Blogflog - Dead Ice: Micah

[blogfloggery.livejournal.com]

Link: Dead Ice: Micah
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's blog. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.

Mod note: Contains rape discussion.

Micah blog:

Micah Callahan came on stage mid-way through the current books, almost literally half-way at book #10 Narcissus in Chains. The book was a game changer in a lot of ways for the Anita Blake series, but one of the biggest for her personal life was the addition of Micah.



Question: Why did the sexual content go up in the series once Micah was introduced?

Answer: It didn’t really go up that much.

Secrets to Share: The Meredith Gentry series was actually created, at least in part, to give me somewhere to put all that literary sexual frustration that wasn’t happening in the Anita Blake novels. I had written and finished the first Merry book, A Kiss of Shadows, and set a much higher sexual content from the very beginning. I think that’s why no one ever complains about it, because it was the dynamic from the start, but with Anita it wasn’t. She started out a very old-fashioned good girl, in that I’m-waiting-for-my-white-dress-and-picket-fence kind of way. So, after nine books where she had managed to have sex twice, three times if you want a more open definition than just intercourse, I’d decided to stop arguing with her. If Anita wanted to keep both Jean-Claude and Richard at bay and continue to cling to her commitment phobia, then so be it, I was done. Not done with the series, but done arguing with her, with Richard, with everyone. Merry didn’t argue about sex, or even commitment, because the whole idea was for her to find a prince/king to her princess/queen. Narcissus in Chains is a solid mystery with a villain that is still one of the most original ideas I’ve ever come up with for a bad guy; but to listen to the haters you’d think there is nothing but sex in the book. In fact, there is only one full-blown sex scene in the entire book. You could make a case for two, maybe three, if intercourse, or oral isn’t your sole criteria for definition of sex. One of those scenes amounts to metaphysical foreplay scene with Richard, Jean-Claude, and Anita, but the other two scenes are with Micah, who was a brand new character introduced in this book. There is actually no more sex in this book than in Blue Moon or The Killing Dance, but what is different is who the sex is with.

I had so many people complain about the sexual content in Narcissus in Chains that I almost accepted that there must be more sex in the book than I remembered writing, but no, no, there isn’t. It has only been recently that I realized the problem was that the first metaphysical foreplay scene was with Jean-Claude and Richard, the two men that Anita had dated for most of the preceding nine books, so fans had become wedded to the idea that this was it – her two guys. They were also convinced she would pick one guy to finally settle down with, and then suddenly Micah comes out of left field and wins the day, the lady, everything, because that’s what some fans seemed to think. They would have to wait for the next novel, Cerulean Sins, to discover that Anita hadn’t dumped both the other men. She’d date and still be lovers with both Richard and Jean-Claude, but she would also continue to date Micah. It would take me almost ten years to realize why some of the anger directed at Micah existed and by then it was too late to change things, even if I’d wanted to, which I didn’t. My series, my books, my characters, and they tend to date/sleep with who they want to with very little input from me, actually. Micah was supposed to be a bit player, in fact he was supposed to be a bad guy henchman for the main villain. He wasn’t supposed to date Anita, let alone have sex with her. Which leads us into the next question.

Question: Did Micah rape Anita the first time they were together?

Answer: No. Not to me, but to my great surprise this was one of the most frequent questions I’ve gotten over the years about that first scene.

Secrets to Share: This question totally caught me off guard at first, and the people who asked it in a hateful way, or were just haters in general, I pretty much ignored. If you want me to pay attention to you, be nice. Some very sincere women, who were very nice, were upset about the scene. It turned out that the scene had seemed like rape to them because Anita had not said a fully spoken, “yes.” I swear that I remembered her saying yes in the scene. I swear that I wrote her saying yes in the scene, but so many women were genuinely upset by the scene that I went back and reread it. One thing was true, Anita doesn’t say an out loud yes. *head desk* Sometimes when you write a book, things are so crystal clear in your head that you think they are on the paper; you actually begin to read them into the words, but that doesn’t mean they’re there. The problem is copyeditors and editors in New York can’t see what’s in my head, only what’s on the page, and if what I “see” in my head never got onto a version of the page, then they can’t help me remember it.

I went so far as to add a “yes” between the hardback and one of the paperback versions of Narcissus in Chains, but honestly I can’t remember which print run the change was in, and when the next print run came out the publisher had reverted to the master print file, and the “yes” was missing once more. *head wall* If I could do this scene again I would rewrite some of Anita’s interior dialogue to make it more acceptable to the women who saw/feel the scene as rape. All I can say is that I did not write the scene with that in mind, but having listened to enough polite fans explain their point of view over the years, I can see their point. My apologies to those that were genuinely upset by the scene as written, and I have endeavored not to fall into ambiguity in any other sex scene with anyone since then.

Question: Is Micah going to become king of the wereanimals in America, the way that Jean-Claude is king of the vampires?

Answer: I don’t know.

Secrets to Share: Micah is one of those characters that changed completely between character building notes and stepping on stage. The moment he interacted with Anita for “real” on paper he was someone new, someone I hadn’t planned. He was honorable, determined, as ruthlessly practical as Anita, and in many ways the near perfect helpmate that Anita had been needing. I had no idea he was a leopard king, a Nimir-raj, or that Anita would be his leopard queen, Nimir-ra. I had to come up with vocabulary for that, and so much more, after Micah announced who and what he was in the shapeshifter community. Since I didn’t know any of this when he first stepped into fictional reality I had no idea that he and Anita would create The Coalition for Better Understanding Between Lycanthrope and Human Communities, or that Micah would be called all over the country when there was a conflict between lycanthrope groups, or between humans and the shapeshifter community. Here’s a freebie insight, in Affliction I thought it was clear that Micah only interferes with out of state animal groups when those groups call the Coalition in to solve a dispute, or violence has already broken out, but not gotten to the attention of human authorities, but apparently not. Again, with Micah, people thought he was just traveling the country forcing groups to join our larger group – no. The Coalition goes only where, and if, called, but once you call in help if we pay in blood and pain from our people to solve your problem, then you and yours may end up joining the Coalition whether you like it or not.

Sneak Peek from Dead Ice:

Micah came through the door like he came through every door, as if the room were his room, or at the very least he was thinking of purchasing it. It was a surety and security in himself that he’d had since I’d met him.

Comments

[dagonista.livejournal.com]

No no no no no nononononononononono.

1. If you have problems distinguishing between what you've actually written and what you think you've written, you need beta readers and editors. This is a common thing. Kit Whitfield calls it "overhead projector syndrome" - you're seeing what you think you've put on the page because you're over-familiar with the ideas you have and the text, and you're conflating them. YOU NEED AN EDITOR.

2. It's not the audience's fault they can't correctly fill in the blanks you've left by not writing what you intended to write. It doesn't make us "haters" to ask questions about characters we care about or to seek clarification on situations that were uncomfortable, inexplicable, or confusing. Likewise, it isn't your editor's fault that they can't read your mind.

3. Consent is an ongoing issue. Because Anita has consented to sex in the past (under duress, I'd argue), doesn't mean she has auto-consented to all sex in the future. The shower scene in NiC shows her (very explicitly, I'd say) being manipulated by both Micah and Jean-Claude. If dub-con is your kink, great. I like dub-con. But don't pretend it's not dub-con and then get angry when people have questions about Micah's actions or Anita's reactions. Don't paint yourself as the Mistress of Edgy Envelope Pushing Fiction, then backtrack when people want to discuss that with you and pretend it was all totally legit, consensual sex all the time.

4. Stop telling me that Micah has personality characteristics beyond the ability to stick his head up Anita's arse. It doesn't make it so.

If one reader contacts you and says "hey, this scene was a bit rapey, what do you say to that?", you can feel free to think they're an anomaly and carry on. If SCADS of readers are all saying, "hey, this was a bit rapey, what gives?" THEN YOU HAVE A PROBLEM. And the problem IS NOT YOUR READERS.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

No no no no no nononononononononono.

This was my reaction when I read the title.

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

Number 1, completely and totally. I think every writer has been there, whether fiction or not. Sometimes your own brain and eyes just can't find the answer because they know what it should be.

The bigger problem, I think, is that she's telling this vast elaborate story in her head, and it's not making it to paper, at least not all the parts that need to for it to make sense.

[dagonista.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! I'm always kind of amazed how often this happens to me. I was re-reading my current project over the weekend and discovered I had two characters in two different chapters say exactly the same line about another character, because clearly I just thought that line was so dazzling, it had to be repeated *face palm* Forgetting what you've written or not written is fine - but that's why you need good beta readers and editors!

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

She is right about one thing though: editors can't help in this case because editors don't know that she didn't mean to write rape. I've worked as an editor. It's basically a game of filling in blanks that the author left. But unless there's some reason that I know the book shouldn't have a rape scene (such as house guidelines), I'm going to treat what's on the page as what the author meant.

Beta readers might help, but they have to be critical sorts, and we know LKH doesn't want to actually hear it. So I'd have to assume her beta readers just fawn all over her and don't bring up the issue that a scene seems to be rape and did she really mean to do that to Anita?

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Going by the number of comments on the blog that are along the lines of "well I never thought it was rape!" (sometimes with a side of "how dare anyone think that was rape?!") and how hot/sexy/clearly made for each other that scene was, I'd say yes a lot of people would just fawn over her. Also note that she only started paying attention when polite fans were bringing it up; everyone else is automatically labelled a hater and ignored.

[dagonista.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, agreed (I used to edit professionally as well). But at the very least, a good content editor might ask more critical questions of her, as opposed to just saying "you dropped a comma here." It might not necessarily help, but it's not impossible an editor might note "this scene doesn't fit with Anita as we know her; is there anything you can clarify" or whatever. I'm pretty sure a good content editor hasn't been near LKH's books since way before NiC though.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

"Micah came through the door".

Well that makes me want to read the book. How much more exciting can a preview be?

[openidwouldwork.livejournal.com]

No, no he didn't just come through the door, he came through the door like he came through every door! This is important!

[dagonista.livejournal.com]

Like he was thinking of buying the place! I can't help but picture an obnoxious yuppy talking on an 80s brick of a cell phone. "Yah, a 50k bonus isn't bad. I could buy and sell this craphole like that."

[darkestgrace.livejournal.com]

1) The number of sex scenes may not have gone up much in Narcissus in Chains, but so much page time was devoted to talking about sex, or thinking about sex, or complaining about sex, or being in a strip club, that it felt like the whole book was about sex.

2) She can't understand why people would be upset that she'd spent ten books building up Richard and JC as love interests, and then some guy turns up out of nowhere and becomes her one true love?

3) The characters do not choose who they sleep with! As an example, a few years ago I was writing a story, and my main character had a ton of chemistry with my villain. When I read it back, I was shocked at how much it seemed like I was building a relationship between the two. In contrast, the best friend who I had wanted her to get with had almost no chemistry, because I knew they loved each other, so I hadn't bothered to write it. I could have changed the story, but I didn't want her to end up with the villain. So - shocking thing here - I rewrote the story! I added in scenes between the MC and her best friend to build them as a couple, and I rewrote the scenes with the villain. I changed his backstory to make him less sympathetic, and I made it clear that the MC was disgusted by his actions. Because as a writer, I can do that!

4) I don't understand why people would ask about the rape in a hateful way. I don't understand why people would be angry that you wrote Anita, who is supposed to be a strong role model, getting together with a man whose first interaction with her was to rape her! Why would that make people angry? People don't get angry about this stuff unless they care. I'm glad that she acknowledges that it reads like rape, though.

5) When have we seen Micah be ruthlessly practical? Seriously here, I remember Anita talking about it, but I can't think of anything he's done onscreen to justify that reputation. When most of your pagetime is taken up by 'love you more, love you mostest', it's hard to take you seriously as a badass.

6) She never made it clear that Micah only went where he was invited. She made it sound like he just travelled over the country killing and raping people to take control.

7) Do they make it clear when they go in that they take control of the group if they get hurt defending it? That seems kind of creepy. And I now have this scene in my head

"Hey, so Mr Callahan, your group helps promote understanding between humans and lycanthropes, right? We were thinking of setting up workshops with schools, and we wondered if you had any advice."

"Sure, I'll come down myself."

Micah arrives

"Ow! I got a papercut!"

"I'm very sorry, Mr Callahan, would you like a bandaid?"

"No! I have shed blood and pain to help you solve your problem, your group is now under my control!"

"Wait, what?"

8) Doors. Micah walks through doors. Truly this is thrilling stuff. Also, way to make him sound like an arrogant jackass in two sentences.

[apep727.livejournal.com]

You've pretty much captured most of what I wanted to say. So instead I'll just add a few other things:

1a) The first nine books had a total of two sex scenes, while every book beginning with NiC has at least one or more, right? So the amount of sex has gone up.

4a) And there's the fact that her "fix" is like putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound. Even "[rewriteing] some of Anita’s interior dialogue" (and shouldn't that be monologue?) wouldn't make it better, since the actions of both Anita and Micah make the scene look like rape.

6a) That's probably another instance of her thinking she wrote that in, or implied it, but didn't get the necessary feedback to make her realize that she hadn't. This is why beta readers/editors and revisions are important.

7a) And that whole excuse just makes it sound sketchy as hell. You'd think doing stuff like that would encourage other therianthrope groups to avoid asking them for help. "You and yours may end up joining the Coalition whether you like it or not"? I feel like some people in the German government were having similar thoughts back in the 1930s.

Also, "The Coalition for Better Understanding Between Lycanthrope and Human Communities" is a long, clunky name. Even making it into an acronym, it's too long.

8a) That's the sneak-peak involving Micah? Is he just not in this book, then?

Addendum: "If you want me to pay attention to you, be nice." Says the woman who regularly refers to her detractors as "haters". Civility is a two-way street, Lala.

[darkestgrace.livejournal.com]

7) I'm trying to think about how the Coalition solving problems and taking people over would actually work, because it's confusing me. As far as I can figure out, it goes like:

1) The other group (A) call Micah in. They explain what their problem is. At this point, Micah would be able to make a reasonable assumption about whether it would involve risk to his people
2a) The problem involves no risk. He solves it and goes home. End.
2b) The problem involves risk. He solves it.
3) A are forced to join the coalition. Given the 'willing or not', I'm guessing that this was not brought up at 1. This may involve physical violence or rape if they protest.
4) Micah leaves.

The thing is, what does Micah gain? He doesn't have enough strong wereleopards in St Louis to send one of his people to run A, so he doesn't have any direct influence on their day-to-day lives. He isn't a vampire, so he doesn't gain any kind of power boost from being the leader. He can make them back down, but as I understand it, that's a matter of power levels rather than being an official leader.

So all I can think of is money. He forces A into the coalition and then makes them pay some kind of tithe to him as payment for the protection. Micah is now a Mob boss.

re:Anitas internal monologueing

[openidwouldwork.livejournal.com]

OMG OMG you give me the perfect opportunity to post this re:Anita's internal monologueing!



it's from 'The Order of the Stick' on the 'Giant in the Playground' pages

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

8a) He's in this book. He gets a black tiger form. He's also trying to push out Asher (kinda like how he pushed out Richard before Richard became Podchard) and has been replacing bodyguards behind Anita and JC's backs. And yet we're supposed to think Micah's the most trustworthy person ever.

[cygnusrex.livejournal.com]

"Again, with Micah, people thought he was just traveling the country forcing groups to join our larger group – no. The Coalition goes only where, and if, called, but once you call in help if we pay in blood and pain from our people to solve your problem, then you and yours may end up joining the Coalition whether you like it or not. "

Considering how red-shirty everyone who isn't either one of Anita's bedildoed collection of cosplay wigs or a recurring character who agrees with her is, I'm taking this with a grain of salt.

"Micah came through the door like he came through every door"

ONE SHOULDER AT A TIME.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

It was rape. There is no legitimate argument to be had here against that very blatant fact. She was saying no and stop. I do not believe LKH did not intend that scene to be rape.

ALL of Anita's sex is rape, whether of her, the men, or both. She never consents, and outside forces are always forcing it. Also, one additional "yes" -- which I don't believe she ever tried to add, by the way -- would not have stopped that scene from being rape. It would have made it look like Anita just gave up. But I don't think she added it, because LKH never has Anita say "yes" to sex. I do not believe she is capable of it.

This woman terrifies me.

[apep727.livejournal.com]

That's what I meant when I said the whole scene would need to be rewritten to fix it, because there's so much wrong with it.

However, I don't think LKH intended it to be rape. I think she was playing up Anita being a "good girl", because good girls don't ever want to have sex. Which is why Anita never has sex of her own volition - if she did, she wouldn't be a "good girl" any more.

For all her claims to the contrary, LKH is still very much a prude in that regard.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

I guess I have a difficult time believing someone could invariably write rape, never write a consensual sex scene ever, without realizing what's going on. She's admitted (through Anita in Shutdown) that she likes rape fantasy. But LKH does seem self-deluded about a lot of her life. That, or she just lies a lot. Maybe both.

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

Ah yes the classic "No...but really YES!" argument.

I truly believe she wrote that scene believing it was not rape but had no disconnect, she honestly thought she was writing a steamy hot sex scene, and it may have been that way in her head...but that is NOT what it turned out to be on the written page. Somebody caught her on it, and rather than re-write the encounter she flew off in a snit and took the book to another publisher and insisted the book be published as is, with minimum edits.

People reacted to that scene, and safe money is that the publisher asked for a re-write of the scene, and rather than make it bluntly consensual, or a the lease make it more clear that neither Anita OR Micah were in control of their actions (mated leopards and all that) to make Anita's consent clear, or Micah less of a rapist...she made it even more murky.

[snarky-imp.livejournal.com]

From this, I'm taking away that readers in general still have no idea what the hell is going on with Micah other than he's there and is a sucking plot hole. Also, that whole but once you call in help if we pay in blood and pain from our people to solve your problem, then you and yours may end up joining the Coalition whether you like it or not. thing is weird on so many fronts. Like the fact that she's talking about a fictional thing but using the words we/our like it's reality, or the fact that this reads as if it's from the Villain's Guide to Life.

Somewhere there's an alternate reality where Micah is setting up something truly interesting, or maybe it's JC who realized that Micah was a perfect distraction for Anita and... I'm gonna stop now because this is not that reality and nothing of interest is going to happen.

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

Yes, not to mention, how long before they stop waiting for a call for help and just insert themselves whether a group wants it or not...

[duamuteffe.livejournal.com]

For someone who tries to insist there's no connection between her and her character(s), the swap to "we" instead of "they" was highly suspicious.

[cryptaknight.livejournal.com]

1) She has ALL the input into what her characters do. She is the writer.

2) The answer to the first question is so disingenuous. Yes, NiC doesn't have that much sex. But it introduced a tone shift in the series where everything became about always satisfying the arduer. Every book since then has had a strong focus on Anita's sex life and LKH's version of 'kink'. It was a huge change from the themes of the books that preceded it.

edited for spelling

[marydemauro.livejournal.com]

Okay but here's the thing. It wasn't just that Anita didn't verbally say "yes" (though that is certainly preferred, thank you). It's that she said NO about five or so times. And I'm not a fan of the "fifty noes and a yes means yes" theory, so... I'd have to read the edit, but I'm not convinced that just throwing one yes in after several noes is going to make the scene any less rape-y.

And jeez am I grateful that I wasn't the only one who read that scene with many many red flags waving around in my head XP