Two questions: Courtesan portrayal and works In The Style Of?

Would portraying a courtesan with realistic problems ie no customers, in danger of disease/pregnancy if she doesn't use birth control/conception be possible without turning her into a stereotype of the "woman who takes up sex work because she's desperate and deserves our pity" (not that some women don't take up sex work out of desperation, just that I've seen that WAY too many times, and while it may have some basis in reality it's not the whole story. Cora Pearl, a 19th century courtesan, took it up because she was wild and restless, and wanted a different, more independent life. Most upper-middle class women in Victorian England lived restricted lives. I think it'd be a refreshing change to write in the persona of someone like that.)

Also, am I the only person on here who's writing a story which is something In The Style Of something else? Basically I've come to think of one of my stories as The Desert Song In the Style of Tales Of The Otori.

I don't think much of intentionally writing In the Style of, honestly - it can be a useful experiment to try writing like other people, but it's best if you write in your own style.

From what you're saying, I don't see it much as a stereotype. It's more like the role of Courtesan that your character fulfils.. not out of hopeless despondency, but as a means to make a living for a bohemian, independent lifestyle.

I do this too. Say for example, imagine The Polar Express with the underlying tragic tone of Millennium Actress, or if you replace Stephanie Meyer and got Anne Rice to rework Twilight. It can be a very interesting thing, that — like viewing something with a very different lens borrowed from something else, and gaining a new interesting perspective on things.

edited 14th Aug '12 10:36:11 PM by QQQQQ

That was unnecessary.

That was needlessly hostile and disrespectful, Q.

I have been known to assume the style of the research documents I use in the writing of nonfiction works, but this is something that hasn't happened since early college. In general, unless you set out to do so, I'd be wary of labeling things in such a way. You're more apt to flatter yourself by the comparison than you are to be correct.

I don't think I've ever set out to do a deliberate in the style of, but it's possible lo those many eons ago in middle school I did.

edited 12th Aug '12 10:44:47 PM by Night

@Q and @Night: What I mean is taking a story and adding other elements that are found in another story to it. Not necessarily copying someone else's writing style. So here it's very similar in plot to The Desert Song (with heavy references to the original) but with a focus on politics like Talesof The Otori. Maybe more like The Desert Song meets Tales Of The Otori?

edited 13th Aug '12 1:29:57 AM by MorwenEdhelwen

And the courtesan thing is because a lot of people seem to think sex worker=poor victim unwillingly in the industry, in RL as well as fiction. It's a very complicated issue. Women working in the industry for other reasons, or for more complicated reasons, are very rare in fiction.

edited 13th Aug '12 1:48:31 AM by MorwenEdhelwen

While I don't know much about those two works you've mentioned - I think I know what you mean; that.. when you're taking an existing storyline that's there (or something that resembles that storyline), and you manage to inject new portions, tidbits from outside, and the result is something that manages to strike you differently than if you take those two works by themselves. Sorta like mixing different ingredients for a dish's overall flavour. How fascinating, if you ponder it.

Indeed it is complicated. You usually have the image that these people are coerced into it due to their surrounding situations - "poor jobs and education, crime run rampant in the society" sorta thing. I think it's nice to have a different depiction from the usual - yours feels more like those high-class royal courtesans, in the sense of working out of pragmatism more than "I'm desperate and poor for $$$."

I imagine one of the things that impedes people from contemplating things more fully is the sensitivity surrounding the issue of bodily consumerism - the way a said gender is depicted in a work and the supposed implication that it must reflect poorly on women/men in general that allows audiences to get offended, and turn into something like stark raving feminists.

edited 14th Aug '12 10:13:18 PM by QQQQQ

@Q: And a) I'm a woman and (b) I cannot believe how the other women I know would react if I asked them that question. Because I know they'd be all shocked if I said, "you know, this is a very complicated issue." In fact, back then I might have become a courtesan.

edited 14th Aug '12 11:19:36 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

I might try being a Courtesan too, situation permitting.

Q, don't be childish. If you so wish to ignore someone's post, do it without the snark.

I don't know if Q is snarking or not. At least, that's not how I read it. I saw it as an attempt at humour.

edited 15th Aug '12 3:26:18 AM by MorwenEdhelwen

@Q: And about In the Style of- that is what I mean.