What Gives With Inara?

POSTED BY: Jongsstraw
UPDATED: Thursday, September 6, 2007 14:59
VIEWED: 15078
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HOPERULES

Tuesday, August 21, 2007 12:53 AM

I think she also seemed unhappy with her profession in Shindig when Atherton made that remark about every man at the ball wishing to be in her bed.

May have been on the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one.

NBZ

Tuesday, August 21, 2007 2:24 AM

It was more at the remark than her Job. As it was more about Sinhon than her job again in the Pilot.

Can't really be definitive (as I am not joss), but I would say it had very little to do with her job, which she is probably pretty proud of. The Guild has given it religious iconography.

HOPERULES

Tuesday, August 21, 2007 3:36 AM

Maybe, but my guess is that Atherton made the remark because of her job.

May have been on the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one.

NVGHOSTRIDER

Tuesday, August 21, 2007 5:15 AM

Sorry 'bout that nbz. I should added or headed with a IMHO or it seems to me. I also shoulda said that she may not be happy with the way her profession clashes with her personal life. I don't think we ever really get a view of her personal life. It seems she is all buisness with the exception of her dealings with Mal. Sure she has her differing dynamics with her "friends" on the ship, but there always seems to be a wall.
And of course she can see the importance of her calling. She helps others achieve the spiritual connection in an act natural to humans. It is also admirable that she is able to help others recognize the achievement of a great sexual experience. Sure there are probably regular customers. But there are probably many amongst them who have achieved greater interpersonal relationships because of her coaching. That is a sevice beyond pay and pleasure.

Like I said though. I needed a break from speculating on the Mal/Inara thing. Still too close to home.

SCHOOLBOYSWINK

Tuesday, August 21, 2007 10:05 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by nbz:
You can't actually know that.

For all we know all she ever wanted was to be a companion.

Something else that I edited out earlier for space:

I believe Inara is proud of being a Companion, but not the purely sexual aspects of it. My proof:

The first thing we see Inara doing is 'entertaining' a client. He offers to 'take her away from all this', but later comments that 'You probably speed up your clocks to cheat us out of our fun.' This showed no class on his part, but his reference to 'fun' indicates that for him, the whole experience, even his offer to keep her there, was about sex. (The other parts of the union between them might have been rewarding or fulfilling, but you wouldn't call them 'fun.') When a Client contracts with a Companion, his (or her) primary motivation is typically going to be the physical and not the emotional or spiritual. No matter how much the Companion tries to make the experience about something nobler, this founding motivation on the part of the Client inherently devalues the Companion as a complete human being.

Now, the next thing we see Inara do (there may be one short scene between, but I'm thinking it is pretty much the very next thing) is bathing herself. In film/lit (at least in my experience), deliberately showing a character bathing alone after sex is almost always to symbolize them trying to 'wash it off', a symbol so old that I don't think even someone as creative as Joss would intend for his audience to take it any other way. (And no rebuttals based on the technical details of Companions practicing good hygiene. From minute one Firefly has never been about technical details; this scene is here for a reason, an emotional one.)

Also, Inara is a pragmatic person; she knows that she has sex for money and that this is the literal definition of a whore. Yet she objects to that term with a vehemence that indicates an extreme sensitivity. Why? Because 'whore' ignores all the parts of being a Companion which DON'T have to do with sex and focuses only on the carnal aspect.

Hence do I estimate that Inara does not like her profession, at least not the sexual part of it. Even if all she ever wanted to be was a Companion, that doesn't mean she liked what she found when she got there.

I believe for her, being a Companion has become like a shield, protecting something about herself that she does not like or finds unworthy of love. Like her or hate her, she figures, it's the job you are responding to and not HER. But Mal hates her job, of which he makes no secret, and yet he still cares deeply for her, which Inara can clearly see, and which I believe he does show in his own way. By this disparity Inara realizes that her shield has not worked a whit on Mal, which scares her. This fear is a big part of what makes her want to keep him distant, I think.

"When you can't do somethin' smart, do somethin' right!" -Jayne Cobb quotes Shepherd Book

AGENTROUKA

Saturday, August 25, 2007 6:34 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SchoolboysWink:

I believe Inara is proud of being a Companion, but not the purely sexual aspects of it. My proof:
(*snip*)
Now, the next thing we see Inara do (there may be one short scene between, but I'm thinking it is pretty much the very next thing) is bathing herself. In film/lit (at least in my experience), deliberately showing a character bathing alone after sex is almost always to symbolize them trying to 'wash it off', a symbol so old that I don't think even someone as creative as Joss would intend for his audience to take it any other way.
(*snip*)
Hence do I estimate that Inara does not like her profession, at least not the sexual part of it.

In the commentary, Joss mentions that she bathes because she had been insulted. Twice, by her client and by Mal.

An insult is a thing that stands on its own, and while both were directed at her profession, it does not necessarily mean that her discomfort stems from her profession. It could just as easily stem from other people's attitudes about something she believes in strongly.

Also: Every client we see with her is, like Mal, not from a Core society. Persephone has its rich, but it's far from Core standard, and attitudes compared to the central worlds might be very different. We never see a Core world dweller, aside from Simon, react to Inara, so we cannot judge on the way her job would work in the world she is more familiar with.

HOPERULES

Saturday, August 25, 2007 9:06 PM

No offense to Joss, but - Inara bathes because she's been insulted. Boy, is that weak. It certainly gives other people a lot of power over her personal hygiene. With the kind of nasty banter Inara and Mal engage in, not to mention the occasional shots taken at her by clients, she must spend a lot of time with her sponge.

May have been on the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one.

NBZ

Saturday, August 25, 2007 9:18 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Hoperules:
No offense to Joss, but - Inara bathes because she's been insulted. Boy, is that weak. It certainly gives other people a lot of power over her personal hygiene. With the kind of nasty banter Inara and Mal engage in, not to mention the occasional shots taken at her by clients, she must spend a lot of time with her sponge.

May have been on the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one.

It's more symbolic. And because they wanted to film that scene. Twice.

Serenity was the pilot. Things had to be a little more spelled out than normal. It was still far more intelligent than most TV though. (only line that I dislike is the Zoe one when they are laughing at the prank on Simon by Mal "So she really is ok?". It felt too much like "The audience is dumb. We need to tell them it was a joke" to me.)

EDIT - sorry just noticed that the latter part of my post is totally offtopic. Sorry.

Back to Inara, we don't really know if she would be treated much differently on a core world than she was by high society on Persephone. There is the potential for a little resentment in there.

MOBBEX

Sunday, August 26, 2007 2:50 AM

Quote:
]It's more symbolic. And because they wanted to film that scene. Twice.

Thrice, actually

"Not learning theory is like saying i don't want to communicate with people,
I'll just rub my penis all over their faces." ----John Frusciante ~~~> Lol...

THEHEROOFWILLIAMTOWN

Sunday, August 26, 2007 3:43 AM

I always saw it this way

Mal: Still very messed up after the war just finds it hard to connect beyond the immediate crew members. Inara is to him someone he can respect even though he doesn't like her job. Being a man that respects someone's freedom he wont ask her to quit her job despite the fact that it is the only way he would be with her. Thus he tends to be a royal pain to distance himself.

Inara: Is a companion and as stated by people earlier is proud of it. She has feelings for Mal but doesn't want the complications that go along with it. There is the one factor that plays in my mind and that her reluctance to get involved with Mal stems from or has something to do with her leaving Sihnon. Of course this can never be found out unless joss spills the beans, but i don't see that happening as there is still a good chance at another movie so he can't let the material go.

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