The Book Rant
Mar. 1st, 2015 11:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatBusy weekend. On the way home from church, it was snowing...light and fluffy, then sleet, and now, hours later, I fear it is raining...which means a mess tomorrow for my commute. I walk to the subway, about four-five blocks, ride it, two to three blocks to the train, ride it, about two to three blocks to the office. Personally, I think I should get hazard pay for the last two-three blocks - avoiding getting hit by the buses on a good day - is an adventure in of itself.
After writing a variety of Amazon and Good Reads book reviews - which have been read by roughly 74 people on Amazon, and I think five on Good Reads. Making me wonder why I bother. Possibly because I'm not really doing it for people to read them, so much as a means of keeping track of what I've read and liked or didn't like, and why. (Shrugs). Also it's fun to share it with folks. But, let's face it - I'm not that entertaining when it comes to writing book reviews. I'm neither a squee-er (Is this even a word? Well it is now.) or a ranter - at least not when it comes to books. (Although admittedly the only one that I bothered to rant about, Me Before You by Jo Jo Moyes, which did offend me enough for me to rant about it, got the most positive responses. Ironic that. Particularly since I sort of regret doing it.) And I'm not tech savvy enough to use GIP or GIF's (I think I'm using the terminology correctly, apparently I'm not even tech savvy enough to figure out the correct lingo much to the considerable chagrin of my techy friends), in order to entertain them. Personally I find videos and pics in lieu of words annoying. It's why I'm not on Tumblr that often.
A friend of mine, MD, doesn't read book reviews. She despises reviews. Stating they are either "rants" (where the reader feels the need to tell you exactly how much they hated this book, and seriously she has better things to focus her time on) or spoilery raves, which tell her far too much about the book. She prefers to make up her own mind. I agree. Except, I enjoy reading reviews - I find them to be fascinating.
I have to date read all the negative and positive reviews of 50 Shades of Gray,
Jo Walton's Among Others, Courtney Milan's Trade Me, Illona Andrews series, JA Corey's series, the Outlander series (accidentally spoiling myself in the process...also I've come to the realization that I am not a fan of book series. Which is odd, since I like serials, usually. Oh well, I don't claim to be consistent in my tastes.) and Jim Butcher and GRR Martins series.)
I read a lot book rants. And I do mean, a lot. More than your average bear. From Smartbitches, who depending on the ranters varies between entertaining to just grating. They can get self-righteous and hypocritical at times. To Good Reads. Good Reads had some decent book rants on Jo Jo Moyes Me Before You and Outlander. I actually read a hate/rant thread on The Fault in Our Stars, of all things. Mostly kids whinging about how kids don't talk and think about that, and flinging dirt about the author (which wasn't verifiable). Then to be even more masochistic - read one about Harry Potter, Catcher in the Rye, The Lord of the Rings, and The Hunger Games. Good Reads has a bit of affinity for hate threads. I don't recommend.
Book rants, much like a lot of book reviews actually, aren't really that informative about the book in question. They do tell you a lot about the people ranting about it. What offends them. What motivates them. Whether they need to seek psychological counseling. Also, demonstrates how counter-productive the rant is - all your doing is building momentum - until you have a group of 50 people who basically want to slaughter each other. Hardly helpful. Then, eventually, you begin to attract folks who feel the need to tell you, ahem, you are wrong, and how can you possibly hate this book. Which just fuels the fire.
The rants tend to be, by and large, with few exceptions, directed at "media" or "marketing darlings" - those novels that the media for whatever reason has decided to market to death. When a book strikes a chord - the marketing people are like vampires with a scent of blood - they go hog-wild. They create movie and television options. The books are on the best-seller lists. They've turned their authors into celebrities and billionaires. There's action figures. Posters. Guidebooks. Companion novels. Books explaining the book. (I kid you not, people actually write novels that help people understand books like 50 Shades of Grey.) There's also parodies. Copy-cats. Etc. It's frightening. Which results in what I like to call Tall Poppy Syndrom" or "The Envy Factor". People feel the need to take these superstars down a peg or two. In the movie industry - the equivalent is Avatar and Titantic, also Star Wars. Although no one really hated Star Wars, guy flicks or guy books don't get the hate that female or chick-lit and Young Adult/Children's novels do. Which I personally think is rather sexist. Granted, I liked Star Wars, and was less than impressed by Avatar (pretty in 3 D though), and Titantic (outside of the disaster scenes and the team attempting to uncover what happened).
Granted there are few books out there that have been over-hyped, which result in book rants due to the fact that various people just find their mere existence blatantly offensive. (They aren't necessarily wrong. The erotica novels are offensive, but that's part of the point. They are meant to be. Sexual fantasy that is taboo or offensive is often a huge turn on. You are supposed to be offended.) And people really wish they weren't that popular. (Mainly because if they remained cult or underground, you could blithely ignore them. Sort of like fanfic. Actually, most of the current string of erotic novels are actually fanfic with the serial numbers ironed off. They are dirty little romance novels, about taboo topics - and fantasies that we aren't supposed to have.) Not realizing that ranting about them ad nauseum on the internet and elsewhere just ads to the curiousity factor and attracts even more readers, they feel the need to voice their annoyance.
Seriously, learn from history people - banning, censoring, or ranting about a book or tv show just makes it more popular. Also you piss off the people who genuinely enjoyed it, for whatever reason, which is also hardly helpful - because hello, they can also rip apart your favorite toy. (It's admittedly tempting. But been there done that...it too is hardly helpful. But tempting. I've done it a few times. People don't argue with a former lawyer, we're taught to see both sides of every argument. I can basically rip anything I want to apart. But it makes me miserable, so I choose not to.) Ranting doesn't make me happy. It makes me miserable. I feel ashamed, dirty, and angry afterwards. Which makes me wonder why other people do it? Maybe the initial adrenaline rush?
The 50 Shades reviews are admittedly rather entertaining. They also make you wonder about people - so it can be an exercise in how badly we judge others.
One guy wrote that the book had given him and his wife multiple orgasms. Uhm, okay. Not exactly sure I needed to know that. Neither did you. But I figure if I know it, you should too. Then there was one where a woman complained that she had been married 20 years and never had that type of experience - no orgasms. Was she doing something wrong? (Someone told her she should spice her sex life up with some...BDSM.) Another, this time on Good Reads, wanted to know how she could find a guy like Christian Grey? (A commentator snarkily replied, she should search the assholes classifieds, or go to a stalker's anonymous meeting). Like I said, reading these reviews makes you wonder about people. The internet appears to be a great resource for psychologists hunting potential patients, doesn't it? The male reviewers worry me more than the female ones. One said that at last he knew what turned women on, this was so eye-opening - he should try this for real. Uh,no. Fella? If you try that, you may well find yourself at the sticky end of a restraining order, or worse.
These responses alone explain some of the rants and lengthy essays on the book. Note people aren't reacting to the book - the ranters are reacting to people who have enjoyed the book. Which is wee bit different. The book itself is not more offensive or less offensive than the other ones out there. Here, I'll provide a list:
* Beautiful Bastard (another Twilight Fanfic with the serial numbers ironed off, and I haven't read this one - it's basically hate sex with office politics.)
* Rush by Maya Banks (it includes something rather close to a gang rape all under the haze of BDSM)
* Sylvia Day's Crossfire Series (5 books in all - very similar to 50 Shades. An absurdly wealthy, domineering, calculating hero and a young heroine (except she's sexually experienced) - the point is the healing of the wounded male hero, and the wounded heroine via sex, of course. In 50 Shades - it's the healing of the wounded male hero... and the sexual awakening of the heroine, reminiscent of The Story of O and the Claiming of Sleeping Beauty. )
For fanfic in the Buffy/Spike fandom?
Nautibitz's Crave ( I re-read recently, to see how it compares to the others out there) - which in some respects is far more offensive, hence the reason she didn't try to iron off the serial numbers. (It's about a happily married woman, who is married to a dream of guy, who enters a BDSM affair with his depraved, billionaire, and much older father. The BDSM in this book makes 50 Shades look tame. There's spiky dildo's, whips, canes, and lots of mother/daddy allusions. Also, the hubby is a pro-bono attorney, singer, kind, and loving. While the father in law is domineering, a bit of a jerk, and controlling. She ends up with her father in law.)
50 broke a lot of rules, as a result it pissed a lot of folks off, and amused others.
(What rules did it break? The writer took an Everbody's All Human Twilight porn with some plot fanfic, ironed off the serial numbers, got it published, marketed, and made billions. Keep in mind a few things - in the online fanfic community - Everybody's All Human AU porn with plot fanfic is ranted about and a guilty pleasure, you don't tend to advertise. And the writers of this fanfic basically go as far as they can. The fanfic is wrtten like a WIP. It's stretched out. Plot - not quite the point. Built purely on emotion and reader response. Also, it becomes a bit of a game, of sorts, in how much the writer can shock her readers. How far can you go? And what can you get away with? The sex scenes are often absurd. Another thing about the fanfic community - making money off your fanfic is a big no-no. Sort of goes against the whole point of fanfic. (James made a shit-load of money.) It's porn with a little plot and the porn includes spanking, whipping, and bondage - without following the precise rules of the community. In fanfic this is okay - it's been done with about every tv series or book series on the planet. The most disturbing was, ahem, Teletubbies...(don't ask), and Harry Potter. (No, I did not read it. I stick to Buffy fanfic.) But as a published, and highly commercial novel? Ack!!! Again not done.
So James by publishing the fic she'd written as Ice Snow Dragon on a Twilight fan site, basically violated various sacred and sundry fandom rules. Pissing off people in multiple fandoms, and starting a new genre, the push-to-publish genre of best-selling, former Twilight fanfic porn. (Trek fanfic writers are screaming bloody murder.) Also keep in mind, the split over Twilight. Various Twilight fans saw it as plagirism or copyright infringement. (It's not. You can't tell it was based on Twilight, and the only similar aspects are basically similar to various contemporary romance novels published in the 1980s. Apparently Stephanie Meyer read the same romance novels that EL James did.) And were offended that someone would make billions off of an Everybody's All Human Twilight fanfic. (Ironically EL James's Everybody's All Human porn fanfic has outsold Twilight, and the first movie outsold Twilight. Which is humorous in of itself.)
The ranting was in some respects a response to the breakage of those rules. It was also a response to the people who loved the book. Most of the rants that I've read are in direct response to the people who posted reviews discussing how wonderful the book was. Folks? People view things differently. Don't rant at someone who loves something. How would you feel if they ranted at you?
I used to have these arguments with people in the Buffy fandom all the frigging time, to no avail. What can I say? People go crazy on the internet. It can bring out the worst in us all.
The Bangle/Angel shippers would rant about the Spike/Spuffy shippers, as well as the relationship. (And vice versa. The Spuffy/Spike Shippers did the same thing. Actually they are still doing it, believe it or not. Ten years and counting.) But they were really just ranting about the shippers. If they calmed down and thought about it - they'd realize that neither relationship is healthy or particularly wholesome. Both had their issues. Also, they aren't exactly persuading the other side or even the innocent bystanders - they are just looking a wee bit silly and making themselves miserable. Does this stop them? No. Like I said, they've been ranting about this for more than ten years now. The show, to put this in perspective, only lasted seven years. And by the time both shows ended, it appeared that Spike and Angel had ridden off into an alley to fight demons together. Yet still they rant. I've given up attempting to discuss the show.
At any rate, I get why people rant about books. I'm just not so sure it's helpful or necessary. It's certainly not kind. But hey, freedom of speech and all that. Just, ahem, do it over there where we can't see you?
[I'm disabling comments. Because I don't want to argue with folks about this. I know some of you vehemently disagree with me, (and let's face it, people can't seem to argue on the internet any more without launching a personal assault - and diving for the jugular.) I just wanted to post on it. But the controversial stuff is behind an lj-cut, so you don't have to read it.]
After writing a variety of Amazon and Good Reads book reviews - which have been read by roughly 74 people on Amazon, and I think five on Good Reads. Making me wonder why I bother. Possibly because I'm not really doing it for people to read them, so much as a means of keeping track of what I've read and liked or didn't like, and why. (Shrugs). Also it's fun to share it with folks. But, let's face it - I'm not that entertaining when it comes to writing book reviews. I'm neither a squee-er (Is this even a word? Well it is now.) or a ranter - at least not when it comes to books. (Although admittedly the only one that I bothered to rant about, Me Before You by Jo Jo Moyes, which did offend me enough for me to rant about it, got the most positive responses. Ironic that. Particularly since I sort of regret doing it.) And I'm not tech savvy enough to use GIP or GIF's (I think I'm using the terminology correctly, apparently I'm not even tech savvy enough to figure out the correct lingo much to the considerable chagrin of my techy friends), in order to entertain them. Personally I find videos and pics in lieu of words annoying. It's why I'm not on Tumblr that often.
A friend of mine, MD, doesn't read book reviews. She despises reviews. Stating they are either "rants" (where the reader feels the need to tell you exactly how much they hated this book, and seriously she has better things to focus her time on) or spoilery raves, which tell her far too much about the book. She prefers to make up her own mind. I agree. Except, I enjoy reading reviews - I find them to be fascinating.
I have to date read all the negative and positive reviews of 50 Shades of Gray,
Jo Walton's Among Others, Courtney Milan's Trade Me, Illona Andrews series, JA Corey's series, the Outlander series (accidentally spoiling myself in the process...also I've come to the realization that I am not a fan of book series. Which is odd, since I like serials, usually. Oh well, I don't claim to be consistent in my tastes.) and Jim Butcher and GRR Martins series.)
I read a lot book rants. And I do mean, a lot. More than your average bear. From Smartbitches, who depending on the ranters varies between entertaining to just grating. They can get self-righteous and hypocritical at times. To Good Reads. Good Reads had some decent book rants on Jo Jo Moyes Me Before You and Outlander. I actually read a hate/rant thread on The Fault in Our Stars, of all things. Mostly kids whinging about how kids don't talk and think about that, and flinging dirt about the author (which wasn't verifiable). Then to be even more masochistic - read one about Harry Potter, Catcher in the Rye, The Lord of the Rings, and The Hunger Games. Good Reads has a bit of affinity for hate threads. I don't recommend.
Book rants, much like a lot of book reviews actually, aren't really that informative about the book in question. They do tell you a lot about the people ranting about it. What offends them. What motivates them. Whether they need to seek psychological counseling. Also, demonstrates how counter-productive the rant is - all your doing is building momentum - until you have a group of 50 people who basically want to slaughter each other. Hardly helpful. Then, eventually, you begin to attract folks who feel the need to tell you, ahem, you are wrong, and how can you possibly hate this book. Which just fuels the fire.
The rants tend to be, by and large, with few exceptions, directed at "media" or "marketing darlings" - those novels that the media for whatever reason has decided to market to death. When a book strikes a chord - the marketing people are like vampires with a scent of blood - they go hog-wild. They create movie and television options. The books are on the best-seller lists. They've turned their authors into celebrities and billionaires. There's action figures. Posters. Guidebooks. Companion novels. Books explaining the book. (I kid you not, people actually write novels that help people understand books like 50 Shades of Grey.) There's also parodies. Copy-cats. Etc. It's frightening. Which results in what I like to call Tall Poppy Syndrom" or "The Envy Factor". People feel the need to take these superstars down a peg or two. In the movie industry - the equivalent is Avatar and Titantic, also Star Wars. Although no one really hated Star Wars, guy flicks or guy books don't get the hate that female or chick-lit and Young Adult/Children's novels do. Which I personally think is rather sexist. Granted, I liked Star Wars, and was less than impressed by Avatar (pretty in 3 D though), and Titantic (outside of the disaster scenes and the team attempting to uncover what happened).
Granted there are few books out there that have been over-hyped, which result in book rants due to the fact that various people just find their mere existence blatantly offensive. (They aren't necessarily wrong. The erotica novels are offensive, but that's part of the point. They are meant to be. Sexual fantasy that is taboo or offensive is often a huge turn on. You are supposed to be offended.) And people really wish they weren't that popular. (Mainly because if they remained cult or underground, you could blithely ignore them. Sort of like fanfic. Actually, most of the current string of erotic novels are actually fanfic with the serial numbers ironed off. They are dirty little romance novels, about taboo topics - and fantasies that we aren't supposed to have.) Not realizing that ranting about them ad nauseum on the internet and elsewhere just ads to the curiousity factor and attracts even more readers, they feel the need to voice their annoyance.
Seriously, learn from history people - banning, censoring, or ranting about a book or tv show just makes it more popular. Also you piss off the people who genuinely enjoyed it, for whatever reason, which is also hardly helpful - because hello, they can also rip apart your favorite toy. (It's admittedly tempting. But been there done that...it too is hardly helpful. But tempting. I've done it a few times. People don't argue with a former lawyer, we're taught to see both sides of every argument. I can basically rip anything I want to apart. But it makes me miserable, so I choose not to.) Ranting doesn't make me happy. It makes me miserable. I feel ashamed, dirty, and angry afterwards. Which makes me wonder why other people do it? Maybe the initial adrenaline rush?
The 50 Shades reviews are admittedly rather entertaining. They also make you wonder about people - so it can be an exercise in how badly we judge others.
One guy wrote that the book had given him and his wife multiple orgasms. Uhm, okay. Not exactly sure I needed to know that. Neither did you. But I figure if I know it, you should too. Then there was one where a woman complained that she had been married 20 years and never had that type of experience - no orgasms. Was she doing something wrong? (Someone told her she should spice her sex life up with some...BDSM.) Another, this time on Good Reads, wanted to know how she could find a guy like Christian Grey? (A commentator snarkily replied, she should search the assholes classifieds, or go to a stalker's anonymous meeting). Like I said, reading these reviews makes you wonder about people. The internet appears to be a great resource for psychologists hunting potential patients, doesn't it? The male reviewers worry me more than the female ones. One said that at last he knew what turned women on, this was so eye-opening - he should try this for real. Uh,no. Fella? If you try that, you may well find yourself at the sticky end of a restraining order, or worse.
These responses alone explain some of the rants and lengthy essays on the book. Note people aren't reacting to the book - the ranters are reacting to people who have enjoyed the book. Which is wee bit different. The book itself is not more offensive or less offensive than the other ones out there. Here, I'll provide a list:
* Beautiful Bastard (another Twilight Fanfic with the serial numbers ironed off, and I haven't read this one - it's basically hate sex with office politics.)
* Rush by Maya Banks (it includes something rather close to a gang rape all under the haze of BDSM)
* Sylvia Day's Crossfire Series (5 books in all - very similar to 50 Shades. An absurdly wealthy, domineering, calculating hero and a young heroine (except she's sexually experienced) - the point is the healing of the wounded male hero, and the wounded heroine via sex, of course. In 50 Shades - it's the healing of the wounded male hero... and the sexual awakening of the heroine, reminiscent of The Story of O and the Claiming of Sleeping Beauty. )
For fanfic in the Buffy/Spike fandom?
Nautibitz's Crave ( I re-read recently, to see how it compares to the others out there) - which in some respects is far more offensive, hence the reason she didn't try to iron off the serial numbers. (It's about a happily married woman, who is married to a dream of guy, who enters a BDSM affair with his depraved, billionaire, and much older father. The BDSM in this book makes 50 Shades look tame. There's spiky dildo's, whips, canes, and lots of mother/daddy allusions. Also, the hubby is a pro-bono attorney, singer, kind, and loving. While the father in law is domineering, a bit of a jerk, and controlling. She ends up with her father in law.)
50 broke a lot of rules, as a result it pissed a lot of folks off, and amused others.
(What rules did it break? The writer took an Everbody's All Human Twilight porn with some plot fanfic, ironed off the serial numbers, got it published, marketed, and made billions. Keep in mind a few things - in the online fanfic community - Everybody's All Human AU porn with plot fanfic is ranted about and a guilty pleasure, you don't tend to advertise. And the writers of this fanfic basically go as far as they can. The fanfic is wrtten like a WIP. It's stretched out. Plot - not quite the point. Built purely on emotion and reader response. Also, it becomes a bit of a game, of sorts, in how much the writer can shock her readers. How far can you go? And what can you get away with? The sex scenes are often absurd. Another thing about the fanfic community - making money off your fanfic is a big no-no. Sort of goes against the whole point of fanfic. (James made a shit-load of money.) It's porn with a little plot and the porn includes spanking, whipping, and bondage - without following the precise rules of the community. In fanfic this is okay - it's been done with about every tv series or book series on the planet. The most disturbing was, ahem, Teletubbies...(don't ask), and Harry Potter. (No, I did not read it. I stick to Buffy fanfic.) But as a published, and highly commercial novel? Ack!!! Again not done.
So James by publishing the fic she'd written as Ice Snow Dragon on a Twilight fan site, basically violated various sacred and sundry fandom rules. Pissing off people in multiple fandoms, and starting a new genre, the push-to-publish genre of best-selling, former Twilight fanfic porn. (Trek fanfic writers are screaming bloody murder.) Also keep in mind, the split over Twilight. Various Twilight fans saw it as plagirism or copyright infringement. (It's not. You can't tell it was based on Twilight, and the only similar aspects are basically similar to various contemporary romance novels published in the 1980s. Apparently Stephanie Meyer read the same romance novels that EL James did.) And were offended that someone would make billions off of an Everybody's All Human Twilight fanfic. (Ironically EL James's Everybody's All Human porn fanfic has outsold Twilight, and the first movie outsold Twilight. Which is humorous in of itself.)
The ranting was in some respects a response to the breakage of those rules. It was also a response to the people who loved the book. Most of the rants that I've read are in direct response to the people who posted reviews discussing how wonderful the book was. Folks? People view things differently. Don't rant at someone who loves something. How would you feel if they ranted at you?
I used to have these arguments with people in the Buffy fandom all the frigging time, to no avail. What can I say? People go crazy on the internet. It can bring out the worst in us all.
The Bangle/Angel shippers would rant about the Spike/Spuffy shippers, as well as the relationship. (And vice versa. The Spuffy/Spike Shippers did the same thing. Actually they are still doing it, believe it or not. Ten years and counting.) But they were really just ranting about the shippers. If they calmed down and thought about it - they'd realize that neither relationship is healthy or particularly wholesome. Both had their issues. Also, they aren't exactly persuading the other side or even the innocent bystanders - they are just looking a wee bit silly and making themselves miserable. Does this stop them? No. Like I said, they've been ranting about this for more than ten years now. The show, to put this in perspective, only lasted seven years. And by the time both shows ended, it appeared that Spike and Angel had ridden off into an alley to fight demons together. Yet still they rant. I've given up attempting to discuss the show.
At any rate, I get why people rant about books. I'm just not so sure it's helpful or necessary. It's certainly not kind. But hey, freedom of speech and all that. Just, ahem, do it over there where we can't see you?
[I'm disabling comments. Because I don't want to argue with folks about this. I know some of you vehemently disagree with me, (and let's face it, people can't seem to argue on the internet any more without launching a personal assault - and diving for the jugular.) I just wanted to post on it. But the controversial stuff is behind an lj-cut, so you don't have to read it.]