Originally Posted by
JB57
I understand exactly what you are saying, but I am reluctant to criticize people for not writing what I want to see. What I mean is that you want to get into the deep psychological and symbolic motivations of characters and make them into something they may not have been intended to be, then criticize the writer for not doing what you want him to do. (If I'm misunderstanding you on this, I apologize). But I don't think that is fair; while I certainly understand the benefits and advantages of having characters that are deeply constructed, that is not really the purpose of this kind of story. I certainly agree with the argument that good stories of any kind require character and background and buildup, but in this kind of story (a sexfight story) the buildup is meant to give texture and suspense in the roll up to the ultimate point of the story- i.e., an erotic confrontation. It's all a fantasy and should be understood as such.
Again, good characters make good stories. But, for this story, what it needed to do was give us two women who are physically beautiful and sexually powerful, and who are deeply attracted to each other so that, when they finally get around to fighting each other with their sexes, they are striving to humiliate and dominate each other sexually while reveling in and straining to withstand the enormous pleasure that they give to each other. I think that King's story does this beautifully, especially with the buildup to the final chapter. What he establishes is that Amber and Maggie give each other levels of sexual pleasure that neither has ever experienced with another person; this adds a whole other layer of desire and anticipation to their future meetings. The fact they may despise each other and all they "represent" (to you or to each other) is spiced with the appeal of intense mutual desire.
Again, this is a sex fantasy, which may work against your desire to see fully fleshed out "human" characters. After all, in the real world, I don't assume at all that women who hate each other settle their differences by having mind-blowing sex with each other! When I write - even when I try to give my characters greater depth - I never lose track of the idea that the entire premise is based on a particular kind of fantasy, which inherently compromises the idea of true emotional reality.
Again, I don't necessarily disagree with you, I just think that you are asking too much of a story that is meant to serve a very particular erotic purpose. To refer back to your earlier evocation of "Annie Hall" - in that particular scene, what it is about is a man in line who is expounding on the theories of Marshall McLuhan. Woody Allen reaches off screen and brings in McLuhan himself who then proceeds to explain to the other man how he misunderstands what McLuhan's theories and intentions really are. In a similar way, I think we have to allow the writer to describe the meaning and intentions of his/her work and make those intentions the parameters within which we evaluate the story. I don't know what King's intentions were but if he was trying to make a hot sexfight story with a couple of sexual archtypes who could fulfill the basic needs of the story, then he succeeded brilliantly (though not necessarily in the way I wanted).
Take care,
JB57
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