New Yorker - Cat Person

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

This www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/11/cat-person is a very long, very uncomfortable read. This www.newyorker.com/books/this-week-in-fiction/fiction-this-week-kristen-roupenian-2017-12-11 is an interview with the author.

Basically it's all about how women end up in shitty situations because they are too polite or too scared to say no, or stop. It made me cringe inside reading it - I thought the author was scarily accurate.

Or do you mean some element of the backstory suggests the response is trauma-driven?

I’m sorry, but I don’t think trauma ‘is happening’ in the story. What is happening is a deeply uncomfortable experience which may result in trauma

I agree with this. May just be a slight difference in language, but worth clarifying.

I don't think one can judge what is and isn't an experience of trauma externally and according to an external measure. The story is telling us, this is a slightly traumatic experience for her. I judge this to be an experience of trauma because the amount of stress experienced by the character is beyond what she can cope with, which results in her flicking between being inside and outside of the experience.

Slightly traumatic?

Yes, she's having a traumatic experience - of unwanted sex. Have you read the story?

At this point, I’m taking issue with the idea of ‘slight trauma’, as you described it.

I wrote 'slight trauma' to pay lip service to the fact that you have said that this isn't an experience of trauma.

Yup, I have been there too. A few times actually. Once it gets past a certain point I have felt I have to go through with it. Though its not so much about the guys feelings for me, as it is for my safety. I know from experience that guys don't tend to take rejection well at all. Its often easier to go through with sex you do not want, than to risk things turning nasty if you say no. Complete with inner monologue the entire time.

www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/item/d0ef8a0d-82c6-4df7-acb4-8688b514cd32?ns_campaign=bbc-three&ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=FACEBOOK&ns_linkname=bbcthree

Shocked at BBC3 publishing this attempt at 'satire'

And then: The misspelt brush-off. Reading it had made the blood rush hotly to his face, spreading down his neck and up to his ears. He felt used, deceived and foolish. Had he misread the situation? Had she just pretended to be the young, innocent student, when in fact she was only interested in a free drink and a good lay? He had imagined a future with her. Not necessarily marriage (she should be so lucky, the arrogant cow!) but perhaps a happy year of interesting conversations and great sex. He refused to believe he'd read the signs all wrong.

--

Margot didn’t reply. Robert’s heartbreak soured into rage. What a rude little bitch not even having the decency to explain herself. Was this normal for her? To just sleep around and disappear into thin air? She must be with that guy. That pathetic little runt. He imagined them together, Margot naked and moaning like she had with him. He felt turned on and he felt angry. Should he masturbate or text her back?

He did both. It felt good. He was better than her. She was nothing but a manipulative little girl, screwing everyone in sight. "Are you with that guy right now?" he asked. "Are you, are you." With every ‘are you’, he got closer to a climax. He writhed on his bedspread which he hadn’t changed since she’d come over – he could still smell her perfume on it – and managed to type out one last message. He knew it was nasty even as he wrote it, but the satisfaction felt too good to resist.

“Whore.”

I'm also shocked the BBC have published this. It's amazing that a single piece of fiction exploring the inner life of a woman has to be immediately redressed from the man's perspective.

Robert's version makes her fear of him even more justified. Grim.

Ofthread, I don’t need lip service (insincere agreement) in response to my questioning about the meaning and use of the word trauma, including this idea of ‘slight trauma’ which you say you invented because I disagreed that the story described a properly traumatic event.

But that’s ok, you have your interpretation and definition and I have mine.

Well, if EL James can get away with rewriting her own derivative story from the other main character's POV (and that's without the whole massive world of fanfic, which involves a lot of rewriting existing stories from another POV) then I don't think the BBC has done anything dreadful.

Ok, I bow to your position as arbiter of what does and doesn't constitute a properly traumatic event. Better?

I feel the language used is...dodgy to say the least.

Not the attempt at erotic writing. The misogynistic undertone to it

Erm, no. I pretty much said we’d have to agree to disagree.

I’m not sure what the grin is about. It’s in poor taste when I was simply questioning use of the word trauma, and the increasing frequency of its use to describe things which are unpleasant, but not really traumatic.

I think unwanted sex is potentially traumatic. You think it's unpleasant. I do agree to disagree with you on this.

Hah. This is basically pretty much everyone I slept with up until the age of about 25 (one or two boyfriends excepted).

I think very differently now but when I was younger I found myself in this exact situation so many times. And the stuff about being turned on thinking about how turned on he was - 100% yes.

These days I am a lot more forthright, confident, honest and not afraid to hurt a man's feelings by refusing things or stopping something part-way through if it doesn't feel right. But it took time, experience and discovering feminism to get to that point!

Doesn't everyone get turned on thinking about how turned on the other person is?

Isn't that the major joy of sex, feeling someone enjoying what you're doing together/for them?

I think you can like the story without thinking the protagonist is you or all women. It's a fictional story about one young woman who has some feelings and experiences that are not universal, but common in our culture.
The huge response shows that there is room for much, much more candid writing from the female perspective. Because, y' know, we all actually do have "internal lives" feelings, perspectives, etc.

No, of course they don't Meph.

Situation 1 - you are alone with someone you fancy the arse off. You can see they fancy you too - that is a massive turn on.

Situation 2 - you have made a massive miscalculation, and find yourself alone with someone you really don't fancy. You can see they fancy you. That is fucking terrifying.

Actually I think the thing that mainly pisses me off about the fuss being made of this story is this: there is an absolute shitload of fiction (some great, some so-so, and dependent on taste) which depicts women's interior lives and attitudes to relationships etc, which is dismissed entirely as stupid fluff for stupid women. Whether people (including authors) describe it as romance, erotica or chicklit, there are writers who have been producing work much better than Cat Person for decades. And by this I mean stories which do describe and consider bad sex, unpleasant people, traumatic events along with believable characters and an engaging story.
I'm sure the author is well-intentioned and worked hard, but the damn thing has that unmistakable smell of 'look what an important, serious piece of writing this is' that you tend to get if you do too many creative writing classes.

I think it was the short story format that garnered the large audience. It's "of the moment" and because it's short it can go in a popular periodical like the New Yorker. Obviously magazines don't publish novels.

"Doesn't everyone get turned on thinking about how turned on the other person is?"

This excerpt offers an answer:

"He felt turned on and he felt angry. Should he masturbate or text her back?

He did both. It felt good. He was better than her. She was nothing but a manipulative little girl, screwing everyone in sight. "Are you with that guy right now?" he asked. "Are you, are you." With every ‘are you’, he got closer to a climax. He writhed on his bedspread which he hadn’t changed since she’d come over – he could still smell her perfume on it – and managed to type out one last message. He knew it was nasty even as he wrote it, but the satisfaction felt too good to resist.

“Whore.”