Current Ancestor of 'Companions'?

POSTED BY: AgentRouka
UPDATED: Tuesday, October 5, 2010 21:07
VIEWED: 2580
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AGENTROUKA

Tuesday, October 5, 2010 1:23 PM

Rentafriend!

Quote:

"I moved to New York from Los Angeles a year ago and I thought this would be a good way to make friends," says Jenny.

Over lunch we chat about where we're from, our families and our interests, just as you would on a first date. It feels like a strangely formal way to get to know a complete stranger, but in New York people are forever striking up conversations with people they've just met.

As the weirdness of the situation subsides and we start to chat about everything from astrology to literature and politics, it becomes apparent we have a lot in common.

It could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship, but it was all arranged online via Rentafriend.com. And if I want to see her again it'll be in the knowledge that I have to pick up the tab.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11465260

Reminded me of Inara's profession, in a way. Renting the service of someone's entertaining company. If you're not overtly particular about sexual intimacy then fusing this with regular prostitution, a spiritual component and a super-influential union should result in... Companions?

Thoughts?

BYTEMITE

Tuesday, October 5, 2010 2:03 PM

This will almost certainly have legal action against it soon. I suspect opposite sex hook ups are the most common, just by the most likely target demographic here, and by the natural progression of this particular business model.

You can bet the NYPD is already looking for any sign of shenanigans, which are pretty much inevitable.

That said, they sound a little like Geisha for now, only without all the face paint, kimonos, or tea ceremony stuff.

The union would probably have to come next, then the spiritual element as a PR campaign.

AGENTROUKA

Tuesday, October 5, 2010 2:25 PM

Good point!

Quote:
The union would probably have to come next, then the spiritual element as a PR campaign.

Agree about the unions, not so much the PR campaign. I don't think Inara's spiritual bend is a facade, so I don't think it is taught as one, which makes me think that it would more have to evolve as a particular school of thought within the organisation that ends up strong enough to make policy decisions about training and "company culture".

ZEEK

Tuesday, October 5, 2010 2:27 PM

Very strange service. About the only time I could see that being useful is work functions where you don't get along with your co-workers and just want someone there to save you from awkward conversations. Granted you should probably just get a friend to go with you but if you can't work out the schedule or something I guess this works.

Hiring a friend to just have lunch with or something seems really odd. I don't know why anyone would feel the need to hire someone. Especially since the article talks about how they operate in big cities. How does a big city make it harder to meet people? There are people everywhere. A small town is much more difficult to meet people with your interests IMO.

WISHIMAY

Tuesday, October 5, 2010 2:33 PM

That sounds like a great idea! A way to meet people and be sociable but in a way keep the friendship professional...

I totally understand Mal's position about loyalty towards the people who are on his Crew, as I have been stabbed in the back by waaaay too many people who called themselves my friend, so keeping it to a professional level has a certain appeal- you are only as much a friend as you want to be, without the risk... If they aren't the kind of people you want to be friends with you can cut bait and run, no harm, no foul...
Kinda hard to weed out the perv's though.

AGENTROUKA

Tuesday, October 5, 2010 2:43 PM

Wishimay,

that's an intriguing comparison. Combining that with Mal's attitude about Inara's profession makes it doubly interesting.

He accuses her of selling love as a lie, when he himself is using his position as captain as a tool to keep things "professional" that really aren't. Loyalty and closeness - but no real committment. In some way, he is paying people to be his less complicated family.

BYTEMITE

Tuesday, October 5, 2010 2:51 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AgentRouka:
Good point!

Quote:
The union would probably have to come next, then the spiritual element as a PR campaign.

Agree about the unions, not so much the PR campaign. I don't think Inara's spiritual bend is a facade, so I don't think it is taught as one, which makes me think that it would more have to evolve as a particular school of thought within the organisation that ends up strong enough to make policy decisions about training and "company culture".

Well, they believe it NOW, but look how much of it seems to be hokey new-age-isms. That suggests to me that started out as a business decision and PR campaign, which are rarely ever spiritual, and if the appearance of spiritualism is necessary, they tend to just grab on to whatever facsimile is available at the time.

The question that needs to be asked here is why would they NEED to unionize, and the answer is most likely acceptance. So PR would be vital. As they trained companions later on to believe the PR, it would slowly over the years become real and a part of companion culture.

AGENTROUKA

Tuesday, October 5, 2010 3:02 PM

Quote:
but look how much of it seems to be hokey new-age-isms.

Like what?

Seems like too radical and unnecessary a shift for me, to artificially create all spiritual reference for the sake of "PR" out of nowhere and invent a philosophy to teach all new students, who would if course all be too naive to ever question where it came from upon examining Guild history. That would also imply all member of that union were happy to be frauds, which is a pretty harsh accusation.

I guess if this is going to go down a "the Guild MUST be bad because it is a large organisation" road then we should agree to disagree now.

BYTEMITE

Tuesday, October 5, 2010 3:04 PM

Quote:
He accuses her of selling love as a lie, when he himself is using his position as captain as a tool to keep things "professional" that really aren't. Loyalty and closeness - but no real committment. In some way, he is paying people to be his less complicated family.

This is something I've thought about as well, though I'm not sure I'd say the attraction for Mal is a lack of commitment. A lot of the Independents were volunteers (Mal), but some of them actually were career soldiers (Zoe). I'd definitely argue he had some strong commitment to his soldiers, even the ones who maybe were there just for pay (not that Zoe was, but others probably were).

He seems to have that same commitment to his crew, judging by his taking River and Simon back in during the movie, and going to rescue Inara, and his very real reaction when Book is shot (both in the series and the movie). He holds himself responsible, maybe too much.

Fortunately for him, his crew returns that commitment (as in War Stories), or his paying for a family would come off quite a bit more tragic and delusional. As it is, his paying them really comes off as more like a father giving his kids an allowance. Look how many times he threatens to dock their pay, and never really does, and I imagine when times are really scarce they're all willing to agree to having that allowance cut off (probably even Jayne), if it means keeping Serenity fueled and supplied.

BYTEMITE

Tuesday, October 5, 2010 3:28 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AgentRouka:

Like what?

Well, for example, the whole rite-of-passage-by-sex thing and "union" thing in Jaynestown calls pretty strongly to a new-age revisioning of Hieros Gamos.

Quote:
Seems like too radical and unnecessary a shift for me, to artificially create all spiritual reference for the sake of "PR" out of nowhere and invent a philosophy to teach all new students, who would if course all be too naive to ever question where it came from upon examining Guild history. That would also imply all member of that union were happy to be frauds, which is a pretty harsh accusation.

Over a good century? Because that's how long the voyage took to the new system. Assuming, that is, that the companion Guild didn't have their roots further back on earth. And, of course, the verse has been around and terraformed for at least a century as well. That's not fast or radical. We're talking between four and eight generations, maybe more, of boys and girls raised hearing the same thing over and over.

It doesn't even have to be that it was the entire Guild at first, but rather that business savvy leaders of the Guild at the time invented some kind of cult to attract members. It would still technically be more of a PR campaign if the intention was to make it acceptable for the mass public.

Quote:
I guess if this is going to go down a "the Guild MUST be bad because it is a large organisation" road then we should agree to disagree now.

No, but the Guild was, first and foremost, organized for the sake of a business enterprise. Otherwise why not call it the Church Of The Most High Goddess or something?

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/02/us/religion-based-on-sex-gets-a-judi
cial-review.html?pagewanted=1

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