Companion Rules

POSTED BY: ManiacNumberOne
UPDATED: Sunday, April 20, 2003 07:10
VIEWED: 4170
PAGE 2 of 2

PREV PAGE 1 2

LUPA

Sunday, April 20, 2003 5:28 AM

I am probably in the minority of people in that when I saw Inara I didn't think Geisha, I thought hetaira, a word that is Greek for companion. They were prostitutes, but highly respected. They were trained in all the arts - music, languages, dancing, philosophy and literature, conversation, etc. as companions, or at least Inara, seem to have been. They were not allowed to marry (at least, they were not allowed to marry Athenian men) and were not themselves citizens, but were still highly respected (the poet Sappho was a hetaira.) Some of this is sorta of topic, but I think it's a worthwile parallel.

LJC

Sunday, April 20, 2003 7:10 AM

I think a lot of Mal's snarkiness re: Inara's trade is becasue he genuinely likes and respects her, and as someone who fought a war to be free, can't understand why someone would enslave themselves... He does seem to be fairly uncommon (the "Train Job" scene where everyone was in awe of Inara in the jail, for example.) in his disdain. And the first time he calls her whore is because she told him she supported Unification--it was totally a dig based on his being a browncoat. Since then, it's almost like a game between them. But he was very firm in "Shindig" that while he doesn't respect her profession, he respects her.

As for Book, just cause it's legal don't make it moral. It's still against the tenants of his religion, adn like any Christian, he wants to see her "saved" but he's very gentle in his prosteltising (sp?) and if you notice, after the first few eps, he's not quite trying so hard to preach to the crew. I still don't think Book would ever be comfotable with Companioning, but he does seem to accept that he's in the minority and not push.

It's interesting to me that in "Serenity' they seemed to be very much setting Book and Inara up to become close friends, yet in later eps, we only really see Book forging a bond with *Jayne.*

I have a whole slew of theories as to how the guilde and the academy might work, and such, becasue I have an Inara story on the back burner. I think the 'verse draws very heavily on the geisha--but they never really address the fact that the geisha were sold into that life. They were indentured servants of their "houses." I wonder if that would have come up at any point in the "Firefly" 'verse in later eps.

--
Some take the high road. Some take the low road.
And some just go screaming down the highway, dropping flaming bits of wreckage.

PREV PAGE 1 2