Would you mind sharing your thoughts on the slaughterhouse scene from Sharp objects?
Alright, so first of all, I love you for asking this question. Because one, this is one of my favorite scenes in the entire book and two, it speaks so much on amma’s character i can’t even.
the first thing i did when i saw this was go to amy and ask if again, she wanted to join me on some meta delight. we are both passionate about this scene so it was great fun. Now let’s get into it!
first of all, this scene is important because we think it’s the first time camille realized it was amma but because she loves her sister, she pushed it back. the repulsion she feels is so unreal, and trauma blocks things out. camille wants to blame it on her mother, because in a way it is adora’s fault (”everyone blames the mother” which is like “i blame my mother”). there’s a link to when she’s in the meat shed w/ the porn on the wall (which she probably doesn’t think about).
why does amma do it? because she fucking loves violence. she not only loves it, she’s turn on by it. amma watches this because it’s like porn to her. it was grotesque in a dirty way, a sexual way. it was her version of masturbation (the squirming) this is how she gets off. which deals w/ the whole serial killers love animal violence but amma isn’t going to get dirty in that way - she let’s the industry do it for her, let’s her mother do it. it’s how she fulfills that part of being a serial killer. amma watches. she gets off especially on that fact that her mother and by extension she (and camille) owns that factory and is a part of that violence occurring. amma’s own identity from her mother often gets blurred, she has trouble find their separating line sometimes. she is the one kid who had to endure adora alone, she’s her special girl and she loves that attention even if it is killing her slowly. she loves it so much she kills for it because pain is a kind of love. (and love is a kind of killing !!) that’s how amma views love. except in this case it’s literal. she is literally dying and she is literally killing. she’s dying for it and so others have to too.
back to the slaughterhouse - the symbolism of her watching a mother sow nurse piglets who aren’t hers - knowing it’s causing the mother pain and liking it. (the men delivering the piglets and being used to amma there)
there was a part of amma, imo, that felt like killing her mom. not as retribution but as a way to return the favor, a way to show her love. she killed the competition for her mother’s love, but it was also a way to get close. which is another reason why camille coming back threw her off - camille made her mother sick in a way she couldn’t
camma loved those girls for a moment the way her mother did/would - she played with them, joined them. caressed them. so she could show her love by killing them. and the markers of femininity apparent there - she associates violence w/ her mother with feminine things. love is pain and nail polish, doll houses and hair bands, missing teeth and ribbons. even in their death she found a way to femininize their bodies, these wild girls. let me tame u in ways my mother tried but failed. these wild girls she was a part of, she wanted it, the freedom. but she chose her mother. she always would and will because she loves her. camille had marian as a way to disenchant her from her mother - she was a wild girl pretending to be a cheerleader and amma is a wild cheerleader. adora creates wild things and adores cleaning them up and breaking them in. because she herself is a wild thing. (something she NEVER talks about) + adora and her mother (more pls)
adora and her relationship to camille - she slowly kills her children because they ruined her life. her mother loved her in that same way. she can force herself not to think things, to not consider them at all. she’s helping her children w/ the medication. she loves them, so she’s saving them. even tho camille is a bad girl for not letting her save her. adora uses this to be in control. it’s a novel based on control. for these women who are so feminine, who are the archetypes of southern hospitality, of course they rebel in extreme ways. amma controls adora through her own weakness, adora controls camille through shame and amma through nursing and camille loses control of everything but her own skin.
camille takes back control by abusing her own body, sexually and physically. she makes those choices, not her mother. that’s why her mom and amma wanted to carve their names there. to own camille. take her back and make her hers. they want to own things. to control them.
so why did camille in a way feel attracted to the animal violence/porn - was it seeing women through the male gaze so starkly for the first time? or was she weaned on violence too? there’s a rawness, a masculinity to the way these girls view sex. it’s very stark.
camille was afraid of amma, but felt a connection. here’s another young girl fascinated with the sexually grotesque, doing unladylike things and enjoying them. (like when richard finds the hotel room that smells like sex and camille revels in it) the act of touching herself - not meant for girls, taboo. it’s rebellion of gender roles. and it’s the same w/ the conversation with richard over him being a “feminist”. fuck u richard. camille has so much internalized shit, it’s a defense. she wants to own what happened to her. she’s in charge. her idea - not everyone is a victim - is her desperate attempt to not be a victim herself. she reacts to things in an unhealthy way just like amma but it’s her own version (praise be to god when she finally had good sex w/ john - favorite part of ours. beautiful moments. the scars being loved just as much - laid bare) camille found people and amma found camille. they accept the worse of each other, they understand. camille just reacts internally and amma externally. such beautiful foils. amma’s tantrums vs. camille’s drinking. (more rebellion)
back to the slaughterhouse -it’s a symbol/representation of the town itself (amma learned to work it, camille didn’t/tried)
it’s another symbol of the whole “women clean and bleed” look at the sow, a female and mother, at the slaughterhouse. the men laughing to distance themselves. it’s a show. this violence, people love it, are entranced. it’s a symbol of rape culture. studies done on sexual violence in rural communities - massive, the culture problem. the way they view/react/interact w/ children (the woods w/ the schoolhouse for sex, the rape culture with children).
BASICALLY, it’s an integral scene and one that speaks on the entire book.
ONCE AGAIN, thank amy for being so lovely and meta talking w/ me. they’re so lovely. go follow them. couldn’t have done this w/o them. they also write poetry on the meta we talk about so yess the amma in the aftermath one - outstanding. lena made a graphic on it that killed me.
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