KatieMc’s Comments (group member since Jul 14, 2013)

KatieMc’s comments from the The Administration Zone group.

Hello Manipi. Welcome to the zone. I hope you grow to love The Administration. It is definitely different from the Cut & Run series. With TA, you get smarter and more subtle writing and infinitely more interesting characters (IMHO). Keep in mind that Mind Fuck is not always everyone's favorite, but serves as a setup for the pairing of Toreth and Warrick.

Crispy wrote: "Ps. It's taking my mind off it to. - hey do you think an operator equivalent to Carnac is at work, subtly causing GR to self destruct, destroying the subversive gang over here? ..."

Crispy, I think you are right! Leave it to you to figure this out. I want to be on your side when the revolution comes.

Dani wrote: "I guess something like this http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/38...
"

Dani, I never imagined Toreth with wavey hair. Actually, I always imagined him keeping his hair sufficiently short that even if it did have a wave, we would never see it. I have no empirical evidence for this, just how my imagination has cataloged it. So if your guy was a bit older with a buzz cut, I could see it.

OMG, how did I go all day and miss this Toreth discussion.

I thought smoking was way out of characther for Toreth, but he is a big fan of recreational drugs, so I didn't think it was worth mentioning.

Regarding the delicateness, while Toreth is not beefy, he is definitely buff. I think there is a fine line between not too-buff and fit but not too-beefy. If you can imagine the photo without the fingery hands, plus a bit more lean-beef on the bones, we are not too far off.

Hair color, sorry Katinka. Toreth and blonde and there is nothing you can do to wish that away.

Let me clarify. I love me some Carnac, as long as he is nowhere near Toreth or Warrick.

Dani, so glad you found us. You are in good company here. In fact, I personally am a Carnac fan. So no worries about rooting for Toreth.

Thanks Casey. It's an alpha-male wet dream. My favorite line "Fuckability now at zero."

Hiya Casey. You write a TA / SF fanfic! I would love to read if.

Bleach the hair. Without the anchor on the collar and the brass buttons, that could be an I&I uniform. Yeah, I can see it.

Hello SueC, Jenni & Nina. I have been offline for about a week, but am looking forward to checking out your TA updates.

I read this one a while ago, in hopes of finding more Manna goodness. It was nice, cute, but did not rock my world.

There are a couple of angles to Toreth's antiosocial behavior.

One is in relation to his profession, and yes, you can say that it fits the the norms of his world. However, there are others, specifically Warrick, who do have a problem with the whole I&I institution. As the series progresses, the societal norms as they relate to I&I definitely do come into question.

The second is in relation to his numerous meaningless fucks. The fact that he has a need for these hookups and that he likes to manipulate people into having sex indicates something that is not the picture of perfect mental health. In fact, I think it is this behavior, and not so much the I&I activities, that most people think about when referring to Toreth as a sociopath.

As for Toreth feeling genuine remorse, that is iffy. He shows remorse towards Warrick or Sara to get out of the immediate soup. He intellectually understands that his sleeping around can be hurtful to Warrick, but that doesn't stop him from doing it. And he fears losing Warrick, and yet, he still sleeps around. I think it is more complicated that just lax morals.

I have a very pedestrian understanding of a sociopath, mainly from an abnormal psychology course in college 30 years ago. What I recall is that sociopaths have a lack of remorse for their actions (which can often include criminal activities), they can be quite charming in getting what they want, they are often very intelligent, and that they are not out of touch with reality. Toreth certainly demonstrates some of these behaviors. Whether that makes him a sociopath, I am not qualified to say. I know DSM has had several revisions since my college days, so I understanding may be out of date.

I like how the author has dodged any explicit labels for Toreth and his so called personality disorders. The thing with Toreth is that *it's complicated*. On the surface, it is easy to say he is a sociopath, which is why I think most people say so. But he has these burgeoning feelings for Warrick which don't quite with fit with any of his past experiences.

I hope you make it to Game, Set which introduces a new character to the mix: Carnac. Carnac thrown into the mix of Toreth and Warrick is quite interesting.

I think it is an easy go-to label to use for Toreth. As you read through the series, there is recurring mention of Toreth's psych file. Apparently Warrick has seen it as well as some other characters. The author artfully avoids any details of what is in the file or Toreth's *diagnosis*. Tanit indirectly calls Toreth a sociopath.

Funny, there was a discussion in the Captive Prince group about Laurent being a sociopath. That I really did not get.

Steelwhisper wrote: "LOL, a female Justice police officer ;)"

Phew, I was hoping you did not mean Lew Marcus.... He was skeevy.

Loederkoningin wrote: " Hell, I'd even have taken Carnac over that kitty cat..."

Or how about a Carnac & kitty boy pairing?

The kitty boy short was odd, I saw it as a sort of world-building exercise demonstrating how far people can go for their kink. Although, people surgically alter themselves now, don't they?

Steel, the investigation and its resolution does get evilly twisted in a way that could only happen in the dystopia of the Administration. You are not alone in thinking that the pace seems slow and a bit dull. I liked Mind Fuck, but did not love it at first. Mind Fuck was written after much of the rest of the series and served as the vehicle to place Toreth and Warrick together. If you are intrigued by Toreth and Warrick, stick it out (or skim) till you get through Pancakes. If it doesn't work for you by then, it probably won't ever. Good luck.

Maralyn wrote: "Is the list on her website in chronological order?..."

Yep, that is the recommended reading order. It's mostly chronological, with a couple of intentional out-of-order stories.

Maralyn wrote: "I think if Toreth turned sappy I would have trouble keeping my lunch down. . .BUT I would like to understand him a little better. Or at least, feel that I'm closer to being able to understand him. ..."

Maralyn, that totally makes sense. You get a slow reveal of Toreth as you read the series. It's subtle but it is there.

It's funny, I guess The Administration is dark, but it doesn't always feel that way. At the root of the books is an intense character study and the stories serve as a vehicle to develop and move the relationship between the MCs. That being said, the stories are quite good as well.