Just talking about books, feel free to move along
Grumpy. Sluggish. Unproductive. Low self-esteem. But dammit, at least Tir will cuddle with me when I read in bed.
Cut due to minor spoilers for the Vorkosigan series, and due to the general lack of interest by the livejournal stalkers in these books.
This isn't deep or astonishing or much of anything except something clicking in my brain and going !.
In A Civil Campaign, Dono or Byerly (I forget which) bring up the subject, briefly, of Aral's long-dead first wife, due to the fact that she was a Vorrutyer.
Rereading Shards of Honor, this came to mind during the scene with Cordelia and Ges Vorrutyer, and suddenly Aral and Vorrutyer's relationship became increasingly creepy. All that's really established, in book, is that 1) there was a relationship (presumably one that lasted long enough for Vorrutyer to bear a grudge for over twenty years after the relationship ended), 2) that the relationship was in the wake of Aral's wife committing suicide, and 3) that Vorrutyer was the one who brought Aral word of the first Lady Vorkosigan's suicide.
All that combined with the fact that Vorrutyer was some kind of relation of the wife and the entire thing just becomes ... extra strange. I know there are plenty of cases where two people can be Vorx and Vorx and not be that closely related (I think it's been established that Count Vorpatril and Ivan are so distantly related that Ivan would be more likely to become Count /Vorkoisgan/ than Count Vorpatril?), so it's quite probable that Ges Vorrutyer and the Lady Vorkosigan were barely more than nodding aquaintances. But it's just as likely that they were cousins, or brother and sister, and that's ... creepy. It makes what I always assumed was a taboo and alcohol-soaked relationship that wasn't necessarily devoid of genuine feeling and attraction, ending in, potentially, a bad break up into something a lot more twisted on the part of both participants.
I think this all boils down to I have no real problem with one of Aral's past relationships involving a man, involving a man who would grow up to become a twisted sadist, or coming in the wake of his grief and guilt over his wife's suicide. But the thought of that rebound relationship being with someone who may have been a in-law just strikes me as deeply messed up on Aral's part, and potentially manipulative on the part of Vorrutyer, when I'd always assumed that, prior to his break-up with Aral, what were perceived as his perversions were merely expressions of atypical sexuality on Barrayar. It never really occurred to me that there might have been more corruption or malice in Vorrutyer, sexually or otherwise, at the time he was involved with Aral.
It doesn't really change anything. It was just something that occurred to me and weirded me out more than a little.
Clearly I miss the simple days, when all that was discussed was where Aral fell on the Kinsey scale and whether throw-away comments about the selection of attractive male secretaries were really just throw-away comments.
Posts like this will probably crop up from time to time as I continue rereading the series. Just a warning.
The enemy of my cat is soup,
Almighty Ingrid, Signing Off
Cut due to minor spoilers for the Vorkosigan series, and due to the general lack of interest by the livejournal stalkers in these books.
This isn't deep or astonishing or much of anything except something clicking in my brain and going !.
In A Civil Campaign, Dono or Byerly (I forget which) bring up the subject, briefly, of Aral's long-dead first wife, due to the fact that she was a Vorrutyer.
Rereading Shards of Honor, this came to mind during the scene with Cordelia and Ges Vorrutyer, and suddenly Aral and Vorrutyer's relationship became increasingly creepy. All that's really established, in book, is that 1) there was a relationship (presumably one that lasted long enough for Vorrutyer to bear a grudge for over twenty years after the relationship ended), 2) that the relationship was in the wake of Aral's wife committing suicide, and 3) that Vorrutyer was the one who brought Aral word of the first Lady Vorkosigan's suicide.
All that combined with the fact that Vorrutyer was some kind of relation of the wife and the entire thing just becomes ... extra strange. I know there are plenty of cases where two people can be Vorx and Vorx and not be that closely related (I think it's been established that Count Vorpatril and Ivan are so distantly related that Ivan would be more likely to become Count /Vorkoisgan/ than Count Vorpatril?), so it's quite probable that Ges Vorrutyer and the Lady Vorkosigan were barely more than nodding aquaintances. But it's just as likely that they were cousins, or brother and sister, and that's ... creepy. It makes what I always assumed was a taboo and alcohol-soaked relationship that wasn't necessarily devoid of genuine feeling and attraction, ending in, potentially, a bad break up into something a lot more twisted on the part of both participants.
I think this all boils down to I have no real problem with one of Aral's past relationships involving a man, involving a man who would grow up to become a twisted sadist, or coming in the wake of his grief and guilt over his wife's suicide. But the thought of that rebound relationship being with someone who may have been a in-law just strikes me as deeply messed up on Aral's part, and potentially manipulative on the part of Vorrutyer, when I'd always assumed that, prior to his break-up with Aral, what were perceived as his perversions were merely expressions of atypical sexuality on Barrayar. It never really occurred to me that there might have been more corruption or malice in Vorrutyer, sexually or otherwise, at the time he was involved with Aral.
It doesn't really change anything. It was just something that occurred to me and weirded me out more than a little.
Clearly I miss the simple days, when all that was discussed was where Aral fell on the Kinsey scale and whether throw-away comments about the selection of attractive male secretaries were really just throw-away comments.
Posts like this will probably crop up from time to time as I continue rereading the series. Just a warning.
The enemy of my cat is soup,
Almighty Ingrid, Signing Off