Belated Wednesday Reading Meme..
Nov. 13th, 2014 07:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat[As an aside, I need to update my icons again.]
One of the marvelous things about the internet and information age is now you can discover that writers, who you've been told to read various times in your lifetime (depending on how old you happen to be) but never actually got around to reading, are in actuality, racist assholes and you'd be better off avoiding entirely. Before the internet - you just did not have access to this information, well not unless you felt the need to do some digging at the local library and even then...
The latest in the "author's you must avoid due to their nasty tendencies" is Master Horror Fantasy Novelist HP Lovecraft. Shame the dude is long dead and can't defend himself. Most of them are, actually. That time period (late 19th-early 20th Century) tended to have a lot of racist writers. Why these tendencies weren't proclaimed when they were alive and kicking, I don't know - most likely the time period. Although to be fair in Lovecraft's case they aren't stating that you shouldn't read him, but that maybe he shouldn't be used to represent the world fantasy community. (Again why it took until now to figure this out...)
Speaking of time periods? The romance genre is similarly affected - novels written in the late 20th Century tended to be racist, sexist, and a bit violent. Novels written in the early part of the 20th Century were too, they just didn't have the sex scenes.
The 18th century - even more so, again no explicit sex scenes, well for the most part.
While novels written post 20th Century, are less so. Oh, the racism and sexism still exists, but there's more variety. In short? Some bright news...while our culture is still a wee bit racist and sexist for its own good, we are making quite a bit of progress. So, yay?
1. What I Just Finished Reading
Unclaimed by Courtney Milan - this was an odd romance novel - in that it tackled the concept of male chastity or virginity, although it really was more chastity, in a different way. I've read books with male virgins before - so that's hardly a new trope. Also with male virgins and courtesians - again not a new trope.
Should back up a bit - the novel is about a courtesian who is hired to ruin the reputation of Sir Mark Turner, who wrote The Gentlemen's Practical Guide to Chastity, and is a chaste, 28 year old virgin. Of course she falls in love with him. And much chaos ensues. What's different about it - is how the writer tackles this theme or trope. For one thing, she doesn't make fun of virginity. Or put it up on pedestal.
Or make it out to be a big deal. As the hero, Sir Mark, states - "I may be chaste, but I'm not dead." He's lustful and can kiss quite well thank you. There seems to be a misconception amongst the masses that you can only be great at sex if you have had a lot of it. Uhm no. There's quite a few folks out there having a lot of sex and not a whole lot of pleasure. And the reason that Sir Mark is chaste has very little to do with religion or propriety. He does not care that the heroine, Jessica, has had a lot of sex. Nor that she is not a virgin. He doesn't need her to have been chaste or pure. (Which is a bit subversive for this genre. Normally the guy cares about such things. In Judith McNaught's classic Whitney, My Love - the hero sort of rapes the heroine because he believes she isn't a virgin and gave herself to another man. That's an extreme case, but still.) Nor does he see a fallen woman as a man's downfall or blame the women for tempting him. As he states, "when you see a fallen woman, there's usually a man who pushed her." Which the heroine questions - as being a bit sexist, because doesn't the woman get a choice in the matter?
What I loved about this book is that the writer keeps asking questions. (Plus it was comforting, and I need comforting novels at the moment. Murder mysteries and horror tales aren't comforting to me. Hmmm... I'm wondering if I should highlight - "to me"? What is it about reviewing the romance genre that automatically puts one on the defensive? I think because we are shamed for reading them. People aren't for reading other genres, just romances. Not quite sure why this is - except blatant sexism? Because having read every genre on the planet, I can pretty much state that all of them have their pluses and minuses. But of the genres, the romance genre is the only one that tends to be written mainly for, about and by women.)
At any rate this novel didn't fall into cliche, and often went against it. Much like Unveiled, the previous novel in the series, the heroine saves herself and to a degree the hero. She resolves the problem and in an interesting and traditionally male way. Here she fights a duel, she's a better shot than any of the men in the story.
2. What I'm reading now?
Unraveled by Courtney Milan - the fourth and final novel in this series. This is about Magistrate Smite Turner, or Lord Justice, who was horribly abused by his mad mother - she locked him for months in the basement without food, he almost died - and when his younger brother rescued him - they lived off the streets in Bristol. She also beat him. As a result, Smite, has PTSD - post traumatic stress disorder, and is a bit OCD. (Each of the brothers in these novels have a name taken from a Bible verse, actually it's an entire verse in the Bible. Since you clearly can't go around town being called by the Bible verse - the name is a word or shortened version. The mother was a bit of a religious fanatic.)
The heroine is an actress, from a family of actors, who takes on various roles to get people off in the hero (Smite)'s court room for the mysterious Patron, who believes he's above the law and can get anyone off.
So...this should be intriguing. Courtney Milan - the novelist - has a background in science and law, and has done her research. Also like many romance novelists her focus is on class and sexism. She also discusses race.
3. What I'll be reading next?
Whatever I'm in the mood for. It may be Stealing Heaven by Madeline Hunter, the Raven Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt, or something else. It's not like I don't have over 300 books in my library to choose from. Plus the books in the boxes I'm currently using as a coffee table, and the one's on my shelves. I certainly don't lack for reading material, pleasurable or otherwise - and there's something for or rather to offend everyone.
One of the marvelous things about the internet and information age is now you can discover that writers, who you've been told to read various times in your lifetime (depending on how old you happen to be) but never actually got around to reading, are in actuality, racist assholes and you'd be better off avoiding entirely. Before the internet - you just did not have access to this information, well not unless you felt the need to do some digging at the local library and even then...
The latest in the "author's you must avoid due to their nasty tendencies" is Master Horror Fantasy Novelist HP Lovecraft. Shame the dude is long dead and can't defend himself. Most of them are, actually. That time period (late 19th-early 20th Century) tended to have a lot of racist writers. Why these tendencies weren't proclaimed when they were alive and kicking, I don't know - most likely the time period. Although to be fair in Lovecraft's case they aren't stating that you shouldn't read him, but that maybe he shouldn't be used to represent the world fantasy community. (Again why it took until now to figure this out...)
Speaking of time periods? The romance genre is similarly affected - novels written in the late 20th Century tended to be racist, sexist, and a bit violent. Novels written in the early part of the 20th Century were too, they just didn't have the sex scenes.
The 18th century - even more so, again no explicit sex scenes, well for the most part.
While novels written post 20th Century, are less so. Oh, the racism and sexism still exists, but there's more variety. In short? Some bright news...while our culture is still a wee bit racist and sexist for its own good, we are making quite a bit of progress. So, yay?
1. What I Just Finished Reading
Unclaimed by Courtney Milan - this was an odd romance novel - in that it tackled the concept of male chastity or virginity, although it really was more chastity, in a different way. I've read books with male virgins before - so that's hardly a new trope. Also with male virgins and courtesians - again not a new trope.
Should back up a bit - the novel is about a courtesian who is hired to ruin the reputation of Sir Mark Turner, who wrote The Gentlemen's Practical Guide to Chastity, and is a chaste, 28 year old virgin. Of course she falls in love with him. And much chaos ensues. What's different about it - is how the writer tackles this theme or trope. For one thing, she doesn't make fun of virginity. Or put it up on pedestal.
Or make it out to be a big deal. As the hero, Sir Mark, states - "I may be chaste, but I'm not dead." He's lustful and can kiss quite well thank you. There seems to be a misconception amongst the masses that you can only be great at sex if you have had a lot of it. Uhm no. There's quite a few folks out there having a lot of sex and not a whole lot of pleasure. And the reason that Sir Mark is chaste has very little to do with religion or propriety. He does not care that the heroine, Jessica, has had a lot of sex. Nor that she is not a virgin. He doesn't need her to have been chaste or pure. (Which is a bit subversive for this genre. Normally the guy cares about such things. In Judith McNaught's classic Whitney, My Love - the hero sort of rapes the heroine because he believes she isn't a virgin and gave herself to another man. That's an extreme case, but still.) Nor does he see a fallen woman as a man's downfall or blame the women for tempting him. As he states, "when you see a fallen woman, there's usually a man who pushed her." Which the heroine questions - as being a bit sexist, because doesn't the woman get a choice in the matter?
What I loved about this book is that the writer keeps asking questions. (Plus it was comforting, and I need comforting novels at the moment. Murder mysteries and horror tales aren't comforting to me. Hmmm... I'm wondering if I should highlight - "to me"? What is it about reviewing the romance genre that automatically puts one on the defensive? I think because we are shamed for reading them. People aren't for reading other genres, just romances. Not quite sure why this is - except blatant sexism? Because having read every genre on the planet, I can pretty much state that all of them have their pluses and minuses. But of the genres, the romance genre is the only one that tends to be written mainly for, about and by women.)
At any rate this novel didn't fall into cliche, and often went against it. Much like Unveiled, the previous novel in the series, the heroine saves herself and to a degree the hero. She resolves the problem and in an interesting and traditionally male way. Here she fights a duel, she's a better shot than any of the men in the story.
2. What I'm reading now?
Unraveled by Courtney Milan - the fourth and final novel in this series. This is about Magistrate Smite Turner, or Lord Justice, who was horribly abused by his mad mother - she locked him for months in the basement without food, he almost died - and when his younger brother rescued him - they lived off the streets in Bristol. She also beat him. As a result, Smite, has PTSD - post traumatic stress disorder, and is a bit OCD. (Each of the brothers in these novels have a name taken from a Bible verse, actually it's an entire verse in the Bible. Since you clearly can't go around town being called by the Bible verse - the name is a word or shortened version. The mother was a bit of a religious fanatic.)
The heroine is an actress, from a family of actors, who takes on various roles to get people off in the hero (Smite)'s court room for the mysterious Patron, who believes he's above the law and can get anyone off.
So...this should be intriguing. Courtney Milan - the novelist - has a background in science and law, and has done her research. Also like many romance novelists her focus is on class and sexism. She also discusses race.
3. What I'll be reading next?
Whatever I'm in the mood for. It may be Stealing Heaven by Madeline Hunter, the Raven Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt, or something else. It's not like I don't have over 300 books in my library to choose from. Plus the books in the boxes I'm currently using as a coffee table, and the one's on my shelves. I certainly don't lack for reading material, pleasurable or otherwise - and there's something for or rather to offend everyone.
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no subject
Date: 2014-11-14 06:18 pm (UTC)And now a rec with defensive caveats. ;)
I have Kindle Unlimited, which gives me access to more free books than the ones just listed as "free" (it overlaps with Prime but is not identical to prime). At any rate, it results in my reading books that I would otherwise not buy, but -- hey -- free, right? If I can try it free I will read all sorts of
crapstuff. Hence this really, really 'guilty pleasure' rec that...erm... is unconventional and a little embarrassing, but I enjoyed it anyway, so what the hell."To Please a Lady" by Lori Brighton.
It's a Regency/Victorian (I don't know which, somewhere in there) with a male prostitute and a titled lady. It actually turned out far more sweet than I had expected.
The male prostitute, who is in his late twenties, had been 'procured' by a madam when he was 13 or 14 years old. Ostensibly it was a result of his having been a thieving street rat who would've been hung, and she 'rescued' him, and then 'gave' him a way to support his younger sister and widowed mother. Though he was too ashamed to admit it to them, so he disappeared out of their lives and had the madam send the money to support them all these years. (Actually, none of it was accidential. The madam was seeking revenge on his late father and procured the boy quite deliberately, while never sending any money to his family -- to tragic results. But that's for him to discover during the novel. Looked at objectively, he's a slave because he doesn't even earn money from prostituting himself. He only has pin money, never enough to run away. Everything was 'sent'(except not) 'to his relatives.' He owns nothing.)
Despite the fact that he's a street urchin and son of a servant, the madam educated him to gentlemany manners, conversation, and graces for her uppercrust clients (there is one brief mention that it most likely included both gender clients but it's not discussed further).
The heroine of the book is both married (a point that many amazon reviewers complain about) and a countess. I think that the writer might have been a bit inspired by either the Keira Knightly movie "The Duchess" or by the actual Duchess of Devonshire who inspired the movie, because there is overlap in the backstory. The heroine's husband is a monster who hides behind appearances. She was married off by her family for money and societal stature/title because she was lovely and fashionable (so really the only thing that differentiates her from the hero is how "society" views the transaction). The husband is an autocratic tyrant, an abuser, and a philanderer who not only openly consorts/prefers his mistress, but has said mistress practically living in the house with them.
At the opening of the novel the heroine has endured a decade of utter misery in her marriage (She's in her thirties and is 6 years older than the hero). She's long since realized that she has no legal recourse (she's tried, even having run away once). She is legally her husband's property in that time period, and society will overlook her husband's abuse and philandering, somehow labeling his behavior as the 'fault' of the wife. Even her family will ignore it and send her back when she begged to leave him, because hey money and he's an exalted peer!
At some point she's resigned herself that there's no escape and that her husband will mostly likely follow through on his threats and kill her one day... which strangely liberates her to no longer give a f--- and coalesces in her wanting a moment of defiance... which leads her to the hero...and it's surprisingly chaste for good portion of the book.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-15 02:41 am (UTC)Have you tried the other two? And can you read them out of order? The brothel Madam also sounds interesting.
I may jump over to that after I finish Unraveled.
(Although, I really should read the 100 or so I have on Kindle).
How's Kindle Unlimited? I might want to try that - since I seem to buy a lot Kindle books.
Cont'd
Date: 2014-11-14 06:18 pm (UTC)It's a bit weird how this strange (Kindle Unlimited 'free') book turned out to be 'guilty pleasure'-level enjoyable, focusing on how both the hero and the heroine are virtual prisoners, with no legal recourse. (The threat of the abusive husband to kill her if she leaves him or even embarrasses him is treated as real. Hell, he terrorizes her for simply not being accounted for 24/7.) Between the titled husband and the upscale madam, there is a sense of menace and imprisonment bounding and limiting the hero's and heroine's lives. You just want them to escape.
The other factor in the story is the hero and heroine are both not sure exactly how 'real' their relationship actually is (it begins as friendship as both stopped believing in anything like 'love' with their long ago lost innocence). There's a lot of sense that there is no possible way these two could have a life together. Yet they both re-spark life in one another, awakening a desire to escape and eventually inspiring hope until each independently decides to attempt to do so. They're characters who when contemplating running away to Italy, you actually hope will do it... and that this would be a wholly acceptable conclusion.
It's a romance, so they do manage to wrestle a happy ending together (Much like "Unclaimed" they pretty much know they'll be ostracized from polite society. But, both of these characters are far beyond giving a damn about what society thinks. Society can go screw itself). Just to be free, to be safe, to make their own choices (and to rescue a couple of destitute orphans) constitutes their happy ending.
For what looked like a titilation read, it was surprisingly enjoyable... if you're in the right mindset. A lot of amazon reviewers couldn't get over a married heroine. But I sort of shared the heroine's mindset that there are lines that when crossed nullify any 'marriage'.
Re: Cont'd
Date: 2014-11-15 01:54 am (UTC)I think I read about this one a while back and flirted with it. But wasn't sure about the hero/heroine relationship...and if it had a happy ending. (I require happy endings and the bad guys getting it in books at the moment - hence romance novels, they are wonderfully predictable in that regard. Emotions are still a wee bit on the raw side, and I don't handle frustration well in entertainment choices. Revenge, for example, drives me nuts. I remember an Aunt used to read the end of the book first to make sure it ended happily before she bothered with it - she did this with romance novels, which made no sense, because hello? Romance novel. And mysteries? Which also made no sense - because that sort of ruins the whole point of reading the mystery. As a result of this Aunt and a mother who has a tendency to spoil me on soap operas, I tend to be a little less anal about spoilers than most. Also I don't quite mind them in regards to soap operas (because half the time, they are wrong anyhow, soaps have a tendency to change the plot on a whim - so figuring out which spoilers or rumors are accurate is half the fun).)
A lot of amazon reviewers couldn't get over a married heroine. But I sort of shared the heroine's mindset that there are lines that when crossed nullify any 'marriage'.
Eh, not a problem for me. As long as she eventually gets out of it and the hubby gets his just desserts.
I don't have the issues a lot of people have with marital fidelty. I've seen too many unhappy marriages. Some people just marry the wrong people. Not all marriages work. Also, not everyone is monogamous.
As long as the situation is interesting or complicated...I'm okay with it.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-15 03:40 am (UTC)I haven't read the other two books, though ive just downloaded the second.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-15 03:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-16 08:38 pm (UTC)Also it never really came to me as a suprize that Lovecraft was racist, fear of the unknown was after all the main source of his brand of horror.
I do absolutely get though, why shaping an award like him, is really a bad idea. I honestly think that should be changed. The past is the past but we are shaping the present and have to leave racism and sexism finally behind us.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-18 01:05 am (UTC)So, I generally agree with you. There's a lot of racist, sexist, etc writers out there...alive and dead. Not sure avoiding them makes much sense.
But I understand why they want to change the trophy...do we really need Lovecraft to represent an entire community? Would Octavia Butler be a better pick? Or just an elf?
no subject
Date: 2014-11-18 09:43 am (UTC)I guess Lovecraft is also an author for me, where the work and the observations definitely outclass the person of the author.
Lovecraft was a racist, but his writings also got me thinking about how the fear of the unknown works and how wrong it is to demonize people because of fear.
Completely with you about the award. No need to burn his books but shape the award after something that doesn't exclude parts of the community.