[LMB] OT: Tamora Pierce books was Introduction

[Azalais Aranxta]

On Wed, 14 Nov 2007, Raye Johnsen wrote:

> --- Anita <mauvedragon at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Nov 15, 2007 8:55 AM, Beth Mitcham
> > <mitcham.beth at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > I enjoyed the Pierce books, my main quibbles that the
> > > world-building seems thin, the characters have very modern
> > > attitudes even when their societies do not, and some of the
> > > relationships set off my squick meter (older teacher
> > > marrying his student before she turns 16), for example.
> > > <snip>
>
> > I'm going to nitpick about Daine and Numair. She's 15/16 when
> > they become involved and he does propose then but she's not
> > silly enough to marry him then.

> I've always felt that the major part of the stress and
> destructiveness in a teenager/older person romance is
> the fact that in our society such a relationship is
> often a taboo and thus the participants keep it
> secret.

I think that's partly true, but I've also noticed a few things
about these relationships over the years.

1) The potential for damage exists on both sides.  An adult who
gets involved with a teenager expecting an adult relationship or
an adult commitment is quite likely to be disappointed.  As a
teenager, I wreaked havoc in the lives of several men in their
mid-to-late 20s who were perfectly prepared to marry me.  It's
easy to say they should have known better, but they were nerds
with little experience of girls or women of any age, not
seducers.

2) Teenage girls are particularly vulnerable to older men who
seem supportive particularly in terms of family troubles, only to
turn controlling or weird in some other way as soon as they have
the girl to themselves and away from her family.  I have seen
this happen on several occasions.  Teenage girls who are
intelligent and well-spoken enough to attract adults are usually
absolutely miserable at home and even more so with their peers.
They will cross oceans and burn bridges to be with someone they
think understands them, but omg, are they easily manipulated.
Sadly, this is a worst case scenario when the parents actually
ARE crazy and the girl needs to escape the home, because then she
has to escape this guy, and she has nothing.

~malfoy :/


****************************************************************
Azalais Aranxta (~malfoy)
ataniell93 on LiveJournal and Vox
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/malfoymadness

"I know the true world, and you know I do. But we needn't let it
think we all bow down." --Christopher Fry