Cat Lady on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat Lady on a Hot Tin Doll's House

Chapter Five

PROFESSOR Fuchs' THE SECOND LECTURE ON SANCTUARY

The second lecture Professor Fuchs gave on Faulkner's Sanctuary took place on Ground Hog Day, 2066.

Briefly summarizing, Professor Fuchs explained that after Temple Drake was brutally assaulted, she was taken by Popeye to a Memphis brothel. Although Faulkner does not describe the situation in detail, we learn in the course of the book that Popeye did not use the normal object for committing rape because he is impotent. Temple Drake's further debasement occurs through Popeye having another criminal, Red, have sex with Temple while he watches. Temple becomes remarkably happy with this sick arrangement at least for a while and wants more sex with Red than is safe for him.

"Temple Drake did a number of shocking things for her time. Breaking school rules, she gets into a car with an alcoholic member of her social class. She can't be blamed for what happened after that that led to the rape but her embracing sex with a gangster while at the brothel would have been even more shocking to many readers in 1930 than other things she did."

Professor Fuchs spoke at length about the famous bordellos of Memphis and New Orleans and the fascination of several great authors with them. Jazz music was born in Storyville, New Orleans' famous red-light district. "Sanctuary," Faulkner's first success as a writer, that came out in 1931, and Faulkner's last book, "The Reivers" that came out in 1962, both involve Memphis brothels. The second most famous book of Chicago author, Nelson Algren, "A Walk on the Wild Side," written in 1956, takes place in large part in a New Orleans brothel.

"There were naturally novels written about many brothels outside New Orleans and Memphis but there does seem to have been something about the sharp contrast between conservative southern society and the libertines of the southern bordellos that fascinated many authors of the 20th Century," Professor Fuchs explained.

Professor Fuchs also raised the question of whether Temple Drake's reaction to the grotesque sexual assault is believable. "She went from a flirty virgin to a wanton whore as a result of an experience that would cause many women to decide to enter a convent. Her lusts, whims and dishonesty get two men, Red and Goodwin, killed.

"If you have heard of the sequel to 'Sanctuary' entitled 'Requiem for a Nun' but not read the book, I will tell you, first, that I did not ask you to read that book because it is not very good. The main point here, though, is that Temple Drake in 'Requiem for a Nun' is definitely not a nun. The title has more to do with 'get thee to a nunnery' than to any form of religion. While Temple has some remorse over her life in 'Requiem,' it is clear that Faulkner does not believe that Temple Drake's experience in 'Sanctuary' drove her toward sexual abstinence. No, she rather enjoyed her time in the brothel. Indeed, in 'Requiem' we learn Temple takes up with the younger brother of the gangster with whom she had sex in 'Sanctuary' and gets pregnant by him, which leads to two more deaths."

Professor Fuchs assigned the class to write a paper on whether Temple Drake's conduct in "Sanctuary" is believable female behavior, a bizarre male fantasy, or something else, and to justify her or his belief.

Emily Fuchs made a mental note that the concept of "fallen woman" had a long history and in the eyes of many in Mississippi probably now applied to Suzanne Roth and most other women who tried to make money in a man's world. Next she decided that was unfair. Then there were Loretta Alt and Amanda who did not so much fall as leap.

The seminar discussion at the Talmadge Mansion that started a few hours after the lecture ended, also focused on the topic of feminine sexuality. Professor Fuchs suggested again that Temple's rapid conversion from sexual assault victim to a woman lusting for sex with a gangster was implausible and the result of Faulkner's sexist attitudes. "Is Temple Drake's behavior in Sanctuary realistic or the result of traditional male fears of female sexuality and envy of female sexual capacities," the Professor asked?

All the women in the seminar agreed that Temple Drake's actions were probably not what they would have done, but only northern feminist Blake and Nora's friend Avery initially thought that Temple Drake's actions were unbelievable. Codie did come to agree with Blake, but the other women thought that Temple's actions in "Sanctuary" were within the range of what could be expected. "Once the chained beast is cut loose, anything is possible, even if the forces that released the beast are frightening or terrible," Donna said.

"She was kind of heading in the direction of being a loose woman before the assault," Madison said. "While the first assault was about as bad as possible, sex with Red seems to have been pretty good and put her on the right or should I say wrong track."

"There is such a thing as making the best of a bad situation," Sophia Lewis offered. "If you find yourself in bed with a man who would not be your first choice, you can close your eyes." Emma and Virginia nodded.

Emily resisted noting that Virginia, Emma and Sophia had all married men at least twenty years older than them.

"Maybe Faulkner was trying to say, 'in for a penny, in for a pound,'" Emma said. "By flirting around and getting into a car with a drunken frat boy type, Temple pretty much set her course and could only be saved by her father dragging her out of the country"

"Taking her out of the country only saved her for a while, in Faulkner's mind," Professor Emily Fuchs said. "In the sequel she is committing adultery and promoting infanticide."

"I hope Faulkner did not believe that every woman who is not a nun is a whore," Blake said. "If he thought anything like that, his views were as sketchy as much of his writing."

"There have been studies of the sort of conduct Temple engaged in after the assault," Christine said. "A small but significant portion of rape victims become hypersexual afterward for a while at least, which doesn't mean they liked the rape. It's thought that they are trying to reassert control of their bodies after the assault. Temple Drake, though, would be a pretty extreme case of that given the extreme nature of what happened to her."

Nora said that while she would not recommend what Temple did that "you should not say what you would do in a situation that you've never faced. In a very conservative society, being given a moral excuse to break out of what is thought to be proper by being forced to engage in deviant conduct might lead some women to abandon all restraint."

"Are you saying that if you are being raped, you might as well enjoy it and now that you've been raped, you might as well become a whore?" Blake said, sarcastically as usual.

"No, that is emphatically not what I mean," Nora said. "But 'Sanctuary' has nothing to do with what should be done. It is about what one woman did. Professor Fuchs has asked it if it is ridiculous to think that Temple would go from being a flirty, adventurous virgin to a happy hooker. I don't think it is ridiculous."

"Wow, maybe you should try it," Blake replied.

"Let's not get personal here," Professor Fuchs said. "That last remark was uncalled for, Blake."

"You are right, I apologize," Blake said. "Maybe as absolution, I should become a hooker and write a novel about it."

"No, you should sell yourself to one of the sex boats on the Mississippi," Emma said. "You know, you're really a very attractive woman and would attract nice men if you did not dress in sweatpants and oversized T-shirts all the time. The babies you have would be put up for adoption and certainly given a better upbringing than you obviously had."

"We are way off the topic now," Emily Fuchs asserted trying to bring things back.

Donna did not let the matter rest but stirred the pot by suggesting that maybe if Blake did not go straight to boat, Blake and some of the other women in the seminar should take the risk taken by many college girls of becoming free use sex objects. "An occasional wild gamble leads to a change one way or the other. Perhaps being a full-time sex object is not as bad as being a bored and frustrated bi-sexual bitch."

Avery said that Donna could not be serious. Crimson asked if Donna was joking before Professor Fuchs broke in to say that they should stay with literature for now but could discuss whatever they wanted over dinner.

A discussion of Miss Reba in "Sanctuary" and "hookers with a heart of gold" in Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" followed.

At dinner, Kimmy and Madison again mentioned how they really needed money to stay in school. "I almost wish I had taken the risk of becoming a free use indentured servant before starting school," Kimmy said. "Now I'm already in school and I don't know many women who did what I did, start college without having enough money to complete it. I don't know what I was thinking."

Kimmy was probably hoping that Virginia Talmadge would offer to pay for Kimmy's education for the next two years. Instead, Talmadge unsympathetically suggested that Kimmy could probably find five other attractive women who needed money if she tried.

Donna joked that maybe Talmadge could do it along with Kimmy and a few of her friends, which caused Talmadge to say that she was sure that Donna's 29-year-old hot body would raise a lot more money for Kimmy's education. "Well, I'll think about it then," Donna said while pushing out her breasts and shaking her hips in a way that did not resolve the issue if Donna was joking about helping Kimmy by risking her body or actually was eager to do it.

Emma suggested that in view of the low world birth rate maybe all childless women over 21 should just be assigned to a man. Blake said that she would rather be a whore on one of their gambling votes than be assigned to some asshole.

The Thursday night after the seminar, wanting to get Emily out again, Virginia took Emily to a college sports event. This seemed innocent, but maybe it was not completely innocent as the college wrestlers were wearing very little. This seemed to please Virginia.

Several students who were attending the event were in Professor Emily Fuchs class. They waved and smiled at Emily seeing her in the stands in the gym. One guy with the students, who Emily thought she saw at the Petting Zoo and later learned was Eric Knox, pointed at Emily. He said something to a few of his friends that Emily couldn't hear but caused his friends to laugh. They seemed to leer at Emily for a few seconds.

Old South U. won the tournament.

ABOARD THE RISING SUN

For that Saturday, Virginia Talmadge organized a more ambitious expedition. This time, Virginia, Emily, Donna, and Crimson would go to Memphis to visit the docked Rising Sun boat.

The Rising Sun featured a variety of gambling opportunities but also indentured and penal servant sex workers, in part of the ship "below deck." Robert Gelt, Judge O'Hara, Donna Davis, Nora Helm, Nils Rogson, and Eric Knox were to meet them on the dock. Rogson, general counsel for the company that owned the Rising Tide, acted as a guide although most of the guests had been there before.

Emily, wearing the dress she'd bought for the Gelt party again, had no idea why half of those people were along for this visit to a gambling and prostitution ship.

Crimson, in fishnet stockings and whose ample breasts were spilling out of her shiny silver low cut minidress, seemed to be correctly attired for the Rising Sun although she was barely old enough to be on it. Crimson had not come to Memphis with Virginia and Emily but instead she'd driven from Yoknapatawpha in her fancy new Mars Explorer, which apparently incorporated much of the technology that had been used in the recent landing on Mars. She'd gotten it as a 21st birthday present along with a lecture from her father than she should use it to impress a stable man.

Although showing less of her boobs than Crimson, Nora, with neatly cut black hair, was displaying her perfect figure and legs in a tight black sweater and tight skirt. She reminded Emily of Elizabeth Taylor in "Reflections in a Golden Eye" only with shorter hair, fuller breasts and longer legs. Emily next thought that maybe below the neck Nora looked more like Lee Remick in "Sanctuary" before deciding that it was stupid to try to compare Nora to the actresses that stared in movies made about the books on which Emily was lecturing.

Emily could not help noticing that Rogson was all but drooling over Nora. He must know she's married with two children, Emily thought with disgust.

Emily observed Donna in blue jeans and a tank top and thought that showed a bit too much of her boobs and belly. She's built like a belly dancer and she knows it, Emily thought.

Robert introduced Eric Knox to Emily as one of the sons of Melus Knox. "Let's not beat around the bush, Eric has done a lot despite only being 23 and a recent graduate. It helps to be the son of a multi-billionaire, but he also did well in school despite having to live up to the reputation of XYY frat members for sexual conquests. He's going to Wharton to get an MBA and probably will take over one of his father's operations before he hits 30, won't you Eric?"

While many might have found that introduction to be a bit embarrassing, Eric was proud of every part of it, "Thanks, Bob, I intend to continue sexual conquests even now that I've stopped living at XYY. I'm leaving for Pennsylvania soon. Probably won't get many girls pregnant up there, though. Unlike here, they're all on the pill. I'll have to break through that protection, like my dad has said, it's the long run that counts and the long run success of mankind depends on strong, smart, fit alpha males impregnating fertile females. Guys focused on blow jobs, anal or other sex that doesn't knock anyone up are loser betas."

Emily thought "yech," but said nothing while Crimson blushed and said that she appreciated Eric's point of view although she did not quite see things that way. "Love and sex go together with a stable lifetime marriage, don't they?"

Eric said with a mischievous smile, "Oh, how romantic. It is probably the best strategy for guys without my talents or assets."

Crimson may have had good intentions while on the dock but in the boat she did nothing to improve her bargaining position in life. She promptly lost all her readily available cash in slot machines. "I won't be able to pay tuition next month," she mentioned.

Meanwhile, while looking incredibly elegant, Nora was losing big at a blackjack table.

Emily used up $10 that she had in her purse and quit. Observing that she was no longer playing, Eric and Robert separately told her when she could use her credit cards to get more chips and offered to loan her some money. "No," Emily replied, "I can now tell people that I gambled on one of the famous gambling boats on the Mississippi and dutifully lost. That's good enough for me. On my associate professor's salary, I can't afford to indulge in expensive whims and my cat would starve."

"But you could win," Eric pointed out. "Donna is a few thousand dollars ahead at the same blackjack table at which Nora is losing. Virginia is ahead at the machines."

"We both know that Donna and Virginia will lose if they play long enough," Emily replied. "I'm down south to learn and make a little honest money, not to lose my shirt."

"But I'm sure that the world would be a far more beautiful place if you did lose your shirt," Eric replied.

Tired of gambling but eager for adventure, Virginia asked, "Might we go below deck and see any portion of the infamous sex work operations on this boat?"

Robert replied, "I'm sure that Donna, Emily, Nora and Crimson could get down there, but their stay would probably be for years or at least months as the shortest indentured servant contract allowed is three months. Possibly you could get there also if you worked on it as you are extremely hot for a mature woman. In short, the only women allowed in the parts of the boat not focused on games of chance are women providing personal services of the type you have heard about."

Nils Rogson broke in at that point to say, "I have a suggestion. As Nora and Crimson know, there is a separate more private room for gambling. Perhaps we could adjourn there and see if Nora and Crimson can play their way back to even. If Virginia insists, I could even ask that one of the women below deck be sent up, but someone would have to pay a two thousand bucks for an hour."

Robert, Judge O'Hara, Eric Knox, Nora, Crimson, Emily, Eric, Virginia and Donna all followed Nils Rogson and a member of the Rising Sun staff to a walnut paneled room large enough to hold a bar, a roulette wheel, a card table, a few seats and not much else. Eric Knox asked Rogson to send up Candice if she was available to satisfy Virginia's curiosity of what the women working below looked like.

Despite numerous blandishments, Emily continued to say that she was just there to watch and would not play in the new room either. The literary cliché of women losing at cards and then losing their virtue ran through her head. As Rogson said they should make themselves comfortable at the table, Emily said out loud to Nora and Crimson, "do you really not know that this plot your following inevitably ends badly?"

Emily's resolve was fortified when Candice walked into the room wearing only a robe which she promptly dropped. Candice looked exactly as Virginia should have expected with large breasts, a coffee and cream complexion, a pile of dark hair on her head to go with a small patch of dark pubic hair above her pudenda.

I wonder if Candice played roulette, Emily thought while Eric Knox made a point of manhandling Candice's breasts before motioning for her to kneel on the floor. Candice immediately adopted the same totally exposed subservient position that the women had assume in the Petting Zoo.

It developed that Candice had recently given birth and was lactating. Eric Knox began to milk her and make all sorts of crude remarks about women being messy mammals as though men were not.

Emily tried to ask Candice subtly what she'd done to find herself as a breeding sex worker. Candice was amused by Emily's naïve questioning. She answered that Emily did not have to worry about her. "I like sex, the breast pumps are not uncomfortable especially when there's something nice in your pussy. I like being taken care of, I don't like worrying about paying bills, taxes and rent. This is a lot better than having to line up customers and in six years I'll be off the boat if I want to be with enough money to retire and not have to do anything but sit on a beach for the rest of my life."

Either because they were more into risk or less well-read about what happens to gambling women, Donna, Nora, and Crimson began playing roulette with Rogson acting as the house and everyone else in the room just sitting and watching.

Donna somehow continued to win while joking that maybe she'd join Candice if she lost.

Nora attempted to use the Martingale strategy of always doubling your bet after every loss but apparently forgot that this does not work if you lose a few times early and don't have a lot of money or enough sense to quit. She soon owed the Rising Sun over $20,000 and only stopped when Virginia told her she'd be disinherited if she didn't quit.

Crimson followed no strategy at all and initially got almost back to even, but kept betting. She owed the boat over $30,000 when Nils Rogson said that the house would not allow Crimson to bet anymore.

A scene developed. Nora said she could not pay right away. Virginia said that Woods Helm would have to pay Nora's debt as he'd failed to control her. Woods was back at his office working.