Brute force versus artistry is a battle of the ages. Does brute force win due to its simplicity? Or does artistry and complexity gain the upper hand in knowing how to redirect brute force away? Jackie and Donna are coming up to the battle between youth and old age, raw power versus experience, and desperation versus focus.
Jackie is doing what she can to escape. Natural thing to do, really. First, try to get through to Steve's better side, something he drowned in a bathtub as a teenager. Donna traded hers for power. Jackie is a battery pack to her, something to drain dry and toss away, one of a number of young adults that Donna has destroyed.
The Virgin Ploy goes back to the idea of various cultures' ideas of what is best to sacrifice. Virginity is seen by some as akin to purity. Erzsébet Báthory went to extremes, bathing in virgin blood, but it's a theme that repeats in myth and legend. So why not try to use it? Jackie has already been established to have had sex before, and there may or may not be a sex scene with Lance and/or Steve in the missing part between Chapter 17 and Chapter n. Donna doesn't care, though. She wants power, pure, impure, whatever.
Donna's metaphor is music. She could be a singer, though she prefers opera and classical over anything popular. If she realized that, today, money is power, she'd find a way to have multiple singing careers. Jackie is trying to apply brute force, knowing she can't match Donna for skill. Music can be disrupted. A long, loud, low note can be effective, thus the tuba. If this was written after the FIFA World Cup of 2010, Jackie might have gone with the vuvuzela instead. Angry bees are always disruptive.
Jackie's metaphor allows her to set off one spell and let it run autonomously. Donna still has to conduct. The difference lets Jackie ignore the evil sorceress long enough after hitting her. With the flow of magic disrupted, it becomes a race between the two women to get their metaphors to come out ahead of the others'.
Tomorrow, summarizing Digital Magic.
Friday, over at Psycho Drive-In, RWBY, the manga anthology.
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, hiatus week to get ahead on potential reviews.
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