A Slow Process of Understanding

By Faith Ashlin

How does a world that accepts slavery affect both master and slave? Can two people build a new life for themselves with a start like theirs?

It’s a world like this one except for the all-powerful State that’s very firmly in control and the fact that slavery is legal. Jimmy had never really thought about it or the fight for freedom going on around him. He was too busy enjoying his privileged life as an actor on a sci-fi show.

But what is he meant to do when he’s forced to permanently bond to a slave he doesn’t want just because he made one silly, drunken mistake? Does it change who he is, what he is?

Trouble is, Jimmy isn’t sure who he was to start with. He’d never thought about it.

And what about his slave, Nate? Can a slave force Jimmy into learning something about himself?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Totally Bound Publishing
• Release date: Dec 26, 2014
• ISBN: 9781784303396

Reviews for A Slow Process of Understanding

[Estarianne · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I am on the fence between 3 and 4 stars.

This is the second slavefic I've read by this author. She and I have similar philosophies regarding slavery and love (much slavefic is just stockholm syndrome repackaged. I find that really sad). However, this story suffers a bit of analysis paralysis- the characters just spend too much time *discussing* the issues. Some of that can be dealt with indirectly, rather than having the characters have deep heart to hearts about every little thing.

Jimmy, the owner, is oblivious. He lacks the skill of empathy and really doesn't get that what makes him happy isn't what will make others happy. Nate was given to him as a punishment for a drunken brawl. Jimmy thinks they are getting on swimmingly.

A few issues. One, they start out in prison and there is much talk about "The State," and how they are required to demonstrate sex in a violent way to prove something, and how all of the slave owners are abusive. Yet, once they get out, they never encounter "The State" or another slave owner or even another slave. It was kind of weird, the initial set up being so dark and overdone, and then them going into an environment that was basically indistinguishable from contemporary society. As a result, Jimmy was learning to be a slave owner in a vacuum.

After they get separated, it is made clear that both Nate and Jimmy think that Jimmy made serious ethical errors during their time together. I wished she'd put more thought into this. In my mind, Jimmy's major failures were failures of empathy, not failures of ethics. He wanted to do the right thing by Nate. He just didn't have the mental skill that would have allowed him to get out of his own head and into someone else's. My impression was that this would have been the same with anyone, not particular to slavery. The issue was that because of the slavery, Nate wasn't free to point out his failings. So are the ethics in the intent or the result? That would have been an interesting conversation for them to have, rather than the continuous talking about how awful Jimmy was, and how proud Nate was that he was a changed man. Intent is a lot harder to change than behavior.

Another major issue that was never addressed was that equality isn't even a given in relationships that don't start out with a built-in imbalance. Some of the things that Jimmy did during the initial ownership are things that a lot of people do in relationships. Again, the issue wasn't that behavior, but the fact that Nate didn't have a choice. A lot was said about Jimmy making Nate over into his fantasy, as though that is something that couldn't have happened if Nate hadn't been a slave. About 90% of the passion involved in new relationships is based on fantasy (totally made up statistic there). Everyone does it.

Then, there was a discussion about Stockholm Syndrome, and how awful and unhealthy it is. Except it isn't. Stockholm syndrome is a coping mechanism, a trauma bond made to allow a person to hide from some of the horrors of a bad situation. They both acknowledged that their initial bond wasn't love, and they had to form a new one, but the harping on the trauma bond as though it was a negative thing confused me. Also, Nate made comments about his efforts to make peace as though that were also a negative. It seemed a survival mechanism to me.

The fact that they were still hashing this stuff over before the very last sex scene in the book, and had to argue about how it isn't fair if one bottoms and the other doesn't, was annoying.