The narrative is a familiar one. He has a long time to think about it, lying there catching his breath again after having the wind knocked out of him. (This is the last time, he's not getting in there again for love or money, and he is briefly grateful she didn't think to duck him under, or crush him with a stone, or summon up one of Shada's children; he wonders if she can feel that.)
The story, though, it gets told in fiction all the time, especially old ballads. A woman falls for an unfaithful man, who hurts her or leaves her, so she swallows poison and jumps in the river. It should be straightforward —
but it isn't. It's a trope, but something being familiar does not make it real. Wolfgang occupies a strange grey area in terms of gender, so he can't say he has a woman's experience. But he's known them better than men and he has never known any woman to behave like that, ever, outside of stories written by men.
He sits back up on his elbows. "That didn't feel right," he says aloud eventually.
no subject
The story, though, it gets told in fiction all the time, especially old ballads. A woman falls for an unfaithful man, who hurts her or leaves her, so she swallows poison and jumps in the river. It should be straightforward —
but it isn't. It's a trope, but something being familiar does not make it real. Wolfgang occupies a strange grey area in terms of gender, so he can't say he has a woman's experience. But he's known them better than men and he has never known any woman to behave like that, ever, outside of stories written by men.
He sits back up on his elbows. "That didn't feel right," he says aloud eventually.