A Beast in my Bed?

It's not really much of an issue. I mean the idea of mythical creature relations is as old as ancient Greece. It permeates our society and our entertainment. I mean take a look at Twilight for example. A love between a girl and a vampire. It's gigantic isn't it? I never read it or watched the movie but that's about as mainstream as you can get. True Blood. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Underworld. Depravity? Don't think so.

Maybe for teenage girls . . .

Pep ( . . . whatever their real age)

Hey I *am* like that!!!! I am 51 going on 15!

Rubbish!

Pep (The Victorians put skirts on table legs . . . )

I knew you weren't. You were raising questions to make us think. It is what you do.

And you are correct. This does go back at least to Victorian times and probably even to the dawn of time. The myth of Leda and the Swan comes to mind too and others.

I suggest you study and comprehend 19th century victorian literature to teh same levels I might have done. I urge you to read William A. Cohen's brilliant critique "Embodied" (among other texts) and even a reprise of Lord david Cecil's monumenal essay on Wuhering Heights has much going for it.

Bronte's "Heights" with its "penetrallium" and Penistone Crags is a stunning achievement. Ofcourse you know "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte - an 18 year old girl's desire for a much older man - what does she say ... "I loved him more than religion" ...

The stereotype of teh victorian as a prim upstanding methodist is purely taht - a stereotype. Not every victorian was a methodst and some of our most forward thinking texts sprign from teh feminist writings of teh early 19th century.

recently i bought a marvellous book - "Harm's Way" - an anthology of mid-Victorian photography. Amazing but disturbing. If I get started on this its hard to stop, but my own colection contains original powerful industrial photographs of teh men and women of teh victorian age. These are not the faces of the demure and innocent; they face us and star into our own eyes, comprehending and challenging.

Definitely NOT rubbish. I hesitate to say this but I KNOW my literature. I may not have an Oxford degree but in my real world I have collected first editions/critical works/art and photography of teh Victorians and early 20th century since I was 15. I can assure you that no society had a darker or oddly enlightened view of morality than teh Victorians. And no one liked shock value than Darwin - Origin of Species! Pshaw!

Lol I cant stop .. look a Mary Shelley's description of birth in "Frankenstein" which I believe is a "first" for European literature. Written when she was 18. The ugliness and monstrosity of teh birth process as Victor recoils from what he has created. And his own decription of his wife as "my more than sister". No film company can truly produce a text-accurate "Wuthering Heights" - Heathcliff's sheer violence and his necrophiliac desires are too shocking for even today. And how about Lockwood sawing off teh little ghost-Cathy's arm with a blade of broken glass in the window? Yet its all told with such calm and consideration; the skull beneath teh skin. And isnt Heathcliff really Cathy's half-brother? paraphrasing a bit but earnshaw looks at her and says "why can't you be a good girl, Cathy?" and she replies "Why can't you be a good man, father?"

I would happily engage you in critical debate and dissertation but this is not the place and my lack of credentials mean invalidity to you because I despise univeristy degrees and refused that destructive pathway to a personal education.

Anyway, I popped into a Capture/Forced RP area, and there were also a variety of beasts there, some having sex with humans. A very newbie looking guy, with his huge prim attached, TPd in and a minute later a pretty newb looking girl appeared before him. A few minutes after that she says "omg, they are doing it with animals. get me out of here, please".

ROFLMAO!!! You trust Victorian chicklit as the source of your historic views! Nightmares written by adolescent girls without real life experience. You might as well quote Barbara Cartland rather than Winston Churchill regarding the history of the 20th Century.

Pep (The rubbish comment was aimed at your suggestion that Heathcliff was a beast; he was just a normal bloke;maybe you don't know any normal blokes, though)

Some people really do take what folks do in SL a bit too seriously. I was bouncing around some various RP areas, mostly out of curiosity as to what really goes on there (most are really very very lame). Anyway, I popped into a Capture/Forced RP area, and there were also a variety of beasts there, some having sex with humans. A very newbie looking guy, with his huge prim attached, TPd in and a minute later a pretty newb looking girl appeared before him. A few minutes after that she says "omg, they are doing it with animals. get me out of here, please".

Apparently she has not quite figured out that she can TP on her own or even click that X in the upper right corner.

Nightmares written by adolescent girls without real life experience.

May I intervene with a hasty but nevertheless vehement rebuttal?

Bullshit, Pep! Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights are quite clearly two of the most enduring romances ever written and it is appropriate that they were penned by young females of considerable life experience for their early years: the Bronte household was a battleground of psychological disorder, creativity and terminal illness while Mary Shelley, daughter of two of the leading thinkers of that time, was inspired to write her grizzly fairy tale having just miscarried a baby. It is also interesting to note that her lover and his buddy didn't produce much of lasting worth during that rainy summer on the shore of Geneva.

Besides, any fule kno that adolescent girls generally make excellent and imaginative artists. It is one of their most attractive qualities. Crazy bitches.

OK we gotta be careful coz we wil just razz people if we do this but you cant honestly be serious? Shelley had gone through 4 miscarriages and crib deaths by 18. Lover of Percy Shelley at 15. Not quite Chick lit. More like Goth/Punk headbanger. Really she invented that drastic pale look - see her portrait in teh veil at age 19 (I think). I agree if you apply Austen to that rule (but even "Emma" has connotations for us) But not Shelley. She has a deeper "purpose" and knew it. Her mum a power-influence; Wollstonecraft's "Vindication on teh Rights of Women" applies here.

And if I want history I'll read Macaulay. Or some moderns. I like Weir and last month really enjoyed literary theory of Terry Eagleton - "After Theory" But then again I have Lily Allen blasting out right now so not sure I have any credibles. Next you'll be saying Alex in "Clockwork Orange" is NOT a moral figure, when you and I both know he is.

May I intervene with a hasty but nevertheless vehement rebuttal?

Bullshit, Pep! Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights are quite clearly two of the most enduring romances ever written and it is appropriate that they were penned by young females of considerable life experience for their early years: the Bronte household was a battleground of psychological disorder, creativity and terminal illness while Mary Shelley, daughter of two of the leading thinkers of that time, was inspired to write her grizzly fairy tale having just miscarried a baby. It is also interesting to note that her lover and his buddy didn't produce much of lasting worth during that rainy summer on the shore of Geneva.

Besides, any fule kno that adolescent girls generally make excellent and imaginative artists. It is one of their most attractive qualities. Crazy bitches.

I consider fiction as fiction, written or visual. You obviously can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality. I suppose you think "The Ryme Of The Ancient Mariner" is required reading for nautical professionals learning navigation . . .

Pep (Alex is a fictional character. Like Thomas The Tank Engine.)

"Hush, here comes teh dreamer!"

Lol There is no answer to what you type. I dont think I'll ever tell the difference between fantasy and reality. to assuage my desire I dinx around sl also.

Anyway, I come from a long line of dreamers. It's in my blood.

and even been error checked as a 'bot... and I LIKED IT =)

You would be doing us a favour then, by keeping your misconceptions private.

Pep (Even if you typed them accurately I doubt they would make any more sense)

I consider fiction as fiction, written or visual. You obviously can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality. I suppose you think "The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner" is required reading for nautical professionals learning navigation . . .

Pep (Alex is a fictional character. Like Thomas The Tank Engine.)

Even so, fiction is always based on the mores and perception of the age they were written in. - they tend to give a good insight as to the perceptions of that time period. True, they can not be taken complete at face value, but they do serve to help peer into the minds of the people in that time.

Is it illegal to cohabit with a minotaur or a satyr? Is a Neko jail bait?

Mythological Beasts, Furries, Lycanthropes, Lizards and the odd Neko/vampire have all inhabited our world and yes, been attracted to mainstreamers and been desired by "regular" humans. I am curious and uncertain about whether or not its "kosher" - you know what I mean! Should this even concern us - after all we KNOW the satyr is really a human, right- just in a kinda costume. If your lover/partner has a devilish pair of goat horns and a Pan-like laciviousness are you simply "a woman wailing for her demon lover" or getting close to deparavity and breaking "someone's" laws?

There was a thread liek this a while back but I thought I would rekindle those old passions. Besides, I wonder what exactly is going on socially in sl and who approves/disapproves and why. After all, I think this touches on moral issues and our freudian thingies.