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Reviews for The Favourite

By : charlemagne4ever

From ANON - Charlie on October 29, 2006
@Anon: When I set out to write this, I was aware that this story would cause controversy, and I am glad it did. Writing isn't supposed to lull readers to sleep, it is supposed to make them think and form their own beliefs and opinions, not blindly accepting someone else's, not the author's, and I can't stress that often enough. However, I never intended to write a political manifest. It is, as you correctly stated, a fairy tale, a fantasy, and my stressing this has nothing to do with trying to deny any responsibility for the story - it is my way of acknowledging that, of course, I am exploiting stereotypes here to some extent, that I've never been to an Islamic country, nor that I claim to be an expert for anything I'm writing about. The setting isn't real - I mean, come on, a half-British-half-fantasy-nation Sheik with an almost exclusively white harem in the middle of a desert, and some American girl coming along and turning his world around? Sounds more like a fairy-tale than a CIA secret report about an evil Islamic dictator trying to plunge the world into darkness, doesn't it?
Besides, I find it kind of amusing that you seem to be a fortune teller, knowing where I'm headed with this story before you've even read the last chapter.
As you decided to discuss the story on a political level, I am going to say a word or two about it. Many so-called Christians who rant against Muslims today forget that the oppression of women in Western societies isn't altogether a thing of the past. The Catholic church even today refuses female priesthood, denies goddesshood to the Mother Mary although she is welcome to intercede on their behalf, objects to a widow re-marrying, stigmatizes sex unless for reproduction, forbids contraception and thus condemns a whole continent to slowly dying from AIDS, claims that lesbians go straight to hell, refuses advice to pregnant women in need and excommunicates twelve year-old children who have been raped by their male relatives, while the rapist says three ave marias and is freed from his sin. The most representative icon of the West, Hollywood, tells our girls that eating is evil and that you have to be anorexic to be beautiful. On the top-100-income list of world-wide companies, there are only two women. Most women today are faced with a choice: resigning their womanhood to have a career or becoming mothers and resigning their independence. Careers are built at age 25-35, the age you usually have children at. Western societies lose a lot of economic, political and intellectual potential by discriminating against mothers in business life. A man with a PhD and high income is desirable, a woman with a PhD is frightening and not eligible for marriage. Women are suppressed, even in Western societies, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. This isn't an exclusively Islamic problem, it is a huge, huge issue that neither you or I have even begun to tackle.
Besides, there is no "one" Islamic view on the role of women - there are as many different opinions as there are Muslims, and generalization of any sort is an extremely dangerous thing. I don't know how many Muslims you know or have talked to about their religious views (not too many, I assume, or you wouldn't say as immature and uninformed a thing as "the sickly taint of Islam" - personally, I am sick of hearing people quoting Bush's anti-Islamic propaganda to me like parrots), but I definitely know more than one who would walk through the fire for his wife.
I'm not Islamic, nor do I have any Islamic roots. My parents are agnostic, I got a Christian education at school and am strongly sympathizing with Wicca. I believe that all the Gods are one God, and all the Goddesses are one Goddess, and that it is only the narrow perspective of being human that causes religious strife. If we took the time and made some effort to understand each other's cultural background, we would benefit from the exchange. That does not mean we have to share one another's positions, how boring the world would be if we all believed in the same things!
So if you're asking what message I'd like to send out to all who read my fiction, it would be this:
"This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man." (William Shakespeare)
I stand by what I write. I'm true to myself, and so is my Buffy. Strong, independent, but still a woman. If I didn't believe in woman power, I wouldn't write Buffy fanfiction. And I think that when I finish the story, this will evident.
Just let me say one thing to finish with: I won't allow anyone to insult someone else's beliefs with words like "pollution" or "sickly taint of Islam" on the same page as my fiction --- mind your language, be respectful of other opinions if you want your opinion to be respected, otherwise you leave me no choice but to delete your comments.
I am grateful for criticism and feedback, but think before you say things you might regret later.
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From ANON - Anon on October 28, 2006
I should apologise to Charlie for my remarks, above. They were written in the heat of anger. I live in Australia where (you may have read) the most senior Muslim cleric has stated, in a sermon, that unveiled women are "pieces of meat" asking to be raped. He went on to remark that women are the "lures of Satan," whose purpose is to ensare men. All of this in the context of the horrific gang rapes, in Sydney, of young white women by Muslim men. The Sheik has now 'excused' the rapists by blaming the victims. Next time a Muslim man is in court for rape he can reasonably claim that his religion sanctions it because of the way the woman was dressed.

And this attitude is what I find so objectionable in Charlie's story. I'm sure she is a nice person (and a not untalented writer), but her 'fantasy' contains a dangerous message --that women are the absolute property of men. Consider the premise: a group of young women are abducted and repeatedly raped. [It cannot be said they give free consent, considering their situation.] The women are subjected to extremely harsh and capricious penalties for the least infraction. They are not even permitted control over their own bodies. Pleasuring themselves, for example, is punishable by death. They are completely powerless.

And yet the story ignores the implications of the above by wrapping the criminal behaviour of Spike in cotton candy. In this fairy tale the most cruel and evil behaviour is excused as 'romantic'. The women actually compete to be raped. How is this message different from what the Mufti claimed? That rape is 'OK' because Western women 'ask' for it?

Charile, if you are serious about writing, then you need to be aware of the consequences of what you are saying, and the message you are sending to the impressionable young girls who read your stories.

But my anger at the Mufti (and male Muslim contempt for women in general)does not excuse my own harsh words in my previous post, for which I apologise. As I said, you are a not untalented writer, but you need to be aware that claiming a work is a 'fantasy' does not excuse it from responsibility, much less so from criticism.
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From ANON - Anon on October 28, 2006
A typical Islamic appropriation of a Western cultural icon. Can't you damm Muslims leave anything free of the sickly taint of Islam? Buffy is NOT Muslim. NOT Islamic. She stands for everything Islam is not -- female empowerment, sexuality, freedom of dress, thought and action. You can't appropriate her greatness by reducing her to fit the ridiculous, misogynistic dictates of Islamic culture.

So, she is supposed to 'love' her abudctor? Call him 'Lord'. Give herself to this psycho-Sheik freely? And we're somehow supposed to find the freak somehow admirable? Yeah. Right. In your dreams. Buffy isn't some cheap hareem toy; not some wilful houri secretly wishing to be tamed by a 'pure' (if you ignore rape and kidnap) Muslim fantasy conjured from the daydreams of an adolescent girl. Everyone knows a free-spirited girl like Buffy would be put to death in an Islamic country.

So turn your attention back to Scherazade and the Arabian Nights fantasy Muslims mistake for the real world. Leave the West to itself. We can live more than happily without the dead, inhuman hand of Islam polluting our culture.
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From ANON - Erica on October 27, 2006
good story, but just let buffy get some from spike.
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From ANON - Sarah on October 27, 2006
OMG!!!! IT's amazing, i'm like addicted now! Please update soon!!
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From ANON - AARGH on October 26, 2006
OMG PLEASE UPDATE THIS IS MY FAV FIC EVAR!
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From ANON - Amanda on October 24, 2006
IM soo0o happy that you have updated its been FOREVER...lol. anyways keep up the good work now im dying to know whats to come!! congrads on a great and thrilling story!
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From ANON - Purple Moose on October 23, 2006
w00-h00!! yeay another update pleasies!
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From ANON - Naomi on October 23, 2006
PLEASE UPADTE!
I want more Lord spike!
Lol
PWEASE!
=D
*Puppy dog eyes*
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From ANON - Charlie on October 22, 2006
No, I haven't abandoned this fic, I'll definitely finish! Sorry it's been a while since I last updated. First I couldn't access AFF any more and couldn't add Chapter 9, and then, sometimes real life just gets in the way. I'm pleased to announce, however, that I have found a publisher for my first book (though conditions are still open to negotiation, LOL), but I have a deadline to meet, which is why I haven't been able to focus on my fanfic. When you're writing all day for months, you just don't feel like writing in your spare time too.
Anyway, I've uploaded Chapter 9 to AFF and added a short fic called "He's just not that into you" to entertain you. I'm going to update TF next, but unfortunately I can't tell you yet when that will be. I will only update TF when I'm sure that I'm pleased with the chapter.
Thank you all,
Charlie
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From ANON - amanda on August 18, 2006
HEYYY...where are you...lol...this story is really good and you like abandon it...well please write more, or atleast let me knnow if you left it...thanks and please write.
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From ANON - amanda on July 12, 2006
RIGHT MORE I WANNA SE WHAT HAPPENS...LOVE THE STORY....
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From ANON - amanda on July 07, 2006
this is a good story.....i love how buffy and spike never come togther its all just, well teasing i guess in away. but i really hope theres more soon because its been awhile.
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From ANON - Stephanie on February 09, 2006
Keep Posting!!! Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This story keeps making me cry! I love the plot line. Its way too sad and yet so true. But I love it! Please post!!
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From ANON - buffy4ever on January 21, 2006
i loved it! please update soon.
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