Hair

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I had a thought when I noticed this gob of hair in the shower drain. Micah was made to keep his hair long by Chimera as punishment. Doesn't it make sense that he would cut it now that Chimera is gone? And wouldn't someone as nasty as Chimera be able to think up something worse (especially for people who could heal like crazy) than not letting a dude get a hair cut? I understand how making them wear their hair long could be a symbolic sort of humiliation (control over what they can do with their own bodies, enforcing a stereotypically "feminine" trait on them, etc.) but it just somehow doesn't seem like it'd be ALL he'd do.

And then I remembered that LKH just wants pretty delicate curvy young men with long hair (but big wangs, so they're clearly not lesbian-denial fantasies, oh no sirreee nope!)and she's not about to let, y'know, EARTH LOGIC get in her way. It just seems to me that it would have made more sense to just let Micah have long hair 'cause he WANTS to, rather than a punishment from a very bad man...'cause, like I said, then you'd think he'd be more inclined to cut it. Did she ever give a reason why he DIDN'T cut it, like wanting to remember what he'd been through or something like that, or is it just one of her "forgets an issue entirely" moments? I'm betting on the latter.

Comments

[ellenel13.livejournal.com]

I think Micah and Nathaniel made a deal with.They wouldn't cut their hair as long as Anita didn't cut hers. Personally, I think LKH wants to describe Anita's long and luxurious tresses without having Anita look typically feminine.

[saucyirishlass.livejournal.com]

It was at the beginning of Incubus Dreams where we found out that Micah had long hair because Chimera wanted the guys who wouldn't participate in rape to look like women. And even though having long hair represents the torture and humiliation of being under Chimera's rule, Micah will still keep it long because Anita wants it long and she's just that special.

As to Chimera not doing anything worse to him, it's also said that Micah had his nose broken on a regular basis so it would stay crooked; now that Chimera is gone, his nose is getting straighter each time he shifts.

[ditaykan.livejournal.com]

But... aren't healed wounds supposed to remain like that through shifting? Like, if a wereperson shifted immediately after getting the nose broken it'd go back. But if it had been allowed to heal, the nose would be stuck like that permanently.

[othellia.livejournal.com]

But if it had been allowed to heal, the nose would be stuck like that permanently.

Permanently? I think a plastic surgeon would be able to rebreak and set it if they really wanted to. Though... I'm guessing the "permanently" you're referring to is the whole noses-don't-heal-themselves thing.

[ditaykan.livejournal.com]

Yep. Without outside intervention, like the rebreak-reset scenario, the nose would stay crooked. I'm pretty sure it'd stay slightly crooked even if it were reset, though.

Did LKH ever mention anything about Micah snapping his own nose back into place, or somebody doing it for him?

[othellia.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. LKH seems to skip over bloody, gory bits nowadays unless it's related directly to sex.

[crimsonpacific.livejournal.com]

Didn't it mention somewhere that Micha's nose was actually eaten at one point by Chimera?

[bludflower.livejournal.com]

Anita's hair is too curly to go short. One of my best friends had hair so thick and curly (before she chemically straightened it)that if she ever cut it short she'd have a horrible Orphan Annie/Richard Simmons fro--so it was always super long to keep it weighed down.

I just dont understand why Anita doesn't throw it into a braid or a ponytail to keep it out of her way. It's simple and plain and would keep in line with her supposed non-girliness.

That's what I always thought about Micah's hair, but I don't think LKH thought very hard about what she was writing. She was just looking for another ridiculous abusive sob-story for her boy-toys and failed to realize how selfish it made Anita to make him keep it long. No doubt she'd only try to justify it if called on it.

[bludflower.livejournal.com]

Exactly, which goes to show how full of crap all her talk of being so guy-like really is. She still wants her avatar to be blissfully gorgeous to everyone--begrudgingly, of course. *eye roll*

Giving Anita a bad haircut doesn't let LKH pretend she's the super-cooch goddess, because to her long hair=sexy so all the bad guys coincidentally aren't bright enough to snatch a handful of her eighties bufont in a fight. Convenient, huh?

[agatha-mandrake.livejournal.com]

I am hypnotized by your icon.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

No hair is too curly to go short. If it is, it's just not short enough. *points to population of Africa where really short hair is quite common*

I had a friend whose hair was like a sheep's back and she wore it about quarter of an inch long.

[mystoflare.livejournal.com]

It's so obvious that Anita forcing Micah to have long hair (if that is indeed the case) is just one of her ways to keep him miserable and enslaved to her, then she'll just deny she's doing anything wrong because she WUVS them. *gags* *takes a pair of nice sharp scissors to Micah the Wonderwang for hair and other unnecessarily long parts*

Merry always sounds like the "long and luxurious tresses".
There's something I can't picture. I mean, with all the huge gang-bang orgies and bukkake scenes and such, does Merry actually have better hygiene than Anita (i.e. grooming, shower between rounds of rape Magical Sex)? Or do the bodily fluids of magical cock-men have some Supah-Speshul properties that only makes Merry look prettier ever time they *ahem* on her? I refuse to touch the Merry series because of the stupid premise of it, and now, with the poor Brownie Granny getting the Bitch-Slap of Doom, think I never will.
*leaves with mental picture of Merry a la Cameron Diaz in There's Something About Mary*

[ellenel13.livejournal.com]

I meant sarcastically.

[djmayhem-aubrey.livejournal.com]

Works better in battle as people can use hair (especially long hair) against you in battle.

This.

[djmayhem-aubrey.livejournal.com]

Uh, I was basically saying I agree with you. No worries. That's one of the things that pisses me off about the series.

[longtail.livejournal.com]

I think as usual with LKH's nonsensical crappy writing, there is a qualifier that's been discarded. I don't think Anita ever demanded he never cut his hair, just expressed she likes guys with long hair and hopes he won't cut it. Then Micah tells her that Chimera forced him to keep his hair long as a humiliation tactic.

That was sort of the end of it. Anita didn't really say anything more about it, or even say she was sorry because she had no idea. There wasn't any kind of qualifier, or reason, or any further chat on it. There was just the crappy implication that this was another thing her man was doing for Twu Wuv.

I'm one of the few people who actually likes the idea of Micah, and it's so frustrating to me that he's so crappily written and never gets fleshed out as being anything other than "there" for whatever deus es machina is needed. In the hands of a better author, I'd find his very zen-like approach to life rather fascinating and refreshing. I think it would be entirely in line with his character that he'd choose NOT to cut his hair not just because Anita likes it, but as a symbolic rebellion against Chimera's memory that he does not, and never will, control him. That would be an awesome plot point.

But since it's LKH, it's just stupid and forced.

[atypia.livejournal.com]

They have a deal (Micah and Anita). He wants her to have long hair, so as long as she doesn't cut her hair he won't cut his.

Which of course makes no sense since it was such an emotional issue for him with Chimera, but continuity isn't LKH's strong point ;)

[dwg.livejournal.com]

There was a blog a bit back when LKH was lamenting Gary-the-ex and she described how she loved him with beautiful long hair and really resented it when he got a haircut. (here (http://blog.laurellkhamilton.org/2007/06/happy-fathers-day.html), if you're interested.) Going by that and the books, she just likes dudes with longer hair. I get that, I do, my best friend from high school is exactly the same. It's just that she doesn't write self-insert stories about this sort of thing and then advertise it to the whole world.

Not that there's anything wrong with liking long hair on your dudes.

It's just that all the dudes have long hair for one reason or another. When the whole "bargain" cropped up that Micah would cut his hair when Anita did so she bitched about having waist-length hair now (which goes against the previous shoulder-length that she had -- apparently, Anita's hair grew nearly a foot in only a few short months and I call bullshit) made me roll my eyes so hard. Just get a haircut. IT GROWS BACK. It's almost like the girls on ANTM that burst into tears when they have to cut their hair because OMG THEY ARE NO LONGER GIRLS or some shit. Lulzy to watch, but Jesus, it's just hair.

And then I go on the rampage about Nathaniel having his hair in a ponytail on the very top of his head. Not a good look, even if you are an anime boy. I have seen the proof in the Comic Book Guy in town, who has his hair up like that all the time. Yeeesh.

I think part of the problem with all this is that there's only one particular "type" of dude being shown here -- and that's the one that fits into LKH's fantasy. Great for her, she gets to write gratuitous porn with her self-insert sexing over all the hot men inside her head. It's just that she's forgotten that not every woman (or man) shares the same fantasy. Some of us like slim, girlish dudes, while others prefer rugged manly men in full bloom of manhood. Some variety would go a long, long way, you know?

As it stands, all the man-meat should wear nametags, because honestly, it's getting difficult to tell the difference between them all. I think I was going to create an Excel spreadsheet or something just to keep track of who goes with what description. Then again, it's not like any of them have any personalities to differentiate them from all the rest. One dude is easily interchangable with another. BUT NOT WITH EACH OTHER BECAUSE GAY IS BAD.

...I think I had a point in there somewhere, but I can't remember what it was. I need sleep. @_@

[saucyirishlass.livejournal.com]

Just get a haircut. IT GROWS BACK. It's almost like the girls on ANTM that burst into tears when they have to cut their hair because OMG THEY ARE NO LONGER GIRLS or some shit. Lulzy to watch, but Jesus, it's just hair.

Speaking as someone who got a foot of hair cut off last summer, getting rid of that much at a time can be emotional, even when you've made the decision to. Sure, it'll grow back, but it's still an initial shock.

And when it's not your decision, like my dad with chemo, then it can be downright devastating, even if it is "just hair" and will grow back.

[saucyirishlass.livejournal.com]

Initially it's shocking, yes, but like with the ANTM example, some continued crying about it until they got kicked off.

Well, hair is a bigger part of self image for some than others. (No matter how I write this sentence, it never sounds right...)

My dad definitely had a harder time with the hair loss than those around him. It was one of the main reasons he hated chemo. We thought it was hilarious when it came back curly the first time.

[saucyirishlass.livejournal.com]

Yay, occasionally I am intelligible. :)

Did he get a wig or anything?

Nah, he was afraid of looking like he was wearing a wig, so he opted to do nothing about it. (He also had a martyr complex, which may or may not have contributed to the do-nothing-about-it thing.)

My dad's hair was always straight, so it was weird to see him with waves. He grumbled at first and never understood why we thought it was so cool, but it was superficial indignation. He was happy to have it back. Didn't hurt that it came in thicker than it had been before the treatment. :)

[missingvolume.livejournal.com]

Even with a spread shit it doesn't work since she couldn't keep the colors of one of the guys straight in the beginning of the Merry series.

[othellia.livejournal.com]

It's almost like the girls on ANTM that burst into tears when they have to cut their hair because OMG THEY ARE NO LONGER GIRLS or some shit. Lulzy to watch, but Jesus, it's just hair.

Very true for the most part. Though, I remember this one girl, Bianca, had hair that was so damaged by bad beauty products that they had to shave all of it off. I'm not that big on my overall appearance, but if that happened to me, I think I would cry too.

[atypia.livejournal.com]

I shaved my head, and I had long hair at the time.

It was fucking awesome, totally liberating and so nice and cool.

ANTM people who cry over it as such pussies.

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

The way I remember it, Anita didn't demand anything, no. It was Micah who used it as a sort of bribe - if she didn't cut her hair, he'd keep his long too.

Earth logic doesn't enter into it. LKH thinks that hurt and abused men are sexy, so she heaps past torments on them, but she won't let them actually show realistic signs of abuse, because, well, the fallout of real emotional trauma is decidedly unsexy.

[easol.livejournal.com]

... unless they are totally celibate and devote themselves to the wonderfulness of the Magic Cooch.

[easol.livejournal.com]

Hey, a small detail from kippurbird's sporking wiki:

"I leaned my hands against the sink, and looked at her through a curtain of my long dark hair. It had gotten too long for my tastes, but Micha had made me a deal: If I cut my hair, he'd cut his, because he preferred his hair shorter, too. So my hair was fast approaching my waist for the first time since junior high."

First off long hair to the waist/butt is a typical Sue trait. It's utterly impractical, especially since she's in a busy active kind of job that's not very safe thing to have. Also that deal made no sense. If she doesn't like her hair long and he doesn't like his hair long, why is both their hair long? It's like there's something missing there that Hamilton knows but forgot to tell her readers because she knows it so why put it in the text? This is something a lot of writers have problems with. Especially beginning ones because they forget what they know and what the reader sees on the page. But in truth many writers have this difficulty, which is why they need other people to go over their work and point out these gaps in information.

[orthent.livejournal.com]

If she doesn't like her hair long and he doesn't like his hair long, why is both their hair long? It's like there's something missing there that Hamilton knows but forgot to tell her readers because she knows it so why put it in the text?

Um, each of them might prefer to wear their hair short, and each of them is sacrificing that preference for the sake of something they want even more--long hair on their partner. (Or at any rate, Anita is.) LKH didn't spell this out because a reader who isn't determined to find "gaps in information" or other difficulties in every sentence wouldn't need it to be spelled out.