Resonance in a novel
I seem to be picking up resonant novels lately, which I presume is accidentally-on-purpose as far as my subconscious goes. First there was Black Swan by Mercedes Lackey, which had some very familiar dynamics in it to do with wanting to do the things that please someone, even while you maintain an apparently completely individual sense of self. And dynamics to do with when someone chooses to take from you rather than allow you to give.
Then last night I picked up the ninth Anita Blake novel, Obsidian Butterfly. I stopped reading the Anita Blake novels just after that one - they'd become little more than extended sex scenes, without the psychological dynamics that had attracted me to the series in the first place. And I get bored when sex goes on for more than fifteen minutes -impish grin-. But Obsidian Butterfly is good. More, it's largely about the side character, Edward. And re-reading it, I was startled to realise how many of the same dynamics between Anita and Edward exist between myself and Stream. There's the fact that they come from a world which is acknowledged to be not the same nice safe comfortable world that most other people live in, and they function in it. And there's a certain sense of partnership and trust which is... well, not trust, per se. More a trust that each will be themselves, and strong enough to do what needs to be done. By no means do they actually trust each other. They just know they can rely on each other in certain ways. There's other dynamics, there, too - those are just the first I noticed. What I find really amusing though is that Edward's physical description is almost exactly that of Stream. Very very close. From basic looks right down to a number of the manners of speaking and communicating, the body language. And I'd be very surprised if Stream had ever read any of those books.
Then last night I picked up the ninth Anita Blake novel, Obsidian Butterfly. I stopped reading the Anita Blake novels just after that one - they'd become little more than extended sex scenes, without the psychological dynamics that had attracted me to the series in the first place. And I get bored when sex goes on for more than fifteen minutes -impish grin-. But Obsidian Butterfly is good. More, it's largely about the side character, Edward. And re-reading it, I was startled to realise how many of the same dynamics between Anita and Edward exist between myself and Stream. There's the fact that they come from a world which is acknowledged to be not the same nice safe comfortable world that most other people live in, and they function in it. And there's a certain sense of partnership and trust which is... well, not trust, per se. More a trust that each will be themselves, and strong enough to do what needs to be done. By no means do they actually trust each other. They just know they can rely on each other in certain ways. There's other dynamics, there, too - those are just the first I noticed. What I find really amusing though is that Edward's physical description is almost exactly that of Stream. Very very close. From basic looks right down to a number of the manners of speaking and communicating, the body language. And I'd be very surprised if Stream had ever read any of those books.