In The Gift, Lewis Hyde writes of the difference between an act being done as a gift, with all of its connotations of connection, responsibility and community, and as a service, which is done in exchange, usually for money. A gift, most commonly seen in native cultures and small social organizations (such as families) stresses the binding continuance. The service on the other hand can be seen perhaps most easily in today’s’ world of doctors, social workers and psychiatrists, who help others out, but have a buffer between provider and receiver. With a gift one is, in a sense, obligated to return the favor, creating a continuous cycle-an ongoing relationship that is not easily broken. A service is usually a one shot deal, with no ongoing connection. The cash transfer takes care of all obligations. With a service there is neither need nor desire for continued intimacy.
William T. Vollman’s The Royal Family examines what happens when the outward service economy of prostitutes becomes enmeshed with the inward gift economy of family. Vollman has explored the world of prostitutes numerous times in his writings, extolling the view that what they provide is love, if only for a moment. This of course seems to be true only through the eyes of the receiver. Throughout his novels and stories are painfully misguided men who take the one-time transaction of cash for sex (or companionship) as something deeper, more intimate. These men are almost inevitably desolate of the outcome of their repeated encounters with these women of the streets, unable to comprehend why, even through their repeated patronage, the prostitutes don’t treat them as lovers or significant parts of their life. In fact, the prostitutes often treat the men with greater and greater derision, using and abusing the loyal “johns” as well as taking their money.
The Royal Family is the story of low-rent private detective Henry Tyler who barely functions in life as it is. Things go from bad to worse when his brother John’s wife, Irene, disconsolate and pregnant, commits suicide. Henry was in love with Irene, who hesitantly returned his affections. Henry would also sniff Irene’s dirty underwear when he could get the chance, and was possibly the father of her unborn baby. The Royal Family is also the story of Henry’s quest for, and eventual relationship with, The Queen of the Whores. Originally hired by a Mr. Brady, who also employs John’s law-firm, to find her so that he may employ her in his new Las Vegas casino-cum-whorehouse, Henry quickly abandons his employer and continues the quest on his own. Having found her, Henry becomes her (perhaps only) loyal follower. He completely gives himself to her and to the transient life of the prostitutes' world.
It is this world that Vollman explores and explodes. While there are many points of entry in The Royal Family, it is the role of the prostitute and by extension, a life out side of the mainstream world, occupied by Henry, the child molester and police informant Dan Smooth (who here makes the slimiest Virgil to Henry’s Dante ever), the prostitutes Domino, Strawberry and others, and the assorted pimps, bail bonders and hobos that exist in the fringe. This world is not presented as an alternative to the mainstream world, but rather as a separate reality with semi-fluid borders between it and the mainstream. Whereas Henry crosses over completely, his brother John dabbles, sticking his toe in by hiring prostitutes, only to have his world corrupted when one of his prostitutes encounters him in his mainstream world.