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You and me won't be unhappy
Mar. 29th, 2010 11:50 pmOh Small Crimes. You are a story that never fails to alternately infuriate me, make me incredibly gleeful, and creep me the fuck out.
Part of the creepy has to do with Cain and the way he sees Scout. Basically, he sees his mission/experiment/thing (because he essentially is trying to torture the Rak out of Scout) as a kind of fucked up catcher in the rye thing--he wants to save her innocence by removing her inability to not act on her murderous impulses. The other complicating factor is that he sees this (subconsciously, I think) as a kind of self-redemption thing--because he hasn't been successful thus far, and also in part because of the bigger, creepier factor.
Which is, of course, the fact that he's somehow replaced Scout in his head with his baby sister Lindsey. Who he has lost contact with and just... Cain feels like he's failed her because he wasn't there for large portions of her life. He wasn't with her when she got her wings--he's almost disappointed that she turned out to be a guardian, and he feels like that is his fault because he left the house when she was eight, to go to college. And their relationship has always been creepy anyway, and with the whole connection to Scout it gets so much creepier. Because... well.
Cain has sex with Scout, a few times, before she escapes. He's drunk every time, and it's not something that he thinks about consciously. But it does happen, and whether it's an extension of incestuous feelings he has towards Lindsey or not, it complicates matters--Cain is trying to preserve Scout's innocence, but at the same time he's taking it away by having sex with her. It is a present part of their relationship, as much as Cain almost deliberately does not think about it.
I guess really what the whole ramble is about is me struggling to write sympathetic creepy characters. I want them to come across as sympathetic--because as fucked up as he is, Cain does have sympathetic qualities. He wants so badly to succeed it's probably limiting him. The same thing is happening with Matt. I just... don't know if I can pull it off. But I'm working on it.
Part of the creepy has to do with Cain and the way he sees Scout. Basically, he sees his mission/experiment/thing (because he essentially is trying to torture the Rak out of Scout) as a kind of fucked up catcher in the rye thing--he wants to save her innocence by removing her inability to not act on her murderous impulses. The other complicating factor is that he sees this (subconsciously, I think) as a kind of self-redemption thing--because he hasn't been successful thus far, and also in part because of the bigger, creepier factor.
Which is, of course, the fact that he's somehow replaced Scout in his head with his baby sister Lindsey. Who he has lost contact with and just... Cain feels like he's failed her because he wasn't there for large portions of her life. He wasn't with her when she got her wings--he's almost disappointed that she turned out to be a guardian, and he feels like that is his fault because he left the house when she was eight, to go to college. And their relationship has always been creepy anyway, and with the whole connection to Scout it gets so much creepier. Because... well.
Cain has sex with Scout, a few times, before she escapes. He's drunk every time, and it's not something that he thinks about consciously. But it does happen, and whether it's an extension of incestuous feelings he has towards Lindsey or not, it complicates matters--Cain is trying to preserve Scout's innocence, but at the same time he's taking it away by having sex with her. It is a present part of their relationship, as much as Cain almost deliberately does not think about it.
I guess really what the whole ramble is about is me struggling to write sympathetic creepy characters. I want them to come across as sympathetic--because as fucked up as he is, Cain does have sympathetic qualities. He wants so badly to succeed it's probably limiting him. The same thing is happening with Matt. I just... don't know if I can pull it off. But I'm working on it.
