(Meta) Faith's Childhood
What was Faith's childhood like, before she came to Sunnydale? A while ago, I was involved in a conversation about that in the comments on deird1's LJ, and gave a fairly in-depth reply. I thought it would be interesting to take that, polish it up and add lots more examples and inferences, and post it here for everyone to read.
There's probably not ( Read more... )
Simply from this question: given that Faith seems to have had very little formal schooling - and that her home life doesn't exactly sound to be very conducive to learning - when and where, exactly, would she have learned to read? It's not something you just pick up by osmosis, except maybe if you're a genius. (I could maybe believe Willow teaching herself to read from the back of cereal packets; but Faith, not so much.)
There are 30 million adults (one person in seven) in the US who have "below basic" literacy; 55% of them were high school drop-outs like Faith. Is it really that strange to assume Faith is one of them?
how do we know Faith is completely honest about her past?
Oh, I don't think for a moment she is. I'm sure she exaggerates, embroiders and plain makes things up all the time... at least in Season 3. The question is why? - and I'd say the answer is "out of self-defence". Faith doesn't ever want to be vulnerable again, and that means never admitting a weakness. She sometimes seems on the point of being able to trust Buffy enough to open up, but then it always goes wrong. She does better with Angel.
But I don't think that applies in S7. She's got no motivation to lie about her past to Spike; she seems to enjoy just relaxing and being herself with him. (And Spike himself is pretty good at detecting bullshit, and seems to see Faith as genuine there.)
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In school? Canon has her being a high school dropout, not a kindergarten one. I'm not saying she was a good student, or that she reads Proust for kicks, I just think that her being completely illiterate is a pretty big assumption to make with no real textual evidence - and in fact, several hints to the contrary. That said, thoose are very interesting stats - do you know how they define "below basic"?
She's got no motivation to lie about her past to Spike; she seems to enjoy just relaxing and being herself with him. (And Spike himself is pretty good at detecting bullshit, and seems to see Faith as genuine there.)
Good point, and if it weren't for my inner devil's advocate, I'd probably agree. ;-) But I do think it's ambiguous;
SPIKE: Not all that tension was about you. Giles was a part of a plan to kill me...for Buffy's own good.
FAITH: Well, that makes me feel better about me, worse about Giles...kinda shaky about you.
Faith has just been more or less outright told that she's "not wanted". She's on shaky ground and she's found exactly one person who seems OK with her. What's the one thing she knows about him from personal experience? That the last time they met, she wound him around her little finger by playing off his libido (and he didn't see through it at all). Why wouldn't she try to impress him now? If Spike's got chains over his bed, then damnit, she's not going to be any less experienced.
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The data was from an official US government survey, the NAAL, carried out in 2003.
Did not speak English (4 million)
could not take the test because of language barriers
Nonliterate (7 million)
could not answer simple test questions
Below Basic: (30 million)
no more than the most simple and concrete literacy skills
Basic: (63 million)
can perform simple and everyday literacy activities
Intermediate: (95 million)
can perform moderately challenging literacy activities
Proficient: (28 million)
can perform complex and challenging literacy activities
Most of the questions involved giving the participant a passage of prose, such as a three-paragraph newspaper article, and asking them a series of questions about it. For example, one sample passage began:
"My name is Terry. I'm from Ireland where the grass is so green and the conutryside is so breathtaking. I came to the U.S. in Sept. of 1982 for a vacation because I was curious." (etc)
Question 1: What country is Terry from?
3% of respondents answered this question wrongly. :-) Apart from the question "Write down your name" this was the easiest in the test.
http://nces.ed.gov/NAAL/index.asp
Also, I note that I did say in the original essay "she couldn't read. Or at least, she can read a few words but struggles with anything complex. :-)
Oh, and I've just remembered Faith's line of dialogue from NFFY Part 4 when Roden gives her the spellbook:
"Thanks. But I ain't much of a reader."
:-)
I don't diagree that it's possible Faith was just spinning Spike a line to make her seem more experienced, though I still think she comes across as sincere in that scene.
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