The Terrors of Tarragina (addendum)

[sythyry]

Mirrored from Sythyry.

A copy of The Terrors of Tarragina was duly procured (from Vind — I refuse to allow more teasing of Alzagonde until she does something else horrible). The crudely-imagined and crudely-drawn cover shows a nearly-naked, voluptuous, and quite aroused Herethroy woman, holding a crowbar in a midhand, staring at it as if it were a serpent about to bite her. Beside her are four very full washbasins, one overflowing, and a Cani man with a hammer in one hand and a tremendous erection visible under his skirt.

I, sacrifically, read the cursed thing, since I have plenty of time on my paws when I want it.

Tarragina is the sixth daughter of a countess of Barency. She has a single passion in life: “rejoicining in elegant circumstances”. Through a sequence of misfortunes too implausible to mention, her family loses fortune and title in chapter two. (OK, I’ll mention the guntry race. They’ve got a prize running-guntry that always wins every race. They bet their last village on the guntry in a race against a stranger — who turns out to be a wizard, whose guntry is a transformed air elemental, and wins in a whoosh. Somehow they neglect to mention that this may be considered cheating.)

Anyhow, by chapter 3, Tarragina is condemned to wander the city and country in a life of toil, a thing which she finds utterly abhorrent. She picks up odd jobs here and there — helping a Cani family demolishing a shed in chapter five (hence the crowbar), and washing clothes for some Herethroy farmers in chapter eight (hence the basins). In each case, she attempts the job briefly throws up her hands and hand-feet at how horrid and vulgar it is, and, um, renegotiates the arrangement to be one in which she performs bodily pleasures upon her employers rather than having to do the work. Then, for reasons unspecified, she is off at a different employer the next chapter, evidently the next day.

For a bit of socioprosody of my own: the description of the chapter’s circumstances take 1-3 paragraphs. The attempts at performing the job, and Tarragina’s abhorrence thereof, take another 3-5. The seduction of the employer takes a single paragraph more. The rest of each chapter — five to fifteen pages — is a description of the encounter.

For what it’s worth: About half the time she’s involved with Herethroy, and half with other species. Nobody seems to find this the least bit noteworthy — not that there is much actual conversation involved.

Also, a half-page of action from chapter 5 appears again, word for word, in chapter 21. Perhaps the author did not think anyone would read that far. In any case, it was dull the first time, and extra-dull the second.

I cannot recommend the book, either as literature, pornography, or a source of threats.

Comments

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I must say that "enjoying fantasies about thus-and-so" counts as prima facie evidence in "interest in thus-and-so". It may not count as any desire to participate in thus-and-so in person, say.

[rowyn]

Well, Shurahian's original comment was 'you'd have to have traff leanings to enjoy traff writings', which is what I disagree with. You can fantasize about things that you have no intention whatsoever of doing anything like. You have to be *interested* in the sense of "find it interesting" but not in the sense of "interested in experimenting with it".

A better and more extreme example -- a lot of women of my world have rape fantasies, which is in no way remotely indicative of an actual interest in *being raped*. Or in raping anyone. And people don't generally regard those who enjoy horror movies as proto-victims, or proto-serial killers.

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

No, my original comment was not that "you'd have to" anything. Only that it is a more compelling argument, in that there isn't the same easy explanation that a heterosexual being interested in same-sex porn of the opposite sex could simply be indulging in their heterosexuality to its fullest and not be homosexual themselves.

One could certainly write traff pornography as a literary excersize or a social statement, say, but I'd think it less likely to come off as trashy porn in that case, simply because there'd be more focus on either the craft or the social aspects. It could just be done badly, to be sure, but the simplest explanation for horrible and indulgent porn of the type described is that the author had a prurient interest in the subject matter, which would indicate some traff sensibilities even if the author would never act on them personally.

[rowyn]

Well, your exact words were:

Anyone who writes transaffectionate porn - especially if their own species is not involved - can be fairly argued to have at least some traff leanings.

If by "traff leanings" you mean "prurient interest in fantasizing about traff behavior", I will grant you the likelihood of it. If by "traff leanings" you mean "must be interested in engaging in traff behavior, even if they're too timid/repressed/etc to actually do so", then I can't agree.

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

I meant neither of those things, since I would also include "sympathizes with the transaffectionate" or "intellectual curiosity on the matter" in what I was getting at.

For that matter, someone who has a distinctly anti-transaffectionate agenda could also write traff-involving porn to demonize it, but again, that sort of agenda does not seem present here.

I will rephrase my statement as: Anyone who writes transaffectionate porn, especially that which does not involve their own species, can be generally assumed to have some personal interest on the topic. Note that "personal interest" covers a lot of ground, supportive and otherwise, and note also the key word "generally". I am not speaking of absolutes here, and I get very irritated, very fast, when people set up a strawman by assuming that I am.