For these kind of people, yes, the mad dictatorships are fun. They get to be stars.
None of us see what doesn’t affect us directly, Less blindness today, with youtube, of course, but it’s still a shock.
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Posts Tagged ‘guilt’
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Udo may not realize it, but Winzig is feeling guilty for having to abandon him. It’s why he’s so angry about it. He really is a good German officer – I guess the Peach’s example really did rub off on him. So even though the Peach isn’t here — he is.
Well, Winzig had to imitate him in issue ten, didn’t he?
At this point in his life, I think the Peach is still so off-balance about coming out, even in this place so distant from his own society, that he’s going through guilt over something so minor as treating himself to a beer.
That, or he’s afraid his camp will go to pieces if he turns his back on it for a moment.
Probably right about that, too. It’s when we’re in the middle of a culture war, even in our own heads, that we go to insane levels to try to maintain a more comforting level of control.
Or something like that. What? I was having fun when I wrote and drew these things. Trying to write a blog about the why and how confuses me as much as it probably does you.
There are two different generations butting heads here; the last days of the 19th century vs. the first decades of the 20th. Their values — especially their sexual values — have nothing to do with each other. Think: the Peach is the adults of the 1950′s, Rosen is the youth of the 1960′s. Or the adults of the ’80′s vs. the kids of — well, you get the idea….grampa was crazy, then the kids were stiff and dignified because he was, then the grandkids rebelled against their stiff parents and played cards with grandpa. The 18th century vs. the 19th. Lather, rinse, repeat.
The Peach is a prig. This is where we really first see it. He also holds a grudge and thinks his values are cleaner than anybody else’s. Not consciously, but there it is.
Rosen, on the other hand, can be such a self-centered asshole. He’s starting to feel guilty, and angry about being made to feel guilty at the same time. This is where his pure sexual hunger for the Peach begins to turn into love. By issue 20, “Fever Dream,” it can even lead to tears of fear for the life of his beloved — and not just his tears. Somebody else with a hard heart and a cynical mind is right there blubbering for grief.
Babette’s being dishonest here. I mean, would you pass up the opportunity to get it on with the prettiest thing on the block?
She’s just as much in it as they are — she’s just the only one willing to admit she — ahem — fucked up. She wants everybody else to accompany her in her misery, that’s all. It’s no fun being the only one dragged to the altar to confess, even by one’s own heart. It would be a lot easier to take if we can get other people to go up and throw themselves down, too. And if they won’t come on their own, she can shame them, or at least demonstrate her moral superiority in the face of their blindness or callousness.
Some gay readers were pissed off by Babette’s turn-around, seeing her as the traditional “whore with the heart of gold.” I didn’t get it at the time, but I think I’ve figured it out.
She’s the whore with space panties. She’s the high-steppingest horse in the stable, and she’s pissed off that her trotting style has been despised, if not rejected. The only way she can deal with it is to see it as her own conscious abuse of a client, rather than his being angry about being made to have sex with her as a woman or as a person he wouldn’t have touched on his own. It’s a fine line — but that’s why I called my publishing company A Fine Line Press. It can all get very gray. And shabby.
Madame always remembers what the point of the exercise is. She can add a nice chunk of change to the accounts. Nobody’s been killed; business as usual.
