I adore the premise (or that part of the premise) of your novel. The easy way, obviously, would be to make the grandfather a monster who is abusive to the heroine etc., but the easy way is seldom interesting and I'm glad you're not taking it. To me he seems like not so much a deliberately cruel man as a limited one, who is capable of great kindness to the people in his life but doesn't see all people as people. He probably sees what he does as necessary for survival and order, and maybe even a net good for the people he oppresses because those people don't have what it takes to decide their own destiny and they'd be worse off on their own etc. (Just typing that makes me feel dirty.) I can imagine him saying something casually and benevolently bigoted in his granddaughter's presence and her twitching but not saying anything. Or maybe they're sharing a very sweet moment and she wonders why she keeps imagining him dead at her hands even as she wants to bask in his affection forever. What works and what doesn't is all very highly context-dependent, of course.
Also it's fascinating that you've inverted the usual genders of an unequal het relationship and it's just as troubling as the other way around. I mean, the person whose consent is at issue might react in different ways depending on who they are and the expectations they have. After all, slave women in Earth's history were often proud of being the master's concubine, bearing his children etc,, and a slave man may similarly find it a source of pride that a highborn woman found him worthy of siring her child over his social betters, and he may feel tenderly toward the lady. And of course none of the above makes the situation okay and there are going to be strains and discord somewhere.
This also raises questions about the heroine's own status, is she a slave herself due to something like the "one drop" rule, is she somehow both noble and lowborn due to some awkward loophole etc. Maybe she's a royal bastard, or maybe the classes are configured very differently. Whatever the particulars of her status, this girl seems precisely poised to go on a Hero's Journey to grapple with her grandfather's legacy and maybe heal the rift in her community. Moses seems to be a good template with his own dual identity.
Must... shut up... If you need an editor or just someone to bounce ideas off of, just ask!
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2013-12-15 02:45 pm (UTC)Also it's fascinating that you've inverted the usual genders of an unequal het relationship and it's just as troubling as the other way around. I mean, the person whose consent is at issue might react in different ways depending on who they are and the expectations they have. After all, slave women in Earth's history were often proud of being the master's concubine, bearing his children etc,, and a slave man may similarly find it a source of pride that a highborn woman found him worthy of siring her child over his social betters, and he may feel tenderly toward the lady. And of course none of the above makes the situation okay and there are going to be strains and discord somewhere.
This also raises questions about the heroine's own status, is she a slave herself due to something like the "one drop" rule, is she somehow both noble and lowborn due to some awkward loophole etc. Maybe she's a royal bastard, or maybe the classes are configured very differently. Whatever the particulars of her status, this girl seems precisely poised to go on a Hero's Journey to grapple with her grandfather's legacy and maybe heal the rift in her community. Moses seems to be a good template with his own dual identity.
Must... shut up... If you need an editor or just someone to bounce ideas off of, just ask!