blithespirit

In the past couple of episodes of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, we learn that many of the people working in the Dollhouse have "relationships" with Dolls (most recently, Topher, who we learn spends his birthday each year with a Doll programmed to be a geek guys dream date - she loves hi tech paintball sstyle games, console gaming, and of course is as gorgeous as a doll). Putting aside the ethical issues to do with wiping and reprogramming people...

It's so scarily stunted.  I don't want a human, I want a doll programmed to respond only to what I want and need in another person. Really, that's not a relationship with another person at all. It means, I just want a blowup doll that looks real. 

It's just making me fall back in love with George from E. M. Forster's A Room with a View. He's played by a young and gorgeous Julian Sands in the filmed version. He tells Helena Bonham-Carter: 

"I want you to have your own thoughts and ideas and feelings, even when I hold you in my arms."