Feo Takahari
Auror
I think one of the more interesting subplots in Invisible Man is the relationship between the narrator, a friendly and innocuous black man, and Sybil, a sheltered white woman who fantasizes about being raped and brutalized by a black man, and who views the narrator in line with the myths she's built up in her head about what black men are like. I'd like to include a relationship like this in one of my fantasy stories, albeit between members of two entirely fictional races (after all, I'm not brave enough to write it between real races like Ellison did.)
At the moment, however, I'm having difficulty writing the mixture of fear, fascination, and ignorant racism that the "white woman" should possess. I just can't fit it together in a way that makes sense. Does anyone have any advice on how to write this type of character?
Although the story itself will be NSFW, I'd like to keep this topic as close to SFW as is reasonable considering the subject matter, so try not to get too lewd.
Wall of text explaining the situation below. Skip or skim it as you please:
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The fleshcrafter (the "black man" in this case) is mixed-race, and can pass for a soulcrafter ("white.") The soulcrafter woman has been dating him for years, and has been engaged to him for six days when he admits his secret at the start of the story. She guessed early on that he was mixed-race, but guessed wrong as to the other race, assuming he was half-brute (uh, "Mongol", I guess?) Brutes also have a bad reputation in her country, albeit not quite as horrendous, so she already fetishizes him to some degree. He's too spineless to put up much resistance if she wants him to pretend to dominate her, but he can do a passable job at the pretense. And if it matters, she's against sex before marriage, but not against anything related to sex.
Again, fleshcrafters and soulcrafters aren't black and white, and a lot of things differ in the comparison. For starters, at no point did soulcrafters ever enslave fleshcrafters--in fact, for forty years, an exiled fleshcrafter ruled over the soulcrafters, commanding an army of brutes to enforce absolute control over their land. (I guess in some ways, it's more like Nazi fetishism, although the fleshcrafter king never killed noncombatants unless they broke his laws.) Anyways, said fleshcrafter was assassinated just a few months ago, and the soulcrafters and brutes are now engaged in a civil war. Soulcrafters are slaughtering brute noncombatants, and although not many people are aware the king even had any bastard children, both the man and the woman know (but don't discuss) that if she reported him, he'd be killed as well.
I can get as far as when he admits his heritage, but it breaks down when I try to write what she thinks and feels once the shock wears off enough for her to fully process it. (I'd like to use her as the viewpoint character, if I can manage it.)
At the moment, however, I'm having difficulty writing the mixture of fear, fascination, and ignorant racism that the "white woman" should possess. I just can't fit it together in a way that makes sense. Does anyone have any advice on how to write this type of character?
Although the story itself will be NSFW, I'd like to keep this topic as close to SFW as is reasonable considering the subject matter, so try not to get too lewd.
Wall of text explaining the situation below. Skip or skim it as you please:
----
The fleshcrafter (the "black man" in this case) is mixed-race, and can pass for a soulcrafter ("white.") The soulcrafter woman has been dating him for years, and has been engaged to him for six days when he admits his secret at the start of the story. She guessed early on that he was mixed-race, but guessed wrong as to the other race, assuming he was half-brute (uh, "Mongol", I guess?) Brutes also have a bad reputation in her country, albeit not quite as horrendous, so she already fetishizes him to some degree. He's too spineless to put up much resistance if she wants him to pretend to dominate her, but he can do a passable job at the pretense. And if it matters, she's against sex before marriage, but not against anything related to sex.
Again, fleshcrafters and soulcrafters aren't black and white, and a lot of things differ in the comparison. For starters, at no point did soulcrafters ever enslave fleshcrafters--in fact, for forty years, an exiled fleshcrafter ruled over the soulcrafters, commanding an army of brutes to enforce absolute control over their land. (I guess in some ways, it's more like Nazi fetishism, although the fleshcrafter king never killed noncombatants unless they broke his laws.) Anyways, said fleshcrafter was assassinated just a few months ago, and the soulcrafters and brutes are now engaged in a civil war. Soulcrafters are slaughtering brute noncombatants, and although not many people are aware the king even had any bastard children, both the man and the woman know (but don't discuss) that if she reported him, he'd be killed as well.
I can get as far as when he admits his heritage, but it breaks down when I try to write what she thinks and feels once the shock wears off enough for her to fully process it. (I'd like to use her as the viewpoint character, if I can manage it.)