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sinanjuSo I'm rereading the Charlaine Harris Dead series (Dead Until Dark, Living Dead in Dallas, Club Dead, Dead to the World, and Dead as a Doornail) about Sookie Stackhouse, southern barmaid and telepath. She lives in a wordl where vampires have come out of the closet recently--though shapeshifters, witches and other things that go bump in the night are still firmly ensconced therein). They're fun stories, well told, and make me long for the days when the Anita Blake novels were worth reading. But that's another rant.
What occasions this post is Sookie's love life. She's about 25, blonde and busty and attractive--physically, at least. Most normal men are put off by her strangeness. She's a telepath, remember; she knows far more about the people around her than she really wants to know. She has to work hard at blocking out unwanted knowledge, and has failed often enough that people are leery of her even if they don't really want to believe she reads minds.
She had trouble in school as a result, and has trouble dating normal men, whose minds are an open book to her (it's hard to feel romantic when you're aware of his every passing thought, and always know when he's distracted, bored, lusting after another woman, etc.). She can't read the minds of vampires, however, which is a blessed relief and the reason why she ends up in a relationship with one.
Nonetheless, she's given thought to settling down with the right guy. Probably not a vampire, even if they could legally marry (which they can't). And vampires can't father children. Which, of course, she wants eventually.
Which, of course, she wants eventually.
That's the point at which I am always startled out of the story, at least momentarily. Because I wonder why? Why would she want children? That's when I'm reminded that I'm an outlier, residing on the far end of the bell curve.
As far as I can remember, I've never wanted children. As a child growing up in my tiny Southern Baptist town, I assumed that someday I'd get married, though I never suspected it wouldn't happen until I was forty. I may even have assumed that I'd have children, too, but I certainly didn't look forward that the way I looked forward to finding a woman to share my life with.
But kids? Yikes! I had no interest in that. As I grew up, I recognized that I didn't have the patience for raising kids, so it was just as well that I'd never wanted them. But that not wanting is so fundamental that it always comes as a bit of surprise when a character in a story wants them. It feels...alien. Even when I know that most people have kids eventually and most of them do so intentionally.
What occasions this post is Sookie's love life. She's about 25, blonde and busty and attractive--physically, at least. Most normal men are put off by her strangeness. She's a telepath, remember; she knows far more about the people around her than she really wants to know. She has to work hard at blocking out unwanted knowledge, and has failed often enough that people are leery of her even if they don't really want to believe she reads minds.
She had trouble in school as a result, and has trouble dating normal men, whose minds are an open book to her (it's hard to feel romantic when you're aware of his every passing thought, and always know when he's distracted, bored, lusting after another woman, etc.). She can't read the minds of vampires, however, which is a blessed relief and the reason why she ends up in a relationship with one.
Nonetheless, she's given thought to settling down with the right guy. Probably not a vampire, even if they could legally marry (which they can't). And vampires can't father children. Which, of course, she wants eventually.
Which, of course, she wants eventually.
That's the point at which I am always startled out of the story, at least momentarily. Because I wonder why? Why would she want children? That's when I'm reminded that I'm an outlier, residing on the far end of the bell curve.
As far as I can remember, I've never wanted children. As a child growing up in my tiny Southern Baptist town, I assumed that someday I'd get married, though I never suspected it wouldn't happen until I was forty. I may even have assumed that I'd have children, too, but I certainly didn't look forward that the way I looked forward to finding a woman to share my life with.
But kids? Yikes! I had no interest in that. As I grew up, I recognized that I didn't have the patience for raising kids, so it was just as well that I'd never wanted them. But that not wanting is so fundamental that it always comes as a bit of surprise when a character in a story wants them. It feels...alien. Even when I know that most people have kids eventually and most of them do so intentionally.
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Date: 2005-06-02 12:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-02 04:13 am (UTC)Well..
Date: 2005-06-02 08:41 pm (UTC)Until the very instant I first held Christopher.
Everything changed in that instant.
Very interesting experience, that.