{"id":9165,"date":"2017-06-01T18:01:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-01T22:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/?p=9165"},"modified":"2017-06-01T18:01:00","modified_gmt":"2017-06-01T22:01:00","slug":"run-away-clare-run-away-he-wants-to-turn-you-into-a-doll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/2017\/06\/01\/run-away-clare-run-away-he-wants-to-turn-you-into-a-doll\/","title":{"rendered":"Run away, Clare! Run away! He wants to turn you into a doll!"},"content":{"rendered":"

He laughed, and, before they came to the door of the house, drew her aside and kissed her. \u201cThere\u2019s more enchantment in these two lips of yours and in these two dear grey eyes than in all the books of Azzimari\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh, no,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s no enchantment in me, except what you\u2019ve planted. Perhaps that\u2019s it: you captured me that night and you\u2019ve kept me in a cage ever since because you wanted someone to practise spells on. Is that it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you mind if it is?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d she confessed, smiling up at him and speaking with a most innocent simplicity. \u201cI like being your captive.\u201d<\/p>\n

They laughed silently at each other as he held her a little way off to look into her eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho is Azzi\u2013? The name you said just now?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cAzzimari. That was the name of the Berber Kaid who bought my ancestor, Captain Trethewy, from the Sallee Rovers. He was a practitioner of the art of magic, which seeks to know the other side of nature. It seems their doctors had studied these matters, there in the Southern Atlas Mountains, before the Koran came among them. The captain translated some of Azzimari\u2019s books and brought them back with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you\u2019ve learnt magic from them?\u201d<\/p>\n

He nodded solemnly. \u201cFrom them and from experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

She bent her head and stroked his arms. \u201cAnd you are Azzimari to me, and I\u2019m a slave like the Captain. Dear Captain! I\u2019m glad he brought Azzimari\u2019s magic home for you. I wonder if he loved his master as I love mine?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps. But he fled from him at last. And you too will want to be free.\u201d<\/p>\n

She pressed close to him, winding his arms about her. \u201cNo, no. I am free, like this. You must be a stern master, and if I try to break the spell, you must double it and treble it, chain me down in the deepest dungeon in your castle, imprison me in the hollow of an oak in your enchanted wood. You must not let me go!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh, no,\u201d he said with wondering tenderness. \u201cDungeons I have and hollow oaks, but not for you. One ancient ceremony of bondage is enough. If you want to be my slave, I\u2019ll perform it: the same that Azzimari performed upon the Captain. Shall I?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, yes,\u201d she said in a scarcely audible voice, pressing her head against his coat.<\/p>\n

He laughed. \u201cNot now. It must be in the propitious conjunction of the planets. Time and place must adhere. I will do it when you come to see the puppets.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is the point in one of my favorite novellas where everything kind of goes off the rails in the best way possible.<\/p>\n

Up until then, it\u2019s been a cozy little story of Clare, a bored, stifled, and restless 19-year-old, on the edge of graduating from Paston Hall, a dull little residential school somewhere in England in the 1950s. Studying with the mom and son of the local gentry, she crams on the subjects she needs to learn so that she can sit for a scholarship at Oxford.<\/p>\n

And yeah, she\u2019s got a crush on Niall, who\u2019s in his late twenties, and yeah, he says with an absolute deadpan that his ancestor learned magic and the secrets of making immortal bonzai, and yeah, he makes uncannily realistic likenesses of young women, some of whom have died.<\/p>\n

But maybe the two of them are just bored out of their skulls and doing some sort of elaborate role play because it\u2019s much more exciting than anything else going on in Paston.<\/p>\n

But then Niall goes away for a few days, and, when he comes back, this happens. Clare says to herself that she\u2019s in love with him, and, for the first time, they speak explicitly about their role play, the expectations, and where they want it to go. Magic, ownership, submission, imprisonment, punishment, and love, all previously subtextual or implied, become apparent and textual.<\/p>\n

And so does the danger. The tone changes here, and they speak with serious depth. On her end, Clare abases herself before Niall with as much abjection as possible, trying to give herself entirely to him. On his end, Niall finally tells her the ominous consequences of the powers about which he has been making merry. Eventually she will tire of Niall-possession and Niall-mastery and search for self-possession and self-mastery.<\/p>\n

Of course, at this point, I\u2019m screaming, \u201cRun away, Clare! Run the fuck away! He wants to turn you into a doll! Definitely in a figurative sense and possibly in a literal sense as well! Furthermore, this guy is the veritable quintessence of the Creepy Dom, and he\u2019s telling you in his own words that you\u2019re gonna regret it. Pay attention to all the fairy tales about deals with the Devil and bargains with the fairies and promises made to sneaky magicians, and don\u2019t do it!\u201d<\/p>\n

And of course Clare\u2019s not listening to me because story characters never do. They really should, but then there\u2019d be no plot.<\/p>\n

But what happens? Does Clare go through with this bullshit? [Spoiler alert: Yes.] Does she become Niall\u2019s doll? [Yes.]<\/p>\n

Does she save her own damn self in the most satisfyingly dramatic possible that one can break off such soul-sucking dysfunction without an impassioned monologue of self-righteous fury to the Creepy Dom in question? [Yes.]<\/p>\n

Do you like stories of psychological depth and subtle horror that balance perfectly between realistic and supernatural explanations?<\/p>\n

Do you just love it when the young, previously innocent, now more experienced heroine discovers inner strength, wises up, and kicks the older, psychologically manipulative, antagonistic dude\u2019s ass?<\/p>\n

Then read The Doll Maker<\/em><\/a> by Sarban. By taking the naive Clare\u2019s quest for self-determination absolutely seriously, the author imparts to the age-old trope a sensitivity and depth of character development rarely seen in such tales. That, plus the treatment of dolls, the kinky overtones, the possibility of either a realistic or a supernatural interpretation, and the clear, fluid prose, keeps me coming back to this sadly unknown gem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He laughed, and, before they came to the door of the house, drew her aside and kissed her. \u201cThere\u2019s more enchantment in these two lips of yours and in these two dear grey eyes than in all the books of Azzimari\u2026\u201d \u201cAh, no,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s no enchantment in me, except what you\u2019ve planted. Perhaps… Continue reading Run away, Clare! Run away! He wants to turn you into a doll!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[672],"class_list":["post-9165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-books-i-actually-like"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9166,"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9165\/revisions\/9166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}