Guh! I *need* to catch up! I've been looking forward to Laila and remorselessly bashing on Olaf and the Anita-Olaf Lurve Connection. *flails* I'm missing All The Things!
But, commenting to your suspicions regarding "Ellen", this whole short 'gift' smacks of a revenge fantasy made public.
I think Ellen is not only a real person but she's someone who took one of LKH's guys away - either the ex-husband's new wife (who she, perhaps, blames for her husband not being okay with her, uh, sexual demands, never mind the chronological order of events) or the fiancee of a newer lover who was all, "Yeah, no" to either polyamory in general or to LKH & Jon in particular populating their poly-love-web-thingy. Either way, the fiancee told the guy to make a choice - her or LKH & Jon - and the guy chose the other woman.
I think this mostly because the end, where Ellen flies off of the rails, seems not to "match" the previous tone of the character. "Ellen" is one way all the way up to the end where "Richard" has to make a choice. In the story, he chooses Anita and "Ellen" has an abrupt personality transplant... so that's probably where the mix of reality and fantasy (lover introducing fiancee/girlfriend to other lovers and what LKH was hoping that she saw/thought when she looked at LKH & Jon) became pure fantasy (lover choosing them over new life with new woman). But "Ellen" has to change and be wrong and have emotional unevenness otherwise the reader might be left with the impression that Anita/LKH was wrong and that's just not on!
(I admit, I've only read sporkings but there were quotes. And summaries of a seemingly reasonable person trying to be civil with an unreasonable person and being embarrassed when the unreasonable person behaved badly in public... not that the unreasonable person interpreted "Ellen's" reactions that way. "Ellen" was jealousy, obviously! And doesn't understand complicated poly love! The summaries of the BDSM bits sound more like a summary of a defiant personal BDSM manifesto or a reply to some scathing things that "Ellen" might have said in the face of whatever LKH & Jon expected/demanded. It smacks of that zinger you think of long after the other party has left the room... or the restaurant.)
Also, there are personal details mentioned in the sporkings that don't match the established relationship between Anita and Richard but would match the slot/position of a third with LKH & Jon. And, well, I'm pretty sure that LKH owns those exact boots. I remember reading about them in one of the blog lashes and thinking "Oh, geez. I wouldn't've liked those books when I was thirteen and I don't like them now. They're hideous!" Pictures posted by, er, someone, didn't improve my opinion of them.
So, yeah. This, like that awful flirting-with-the-poor-waiter scene, is probably one of those things that really happened in LKH's life, mixed with a heavy dose of winning!-and-revenge-fantasy.
*forcibly restrains self from commenting on poor, poor Laila in favor of reading the chapters in the order that they were meant to enrage me!*
no subject
But, commenting to your suspicions regarding "Ellen", this whole short 'gift' smacks of a revenge fantasy made public.
I think Ellen is not only a real person but she's someone who took one of LKH's guys away - either the ex-husband's new wife (who she, perhaps, blames for her husband not being okay with her, uh, sexual demands, never mind the chronological order of events) or the fiancee of a newer lover who was all, "Yeah, no" to either polyamory in general or to LKH & Jon in particular populating their poly-love-web-thingy. Either way, the fiancee told the guy to make a choice - her or LKH & Jon - and the guy chose the other woman.
I think this mostly because the end, where Ellen flies off of the rails, seems not to "match" the previous tone of the character. "Ellen" is one way all the way up to the end where "Richard" has to make a choice. In the story, he chooses Anita and "Ellen" has an abrupt personality transplant... so that's probably where the mix of reality and fantasy (lover introducing fiancee/girlfriend to other lovers and what LKH was hoping that she saw/thought when she looked at LKH & Jon) became pure fantasy (lover choosing them over new life with new woman). But "Ellen" has to change and be wrong and have emotional unevenness otherwise the reader might be left with the impression that Anita/LKH was wrong and that's just not on!
(I admit, I've only read sporkings but there were quotes. And summaries of a seemingly reasonable person trying to be civil with an unreasonable person and being embarrassed when the unreasonable person behaved badly in public... not that the unreasonable person interpreted "Ellen's" reactions that way. "Ellen" was jealousy, obviously! And doesn't understand complicated poly love! The summaries of the BDSM bits sound more like a summary of a defiant personal BDSM manifesto or a reply to some scathing things that "Ellen" might have said in the face of whatever LKH & Jon expected/demanded. It smacks of that zinger you think of long after the other party has left the room... or the restaurant.)
Also, there are personal details mentioned in the sporkings that don't match the established relationship between Anita and Richard but would match the slot/position of a third with LKH & Jon. And, well, I'm pretty sure that LKH owns those exact boots. I remember reading about them in one of the blog lashes and thinking "Oh, geez. I wouldn't've liked those books when I was thirteen and I don't like them now. They're hideous!" Pictures posted by, er, someone, didn't improve my opinion of them.
So, yeah. This, like that awful flirting-with-the-poor-waiter scene, is probably one of those things that really happened in LKH's life, mixed with a heavy dose of winning!-and-revenge-fantasy.
*forcibly restrains self from commenting on poor, poor Laila in favor of reading the chapters in the order that they were meant to enrage me!*