Anybody want to join this analysis?

[deelaundry]

Bammel? Sabine? Spoggly? Namaste?

queenzulu makes a compelling case for a House-AU of mine being anti-feminist here. It's very thought-provoking. Anything you'd be interested to add? I'd love to hear more analysis and opinions.

Please note that this is critical analysis of text/writing, not of me as a person. There is implication throughout the commentary about an author's responsibility for the end product of a work, which is an important idea that needs to be considered.

Comments

[daisylily.livejournal.com]

I remember how much to-and-fro we had when I was betaing - we had some great discussions over how the Pillory universe worked.

To me, a major point of the story was what a dystopian world they were all living in (and FWIW, I never felt that your treatment of Cameron was 'fail' - it fitted with the rest of the story, at the time you wrote it, and now).

Also, pretty much what most of these comments are saying :D

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

You and I know that in the AU House has a plan for Cameron, and she's going to end up in a better position than she started. But specifically in "Pillory" there is no hint of that whatsoever. There's only Wilson's hate of her, and as Zulu points out, it mirrors the hate much of H/W fandom had for Cameron at that point in fandom without criticizing it.

I had an expectation that readers of the fic would find the gender roles appalling, but I also should have had the expectation that they would be inclined to dislike and dismiss Cameron, so I should have made it clear that I as the author didn't. That's the fail.

[taiga13.livejournal.com]

It was clear to me, but I KNOW you. I'm not sure how I would have perceived it if I didn't know the author, but I still think I would have perceived that the author meant the reader to be appalled - there was so much emphasis on women's lot in this story, it was made so clear how bad their state was. It was like a Margaret Atwood story.
One thing that wasn't clear to me was how James ended up in the pillory in the first place. Greg says he wants James to speak his mind, to be his equal, so why did he have James pilloried for doing just that? Because other men saw it? Could he have refused to punish James?
Are you planning on writing more in this ficverse? I'd be curious to see how House and Cameron's children are raised.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Yep, it was because other men witnessed James "being disrespectful." If they'd been alone, House wouldn't have mentioned it to anyone (even though not reporting it is a violation of the Code). As James says at the end, James will have to act as a man at home and as a woman -- based on their society's restrictive rules about that -- when around other people.

No, there's no way Greg could have refused to punish James. As it said in the fic, the Code is clear that the "offended party" has to carry out the discipline.

I have planned sequels but I don't know when I'll finish them. Could be years : ) The next sequel, though, would definitely be about Cameron and the children of the House line.

[daisylily.livejournal.com]

But Pillory is narrated by James, so I don't see how you could have made it clear that you didn't dislike and dismiss Alison/Cameron without an author's note, and I never see the point of that kind of note. The author's opinions are not those of the characters, and if someone can't grasp that, it's not the author's fault (presumably they don't think that, for example, Stephen King goes around torturing and murdering people...)

It would be like saying that it was wrong or bad of you to make Cuddy have to be a 'man' before she was allowed to do anything 'man-like' - IMO, if you hadn't, it would have been totally wrong for that particular universe.

I have to say that I find it irksome when people say you shouldn't write something because it's bad for some group or other. The whole point of writing fiction, to me, is to explore the 'what if?'

Edited because one word can make all the difference... *rolls eyes at self*

[debbiel66.livejournal.com]

The whole point of writing fiction, to me, is to explore the 'what if?'

Yes to this. *nods emphatically*