I was actually wondering if wasn't a case of pairs of good and evil, rather than individuals of good and evil. In california, we have Iris and Justin, and back east we have ben - and Sofie. I still maintain that there is something weird going on with Sofie to account for the odd way she is treated. Is she a honey trap? Why did her mother try to kill her - or did she? is this a baptism of fire kind of thing? we have ben, who is involved with his mother figure - appollonia - in a sexual way, and justin, who wants to be involved with his mother figure (because there's just no way that Irina didn't hold that place in young Alexei's heart, given the lack of maternal figures around. Also, how she turns down his bed, and fixes him supper, and does all the things a wife or mother would do in that time and place. The self-flagellation struck me as more oedipal (or shakespearean) than, er, schaffer-ian (!), so.). Meanwhile, the 'sisters' (Iris, playing both roles) and Sofie, both have agendas of their own and have directions/destinies/callings of their own.
What I find interesting is that Iris, for me, covers a great many archetypes simultaneously and she is quite fluid in moving between them, whereas back east there are a great many more female figures that are more fixed in their approach. We have all the mother-figures we could want, both dead and alive, and 'sisters', and objects of acceptable and unacceptable lust. In california, Justin and Iris are bearing the mantle of many people and figures at once, and it is pulling them in different directions.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2006-02-23 12:32 pm (UTC)I was actually wondering if wasn't a case of pairs of good and evil, rather than individuals of good and evil. In california, we have Iris and Justin, and back east we have ben - and Sofie. I still maintain that there is something weird going on with Sofie to account for the odd way she is treated. Is she a honey trap? Why did her mother try to kill her - or did she? is this a baptism of fire kind of thing? we have ben, who is involved with his mother figure - appollonia - in a sexual way, and justin, who wants to be involved with his mother figure (because there's just no way that Irina didn't hold that place in young Alexei's heart, given the lack of maternal figures around. Also, how she turns down his bed, and fixes him supper, and does all the things a wife or mother would do in that time and place. The self-flagellation struck me as more oedipal (or shakespearean) than, er, schaffer-ian (!), so.). Meanwhile, the 'sisters' (Iris, playing both roles) and Sofie, both have agendas of their own and have directions/destinies/callings of their own.
What I find interesting is that Iris, for me, covers a great many archetypes simultaneously and she is quite fluid in moving between them, whereas back east there are a great many more female figures that are more fixed in their approach. We have all the mother-figures we could want, both dead and alive, and 'sisters', and objects of acceptable and unacceptable lust. In california, Justin and Iris are bearing the mantle of many people and figures at once, and it is pulling them in different directions.