Confession from an old FF fan (reasonably old, at any rate)...
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Sunday, December 25, 2011 16:29
VIEWED: 4831
PAGE 3 of 3
I'm a prude, and yet I'm fine with the idea of companions. I think in a lot of ways that would probably work. Some people are always going to need stuff like that, some people are even going to go so far as to pay for it - whether we're talking sex or even simple human company and conversation, maybe over a cup of tea or other shared interest.
It's the illegality of their prostitution that pushes it into impoverished areas nowadays, and it is poverty that creates most of the dangers of the profession. So if the profession weren't illegal, it's conceivable we'd see a prosperous variation. And if we see that, why WOULDN'T prostitutes reject pimps and unionize if they had the means to do so?
Makes sense to me. That the guild created for itself an interesting spiritual internal culture is also not surprising - All it would require is a few particularly spiritual members bringing their personal spiritualism into their work, and the practice evolving from there into an almost sort of brand identity. There's hints I can see even short as Firefly was that the Guild drew on some heavily new age philosophies.
It's a bit unfortunate how the show chose to show Inara's profession, because I think the strength and independence is a true element of her character, but the show often undermined that by showing her clients mistreating or using her. There were only two positive experiences shown where Inara wasn't hurt: the one with Fess Higgins, but they both kind of used each other; and the one with the lady Councilor, which the episode implies the Councilor mistreated her later and the script really gets into that. Kid in pilot? Mistreats her. Atherton? Mistreats her. Special Ops guy in the comics? Mistreats her.
But, perhaps that's just reality. Some mindsets will be more tolerant and some more judgmental, that will continue to persist as long as humans are both tolerant and judgmental. The judgmental types do make Inara's job difficult, and there seems to be more judgmental types on the less liberally/classically educated rim.
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Quote:Some people find me astounding, I'll admit...
Originally posted by HKCavalier:
Man, Chris,
The way you can revere that dang dumbed-down, buffy-fied, paint-by-numbers version of Firefly continues to astound.
Quote:I think the post above this one states it better than I can. If it were depicted more respectfully, instead being used as an easy plot device to rile Mal and give him an opportunity to 'save' Inara on occasion, I'd feel differently.
Are you being prudish? Are you upset that prostitution continues to exist after the Earth is destroyed? Or that in Joss's future, sex work is so respected? How is telling the story of a companion "misogynist?"
And sorry, Serenity is STILL my favourite movie of all time. Wash's accident notwithstanding.
The laughing Chrisisall
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WishIMay:
>>I've gotten pretty good at the two line rephrase.
Yeah, can usually do that, but this was more, drew upon geisha tradition/ extensive training vs. prostitution, Heart of Gold "they're whores" and all that blah-de-blah.
Welp, it's been pretty well covered by now, anyway.
bun
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Good one Bun.
The laughing Chrisisall
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Uhhh, where's the comma go in that?
ROFL1/2MAO
bun
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Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
I never did hold with Inara's trade. I was more in line with Mal's 'whoring' take on it
...snip...
No wonder that the movie that dropped that whole (arguably) misogynist, fanciful irrelevancy in favour of the action, character & SF story is more dear to me
I love the series so much, however, the movie skipped this flaw (as I perceive it), and cut to the core of the meaning of what it was trying to epically & ultimately convey. Expertly.
Sling your arrows at will.
But I ain't Will...
Chris, you are usually someone after my own heart, but not this time
"action"? fer sher ... "character"? Simon says they were too much changed ... "SF story" . . .
I, too, love an SF story -- the visuals, & sound (or lack thereof) -- but those are among the things we did not get with the movie. Instead we got swooshes, & silly aerobatic manoeuvres, in space, the non-orbits of the two armadas just off Mr Universe's planet, & the whole concept that the Alliance can't see through clouds that are otherwise transparent to the radio-wavelength signals on which Mr Universe depends. But my biggest gripe is with the promises Joss broke:
He said it was a western in space; there's more western in the opening minutes of Castle's season 3 Hallowe'en ep*
He said the story wasn't about the people who made history; the movie was
He said he could write characters scarier than anything one could put in latex (& in the pilot ep, the Reavers were just that); in the movie, they were actors in latex
When Joss said (as quoted on this website) "I took the road less traveled by, and they CANCELLED MY FRICKIN' SHOW. I TOTALLY should have taken the road that had all those other people on it", I thought he was kidding. the Movie (which eliminated physics, the western element, the frumpy look of the female mechanic, & another thing that I'm saving for last) proved he wasn't
In one of the Firefly commentaries (OiS?), Joss said he wasn't a fan of self-conscious camera shots . . .
Did you notice that the 2 hour movie ended with two climaxes? the First (some might argue) was a Firefly climax, but the second was pure Buffy, right down to that ludicrous posed Frank Frazetta shot @the end of the fight (to be fair, the first US trailer didn't promise Firefly; it said "From the creator of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer")
Did you notice that the 1.5 hour pilot ep ended with three climaxes?
Did you notice that there was a point to the title of the pilot ep? WtF was the point of the title of the movie? Only a Firefly fan would get it
Last, the movie didn't have Greg
"Expertly"? Respectfully, I disagree
Keep the Shiny Side Up,
YT
ps: *although Nathan was wearing his costume from the movie, not the series, and Molly Quinn's "five years ago" was when the movie was shown [but shot six years before], whereas the series would have been eight years previous
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Yanno, I never had an issue with Inaras profession as a whole, as it seemed as much courtesan and counsellor as anything else, and one of my amusements with political and religious types getting rolled by prostitutes they hired is going cheap on it - you don't pay for the sex, you pay for the SILENCE, and Inara keeps their secrets for them, which is part of the deal, thus one reason that lady political felt more comfortable with her was that she didn't have to watch her step verbally or otherwise, she could be whoever she really was and no word of it would ever get round.
The only issue I had with some aspects of it was remarkably similar to Mals, I mean other than the jealousy and oh there was jealousy a-plenty, on BOTH sides of that, Mal in a boneheaded puppylove possessive kinda way (and not a very mature one neither), and Inara jealous of Mals freedom and will to defy the supposed order of things while also feeling guilty for having kind of halfassed her own defiance (she might have moved on, but did not break ties and remained a companion) and still some small part of her sees Mals boneheadedness and wonders if maybe it's more petulance and bitterness than idealism...
As River might say - it's complicated.
By my primary issue with the whole companion thing is the game, the lie of it, people like Atherton who pretend it's something more than it is, while treating it like something less - a lack of respect in both directions which is appalling when you think about it.
Mal had cause to deck him, just not for the reasons he did - not that it really mattered cause Atherton was one of those guys who have it coming for so many things no one really cares. 
Me, I'd go for Kaylee - same kinda thing, far more honest about it, and besides, imma gearhead, heh.
-Frem
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:o Nicely said Frem, in a few sentences what it would have taken me an essay to say. The problem isn't ALL on Inara's side, or all on Mal's side (who is very much a five year old in a sand box pulling pigtails). As they say, it takes two to tango... and in this case, two to tangle things up as much as they have.
Quote:
Mal had cause to deck him, just not for the reasons he did - not that it really mattered cause Atherton was one of those guys who have it coming for so many things no one really cares.
I stand by my assessment of calling Atherton a total sociopath. He only cares about people in so far as they are objects for him to have and use, he uses his social position and stupid societal traditions as an excuse to mutilate people (apparently 11 so far). And the moment he doesn't get what he wants from Inara, the moment he's rejected, his veneer of charm and affection vanishes and he's paranoid, suspicious, irrational, hates her, wants to ruin her life.
Total sociopath. Just one who knows when it's acceptable to be violent and not, but nevertheless knows how to use a situation to manipulate a rival to a bad end and does NOT take defeat well.
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Well yeah, that's prettymuch Atherton in a nutshell, a lot of upperclass folk actually even in places that don't have an official nobility - seein as how mosta the time that's how they got there.
And believe me, I understand Mals clumsy style of affection since it's so close to my own rough-n-ready style, hi-larious the sandbox comment since the first thing I did when I met the ex, the moment that lead to us speaking to/noticing each other was me thinking "Oh hey, she's cute, let's MESS WITH HER!", followed soon thereafter by... *beat pause* ...pulling one of her braids.
Inara being a sophisticate, she's alternately amused and exasperated by the manner in which Mal tries to show affection since it's so crude by her standards, but so real, and she really has no idea how to handle it - can't remember the exact episode, might have been OIS, I think, Mal leans down to see if she's okay (split lip?) and so sincerely her brain just can't process this and she skitters away with this ba-da-wha-huh? look on her face that's just bloody priceless - it's hard to actually completely baffle a companion, too!
At least, outside of "I KNEW you kissed her!", Mal isn't as bad for jamming his foot down his own gullet like Simon always manages to do, I tellya, that's a fella in serious need of a close encounter with a freakin quaalude, seriously.
I think what flummoxes Inara the worst though, is that she seems to have almost no experience whatever in regards to being liked/desired outside of her official persona, being liked as Inara the person instead of Inara the companion leaves her completely out of her depth, confused and a bit guilty, and women above all things hate guilt - this one of the triggers that make her so angry at Mal when she could normally keep her cool, cause he can make her feel guilty - and if anyone cares to dispute how fast guilt can turn to anger, tell your girl "I told you so."... better duck quick though.
I think outside of Inaras professional companion training, not neither one of them has any experience with the emotional aspect of relationships, Mal never had much of a chance to develop it, and Inaras opportunities were superceded by her profession, so in regards to Mal the person liking Inara the person, they *ARE* emotionally/maturity stunted to the point of squabbling grade schoolers on the playground.
Which is what makes to so damn funny.
Tell me you can't just see em going at it with paper wads and rubber bands, ehe ?
That's one dynamic I understand far more completely than anyone'd think. 
-Frem
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ALSO nicely said.
And I think it's not unreasonable to say that Inara actually probably gets a little where Mal's coming from in regards to to her profession (which prompts the guilt). Why ELSE would she have left behind the Guild House and all the high society stuff and the politics? Sure, she has some kinda secret, but that secret alone doesn't explain it.
She admitted in Shindig she really doesn't feel like she fits in there, which is a much more likely reason. Basically she's having some kind of existential crisis, not unlike Mal, really.
So any time she launches into why being a companion is so great, seeming to recite from a book or from her training, it comes off as really defensive, like she's trying to convince herself too.
Quote:
At least, outside of "I KNEW you kissed her!", Mal isn't as bad for jamming his foot down his own gullet
Well, to be fair, that was less social slip and putting foot down mouth (which requires some level of awareness of screwing up) than it was a combination of wishful thinking and being completely oblivious to the opportunity he had. He's so sure she doesn't like him that it really exacerbates the pigtail pulling reaction. And wreck of an emotional life and lost hopes and dreams aside, he is an ENORMOUS tease and a bit of a joker, and not even the war could obliterate that.
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