Sunday, October 13, 2013

BELINDA by Anne Rice: Captain Save a Nymphet




I wrote in The Allure of Nymphets that a trap that older men should diligently avoid is adopting the role of “Captain Save a Hoe” or more specifically "Captain Save a Nymphet". Captain Save a Nymphet is one who gets into a relationship with a nymphet to save her (e.g., from an abusive boyfriend, a life of poverty, an inadequate education and/or to expose her to culture, etc.). However, Captain Save a Nymphet rarely, if ever, saves the teen in distress, but often becomes ensnarled in her web of unending drama.

In Belinda by Anne Rice (writing as Anne Rampling), 16-year-old blond and tanned Belinda attended 44-year-old famous author and artist Jeremy Walker's book signing and after he noticed her he imagined, "Reaching under her short little Catholic school plaid skirt and touching the silk of her naked thighs [...] kissing her, seeing if her face was a soft as it looked-baby flesh."

Jeremy asked Belinda if she wanted to go to a publisher's party at the Saint Francis hotel. In a hotel room at the party, Walker asked Belinda for permission to paint her at his house. He promised her that he didn't have any ulterior motives and that he was "perfectly sincere."

Belinda replied, "Why shouldn't I believe that. I know all about you, Mr. Walker. I've read your books all my life." But it was Belinda who had ulterior motives. After she locked the door and turned the latch, she whispered into Jeremy's ear, "Come on. Don't you want to do it before they come and ruin everything?" And that was the beginning of their age-discrepant affair.

However, Jeremy wasn't Belinda's first affair with an older man or woman. Belinda was banned from her mother's house after it was revealed that 15-year-old Belinda was having an affair with Marty Moreschi, her step-father.  And Belinda shot a lipstick lesbian scene when she was 14, and she had "[...] a two-week Christmas holiday affair with an Arab prince when she was thirteen."

Interestingly, Belinda was well-bred and cultured. For example, in one scene she asked for a "fish knife" as she held her "fork in her left hand, Continental style," she had lived in museums all over Europe, and she could read and write in French, Italian and English. 

However, Belinda was living in a half-way house when she met Jeremy, which should have been a clear warning to Jeremy that something was amiss and that he should have ended their affair immediately. However, the allure of the nymphet was too strong for him to pull away and he precariously put his career and life into jeopardy.

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