i don't know that i can prove you wrong? i think the intention is that like, transness is so normalized in the union for most people (at least of the younger generation who grew up firmly after the revolution) that karuniya is maybe overly horny but not in a way that means anything, and starts off as very self absorbed in that flashback but we're supposed to read her as having gotten better about it by the present if that makes sense. but like. in OUR world people who act like that are definitely fetishistic at best
i will say (without having gone back and reread that chapter/flashback) i do remember thinking the purpose of the flashback was mostly to show the history of their relationship, go "hey karuniya admires murati's passion about communism and theory and stuff, here's how they got close and the strength of their bond", but yeah it doesn't seem great when laid out like that!
Haha whoops =) I did consider that, the "normalisation" angle, and yeah maybe but this shit with Karuniya also feels considerably weirder than comparable things from Norn/Adelheid or Genivov. Doesn't help that Murati often seems really uncomfortable/awkward in response to this weird shit: this flashback, the first time "husband material" is brought up. I do have my own oversensitivity in mind when I'm thinking this, but shit was eating at my brain If Karuniya has gotten better, it'd be cute if she would do that on-page instead of in secret and we have to assume it... I think it's not just that she is horny, or that she is terribly self-absorbed; it's gotta be the combination of those PLUS the fact that she has borderline nothing else going on. It throws this weird stuff into focus and I overthink and then write 2000+ words about it on bear website
I didn't exactly see them get close though? I mostly saw Karuniya being a weird, belittling, judgemental neurotypical (yes I am slandering her) about everything Murati likes and cares about, and wanting to have sex with her. The date was painfully awkward and not in a cute way... Tbh it kind of seems like even still today Karuniya is kind of weird about Murati's career pursuits. Idk, does Karuniya EVER talk to anybody other than Murati? Does she exist without Murati in the room, even? And yet she is this weird, how exactly is it that the PROTAGONIST'S WIFE has so little in the way of character traits or development?
oh no
i don't know that i can prove you wrong? i think the intention is that like, transness is so normalized in the union for most people (at least of the younger generation who grew up firmly after the revolution) that karuniya is maybe overly horny but not in a way that means anything, and starts off as very self absorbed in that flashback but we're supposed to read her as having gotten better about it by the present if that makes sense. but like. in OUR world people who act like that are definitely fetishistic at best
i will say (without having gone back and reread that chapter/flashback) i do remember thinking the purpose of the flashback was mostly to show the history of their relationship, go "hey karuniya admires murati's passion about communism and theory and stuff, here's how they got close and the strength of their bond", but yeah it doesn't seem great when laid out like that!
Oh yes, I'm sorry lmao
Haha whoops =) I did consider that, the "normalisation" angle, and yeah maybe but this shit with Karuniya also feels considerably weirder than comparable things from Norn/Adelheid or Genivov. Doesn't help that Murati often seems really uncomfortable/awkward in response to this weird shit: this flashback, the first time "husband material" is brought up. I do have my own oversensitivity in mind when I'm thinking this, but shit was eating at my brain
If Karuniya has gotten better, it'd be cute if she would do that on-page instead of in secret and we have to assume it... I think it's not just that she is horny, or that she is terribly self-absorbed; it's gotta be the combination of those PLUS the fact that she has borderline nothing else going on. It throws this weird stuff into focus and I overthink and then write 2000+ words about it on bear website 
I didn't exactly see them get close though? I mostly saw Karuniya being a weird, belittling, judgemental neurotypical (yes I am slandering her) about everything Murati likes and cares about, and wanting to have sex with her. The date was painfully awkward and not in a cute way... Tbh it kind of seems like even still today Karuniya is kind of weird about Murati's career pursuits. Idk, does Karuniya EVER talk to anybody other than Murati? Does she exist without Murati in the room, even? And yet she is this weird, how exactly is it that the PROTAGONIST'S WIFE has so little in the way of character traits or development?