a_sporking_rat | (no subject)

Not a full spork but I've read the next two chapters and

so remember how teen Quinn has always slept in bed with the old black house servant Little Ida? When she dies, he tells her still-alive mother than now she has to sleep with him. This is considered neither rude nor weird and just gets a line. She agrees to it. WHAT EVEN ANNE RICE

THERE IS MENTION OF HOW SILKY SMOOTH HER SKIN IS

EVEN THOUGH SHE'S GOTTA BE LIKE ANCIENT WTF

AND AS OF THE NEXT CHAPTER QUINN IS FREAKING OUT BECAUSE "OMG I THINK IM QUEER" AND NO QUINN UR PRETTY CLEARLY INTO OLD LADIES

like I know duh queer doesn't mean gay always but it's clearly used as the slur for gay here rather than synonym for LGBT like in queer studies, queer discourse, etc

Like. I guess to be fair if he's into grannies, go for it, as long as they can consent and aren't senile, but TELLING the person who is EMPLYED by your family that they HAVE to sleep with you (idc if it's all maternal and platonic it's still forced intimacy) is noncon, and the fact HER DAUGHTER LITERALLY JUST DIED WHAT THE DUCK

also gotta love how his black mammies (srsly, that's clearly what they are) are just interchangeable bed warmers---one dies? get another! and lol IT'S NOT LIKE YOU NEED THEIR PERMISSION OR ANYTHING actually DUCK now that I factor the race dynamnic in with the long history of white employers and, before that, owners, doing sh*t like this, it's...yeah again, they're not having sex but it's still squicky as hell DID I MENTION HE'S LIKE 18 NOW

ANNE RICE. MY DAD'S FAMILY AREN'T RICH, I WILL GRANT YOU, BUT HE NEVER SLEPT WITH *HIS* BLACK NANNY, PRETTY SURE. DEF NOT WHEN HE WAS 18. BECAUSE I AM ALSO SURE HE DIDN'T HAVE A NANNY AT 18.

MY DAD WAS A KID WAY BEFORE QUINN WAS

I don't think that was even done in slavery times. I mean yes forced master/slave sexual relations but not "grown boys need a nanny and nanny also needs to sleep platonically with them"

Fuck, , at least if this *was* set back then, Quinn might actually be considered a goddamn adult and have to act like it

like I'll be honest, I'd be less squicked if this was sexual, because then at least he'd be acting sort of like an adult; the infantilization of him is somehow even weirder

this is just the weirdest book how does Anne even think the world works

oh god I just remembered. One of rice's historical fiction books, Cry to Heaven, is about free people of color in New Orleans. GOD ALMIGHTY I DONT EVEN WANNA THINK ABOUT WHAT'S IN THERE