I've re-read the Girl Behind The Door story several times now, trying to get into words what makes it so impressive. Aside from how well it adheres to the classes outlined in the San Monique torture manual, it highlights that mental and physical torture are not two separate things, but linked essentially.
The nameless girl would no doubt, at the age of eighteen, have had the basics of female anatomy explained to her, probably in the context of when she began to menstruate, and also possibly in relation to the miracle of pregnancy and childbirth. Her mother, her girlfriends, her female teachers at school might have all given her some idea of what the parts of her that are distinctly female are, what they do, and why they are important. All of this would have evoked many emotions in her. But those body parts, hidden away inside her body, would have been abstractions. It took Mia to be her perfect teacher to really educate her on what these body parts are.
Mia uses Miguel as a stand in for the girl - someone to whom she can explain every single detail of the treatment to, for the girl's benefit, without having to directly address the girl. As each body part is named, sparking recognition from the girl of something she has seen in a text book or heard from her mother, a terrible pain is felt as well. But because it is torture, it is not only felt, but deliberately caused. We know scientifically that pain is worse if it is deliberate, and there can be nothing more deliberate than having the exact devices on hand needed to cause this terrible agony. Mia does not just happen upon these methods. Everything has been meticulously arranged and prepared, from the super cooled ice water, to the wires that enable insertion of the tubes into her. One of the important lessons the girl is learning is that not only is there a pain that can be induced in every part of her body, but there is a device that has been especially devised to maximize that pain.
Mia is also expert enough to know that the language that she uses cannot be clumsy. It can seem like casual cruelty, but is of course something much more sinister.
"Hold it like this, I need to see something!”
The sterile, simple language brings to mind a technician or surgeon, who knows their work well, and needs a little bit of assistance. The 'something' also arosues curiosity in the girl, but because it is part of a torture session, her mind going off on tangents is only going to cause more terror.
“This is the tricky part, I have to get into the fallopian tube...”
The perfect torturer's sentence. Using the word 'tricky' does several things to the girl. It tells her that this torture has happened many times before, and that there is an inevitability to it, that is confused slightly by the idea that the torturer might fail. The tiny bit of hope that is raised by this is shattered by the precision of the next statement. The girl, knowing what a fallopian tube is, would be thrown into despair that this intimate part of herself that she has never seen, is about to be seen and violated by this evil woman. The 'I have to get into' part also emphasizes how this is a planned, practiced treatment.
But your thoughts make me think too, and such elaborated feedback is certainly inspiring for the next stories. Thank you very much for it!
