Harriet Monkhouse wrote:
Jenny wrote:
But think about it. "My woman." Not "Sarah," or "Becky," or "Jill"; not "someone I cared for" or "a woman who meant a lot to me." Very cavemannish really; it doesn't give her a name or a face or even suggest that there was anything at all between them.
No, the avoidance of her name suggests to me "too private and painful to mention".
Then why bring it up at all?
An analogy, happily not a painful example: I once had a colleague who, when we first met, always referred to his wife as "my wife". After I had met her (and observed that they were a particularly devoted couple), he began to use her name in conversation; I concluded that when we were merely acquaintances he preferred to preserve a field of privacy around her, which he relaxed once we became friends.
My wife is not the same as "my woman".
When Gan discusses the
issue with Jenna, they're acquaintances; maybe he might have opened up more later,
But he doesn't.
Just listening to some Billie Holiday, which reminds me that she often sings about "my man". BH's men invariably seem to be complete jerks, but I still feel that, when she sings about them, the term conveys intimacy and tenderness.
How many jazz singers sing about "my woman" though? It's got a different meaning. And in most of the songs about "my man," as you say, "my man" is an absolute bastard who goes around mistreating women-- not the sort of guy you'd want to feel intimacy and tenderness for, if you don't want to wind up badly hurt:
"Tell me he's lazy, tell me he's slow Tell me I'm crazy, well maybe I know, Can't help loving that man of mine..."
"That lowdown man of mine Mistreats me all the time He says he loves me only Then goes and leaves me sad and lonely... If he could see through my eyes He'd be the one to cry..."
And a rock and roll song, from the Beatles:
"I used to be cruel to *my woman* I'd beat her and keep her away from the things that she loved. Man I was mean but I'm changing my scene..."
Jenny
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At 09:58 PM 5/10/01 -0000, Jenny Kaye wrote:
My wife is not the same as "my woman".
Which might be because she's not his wife -- for any of a number of reasons (prohibitions against marriage in their grade; one of them in a situation where s/he's not free to marry because of family obligations or pre-existing marriage or financial inability to support a spouse). When I hear "my woman," it connotes a degree of intimacy/closeness beyond "my girlfriend" -- the kind of closeness he'd have with a woman he wanted to marry but hadn't; at the same time, the term doesn't foreground the physical relationship the way "my lover" would. And not elaborating on the details seems in keeping both with Gan and the scene: it's not a confess-all-the-details situation, but a brief explanation.
And in most of the songs about "my man," as you say, "my man" is an absolute bastard who goes around mistreating women [...]
And a rock and roll song, from the Beatles:
"I used to be cruel to *my woman* I'd beat her and keep her away from the things that she loved. Man I was mean but I'm changing my scene..."
But one of Lennon's greatest love songs is titled "Woman" and conveys the opposite attitude :
"Woman I know you understand The little child inside the man, Please remember my life is in your hands, And woman hold me close to your heart, However, distant don't keep us apart,"
--DDJ
Jenny replied to me:
No, the avoidance of her name suggests to me "too private and painful
to
mention".
Then why bring it up at all?
As you say later,
Backstory seeds may be sown, but the full back story will only be activated when it is significant to the plot. For example Soolin's history tells us about GP and what we can expect. As a >consequence Gan
telling us about his "woman" is
significant to the episode Time Squad
He has to say something to explain the limiter. (And, stepping back a bit, Terry Nation wants to remind us that the Federation are Nasty People). But Gan's a quiet, understated man, who's not going to pour out his life story on the spot.
issue with Jenna, they're acquaintances; maybe he might have opened
up
more later,
But he doesn't.
We have no idea what Gan said to Jenna later.
Gan is saying that he has to stay with the crew of the Liberator because he needs people he can "rely" on. That means >he
trusts them.
I "rely" on my colleagues. Some of them, after a couple of years, cross the line and become trusted friends and confidants. This status is hardly automatic, however.
Moving back into the B7 universe, I think Avon "relies" on his fellow crew. He doesn't go round telling them sob stories about his love life until it's absolutely necessary, and then he keeps it as plain as he can.
Re Porgy and Bess, my impression was that the love between them was the redeeming feature of their lives (which is why he goes off to look for her at the end of the opera).
-
DDJ -
Harriet Monkhouse -
Jenny Kaye