The Noah Cruz Interview

[marinschild]

I love the way Joss Whedon treated the sex trade in Firefly. The companion made prostitution glamorous and I wish that the show revealed more about the training and the history of companions in the series. It sure would have beat what that guy has going on now.

Noah Cruz would have made a great male companion.

EDIT

A pox on whoever thought to cancel such a great television program.

*Wanda of the Cosmos comes down from the Elysian galaxy an gives a stern lecture*

Okay... a papercut on whoever canceled Firefly.

[Jennifer Diane Reitz]

For some readers who may not know, there is a difference between prostitution and being a sex worker. Or can be, at any rate.

Beyond the more mundane back alley blow-jobs, or even the high-priced upmarket call girls, there is a class of sex worker that functions rather like we saw in Firefly - sex workers who help people, with the same dedication and concern that we might ascribe to doctors (but who seldom live up to, sadly).

I've met a few in my days.

These are people who help others with sexual dysfunction, or with sexual issues, they teach as well as perform, and they provide help and comfort (and relief!) to those that may have no other options - the disfigured and crippled, the lonely and isolated, and more.

Such sex workers would still be considered by most US law to be mere (exploited and exploiting) hookers (tarts, strumpets, roundheels, bicycles, floozies, doxies, furniture, etc.), but they are not; they are trained, knowledgeable, and serious about their profession. They care for their clients, and act in a responsible and supportive way.

Discovering that such existed made me question many of my more... prudish... ideas about sex and sex work. Oh, I'll likely never stop being a sex-negative prude, I'm such a lost case, but I can and do honor those that do real good in the world through sex work.

Thus my statements in To Save Her about elite sex workers were intended to be positive; one way a jellese could elevate themselves within human-dominated society would be to become a sex worker. With an H-Hold, a jellese could be the perfect sex worker - able to become any gender at any time (or any combination!), unable to carry or transmit any disease, and capable of incredible physiological performance, little could top such. I am postulating a society for Kaye's background that considered such work to be not only positive, but good, needful, and well respected. Yes, like Firefly. If it helps, I hadn't seen Firefly yet when I started TSH... I finally bought the DVD series set after hearing for so long that it was supposed to be good.

And, of course, it is amazingly good.

[Mitsukara]

I wasn't trying to say that being a sex worker was a bad thing, but rather... that, or being an actor, are the only reason you can usually get a decent H-hold? So you can only get one to appease humans, basically, because otherwise (A) you might not get access to the technology at all, or at least (B) those two professions are the only way a jelly could feasibly afford one. At least, that's how it sounded to me.

Now of course, one might argue that societically speaking, appeasing humans is the only reason any jellese person would want an H-hold... but as our story shows us, this is obviously a faulty assumption.

[Jennifer Diane Reitz]

I wasn't trying to say that being a sex worker was a bad thing, but rather... that, or being an actor, are the only reason you can usually get a decent H-hold? So you can only get one to appease humans, basically, because otherwise (A) you might not get access to the technology at all, or at least (B) those two professions are the only way a jelly could feasibly afford one. At least, that's how it sounded to me.

Now of course, one might argue that societically speaking, appeasing humans is the only reason any jellese person would want an H-hold... but as our story shows us, this is obviously a faulty assumption.

You are correct; within Kaye's original culture those are the only two ways a jellese could likely afford an H-Hold, and also likely the only reasons they would even want such a device.

Our Kaye is an anomaly, she semi-secretly wants to be human. It is likely a bit of Stockholm syndrome, mixed with power fantasy, which she has likely... if not precisely sexualized... certainly has developed some kind of fetish-like obsession about. This is why she was sent to therapy.

A normal jellese would no more want an H-Hold than a normal human male would enjoy, say, transformation porn (softpore or hardcore, or even just Ranmariffic-slash). Of course, I tend to favor the abnormal, because they are always more interesting, and are often much nicer, than the normal.

But sometimes, sometimes, the abnormal can be not-nice (like anyone). Sometimes the abnormal are just scary. Kaye has gone a little into that space, and thus into drama, which is good for a story, if not real life.

[Monthenor]

Oh - I intend to do interviews with the entire cast. Mostly the entire cast. You'll see...

I knew it. Vola is completely CG. I could sorta tell from the lighting.

[Jennifer Diane Reitz]

Oh - I intend to do interviews with the entire cast. Mostly the entire cast. You'll see...

I knew it. Vola is completely CG. I could sorta tell from the lighting.

Hee!!!!

[Anna]

...
Our Kaye is an anomaly, she semi-secretly wants to be human. It is likely a bit of Stockholm syndrome, mixed with power fantasy, which she has likely... if not precisely sexualized... certainly has developed some kind of fetish-like obsession about. This is why she was sent to therapy.
...

The therapist was human, wasn't there any jellese therapists?
Or was it her choice?

I suppose, a human can not think into a jellese mind, and a jellese can not think into a human mind.
And to be an anomaly... couldn't it be that Kaye is another step in the evolution of the jellese?
A jellese evolutionary step to fits in into the human's world, to find and fill the gap for a "better" cooperation?
Then she would be the first of it's kind, and not an "anomaly"
Well, didn't happen and did not work as we all see.

[Coda]

Maybe it DID work in some percentage of splays.

[Monocheres]

I view Kaye's psychology as being a product of the culture of her splay. Humans are clearly dominating there. At best, Jellese are treated as second-class citizens. At worst they're persecuted. Under such circumstances, who would want to identify themselves as a member of an "inferior" group? A fetish to reassign one's identity to that of the "superior" species would not be surprising.

The fact that her designated therapist was human rather than jellese might be because humans dominate elite professions such as medicine and psychotherapy, and actively discriminate against jellese. Dr. Muri insisted that Kaye needed to suppress her internal identification as a female human and accept the "reality" of her nature as a male jellese. Was this therapeutic compassion based on an empirically-supported theory of jellese mental health? Or was it just patronizing enforcement of conformity to an arbitrary social norm? In other words, was it just a subtle way of telling Kaye, "You're just a goober, you'll always be a goober, you need to know your place and keep to it!"

[Mitsukara]

Well, when recounting this issue, it's worth pointing out again that Muri ultimately hooked Kaye up with her H-hold and wished her the best with what she assumed was just an escape plan, so clearly, she didn't agree with everything her society taught. She probably figured encouraging conformity was a way to "help" Kaye, not to mention her job limitations- you don't stay in a high-ranking profession if you "misuse" it by helping the "crazies" be even crazier. But get an opportunity to help someone who could really use it escape, under the table, and sure, she'd do it.

[Alfador]

Heh...

He took him paddling. With a board.

If you don't get it, your mind is not far enough in the gutter.