MovieChat Forums > Gormenghast (2000) Discussion > They gave no explination to Steerpike wh...

They gave no explination to Steerpike which is a shame

posted 16 years ago by Iron_Martyr
6 replies | jump to latest

At least I thought so. I had some... pity, more then sympathy, for Steerpike, but only because of the crying scene when Fuschia won't look at him. Even then I thought he was only crying because he was failing to snare her.

But I'm watching te making-of and JRM just said in the book Steerpike was badly sexually abused as a child. That explains SO much about him, and it's a shame they chose to tone down the content by leaving it out. Despite the gore, I suppose that really would have kicked up the age range. Still, alluding to it somehow would have been good.

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[–] MDSR 16 years ago

i didnt pick up anything at all about him being sexually abused in the book, so i think its something JRM and/or the writers and crew came up with to help develop the character,

however if you think about the way swelter dominated his kitchen boys, its possible that he abused them sexually but thats personal interpretation

[–] jellyroll2 15 years ago

Yeah, I got the impression he was talking more about the film version of Steerpike rather than the book version. I did completely interpret how Swelter treated the kitchen boys, particularly Steerpike, that he was molesting them.

[–] ryanoconnor-1 15 years ago

"JRM just said in the book Steerpike was badly sexually abused as a child."

Yeah I don't think that's actually stated in the book, although it may be hinted at as a possible explanation for his background.

[–] sherlockgnomes 15 years ago

I don't think it's too much of a stretch to assume Swelter sexually abused his kitchen boys - the man is almost certainly a paedophile - but it's not explicitly said in the books, or even hinted, that he abused Steerpike.

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[–] ManlyStump 15 years ago

Especially considering that in the books Steerpike hadn't been in the kitchens long, so he can't have been too young when he started there. The miniseries changed it so that he'd been there most of his life (I can't remember how old he said he was, I'm sure he said it when he was talking to Satan).

[–] filmbuff1974 10 years ago

That's interesting about Steerpike's background and does explain much. I am going to read the books as there was much explanation to the motives of the characters' left to be desired. I'm excusing it because they only had four hours to explore a very lengthy series of books and it seemed that the producers just touched on enough to set it up.

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