I bring this up not for its original definition but its play on words.
Okay, I let a friend read some of Blue Zone, and was telling her where I hoped to go with a relationship between Mina and Felix. Her response was something along the lines of "Isn't that kind of beastiality?"
Whaaaaaaat?
*Cringe*
There is nothing quite like that unique little jab in the gut about something so off the wall as beastiality to put a kink in your literary think tank. After vehemently defending that really, Felix is a man most of the time, two its magical dammit, and three it wouldn't be having any sort of carnal relations with a bird, I was still left with the sensation that real fantasy was not for her. I wanted to ask her if Bella sleeping with Edward was Necrophilia since he had technically died, but I was afraid she would go fan rabid on me.
Still I never thought I would have to defend against beastiality. I don't think I would feel all that proud wearing a beastiality t-shirt either. The wierd thing is, it doesn't bother me in a literary sense, because beastial relations in stories have been around since Zues ran around seducing women as a swan, but it bothered me more because I feel that it does not apply here. It such an odd term to use, I don't even think she knew completely what she was talking about.
Dictionary.com has a definition for beastiality:
1.bestial quality, character, or behavior
2.a bestial act or practice
3.sexual relations between a person and an animal
The problem is I'm not sure which definition she may have been referring to here. Felix does have bestial quality, character, or behavior. But for some reason I fear she may have been aiming for definition number 3.
I am somewhat disturned...
4 comments:
Here's the question: what is Felix's true nature: man or cat? I know he is both. I don't think there's an issue of bestiality here, because Mina isn't sexually involved with Felix as a cat, but as a man.
Stand by your story and develop a thick skin. Sometimes people who comment are just trying to be involved and don't know what to say -- it's a good thing, not criticism. And it's always good to find out what the questions are going to be so you can figure out your answer.
But even if she did cuddle with Felix in his cat form, wouldn't that be okay because the attraction comes from his in his man form? I would USE it, not worry about it. It's actually a really cool idea, so don't avoid it, address it. Make Mina worry about it, that's the ticket -- and let her resolve it, too.
Felix is the bird, tee hee, not the cat. Frank is the cat. There is no romance with Frank, and although he talks, he is not in any remote sense a man.
I think I might play on my uncertainties through Mina's eyes.
Okay, I did wonder if I got that wrong. Either way, the comment applies. ;-)
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