Novelist seeking information, opinions

[KCRandy1 (imported)]

I am a fiction writer and I am here seeking knowledgeable information and opinion. In my current work in progress I have a character who was orphaned at five and placed in a boys home that was really a cover for a pedophile farm (Having interviewed a man who has a boy was placed in such a home I have good reason and evidence that such was the case in the city where I live.) My character has a good voice and joins the home’s boy’s choir where he becomes the favorite of the choir director who is also director and founder of the home. When the boy is 12 years old the director has him castrated. In my novel he is a serial killer targeting the daughters of the home’s board members. The more I read about castration and eunuchs the more I wonder if the lack of testosterone means my character could not be violent enough to kill in revenge. So I’m looking for opinions.

[cutnbulls2ox (imported)]

Historically eunuchs were thought to be ruthless and cruel as advisors in China. And harem guards killed intruders very effectively. Eunuch slaves castrated new slaves on their owner s orders. And violent criminals castrated to end their violent ways seldom seem to work in recent tries in western countries. Pre puberty boys can be very violent and cruel before their balls ever start to work.

And females are capable of extreme violence at any ages.

[Paolo]

Agreed with cutnbulls20x, eunuchs in history were knows to be ruthless, in certain circumstances. The idea of your main character becoming a murderer is not far-fetched at all. In fact, G. Stanley Hall notes this about eunuchs castrated before puberty:

G. Stanley Hall on Eunuchs 1907

This operation on the eunuchs of Cairo, even though it may have been performed in infancy, does not cause much differentiation till puberty, but they attain a stature of nearly two inches more than the average of their race.

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Lancaster quotes a letter from "a well-known professor in a New England College," who spent years in the East among Nubian eunuchs, as follows: "There is no question that castration at an early age does in various ways modify physical development, though I do not think it modifies it so much as is commonly supposed. The difference most likely to be observed was in the voice. Castration does produce an immense effect, though an indirect one, upon the character. It is not the operation in itself, but its effect upon the mind. The mind broods over the fact that the body is reproductively impotent and is filled with morbid resentment and jealousy. No other physical deformity can so far distort and devilize the character. As far as I can judge, sex feelings exist unmodified by absence of the sexual organs. The eunuch differs from the man, not in the absence of sexual passion, but only in the fact that he can not fully gratify it. As far as he can approach a gratification of it, he does so. Often, maddened by a sense of impotence, he wreaks vengeance on the irresponsible object of which he is enamored.... The eunuchs have all the adolescent phenomena. I have watched, for example, boy-eunuchs of ten or eleven years, possibly younger. Early conscious, as they are, of their desexed condition, there was nothing apparent in their moods or pleasures different from other children of their race. They took the same delight in a perfume or a flower, or a pretty baby, as any other boy of their race would have done. The little eunuch is more inclined to solitude than almost any Western child, but perhaps no more than his compatriots. As to rebelling against authority, I have more than once seen a diminutive eunuch do that."

Hall, G. Stanley. (1907). Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion, and Education. New York: D. Appleton and Company. 2 vols. Vol. 1, pp. 425-426.

[JesusA (imported)]

If you want to keep to general accuracy about eunuchs, we know quite a bit, both from history and from research on contemporary eunuchs.

One important piece from the contemporary research is the result of running the Big 5 Personality Inventory on a large number of them. A male’s testicles begin producing testosterone long before birth and continuing with a large surge just after birth. They then quiet down, though they don’t stop, until puberty. That early testosterone “wires” the brain such that basic personality structure of males and females is different. The absence of testosterone in a masculinized brain leads to AVERAGE differences from intact males. (It may not be true of every eunuch, but it is statistically true.) Castration leads to GREATER Emotional Stability than either intact males or females. It also leads to much greater Agreeableness (ability to work well with others, be friendly and cooperative) and to greater Conscientiousness (ability to focus and stay on task, to be efficient and well-organized).

These three differences from intact males were part of the reason that eunuchs historically were considered to be outstanding government officials and administrators. They were also successful military officers and religious leaders. The feared Assyrian army had ranks of eunuch archers. Early war chariots often carried a eunuch driver and one or more intact (and armed) warriors. Use of eunuch warriors continued well into the 19th century. Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, shah of the Persian Empire (reigned 1848–1896), early in his reign had 100 Christian slave boys from Georgia castrated and trained to be his palace guard. Some Russians captured in skirmishes to the north were castrated and became minor government officials. (The 800 or more eunuchs serving in his harem were largely from Central Asia, though some were Russian, Georgian, and Armenian and a few were from East Africa.)

There is nothing in lack of testosterone that would affect vengeance or violence. Castration does not seem to effect humans in the same way as it affects other mammals.

[TopManFL (imported)]

The more I read about castration and eunuchs the more I wonder if the lack of testosterone means my character could not be violent enough to kill in revenge.

A psychopath would be a psychopath irrespective of the level of testosterone in their system.

But, your main character would have the option of testosterone replacement therapy.

So, two choices. Either:

A. Your character remains T free and uses that "eunuch calm" as a way to avoid detection. Have you ever noticed how few female serial killers (besides Kathleen Turner) get caught? Is it because there are so few female serial killers or because they are better at avoiding arrest? Even T free your character would be a psychopath and obviously have no compassion.

B. You character uses HRT (hormone replacement therapy) and has all the T of a normal male. An easy work around to the "problem" of a eunuch not having normal levels of T.

On an plot note, I do have a question about why your character is targeting the daughters of the board members. Family legacy is often valued among sons (as in carry on the family name) more than daughters. Why kill people when he can kill an entire future generation of Smiths, Jones, Worthingtons and Hoovers? Also, he doesn't have to kill the person to kill their ability to create a lineage - just castrate them. A cool plot twist would be if he worked in a sperm bank and intentionally swapped out the stored sperm (or ruined it) in addition to the castrations.

B.

[CircItaly (imported)]

As a reader I would prefer an all male fiction. My personal taste. Anyway is a very good plot, I can't wait to read it!

If you your intent is to be realistic, if the main character should be castrated in order to keep is voice, he should be done long way before 12 years old.

[JesusA (imported)]

For a few comments on the age at castration for Italian castrati, check my earlier post:

Handel's favorite castrato

http://forums.eunuch.org/showthread.php ... e-castrato

[TopManFL (imported)]

Anne Rice's "A Cry to Heaven" is a great work of fiction about the castrati.

[KCRandy1 (imported)]

Thanks to all for this fascinating and valuable information! This is extremely helpful and I appreciate people taking the time to make these replies.