(no subject)

[shadowkat]

1. Well, I made need to find a moment sometime within the next two weekends to see Whedon's Avengers...haven't seen any reviews outside of my flist, which loves it of course. But they also loved Cabin in the Woods...and we all know how well that went down. Also it should be noted that since I rarely see movies in the movie theater - and prefer them on netflix, because movie theaters are a) expensive, b) annoying, I tend to be rather picky. And...there's two types of superhero movies...the popcorn brand - a la Avengers, and the noir pulp literary brand a la Batman.

Keep in mind? I fell in love with Frank Miller and Timothy Sale's Batman. I find Marvel's Avengers comics sort of silly. Always did. I'm a noir girl. Although I will watch Robert Downey Jr do just about anything and he is a marvel as Tony Stark, plus I'm a huge fan of Samuel L Jackson.

Yes, I realize what I said above contradicts my last five posts. I don't pretend to be consistent in my pop culture tastes, just wonky.

2. Still reading 50 Shades Darker - book two in the trilogy. By the way, book one was 528 pages. Book two is 328. It's an intriguing read. That said I won't rec it to people. I can't imagine the majority of my flist liking this book. Honestly? I think you guys might hate it. Unless of course you like Nauti's Crave. There's no rape - but the male hero is very controlling and possessive and could push some buttons. The men on my flist would HATE this book. So for that matter would anyone who isn't heterosexual, seriously it is a heterosexual novel...too many times they make a joke out of the fact that everyone thinks Grey is gay because he doesn't appear to have a girlfriend until Ana. He's royally screwed up - borderline crazy. Unless you like Everybody's Human Fanfic Romances, Nauti's Crave and Unbridled_Burnett's Days of Forgotten Past...I think that's the name of it, Erotica (Heterosexual erotica), Alpha Males, and Mental illness...it's probably not your thing.

I'm frankly embarrassed to tell anyone I'm reading it. And very happy it's on e-book. The only people who know I'm reading this book - is the Momster, who is frankly sick of me talking about it and got her revenge tonight by talking about tennis politics, people who read my livejournal (you poor dear souls - you must be incredibly masochistic), and D at work (who I told in a weak moment). Well written, it's not. It's not badly written either. I've read worse. Actually so have you. Example: It's better than Twilight, Danielle Steele, Nora Roberts, Charlain Harris, and the Buffy comics. But doesn't hold a candle to JK Rowling or Stephen King in writing style.

But I find it compelling and cannot put the bloody thing down. It really hits my kinks regarding mental illness hard. A topic that fascinates me. As well as the whole...healing through love not pain or redeemption through love. Also I find the story unpredictable - this writer keeps surprising me, which is sort of hard to do in pulp fiction - actually it's hard to do period, unless the story is completely illogical, this one isn't. She's admittedly an undisciplined writer, and her editors could be a lot better. But, technically speaking? She's no better or worse a writer than Judith Krantz, Danielle Steel, Steig Larrson's translator, Anne Rice, James Patterson, Suzanne Collins, most fanfic I've read, Nautibitz, and various others. Also...I'm enjoying her subtle critique of rich philanthropists who adopt seriously abused and tortured kids and think all they have to do is give them a great education and everything money can provide. Uh. No. I'm enjoying this because I live in a neighborhood filled with people who do the same thing - they adopt these children who have been abused or from impoverished countries and hire nannies to take care of them. Give them great educations and sort of treat them like a prized plant or pooch. It's like they've gotten a kid from the ASPCA or a plant. I'm sorry children are not pets or plants. They aren't dogs or cats or orchids. They are human. The author's subtle take down of these well-to-do narcissistic parents is intriguing. I've never seen anyone do that in quite that way. She's also interesting in how she references all these classic gothic British novels - Tess, Rebecca, Jane Eyre...in different places. Makes me and apparently everyone else want to read them. Sales for Thomas Hardy's Tess have climbed big time since 50 Shades was published. You really can't fault a book that makes people want to read the classics. (It's ironic, considering the books were inspired by Twilight, but not inspiring folks to read Twilight - instead people are inspired to read Tess. LOL!) Speaking of Twilight - I know this was a Twilight fanfic, and I've admittedly not read all of Twilight, but it feels like the anti-Twilight. Ana Steel is one tough cookie. She doesn't let Grey abuse, beat, or control her.
She stands up to him - which is why he falls in love with her. She's not weak and not chilly.
Ana is an interesting heroine in that she's not the victimized little girl trope that you usually see or the woman who was tortured and survived, she's tough, but not a victim, not tortured, and she doesn't become hard or a weapon. She's a heroine that I can identify with.

Add to this...she's not that sexually experienced. Which I found believable. Not everyone is.
The weird societal assumption is that every 21 year old on the planet is not a virgin and has had a lot of sex. Uh no. Actually that's not true of anyone on the planet. People are weird.
They think for some reason that continues to perplex me that everyone has had the same experiences they have. No. Most people have had completely different experiences, polar opposite ones in fact. That's what makes life interesting. The problem lies in seeking out only those people who are like you. It makes you stupid. Stop doing that people. Diversity is the spice of life! Case in point - I'm willing to bet you money that I'm most likely the only one on my flist reading 50 Shades of Grey. (Okay maybe not money...how about my Buffy comics collection?)

I don't think you can possibly appreciate 50 Shades, unless you've read numerous romance novels of varying shapes and sizes (and no, not the classics referred to in Eugendies novel The Marriage Plot - he clearly hasn't read any romance novels since the early 1900s or ironically in 50 Shades.) The new variety is not necessarily well written and tends to be somewhat boilerplate. I was looking for something in all of them - went through about 30 until I found it in 50 Shades. Which is amusing to me. The other books frustrated me, because stupid heroine was so insipid and passive, 50 Shades, she's not - in fact, 50 Shades comments on the passive/submissive heroine and explains why this doesn't work. Clearly the writer of this book has read as many romance novels as I have and got as fed up as I did and ended up writing her own out of a fit of pique. I think that's why a lot of people write - I read on Kristin Kashore's site, she started writing because she couldn't find the story she wanted to read anywhere. It's why I write and tell stories. Because I can't find it. The problem with genre...is often it falls into boilerplate or formulae. Everybody thinks they have to do a, b, and c. They have to follow these set rules. And after a while, if you read enough of them, you get bored.

One bit or routine I'm sick and tired of...is the old, we won't have the characters discuss this and instead let them miscommunicate forever. I gave up on the Buffy comics because of this problem. Stupid writers, I want to say, let the two characters talk it out. We the audience do care if Xander lied to Buffy about Angel in Becoming and do want it referred to. We care that Giles killed Ben and Buffy doesn't know he did and would like that referred to. Discussion is actually more interesting than reading a boring fight scene or sex scene again.

I wanted to kill Jim Butcher for going for the fight scene over the discussion in his last novel Ghost Story. Felt the same way about Kim Harrison.

Say what you will about Hemingway, but the man understood the value of dialogue.

Okay off to read more.

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Thing is that I more and more perceive this dream of wealth that is sold by the media as an instrument of oppression. And it's not that a character is materialistic (take Lizzy Bennet, she is highly materialistic, it's what comes with being poor) it's the flair of a story. How much time is spent on describing the wealth, is it part of the idealized fantasy that there is lots of money, etc.

Oddly, so does EL James or she appears to. Her take on wealth is oddly reminiscent of Austen and Hardy, as opposed to mainstream romance novelists such as Roberts, McNaught, and Rice.

Grey gives Anastasia an Audi 3 for graduation. We find out later - it's the car he gives to all his submissives. She adores her beaten up, Beetle, and throws the car back in his face. They fight over it. She finally caves - it's safer. The emphasis on the expensive cars is safety. They go car shopping again - and he doesn't give her a choice, she's a bit pissed, but at least he's given in to go with a SAAB not an Audi, but again it has to be the most "safe" care imaginable.

He hires a personal shopper to get her a wardrobe. She bulks. And despairs. Yes, beautiful clothes...but also feels very controlling.
In the book he's adopted by a well-to-do family who uses wealth to control...

It's emphasized constantly in the novel. And the author continuously refers to Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca, and Hardy's Tess as well as Lizzie Bennette and Jane Eyre - all novels that discuss wealth as a means of oppression of control.

The hero's father's charity is called Coping Together - crack mothers and sons coping - with little regard to his adoptive son's trauma. He holds a big charity ball. And treats money like candy during it - everyone puts their name on a hundred dollar bill and puts it in a pot.
They play games. Auction off dances, and expensive resorts and spa weekends. The dinner is 10 course affair with wines etc. So we have a charity that donates to the poverty stricken - with opulent prizes.
There's a very dry satirical wit entangled within that. And oh? During this? The hero takes the heroine (who has been wearing beebee balls (vaginal sex toy balls) until she has to remove them) to his childhood room, where he sensually spanks her and they have sex. The room is draped in white, with kick-boxing trophies, pop culture film posters such as the Matrix, and Mariners pennants...with photos of all the places around the world he's been. The heroine hasn't left the continental US.

It's almost as if James is making fun of her own fantasy, critiquing it. Something you never see in this genre. They NEVER do that. Usually the heroine loves the fact he bought her clothes, loves the ball, and is all "Cinderella" about it. But here? Not really. She's uncomfortable and he's uncomfortable. It's odd.



This is what I really love about those books. They set an example. There is a whole market that is completely ignored by mainstream publishing and now it is carving out its own place.

I was listening to a conversation while waiting for the subway this morning - and a woman told her boyfriend, who had just downloaded the first book. That she'd never read a book like this before. (Most people haven't - they aren't like me - who is insanely curious about cultural stuff and a bit of culture junkie.) And it gives the work legitimacy. Especially female fanfiction - most fanfiction is written by women.

James states in an interview her favorite authors, and the interviewer stupidly inquires.."All women? Why?" And James looks at the interviewer oddly..."because I like a good love story." James isn't a pretty woman, thin, perfect, like you see on all these shows or like Meyer...she looks like me.

I think it also gives many writers hope not to try to cater to the industry but to their own passions and trust that there are people out there who share them. I for one begrudge her not a penny.

This! Exactly. It's what I love most about this. It gives us freedom.
Frak the publishing industry and it's corporate control. We can write from our hearts and there are people who will love it.

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

Still it seems to me that the description of wealth gets too much room (for my taste). In that respect very similar to Twilight, where Bella also gets cars and shit all the time. Of course she complains (she complains about everything), but it's still depicted as that great thing.

So much time on discussing cars, it just bores me. But like I said, this is personal taste. Wish fulfilment is a huge thing in fanfic and greed fulfilment is just something I don't care to read.

I'm glad it is presented with self irony but it's still something that makes me skip pages.

That she'd never read a book like this before.

It's fanfic hitting the mainstream and that was sooo overdue. I really like that.

This! Exactly. It's what I love most about this. It gives us freedom.
Frak the publishing industry and it's corporate control. We can write from our hearts and there are people who will love it.


I hope it'll inspire a lot of fanfic writers to at least try. I'm so sick of those leech industries and I really love the possibilities the net opens up here.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

So much time on discussing cars, it just bores me. But like I said, this is personal taste. Wish fulfilment is a huge thing in fanfic and greed fulfilment is just something I don't care to read.

I have to admit it annoyed me too. I don't drive or own a car and could care less. And I've no idea what a Saab or an Audi looks like. So I just sort of skimmed over. She doesn't discuss it that much.

The book spends more time discussing BDSM and psychology than anything else. The writer is obviously fascinated with psychology. She's pyscho-analyzing these character tropes - which is a fanfic thing to do. Really psycho-analyzing. The main character goes to a pyschologist and brings the heroine with him, and they discuss his issues. I was blown away. This is NEVER done in romance novels.

On Twilight? I couldn't make it past the first 50 pages, so have no idea how close this is to that story. It is better written than Twilight in my opinion. Because again, couldn't read Twilight.
I might rent the movies - to see how similar the two stories are - although considering I can't stand the Twilight trailer...this probably won't work either. Which is why my reaction to 50 Shades is so surprising...I mean, it's a fanfic based on a story that I found unreadable and disliked intensely.

Says a lot about fanfic...doesn't it?

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

On Twilight? I couldn't make it past the first 50 pages, so have no idea how close this is to that story. It is better written than Twilight in my opinion. Because again, couldn't read Twilight.
I might rent the movies - to see how similar the two stories are - although considering I can't stand the Twilight trailer...this probably won't work either. Which is why my reaction to 50 Shades is so surprising...I mean, it's a fanfic based on a story that I found unreadable and disliked intensely.

Don't. Believe me, even from the excerpts I've read I can tell it is written a mile better than Twilight (proper grammar, larger vocabulary, I think that I noticed the lack of those things in Twilight as a non native speaker is pretty telling in itself).

Also the heroine seems to be so much more bearable than Bella.

The cool thing about fanfic is that it sometimes is better than the base material. With Buffy it's usually some aspect that is worked on and given much more room than in the show.

This happened to me with Naomi Novic's Merlin fanfic. It's so much better than the source material. Even though it is mostly just backdrop for the porn, the politics,battle tactics and evolving personal dynamics are so much better in her stories than on the show.

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

Also wanted to ask you, if you have read Shards of Honor by McMaster-Bujold?

I think you would really enjoy it. I thought it was brilliant romance wise and very interesting with the gender thingies.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I read a book called Cordelia's Honor - which I think combined two books.
One of those might have been Shards of Honor?

Was it the Cordelia and Major Vorskojikan romance? The parents of Miles?
Because I did love that book. It was fantastic. Very twisty and complex.
50 Shades reminds me a little of that dynamic. (without the sci-fi and the politics of course.)

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

Yes, those are the ones I meant. :)
I really loved it too, because the dynamic was so brilliant. You could really feel that those two work despite their very different upbringings.

It's two fully formed personalities that are retained throughout the story and rub off each other brilliantly.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

It remains one of my favorite books and favorite pairings. Loved it.