Reading Meme

1. Reading meme...

What I just finished reading?

The bad romance novel I kept posting about.

Below the cut is the review I posted on Good Reads. I suppose I should feel bad about posting a bad review, but I don't. It was poorly written book, with a lot of poorly written reviews on it.

Review:

Out of curiosity, why is it that only the historical romance novels are progressive and/or subversive nowadays and the contemporary romances are...well...really not? You'd think it would be the opposite. Granted this hero isn't quite as bad as the heroes in Rosemary Rogers contemporaries...he doesn't rape anyone, so progress! But...

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That said -- there has to be a subversive contemporary out there somewhere? Something progressive? I've read too many that are JUST like this one. It's not new. Kristen Ashley follows the formula true to form -- the only distinction is the genie, who was a bit silly at the end. Very boilerplate alpha hero acts like an ass, heroine forgives and redeems and heals him with her forgiveness trope. (Don't worry, men also have this silly trope -- heroine acts like an ass, hero forgives and heals her.) I've gotten bored of this trope. Somewhat disappointed this wasn't the parody I thought it was at the beginning, in other words it started out great and fell flat at the end.

{This may explain why I'm writing my own rather subversive and progressive contemporary romance as we speak? Whether anyone gets to read it or not, is another matter entirely.)

What I'm reading now?

Well, I put a hold on Where the Crawdads Sing at the library-- apparently there's 92 people who want it and only 8 e-book copies available.( Read more... )

Anywho...instead I'm reading:

What the Parrot Saw by Darlene Marshall - which was rec'd by Courtney Milan and SmartBitches. It's about a female pirate who takes a English Man from a brothel to pay for a goat incident.

It's funny. Or so I'm told. Right now, today, my brain was having troubles making sense of the words. It was on information overload.

Also ( assorted comics )

What I'm reading next?

Where the Crawdads Sing...if it becomes available. Also tempted to read another Liane Moriarity.

2. Difficult day, difficult week.
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Hmmm...

1. DB hints at a 20th Anniversary Reunion Special for ATS -- I bet it's just a panel. But DB's Seal Team is on the chopping block at CBS, and he apparently loves the character of Angel (now, a decade or so later, after refusing to discuss it for years).

I admittedly wouldn't mind an Angel Reboot. Prefer it to Buffy, actually. That series had a few loose ends. Also, I could happily watch the Angel and Spike and Illyria series...

2. Sci-Fantasy Co-worker rec'd this book to me the other day. The Ruin of Kings - anyone read it? If so, what did you think? The reviews on Amazon are somewhat funky. One compares it to LOST (they hated Lost and thought the character development on Lost was lacking...hmmm.) Another says it's really fun. And a third compares it to the Lies of Lock Lamora...which is not necessarily a good thing.

3. This review of Captain Marvel makes some excellent points.

In particular:

So I can't say this is exactly criticism of the film - it does precisely what it sets out to do, and very well, too! It's just that that's not what I personally prefer.

(One of the things I find most frustrating in media criticism - within fandom and without - is calling things bad for not achieving something they were never trying to achieve, for not being something they never wanted to be. It's not bad writing if a story doesn't go where you want it to go! It's not bad acting if it's an acting choice you don't like. Those things are completely orthogonal to whether something is well written or acted or filmed!

Although this for the most part goes without saying...culture is subjective. And film/art criticism for the most part is subjective. People also get rather emotional about art and tend to react to it accordingly.

That said, however, one can make objective critiques regarding it. I found Captain Marvel to be unevenly directed and jarring in places. It also drug. The writers seemed to be trying to make three separate movies and couldn't decide which to make. I wouldn't say it was a bad film or poorly acted, just not a film that stands out or deserves much notice -- such as say Black Panther and Infinity War did.

YMMV. But it always does, regardless of what we are discussing.

I do however agree with the reviewer for most of her review. Where she points out that it sets up a huge emotional conflict, but doesn't really do anything with it and breezes right past it. Making the film basically just "a power fantasy and a well-executed one". (While I agree it is a power fantasy. I am on the fence that it was well-executed. It had pacing issues and drug. Sorry, it did. I know -- the theater got chatty. Also the power isn't really Carol's but from an external source, while she owns it...it's not real clear what it does or what it's detriments are. And her powers are a bit over the top. I don't know if it was well-executed. It had to accomplish three things -- which it does, rather well, but.. )

The film didn't quite work for me either -- because I felt it lacked an internal character conflict -- I didn't feel nor could I relate to Carol's struggle. For the reasons this reviewer suggests -- there's all this emotional conflict and the writers just ignore it in favor of...well, the power trip. I need a central character's emotional arc to pull me into a story -- otherwise my attention begins to wander and I start analyzing and critiquing the film's inherent flaws to amuse myself. Which is what I did here. If it doesn't pull me in or grab my emotions early on....we're in trouble.

What can I say? I don't find the whole power trip thing that relatable.

4. Study states Women with Male Twins are More Likely to Face Sexism at School and Work