A Feverish Essay About InCase's The Invitation

The Master from InCase’s The Invitation (go read it now for Her sake!) has become something of a deity obsession for me as Annie’s chapter rises to its crescendo. Why?

The Master fosters a space for monsters. She is the ultimate monster – but only by the structures societal hegemony. She is queer, and she has made a space where queer people can be together at peace with mutual understanding. Indulging in sex freely, ecstatically – a theme which is foundational to the story.

Her world appears so horrific to those who found some home in the system as it stands – even those within who themselves are queer. Annie was successful by the terms of her family and even society. But her family, her society rejected her to her core. That is no delusion created by the Master. It is an experience shared by any queer person living beneath the cruelty of an unloving society.

William was already rejected for her curiosities and queer inclinations. When she met the Master, she saw freedom immediately, and flew to the Master’s loving arms. I think many queer people can identify strongly with such a desire.

Even the supposed most private act we can engage in materially – sex – is thrust into the public, often to dire result. The Master has created a space where sex is not only free of judgement but can be shared freely as well. As you become One with the Master, the Master becomes one with you, and together You are something greater than you could have been alone.

William becomes a part of the Master, but is clearly able to retain her identity. Vitally, she is able to live out her identity honestly, truthfully. It can be tempting to understand the Master as a “hivemind,” but I think that is both reductive and unnecessarily pejorative. The Master represents a world where the invisible walls that separate us from others have dissolved. She is not blind or cold, however. No, she chases us. She desires us. And She will leave us if we so desire. Oneness can only come consensually – the temptation is part of the liberation. By being tempted by ideas and possibilities so different from those we are fed, our mind expands.

Her dominance is not about hierarchy. It’s about expressing desire to those who are undesirable to this world. Annie points to this herself, “look for her among the desperate.” Of course the Master’s invitation would be tempting to anyone rejected by society; it could be nothing else but tempting.

Annie only rejected the Master when she realized how far she had pressed herself against the bars of the society she was raised within. She can never be sure that the Master is or isn’t evil because her entire conception of good and evil was constructed by those who fundamentally hate her. Undeniably, the seed of Victorian morality (don’t let yourself think modern morality is much better) has dug its roots deeply into her soul. She bears an uninvited hate for herself and what she truly desires (to pursue science, to top, to have a cock, etc.)

The Master represents something that is utterly alien to those of us who have grown under the distorting pressures of sex, gender, and even class hierarchies – a liberating unity with similar souls. Together, the individual pieces that make Her up produce a mutual freedom. Power in unity. Power springing forth from truly radical, otherworldly love.

She likely appears terrifying and monstrous to many, sometimes even those who would, indeed, be at home being One with Her. Her call, though, is irresistible. Temptation, after all, requires desire. I think the unapologetically queer following that The Invitation has garnered speaks for itself with regard to who is tempted by Her promises.

Or maybe the last page and the following chapters will totally knock me on my ass and explode my mind again, who knows? I’m sure we’ll find out when we’re all together in there.

viv