Romance and the Ultimate Taboo: Incest

On Votaries, I recently posted about Elizabeth Enright's Melendy series. 

Below is a repost that references two of the characters.

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My post about Melendy siblings reminded me of one of my fan-fiction ideas: a possible male/male relationship between Rush and the adoptive brother, Mark. 

I immediately ran up against the sibling problem.  

The problem arises whether the siblings are male-male or male-female. And it has to do with an issue raised in my post about the guardian-lover relationship. Woody Allen and Soon-Yi emphasized that they had NOT had a father-daughter relationship prior to their relationship. 

When I first encountered that defensive claim, I thought it was rather pointless. Why focus so much on a non-issue? They aren't biologically related. 

Turns out, I was wrong. 

According to Allan V. Horwitz of What's Normal: Reconciling Biology & Culture, the incest taboo is likely physiologically generated, not culturally imposed. 

Horwitz makes the argument because incest--unlike just about any other transgressive behavior (sexual or otherwise)--does not get its own "STOP-THINK FIRST" ads on television. Parents rarely reference it. It is barely part of everyday speech. And yet most people, including Horwitz's students, are disgusted by the idea. 

Horwitz points out that historically, even sexually permissive cultures have draw the line at incest. Moreover, cultures that have allowed it have allowed it as an exception (such as between Egyptian and Ptolemaic royalty). 

Horwitz calls on the Westermarck effect, named after Edvard Westermarck, that claims--and these claims are backed by studies--that people (and primates) raised in the same household evince sexual indifference towards each other. The effect is not determined by genetics but proximity. And it is most likely to occur between children raised together under the age of three; quite likely between children raised together under the age of ten. Sexual abuse, moreover, is more likely to occur between male stepfathers and female stepdaughters than between biological parent-child. (There are exceptions to all these observed behaviors.) 

There is a cultural component, of course. Although Victorians (sort of) accepted cousins marrying, an in-law marrying a spouse--such as a sister-in-law marrying the husband of her deceased sister--sent everyone into a tizzy. 

Part of the reason was that the relationship had been designated sister and brother. But part of the reason was that they had been living in the same house. The idea was that they would automatically develop those sisterly and brotherly emotions towards each other. It would just, you know, happen by magic. 

Again, I was at first dismissive of Victorian scruples. But I suspect that the Victorians were aware--especially in a time period where youngish widowed men and women often remarried, bringing together children from two households--of the Westermarck effect (even if they never labeled it as such). 

The problem lies in assuming that an eighteen-year-old living in a household alongside others is the same as a ten-year-old raised in a household alongside others. 

And it isn't. 

In the delightful series Cherry Blossoms After Winter, Hae-bom moved into Tae Seong's home when his parents died in a car accident. Hae-bom and Tae Seong were both eight-ish. However, they never develop a brotherly relationship since Tae Seong never saw Hae-bom that way and Hae-bom was constantly on edge, feeling like he is a guest or trespasser despite Tae Seong's mom being supportive and kind. At school, most people don't even know they share a house (this common trope in Asian manga/series is practically incomprehensible to Americans, who learn each other's bios within days of meeting), especially since they aren't on the same class track until their senior year.

But if Hae-bom had been any younger would the "brotherliness" override any other emotion? 

Regarding Mark and Rush, Mark is thirteen; Rush is fourteen. So...maybe they would form an intimate relationship. But considering the personalities, time period, and family vibe...likely not.

A-Z Golden Age Couples: C is for Complex Christie Couples

As always with Christie, her books provide exceptions. Unlike many Golden Age Couples, Christie never settled for a single youthful couple who rush into each other's arms at the end. Sure, she produced a few couples of that type--when the plot called for it. But she was equally willing to produce couples that evoke more complex emotions. 

Within the Cs: *Spoilers*

Richard Carey & Louise Leidner are adulterers. Christie captures Carey's infatuation and loathing of the woman who attracts him yet happens to be his good friend's wife. When he blurts out to Poirot that he "hated her," Poirot immediately grasps Carey's inner conflict--and how it relates to the murder.

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Elinor Carlisle & Rodney Wellman: Elinor Carlisle is one of Christie's heroines who is smitten with a non-responsive, rather cold man. I mention in my review of the Suchet movie that the movie missed the point. They put down Elinor's reaction to the jealousy of losing the man she is already sleeping with. But Christie presents a far more complex picture: Elinor is invested imaginatively as well as practically in Rodney and he lets her down. 

Dr. John Christow & Henrietta Savernake: A fascinating couple since both are consummate ambitious professionals in their own fields. Although Christow occasionally wishes the Henrietta would put him first, he recognizes that she will never do so and he doesn't really want from her what he gets from his adoring wife. Henrietta recognizes Christow as a guy who thinks he wants things he doesn't really want. In the end, Christow turns to Henrietta for help in protecting his wife. 

Christie is sometimes perceived or talked about as if she wrote cute little cozies with stock characters (and recent movies often "fix" her vision by throwing in rather dumb profundity). But Christie in her deceptively light sketches captures human beings, real human beings, as nobody else ever did.  

Hobbies in Manga: Desserts

Cooking and baking are common tropes in all fiction, some of which capture truths of the human experience--see Babette's Feast. 

I list desserts as a hobby, however, because there are scenes in manga and anime (and live action) where the choice nd enjoyment of sugary food is treated as an event. It isn't like Golden Girls (which I enjoy) where the ladies discuss dieting and then decide to have cheesecake anyway. 

In manga, anime, and live action the enjoyment is embraced. In In the Walnut, Nakai loves a good cake. In Stay By My Side After the Rain, Mashiro often tries to make up with Kanade by bringing him cream puffs. 

From live action, Fujisaki's sheer pleasure in selecting a good desserts is one of the most delightful images on record. 

A good dessert can be a happy set-alone moment in the day, whatever the day has been like. It doesn't have to have meaning. It just has to be.  

Shakespeare Couples in Much Ado about Nothing

I recently posted on Votaries about my parents and Shakespeare. I was exposed to quite a lot of Shakespeare growing up! 

On this blog, I recently finished a list: A-Z Shakespeare Couples. So out of all couples, which is the best? 

Benedict & Beatrice 

Much Ado about Nothing proves that Shakespeare was aware of and capable of creating a relationship of equals. 

Benedict and Beatrice are so well-matched in terms of intelligence, wit, and independence that various retellings of the tale, from Branagh's magnificent and lush masterpiece to Shakespeare Retold's lovely modernization with Sarah Parish and Damian Lewis, do not need to "fix" the relationship to make it modern. Beatrice and Benedict are entirely comprehensible to us. 

Hero and Claude are less likable--of which truth I think Shakespeare is well-aware. If Claude's behavior--shaming her at her wedding--wasn't so reprehensible, Beatrice would have no reason to demand that Benedict challenge Claude. He would have no reason to take her part. 

The problem isn't the anger and jealousy that Claude feels. Shakespeare, as always, is dealing with entirely recognizable human emotions. The problem is, Why would Hero take him back? 

Shakespeare Retold leaves the matter open. And even the play veers away from the youthful idiots to the couple that draws us in. 

One of the best couples in all literature!  

Shakespeare's Couples: Perdita and Florizel

Winter's Tale is the play with the line "Exit, Pursued by a Bear." Wikipedia gets snarky about how no bears were used in Elizabethean (Jacobean) theater. However, since people of the time period knew about bears and they did show up in other venues, I don't see the confusion. I think it is more than possible that Shakespeare wrote "Pursued by a Bear" and then left the stage manager to go, "Are you nuts? We can't get a bear!" 

I watched the Animated Shakespeare version, which distilled the plot into a tidy 25 minutes or so. Arguably, that's enough. It's also enough to indicate that Shakespeare was taking several of his later themes and story ideas and distilling them into something that at least resembles a plot. 

However, unlike in his earlier plays, it is difficult to warm to the lovers. Leontes is a jerk. Hermione may or may not have died. Perdita is one of those unlikely heroines who moves easily from her peasant upbringing to a court (whilst suffering none of the problems of a near-starvation diet). And Florizel acts like self-entitled and irritates his father by getting engaged without asking permission. 

Perdita and Florizel at least have space in which to build a relationship. If so, it occurs mostly off-stage. Act III opens 16 years after Perdita has been abandoned in the Bohemian countryside. Florizel is already hanging out with Perdita on a regular basis. Florizel does state that he met Perdita when following the flight of his falcon (nice add-in, Shakespeare!). Unfortunately, the opening discussion between Perdita and Florizel is not between bantering lovers but between an angsty Perdita (What if your dad finds out?) and a blithe Florizel (Hey, I can date whomever I want!). 

It's hard not to see a major change in Shakespeare. Granted, there's no way to know how and with whom the later plays were written, so it's unfair to put too much emphasis on such changes. 

Nevertheless, as I reach the end of the Shakespeare Couples list, I find it possible to argue that Shakespeare gave up the bantering, clever, likable partner couples of earlier plays for plays where the couples are mere props for stories about other stuff. The enamored couple gives way to kings who have kind of lost it.  

He was free(ish) of course to write whatever he wanted. But I find the change rather sad.  

 

The Couples in Brat Farrar

One of my mother's favorite books is Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey, a non-Detective Grant book. It has to do with a double identity. Brat pretends to be a young man who disappeared over a decade earlier. He comes to realize that the young pre-teen was likely murdered. 

The BBC television movie, which I've only been able to find online, is a decent version. The story involves twins, and Mark Greenstreet plays Brat and his supposed twin, Simon. 

*Spoilers* 

The one place the movie falters is at the end. In the movie, Brat ends up with the supposed sister who is really his distant cousin. Movie Brat also comes across as far more aggressive and confident than his book self. 

In the book, Brat is far more like the dead boy, Patrick. After a lifetime surviving alone, he is self-contained and wary. He is also fundamentally moral and sensitive and pursues the mystery to a dangerous end. He also, like everyone else in the family, adores horses. He finds his strident, overly confident cousin (who originally thought she was his sister) attractive--but not ultimately what he wants. 

At the end, Aunt Bee offers to have him come and work for her: 

His eyes came away from the ceiling, and watched her. She saw his fingers being to play with the sheet, unhappily. 

"Are you going away to Ulster, then?" he asked. 

"Only if you will come with me, and run the stable for me."

 The easy tears of the newly-convalescent rose in his eyes and ran down his cheek. 

"Oh, Bee!" he said. 

"I take it means that my offer is accepted," she said. 

Tey does not indicate whether the relationship is a romance, friendship, partnership, or all the foregoing. Aunt Bee is the age she is portrayed in the movie where she is played perfectly by Angela Browne. Older than Brat by about a decade, they fall well within the range for a possible match. And easy comradeship is plausible, no matter what the relationship's label. It's a wonderful ending, and the ending I would have rooted for with the movie.  

Lack of Romance in Carroll's Alice

I recently posted about the Alice books on Votaries. 

I'm not one who believes that Lewis Carroll was a pedophile hankering after the eleven-year-old, Alice Liddell (though by Victorian-Ruskin standards, such hankering was somewhat accepted; not that Ruskin is the best role model). 

From a literary perspective, the important point here is that no romance exists in the Alice books in the modern sense of "romances." Carroll draws on images of chivalry for various scenes but only as tropes. So there is also little "romance" in the medieval sense either: romance as great deeds carried out by honorable figures who save others.

The White Knight makes an appearance and is quite kindly. But his encounter with the Red Knight is reminiscent of T.H. White's jousters who behave with such a lack of panache or competence, the Wart gets worried for them. 

The most "romantic"--in the older sense of the word--event occurs when Alice meets the fawn. There is a quiet pathos to the scene that exists in older tales: Dante provides quiet moments between and Dante and Virgil meeting sinners and saints, monsters and beings of tremendous (if exhausting) majesty. 

I'm not entirely opposed to the mundane, precisely because high romance can get so exhausting. But I prefer my romance (both definitions) and my mundane to overlap more. 

On Votaries, I talk about how my father liked the books. He had a penchant for shaggy dog stories as well as nonsense and puns. The Alice books fall into that English tradition sooner than they fall into the romance tradition.