(no subject)
May. 4th, 2012 10:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. 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.
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.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-05-05 10:46 pm (UTC)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.)
no subject
Date: 2012-05-06 06:24 am (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-06 01:23 pm (UTC)It remains one of my favorite books and favorite pairings. Loved it.