
** I refuse to believe Lynch wrote that, unless he was intentionally setting us up to expect mediocre shit, and how would THAT make sense?
*** Other than the Pink Berets, who never really DO much, but are still the coolest animated characters in years, and I want to decorate my entire LIFE with Pink Beret merch.
And, finally, Kevin Michael Richardson is going to be Rob Paulsen's guest on Talkin' Toons this week, and here's a clip of Paulsen in the booth with not one but TWO voices of Joker to whet our appetite. EXCITEMENT.
Now, maybe I'll actually SLEEP so I can get work done later.
1) So, we begin Chapter 21 with Lucy stepping out of the bath, noticing a "delicately fading" rose, and, assuming it is something her boyfriend/doctor/rescuer/temporary landlord (being as this is his family's house they are staying in) picked the night before and brought up for her, saying, "You should have [picked it] today, the twenty-first--for the spring equinox." I can completely understand how someone might say this in a totally not at all serious sort of gently joking, self-deprecating, "I'm a calendar geek" way, but considering this is the same character who just told her boyfriend/doctor/rescuer/temporary landlord not to interrupt her while she was monologuing about things he might have some knowledge about, I'm left wondering what the hell her problem is.
2) Maybe it's because I'm American and they're British and I have had dealings with these people and they probably haven't, but I had trouble believing that the characters were having trouble believing that there are people who honestly believe they may be raptured at any time. "'Lifted off the earth? Just like that?' Lucy wondered if this was an aspect of Simon's ironic sense of humor." NO, LUCY, IT'S NOT. IT'S REALLY, REALLY NOT.
Now, it is probably because I consider it a matter of course that Rapturists exist, and can be disguised as everyday people* that I found the leaps Simon then made to "There is a vast conspiracy among the American Right to bring about Armageddon RIGHT NOW, and they think all they need is those papers you just found," a little hard to swallow. Not that I'm saying it's completely inconceivable, because I do actually know what that word means, and not that I can't believe that at least some of the most extreme politicians in the world today (and, let's be fair, I'm discussing extremists from *all* political stripes) are actively embroiled in covert, conspiratorial bullshit that is fundamentally fucked up. I'm just saying, knowledge that Rapturists exist might be enough of a "We're in VAST GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY FANTASY CRAZY-TIME LAND NOW" moment for an audience of intellectual British spiritualists to accept everything that comes after - I don't know, being as I do not spend a lot of time in the company of intellectual British spiritualists (I totally would if I were to get the opportunity, though) - but for this observant Southern American agnostic, this reads to me kind of like, "Some people believe Michael Jackson was the best musician of all time. Those people are willing to kill over their further belief that, if they use that letter opener you got from your great-grandmother to ritually sacrifice Fuzzball from Captain EO, an army of Michael Jacksons will descend from the heavens and give everyone on earth a free puppy and a lifetime supply of Crelm toothpaste." The first sentence is common knowledge - I don't agree with the belief, but I am fully aware that there are many people in the world who believe it - and it does not surprise me at all; the second is WILDLY IMPROBABLE, and I cannot get on board with the idea that the first belief gives rise to the second.
But then I return to the following passage and my disbelief wavers some because, dammit, this much at least is happening ALL AROUND ME, and, if they're not even trying to hide shit this despicable, I can see where people could believe what Simon says they're doing covertly:
"They strongly resist those Enlightenment values for which we enshrine your heroes, Alex--Kant and Voltaire, and the very principles of the American Constitution--which is ironic, don't you think, given that this wonderfully idealized liberal thinker's paradise is exactly where they've risen to power and has--arguably--allowed them a voice in the first place. And they have certainly seized the airwaves very effectively to get their message across. Remember, I'm not talking about someone in a cave in Afghanistan. These people are right-wing Christians who have a revenge fantasy which sees them winning out, in the most brutal way, over the rational, modern, scientific, and at least ideologically egalitarian world. Their verbal war is waged through their literature and control of the media against the liberal thinkers and the gays, women they would deem overeducated, Muslims, Arabs, and especially the United Nations" (213).
Politics today are SO FUCKING DEPRESSING I CAN'T EVEN. (Although at least most of the national media isn't actually controlled by the right by now. I can see why a British writer may have thought that a few years ago when this was published, but it's really just local media, Fox News, and some fringe radio and print these days.)
3) I honestly don't know if we were supposed to be surprised by the fact that Lucy got Will's heart, but I'm going to go ahead and say anyone who didn't figure that much out (or that the pictures on the back of the cards might be arranged to show a larger picture; I seriously cannot believe that the kid is the only one who even thought to try that; also, I totally called that the second Siân said Max had been playing with them) has never read a mystery.
Ever since I watched The Hunger a few months ago (weird, weird movie, not at all what I would call enjoyable, but worth a view if you are at all interested in vampire movies with something different to say about the genre), I have been ruminating on the aspect of vampirism that disturbs me the most (and which I was never quite able to pinpoint until I watched Catherine Deneuve put David Bowie in a coffin), and how it appears in other types of stories: having a fundamental aspect of your identity change without your consent.
DISCLAIMER BEFORE IT EVEN COMES UP - I AM NOT SAYING ANY OF THE THINGS I AM ABOUT TO DISCUSS ARE OBJECTIVELY WORSE THAN RAPE. I am saying that I, personally, am more squicked out by the idea of these things than by the idea of non-consensual sexual assault. This is not a measure of how little I am bothered by rape, it is a measure of how much I am bothered by these things. RAPE IS BAD. RAPE IS ABOUT THE WORST THING EVER. DO NOT RAPE.
What freaks me out about vampires is not that they can drain me of blood, it's that they have the ability to, without my permission, completely change who and what I am. In the world of The Hunger, that means that, without asking my opinion on the matter, Catherine Deneuve could make it so I live by killing people for a few hundred years, have all of those years of age descend on me out of the blue some day until I can no longer move without assistance, and then spend the rest of eternity mouldering in a box in the attic, fully conscious but unable to do anything at all. In the Buffyverse, a demon would possess me and permanently exclude me from any possible afterlife not involving torment, my personality only able to subtly influence the personality of the demon taking up residence in my body. The specifics differ based on the story, but a majority of them agree that you are eternally damned (in one way or another) because of something that may have been forced on you against your will.
This goes beyond rape; sexual assault does not alter the physiology of your brain, unless there is some very particular, very twisted penetration involved. It is unquestionably true that rape can and does change personalities, emotional states, and identities, but, tragic as that is, whatever response you have is YOUR response. You are still you.
An involuntary lobotomy, however, physically alters the way your brain works, how your thoughts are processed, everything about who you are. And, while this thing in The Rose Labyrinth where Lucy has gotten some of Will's personality and "muscle memory" and feels at home in his bedroom and recognizes things and people who were important to him... While none of that is on par with a lobotomy, and none of that was intentionally forced on her, it is still NOT OKAY with me that she signed up for a heart transplant and wound up having her SELF altered without her consent. I'm glad she's fine with it, but I don't like it, and I don't like that the creep factor hasn't even been addressed, aside from a few nods to the fact that people think it's gross that Alex is dating a girl who is kind of his brother (AND HIS PATIENT. Why isn't this a bigger thing? Can't you lose your license for this?) So, no, book. No thank you.
4) I'm also grossed out by the fact that Alex immediately went, "They're going to hurt my brand new girlfriend to get to me; I'd better warn her!" and never once even considered that they might target HIS SON. He even says it: "I didn't properly consider Max or Ana [Max's mother/Alex's ex-wife]" (252). WORST FATHER EVER.
5) I've got to say I love Alex's attitude re: Just give them what they want for goodness' sake, it's not worth anyone DYING over a few family secrets he didn't even realize were there to be kept until three days ago, and I was starting to think the book might take the relatively unheard of - because it actually makes some kind of sense - road of just not having the protagonists CARE about solving the mystery because it doesn't matter to them. I guess this all comes back around to the fact that I am just not at all convinced that there is any danger in these villains having the secret. I mean, yes, they're evil and should be put in jail, but GO TO THE POLICE and press charges (you're well-off white people in your home country; your privilege should make this a valid option) if you feel you need to do something to stop them. Sweet Tinkerbell Jebus, trying to race them to the ambiguous magic treasure chest or whatever is not going to do anything but put you in their way and get you killed. Also, doesn't thinking they're a legitimate danger if they have these keys necessarily mean that you believe in Armageddon and their ability to kickstart it?
* Given my well-publicized distaste for religion in general and my not-as-well-publicized differentiations between the concept of organized religion (which I want no part of whatsoever) and the actual people who practice various religions (who are, y'know, PEOPLE, and who therefore may be awesome or terrible or anything in between, and who will have no problem whatsoever from me on the religion front unless they bring their religion all up in my business), I feel the need to explain that I am, indeed, joking here. I have close friends and family who know that, if they're not dead yet when God gets a notion to go to war, they are getting Hoovered up to Heaven. And I say, good for them, so long as they don't treat me any differently just because they know I'll be the one standing here trying to clean up their mess while simultaneously fending off fire and demons and that nasty sulfur smell when they're gone. Because of where I live and the people I have come in contact with, I know that people who believe in the rapture aren't "disguised" as everyday people, they ARE everyday people. And if there's a single person reading this who doesn't yet have a Sly & the Family Stone earworm, I've failed.
For the record, that is a great song, and you should all go listen to it. I'll wait.
(The song that Myfanwy played after that one was over, Nelly Furtado's "Shit on the Radio (Remember the Days)", is excellent, as well.)
And a bonus thought that was actually from back in Chapter 19, the main male character rented a Citroën to drive around France. I know full well that Citroën is a major car manufacturer in Europe and that they make a number of respectable automobiles. But everyone who knows me at all should know that not one bit of that sentence prevents me from instantly thinking of this:
A year later, I finally watched HOP and pretty much loved it (with some reservations).
The musical numbers made me roll my eyes until I was dizzy, the opening scene made me seriously question my purchase**, and there were some very, very silly plot things that didn't really seem to go anywhere, but, for a handsome-but-goofy-actor-interacts-with-a-wise-cracking-CGI-animal-voiced-by-the-comedian-du-jour movie, HOP was quite enjoyable. It's all in Brian Lynch's wonderful dialogue (which is why I wanted to see the movie in the first place, but we all already knew that I'm an obnoxiously devoted Lynch fangirl) and in the way Marsden (who I am also pretty devoted to fangirling) just throws himself into the nonsense - literally, in more than one case. Also, I'm a total sucker for this type of finding your own way in the world story, and it can't be said that I'm not pretty much exactly Fred.
(I cannot think of any reason this is rated PG instead of G. Seriously, there's not a single swear word, there's no violence... Marsden's character falls down a couple of times, but that's the bulk of the action***. The box cites "some mild rude humor," but the only things that could even possibly be referring to are E.B. crapping jelly beans and sniffing Fred's sister's hair, and you cannot honestly expect me to believe that THAT warrants parental guidance. Good lord, what is the POINT of MPAA ratings?)
** I refuse to believe Lynch wrote that, unless he was intentionally setting us up to expect mediocre shit, and how would THAT make sense?
*** Other than the Pink Berets, who never really DO much, but are still the coolest animated characters in years, and I want to decorate my entire LIFE with Pink Beret merch.
And, finally, Kevin Michael Richardson is going to be Rob Paulsen's guest on Talkin' Toons this week, and here's a clip of Paulsen in the booth with not one but TWO voices of Joker to whet our appetite. EXCITEMENT.
Now, maybe I'll actually SLEEP so I can get work done later.