Peeling the layers of psuedo-incest troupe of Calebmc
This has been weighing on my mind for the longest time since Caleb's release and both EN & CN/KR/JP troupes.
Rather than to say one is sanitised than the other, I'm gonna offer an olive branch that bridges the gap for both. Now, as we all know, language is hard. Transcribing one language with all its cultural nuances is hard. Everyone says "gege-meimei" is just a degree of honourifics and all of that to sanitise their relationship. Fair enough, that's your peace and I will respect it. But as I've read from the folks who l follow CN/JP/KR troupe, it is as it is implied.
However.
I feel that it's much more deeper than that. Far more than what is seen in the surface. Remember Adam & Eve? Eve was created from the rib of Adam. Or ever the Chinese myth of Fuxi and Nuwa where Calebmc dynamic was really inspired from? Twins who intertwined and created the world. The interconnective dynamic of Calebmc actually falls closer to the Aristotle theory of soul mates. Aristotle believed that humanity was once creatures who walked on 4 legs until the gods decided to slice us into halves, creating us, the bipede creatures that we are. And upon losing our other halves, we continue to sought after our lost halves, yearning and desiring to unify and become whole once more.
Now what does this mean for Calebmc? Far more than that surface level of incest troupes, far more than the childhood friend troupes, Calebmc are creatures of one heart, one star, one soul that had been born into 2 beings. The toxic, possessive, taboo dynamics between them; the degree of intimacy that makes them far more co-dependant of each other to the point they really cannot separate themselves from the other. It's supposed to be uncomfortable. It's supposed to be everything that is simultaneously intimate and forbidden. Far more than surface-level pseudo-incest understanding, these two are souls that were one that was cut off and forced to become 2. The pseudo-sibling aspect is supposed to signify how much they want to tie each other together that they want to be each other's everything. Beyond taboo, their love is supposed to be this cosmic level of romance.
Let me cross-reference their dynamic to Catherine and Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights. 2 children who grew up together, attached themselves to each other. Their interconnectiveness is laced with equal parts toxic, possessive and taboo. Catherine saw Heathcliff as her twin flame, her other half; her mirror. And it is that same possessive, toxic dynamic was why the misery spread to the next generation (an aspect that many adaptations failed to address).
Here comes the tricky part where I'm coming back to my point about language.
As everyone knows, there is no equivalent definition to the CN troupe in English language. Not without hoops, leaps and bounds of texts that no translator or reader wants to subject to themselves. Childhood friends was their closest route, but equally sanitizing. It would have been the better route to have dubbed them as step-siblings despite the implication of their hazy past before they were adopted by their grandmother. But alas, even that is a difficult thing to put forward without people screwing their heads around 360° at the idea of it.
At the end of the day, always remember that all of this is fiction. I relent, this is fiction. Not some guideline or some sort of Orwellian piece that people would use as a handbook. Morals are yours to keep, but no one deserves to be broken for the sake of fictional characters. Any further insistence on either side and pressing the issue is not your right to define. Death of the author exists as a means of separating authorial intent over a piece of text. Which means fiction like Love and deepspace are technically free of you to interpret the text as you wish. But do so with candid grace and respect to those who see things differently.
Thank you for reading. Feel free to disagree because that is your right. But remember to be civil.