Inara was just practicing her religion ...
POSTED BY: Zoot
UPDATED: Thursday, July 21, 2005 08:35
VIEWED: 5730
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Just been listening to the radio talking about how ‘Madrassa’ is the Pakistani word for a religious school or monastery …
So, if you follow my slightly twisted logic here, if Inara trained at House Madrassa, wouldn’t that make her a nun???
(All be it one with some funny yet surprisingly pleasing ideas about the practice of religion) …
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in five hundred years the term has been expanded in it's meaning to encompus the training of Companions in a cloistered enviornment.
this is the beauty of saying '500 years in the future'...
language changes a lot
(in Shakespeare the term 'little death' meant orgasim...funny that that is the only example that I can think of at 7am? LOL)
customs change a lot
religion changes a lot!
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Quote:When did it change, and to what?
Originally posted by embers:
...in Shakespeare the term 'little death' meant orgas(i)m...
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Quote:
Originally posted by PurpleBelly:Quote:When did it change, and to what?
Originally posted by embers:
...in Shakespeare the term 'little death' meant orgas(i)m...
Quite
I think it's a very reasonable and accurate description of the experience ... both physically, mentally and even, occasionally, emotionally ....
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How's this for irony - when I posted my last comment this thread had been read 69 times! heheheheheeeeee!!
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It appears that there was certainly a ceremonial element to being a companion. In Heart of Gold, some of the "companions" heard sermons from the Shepherd, however they were not "True companions."
I would say that the Companion lifestyle could remind one of the "Sacred Prostitutes" of old Greco-Roman times. They would dwell in the temple and do what they did.
They were revered as being priestesses, and ushered Boys into Adulthood, fulfilled religious roles, etc.
It seems like the companion reflects this.
However, with it being 500 years into the future, there are differences, and while the Themes are similar, I don't know if there is an absolute religious element to being a companion.
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Quote:
Originally posted by PurpleBelly:Quote:When did it change, and to what?
Originally posted by embers:
...in Shakespeare the term 'little death' meant orgas(i)m...
sorry about the misspelling...I'm terrible at that...
my understanding is that our term orgasm came from the French orgasme...which came from a Greek term
and Shakespeare would not have heard of the word 'orgasm' at all, just the ephemism
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Quote:
sorry about the misspelling...I'm terrible at that...
my understanding is that our term orgasm came from the French orgasme...which came from a Greek term
and Shakespeare would not have heard of the word 'orgasm' at all, just the ephemism
"ephemism"??
euphemism?? As in (also from the Greek) eu (well or auspicious) phemizein (to speak) ....
Surely Shakespere would have known the ancient greek orgasmos???
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Quote:
Originally posted by ScottishBrownCoat:
I would say that the Companion lifestyle could remind one of the "Sacred Prostitutes" of old Greco-Roman times. They would dwell in the temple and do what they did.
They were revered as being priestesses, and ushered Boys into Adulthood, fulfilled religious roles, etc.
It seems like the companion reflects this.
I like your thinking on this, Scottish Browncoat ... It has all kinds of parallels ...
For one you get the sacred priestess types and your common whores, both providing essentially the same service but with very different reputations (see 5th century BC Corinth).
Plus whilst being revered as a goddess’ prostitute, you would still have little or no chance of marrying a decent man or having a normal life thereafter - you’d be pretty much condemned to look after the temple etc in old age …
This reminds me of the fact that although Inara is a “registered companion” and therefore respectable, there is a marked dichotomy between how people claim to see her and how she’s actually seen … I think Atherton Wing makes it clearest when, when provoked, he says:
“Money changed hands. Makes her mine
tonight. And no matter how you dress
her up, she's still—“
and you just know there’s only one way to finish that sentence!!
Whatever Inara or anyone else may say about her trade being respectable, it seems there’s a deep-seated distaste for it – If you were to, for example, ask any of the people at the Persephone ball whether they’d like their own daughter to take up Inara’s profession and you bet you’re life they’d say no … Yet few of them men woudl decline her services ... (whether they choose her or the other way around ...)
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Quote:
Originally posted by Zoot:Quote:
Surely Shakespere would have known the ancient greek orgasmos???
depends on who you read...
I thought Shakespeare was not actually that educated (so he may not have known Greek),
although he almost certainly knew French...
but it is an infinitely debatable point
which is not to say we shouldn't continue debating it (LOL)
of course my original point was just that in 500 years there are huge changes in everything...
it allows Joss a lot of room for creativity
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