Native · Light

Go read it; you won't understand my comments until you do: http://www.geekgirlz-r.us/chris/doll.html.

Adolph Eichmann was a mouse of man who made sure that the trains ran on time to get to Auschwitz the Jews, the Gypsies, the Gays, the mentally ill, the developmentally disabled, the Communists, and anyone of conscience who tried to protect any of the former. Hannah Arendt wrote about him in a book called The Banality of Evil.

Such an evocative phrase: The Banality of Evil.

Evil as mundane, as ordinary, as a series of small steps, until suddenly millions are dead, and all of us have blood on our hands whether or no we built a concentration camp, pull a trigger, or vote for a man who invades in a preemptive war. It happened 60 years ago, and it is happening today, in places such as Darfur and Iraq and Abu Ghraib.

At the root is seeing another as other, as less human or deserving, or worse: as evil, as tainting, as contaminating like a virus that will spread if you don't mercilessly kill it.

This short story, with its economy of word, but depth of meaning, is evocative of this dynamic, we see the other as less than and that pardons all the small steps till suddenly we become apart of committing evil. No matter how small a cog we are, we become a piece in the machinery of death, destruction, and despair.

Hence the puppeter in Geary-Durrill's story represents all of us as he goes about his tasks, getting the Doll ready for its requested dance. He worries about all the mundane things we worry about everyday, sneaking a moment to get a beer, getting ahead in the job, paying alimony.

And another weeps. But he is Other; and whatever he may feel or desire is judged as less than nothing. So easy to see him as an it.

Just as in another time, certain "scientists" thought they rank each human race; Negroes as less than Native Americans, Native Americans as less than Jews, Jews as less than Poles, Poles as less than Englishmen. So it became easy for our countrymen to believe that Indian children would be better off if they were ripped from their parents arms and taken to boarding schools to be outfitted with uniforms, marched in formation, beaten til they learned English, and taught husbandry, farming, and domestic skills. Not long after, other scientists thought that the best way Society could preserve human fitness was to sterilize those less fit; a process only halted when a clear line could no longer be made between who was deemed fit or unfit.

Here, it is vampires as the other; but aren't we really seeing the other in ourselves: our shames, our anger, our hunger, our capacity for evil? So we project all those fears anywhere outside of our insides. Perhaps we hope that in destroying the Other, we can forget that all of us have the capacity for evil? That it can start with such baby steps, become accepted routine, is the greatest horror.

Please read Kept (http://sexymermaid.livejournal.com/26437.html) before reading my random musings. I don't want my take on the story to affect anyone else's. Also, major spoilers. Don't ruin your enjoyment of Kept: Go there now and indulge yourself in Spikey yumminess.

(spoiler space)

Kept is a passionate take on a AU in which Spike is a courtesan and Xander is a young, insecure, and decidedly not-gay, gardener. Hmm, put that way, not so appealing.

But hold onto your horses. It is a very appealing romance; spiritual and erotic by turns, because (blush, am I really going to write something so mushy? Oh yes I am!):

Together they discover how healing love can be.

Kept has a chapter or two yet to be finished, and I am brand new to the story, which it seems has been a year in the writing. I am not sure if that is an advantage or disadvantage. I missed the piece by piece development of the story which oddly is very like the piece by piece development of the characters, Xander in particular. So I think I missed some of the good ache that comes with wondering what is going to happen next, a little like what 19th century readers of Dickens must have felt while waiting for the next chapter of Oliver Twist to be published in the penny papers of the time. The advantage is that I didn't have to wait to find out what happened next!

Because I appreciate this story, despite having come so late to the party, I am going to indulge myself with reflections not just on the latest chapter but to the story as a whole, with particular emphasis on character arc/development.

Obviously, this story is so far off the cannon, one might wonder: why not just invent wholly new characters? Recently, I have been thinking about this aspect of "fanfic" in general. My answer (and I am sure most have gotten there long before me) is that the cannon (all the little facts that went into creating a believable reality for the small screen) is not nearly as compelling or vital as the characters.

Personally, it is important to me that "fanfic" be true to the "being" or essence of the characters. Certainly fanfic seeks to expand upon the characters portrayed on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but to be enjoyable (for me), fanfic must also remain true to those characters. Of course, the description of the essence of a character is going to vary from reader to reader. That is what makes reading an interactive experience. It is not just what the writer writes, but what the reader reads that brings fiction to life.

For now, I am just going to stick to discussing the main characters in Kept: Spike, Xander, & Angel. Many others make an appearance, but these are the central characters.

The Spike of Kept seems very like the Spike I know from the TV show; this offbeat character that I have come to love and feel like I know and that I want to be happy. (Yeah, he's fictional but he tugs on my heartstrings in a way that I don't quite understand yet, but I will be writing about later.)

In Kept, love continues to be central to Spike, not so much the "One Great True Love of a Lifetime" meme as with Drusilla and Buffy, but the love of caring for others competely with his whole being. His intensity of love is one appeal (and let's just not mention killer bone structure and sexy smirks and bedroom eyes, ahem, I see I can't help but mention them.)

In Kept, I see him as healer. Okay, so it is healing with sex, and pretty hot sex it is. Yet given how messed up we humans can be about sex, how central it is to our core, not such a surprise that sex can be a means to healing. Spike's intense sexuality is a central focus of continuity from BtVS Spike to Kept Spike.

In Kept, Spike as courtesan isn't just about sex or even pleasure, and it's not just a sexy fantasy (because really, Spike as courtesan in a Kimono ain't all that sexy to me). Nor is this Spike just some AU sex therapist. Rather, Kept's Spike is a wise old vampire, who is very aware of his own power, uses his sexuality fully, and yet has a deep love for the humans in his care. He maintains this love even though other humans hurt and humiliate him daily. He uses his powerful sexuality as a healing force. (Excuse me while I take a moment to hum "Sexual Healing". Marvin Gaye is pretty sexy himself.)

What makes this work well worth reading is that Sexy Mermaid paints Spike as complete character: snarky humor, seductiveness, vulnerability, it's all there.

Sexy Mermaid also maintains continuity in Angel's characterization: his usual "once more into the breach, I've got to save the world, I am the champion" yadda, yadda, yadda. He's the one who wants to make the world right (though I have a suspicion that what would constitute "right" ain't the same to Buffyverse Angel and Kept Angel.) In Kept, this desire to save the world is central to his nature rather than an attempt to gain expiation/relief of past sins.

In comparing the characterizations of Buffy Angel and Kept Angel, Kept Angel is closer to souled Angel than to soulless Angelus. It is hard to imagine Angelus caring as much as Kept Angel does about Robin (a Kept love interest); to care enough to actually try to change something about himself, and to promise not to do something he believes he has every right to do, and even perhaps to change simply because it upsets his beloved. Angelus would have bit and brought her over the first moment he saw her, despite the serious and fatal strictures such behavior is met with in Kept.

So if one is able to accept the characterization of Angel on a continuum---which wasn't the case in Angel or BTVS did in my opinion, the calculus was pretty simple, Angel=good, Angelus=evil, and he has to be one or the other---then one is able to see a continuity of characterization between BTVS Angel and the Angel of Kept. I don't think Kept Angel is souled Angel simply because Kept Angel is not nearly as tortured as Buffyverse Angel (and God, what a relief that is).

Sexy Mermaid writes her Angel in a way that makes you not just read about, but see amd hear, Angel's dominant, alpha male swagger and self-confidence, not to mention his self-importance and self-centeredness. And speaking of the whole dominance/submission dynamic, it may be tempting to see Angel playing dominant to Spike's submissive in Kept, but I think that is missing the mark and goes directly to the heart of my increasingly overlong but admiring musings regarding the continuity of characterization in Kept.

First observation: I don't see Spike as a submissive in Sexy Mermaid's tale. Oh yeah, all the signs are there; feminized appearance, spankings, sexy dances to please both men and women, sired by Angel. However, Spike uses his considerable, ahem, gifts, to create a partnership, not only with Xander, but also with other of his clients. True, Spike is so broken by the time we see much of Angel and Spike together that he is not able to create such a partnership, but one thing we do see is that despite Angel's desire to dominate Spike, Spike submits only for the sake of his beloved, Xander. Gosh, that's just like that darn Spike, anything for the one he loves, even giving up his ass to put his boy back to wholeness. What was that phrase, oh yeah, "Fool for Love." Or maybe, "Love's Bitch."

Well, if Xander is his boy, does that make the Spike/Xander relationship a dominant/submissive relationship? There are certainly elements, though in fact the graphic sexual elements give decidedly mixed signals (i.e. who gets to penetrate whom and where) of Spike as dominant & Xander as submissive. However, I see the relationship between Spike and Xander as a partnership---one in which Spike is the wiser to be sure---a meeting of spirits which feeds both spiritually, emotionally, and erotically (which I am aware some would say is the best kind of dominant/submissive relationship).

Since this tale is set in an AU "Asian"environment, let's call this type of relationship Yin/Yang. For us Native types (i.e., me), I would use the words balance, connection, harmony (but not the vapid blond cheerleader/vampire type). In Yin/Yang, both are required to make the whole; for the Native person, balance and harmony are required for wholeness, and in wholeness there is beauty. One thing can not be more, another less, or balance is lost and beauty threatened.

But balance doesn't mean sameness; in their differences Xander and Spike bring healing to each other. An innocent boy loves Spike, and eases some of the humiliation and pain of being treated an an evil, soul-less, thing (and where exactly have we heard those words? Continuity, much?)

The harvest of this partnership is love/healing. Is there anything more healing than to be in the embrace--physical, spiritual, mental--of mutal love? Perhaps at first the relationship of Kept's Spike and Xander is a partnership of teacher/pupil, but eventually the relationship evens out (as much as possible when a human is loving an ancient vampire with tons of experience and sexual appeal.)

This dynamic is central for Xander's story, but is even more clearly drawn with Robin, one of Spike's clients. From Spike's love, healing, and --dare I say it-- goodness, Robin comes to see herself as she really is rather than what she has been told she was (a type of abusiveness resonate with Buffy's treatment of Spike in BtVS). Spike draws Xander into this work of healing Robin resulting in more healing for Xander, and healing partnership of two results in a healing threesome.

This intense love and devotion is what grips me in Kept. I continued reading Kept despite the horrible torture of Spike portrayed in the story because there was enough love in the story I could believe that Spike would be restored and loved again.

However, (isn't there always a however, took me a long time to get it though), however, I want to say some things I think are going to be disagreeable to other fans of Kept: I have a lot of trouble translating BTVS Xander to Kept Xander.

The Xander of Kept seems too vulnerable and grounded (his gardening is at essense an appreciation and love of balance and harmony) for me to be able to connect him with the BtVS Xander. BtVS Xander is a brave man, a good man, a strong man, but to put it mildly he is about as pigheaded and stubborn as they come, not to mention black & white in his thinking and blind to the motivations and feelings of others as well as himself. (No matter that Season 7 Buffy writers exalted him as "being the one who sees." As far as I can tell, he saw almost nothing about the core of the people he interacted with daily, including himself.)

Back to the question of character continuity: How often did we get to see BTVS Xander as vulnerable? As a creator of balance and harmony? There were a few instances but not often. Brave, yes. Loyal, yes. Self-sacrificing, double and triple yeah. But grounded and vulnerable? Almost never.

The Kept Xander seems to me to be a personification of these qualities. It is what make the Yin and Yang of Kept's Spike and Xander so right and beautiful. But I see very little of BtVS Xander in Kept Xander except in this instance: BtVS Xander's willingness to slay vampires, demons, and the Big Bads despite his lack of slayerhood or vampirehood is much like Kept Xander's willingess to put himself on the line for Kept Spike; he puts on his little slave costume and allows himself to be humiliated and that took every bit as much bravery for Kept Xander as fighting beside Buffy did for BtVS Xander. Neither BtVS Xander nor Kept Xander cared much about pride or dignity if a battle needed to be waged or a friend saved.

I also find the initial interaction with Robin very like the BtVS Xander. It was a very kind thing he did for her, not pity but love and kindness. And except in a few notable exceptions (most involving his reactions to Angel and Spike), I see BtVS Xander as kind, decent, salt of the earth, and yes there is some of that in Kept Xander. And if Xander was willing to be Yang to anone's Yin, it was going to be Buffy. So perhaps here is another point of continuity as Xander choosed to be Yang to Spike's Yin.

So in summation, (had to come sometime), I find Sexy Mermaid's description of Spike and Angel a drawing out of the essential character we saw in the TV series. I find Xander less convincing but lovely anyway.

This overly long review is my way of saying thank you to Sexy Mermaid for writing a story I so thoroughly enjoyed not least on an erotic level but mostly because it wonderfully portrayed some of the essential elements of these characters. Additionally, the beautiful artwork accompanying the story is amazing. The number of hours Sexy Mermaid has taken to write this beauty of a story is well matched by the artists who've added to it. Creativity squared.

I am looking forward to the last (well not that) chapter(s) of this story, and especially reading it again, once Sexy Mermaid tells us it's complete.

Again, you sexy ocean gal, thank you, thank you.