Quote:
Originally Posted by CRussel
Finally, the one thing I really, really didn't like. I thought the scene with Bel extracting information was unnecessary, inappropriate, and detracted from both the story and the character. And I'd actually like to ask Rosemary to justify it, or explain why she thought it was necessary.
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I’m glad you brought that up, Charlie (it was inevitable that someone would bring it up, actually). The fact is, when I now look back on that scene, I find it disturbing, too. Torture is dreadful, appalling, wrong – and it’s one of the horrors of our modern world.
So, why did the “good guys” use it in my book?
There are a couple of things to consider when asking that question.
The first is: the date.
The Steerswoman was originally published in 1989. That means that I was writing it in 1987-1988. Think back on what the world was like at that time (if you can, that is: some of you might not have been born yet).
We’re very aware of the moral issue of torture, these days. It was the wars in the Middle East, and the events at Abu Ghraib, and the interrogations at Guantanamo that really brought it to the attention of the general public in the US.
But this was before that. Before Abu Ghraib; before 9/11; before the War on Terror. Before Desert Storm. Al-Qaeda did not exist (until August 1988, that is; that’s when Bin Laden formed it). And Guantanamo -- we had some sort of military base there, right?
Sure, we knew torture existed, but it was far away from us (Central America, at that time, perhaps; and Viet Nam historically). But it had no immediacy, no real-world resonance, for the average American.
It was something that showed up in spy novels, or adventure stories. The bad guy catches the good guy, twirls his mustache, gloats, and torture ensues.
In other words: a literary trope. A cliché. And in 1987 that was the entire extent of my understanding of torture. Disconnected from any real-world events.
So, the second thing to consider is: tropes.
One of the things I did in The Steerswoman was to take as many SF and Fantasy clichés as I could -- and flip them, turn them around, work them from the other side.
14-year-old kid with a talent for magic? Got one of them – but he’s not what he seems.
Wizards? Sure. But look closely...
Secret society with knowledge carefully hoarded and shared with no one? Meet the opposite of that: the Steerswomen.
So... what’s the opposite of the classic scene where the villain tortures the hero for information?
Right. There you go.
Actually, there are two ways to turn that around. In one turnaround, the villain wouldn’t have to torture the hero, because the hero immediately spills the beans. And I used that one, with Shammer and Dhree questioning Rowan.
And in the other turnaround... The good guys torture a bad guy for information.
And that’s how that entered the book. Because at that point in my life, in 1987, it was just a literary trope.
Except... I did have trouble writing it. Because (like all of us here) I have a good imagination. So I could not actually do it. I just didn’t have the stomach for it.
I approached that scene so many times, walking up to it, backing away, trying to get it written, failing -- until it finally became obvious to me: I just could not make Rowan torture anyone.
Solution: I had Bel do it. Bel is a violent person from a violent society. It made much more sense that she would do it.
And I had it take place entirely off-stage. We do not see anyone get tortured. We see the lead-up, we hear it in the background, and Rowan cleans up the mess afterward. At no point do we witness any torture.
And yet, we do find that scene disturbing – because in the real world, torture is a horrible thing. And we are smart, and we have good imaginations, and we have simple human sympathy.
Even when the humans involved are entirely imaginary.