InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Save the cheerleader..."

randomsome1 (randomsome1) wrote,
@ 2008-07-09 18:04:00

Entry tags:

in ur novel eatin ur book

went on a new book hunt . . .
Picked up Danielle Steel's Rogue and cracked it open on a whim, just to see how bad it was. It was phenomenally bad. Sweet Jesus, her narrative is about as exciting and emotionally charged as a comma-heavy encyclopedia article written by a depressed octogenarian. It's poop, I tell you, utter poop--as if you didn't know already. :P

Started Steve Perry's The Musashi Flex and ended up putting it down. Perry's actually trained in Filipino knife systems and it shows with his fight scenes, which work pretty well (as opposed to the half-assed & barely described "knife dancing" in Karen Miller's Empress). He makes me wanna dig out my karambit and play with it. Unfortunately, his sentence structure clunks along sans semicolons and the big typo on the first page didn't really endear me to the work. I may go back for it later--just not now.

Gave up on Elizabeth George's Careless in Red around a sentence that rolled something like "running up and down his arms like the chilly fingers of a dead baby." You guys know me--it triggered a few dozen dead baby jokes and that was pretty much the end of that. Oh, Elizabeth . . . And I had such hope.

Started reading The Feminine Mistake. I think it needs more citations & a little less bias, but I'm still wading on through because I'm interested in a possible explanation for the sort of culture that'll make a runaway bestseller of Stephenie Meyer's wildly misogynistic & blatantly anti-feminist trainwreck. We'll see how this one goes.

(C. S. Lewis wrote the Christian fantasy epic. Pullman wrote the atheist fantasy epic. Meyer wrote the anti-feminist Mormon epic. Rowling wrote the boy wizard, and Paolini wrote the shameless Star Wars ripoff. I wonder what mine'd count as. Neo-pagan? Hmm.)

(I should really, really work on that first draft of BF&B more. But between that and the NYAF stuff and the wedding mess and random ficcage and the lolSue story clamoring for headspace, I really have no idea what the fuck I'm trying to create from one moment to the next.)

Next victim: Gideon Defoe, and his uber-cracky Pirates! novels.

Gregory Maguire's third book in the Wicked series, Lion Among Men, is due out later this year. I want to have a release party. I'd paint myself green and wander about with the uber-cute Ty lion. I think my store's higher-ups would be amused at the green-ness . . . but not enough to warrant a midnight release. Bah.

Oh well. If they won't give me a midnight release, I shall crack into the boxes myself and read it early, out of spite. :D

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	zen_of_nihilism 2008-07-11 02:39 am UTC (link)
	See I think of it as a Jackie Chan movie. The plot is just to get from fight to fight, so I enjoyed the Musashi Flex. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	randomsome1 2008-07-11 11:24 pm UTC (link)
	Nothin' wrong with Jackie. :) (Reply to this) (Parent)

threeoranges
2008-07-11 06:05 pm UTC (link)

Yes, I'm hacking my way through Elizabeth's latest jungle of Purple Prose myself! Haven't found that sentence yet, but I'm quite annoyed at the overwritten, somewhat strained quality of her recent prose too. But, as I said, I was very impressed by her earlier work: could I ask you to try FOR THE SAKE OF ELENA or PLAYING FOR THE ASHES before you give up on her entirely?

Currently reading Douglas Kennedy's TEMPTATION, and as well as being a suave morality tale of modern Hollywood it also comes down HARD on plagiarists. Reading it, couldn't help thinking of CC and how she got away scotfree...

(Reply to this) (Thread)

threeoranges
2008-07-11 06:18 pm UTC (link)

Also, just followed yr link to THE FEMININE MISTAKE, and it sounds no more than basic common sense to point out that women need independence in case something goes wrong. The key to the controversy, I think, is married mothers' insecurity that working women "don't respect our choice of lifestyle". Admittedly, from the reviews it does sound as if this book portrays *all* SAHMs as bored and unfulfilled, but equally it's sound common sense to state that the woman needs to be able to take care of herself and the kids if something happens to the wage provided by the husband.

If the working women could stop being patronizing to the mothers, and the mothers could stop feeling resentful that their hard work is not being recognized, we'd all get on a great deal better.

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randomsome1
2008-07-12 04:15 am UTC (link)

Bored, unfulfilled, and delusional too--but y'know, I'll agree that there's gotta be something wrong in there for someone to think that attaching herself to her SO is some sort of plan for the future.

I'm at about the part where the author's getting into societal pressures to drop out of the workforce & stay at home, which makes the choice a bit less of one. But it's nice to read a thinking-type book again, where I can footnote and dog-ear the pages and nom on the logic and not pitch it across the room like I did with The Interpretation of Murder.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

threeoranges
2008-07-12 06:28 pm UTC (link)

Societal pressures - yes, it's true, though I'd be more likely to call it economic pressures (the baby needs to be looked after, and the family may simply find it more expedient for the mother to stay home and look after it than for the mother to work her ass off at the office, pay some stranger the greater part of her wages to look after said baby, then have the inexpressible satisfaction of learning that her offspring called the childminder "Mommy" last week.)

Btw, heard this one?

Q: What goes pink, then red?
A: A baby in a blender.

Ba-dum-TISH!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

randomsome1
2008-07-12 04:02 am UTC (link)

Yeah, I'll try to get around to those. But I'm so bogged down with hopeful books that I'm thinking of just making a list and working my way through it.

If it means anything on the CC front, we've only sold her second book in conjunction with the first; the people who've bought the first by itself haven't come back for the second, period. It seems her shit writing may just have caught up with her. I did see her name listed as one of the authors/essayists (among a shitload of authors I didn't know) in the authors-writing-about-Twilight book--take from that what you will.

(Which btw? That book does nothing to make me think more highly of Twilight fans. The first essay has some stupid woman questioning whether or not Edward was a sociopath [/does he have antisocial personality disorder, where APD is in the DSM-IV but sociopathy is not] and saying that Edward couldn't possibly be one because though he hits six of seven points, he shows remorse. The DSM-IV's diagnostic criteria only requires three of those points. The author fails at research and I must find her name so I can remember to never recommend her to anyone.)

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threeoranges
2008-07-12 06:20 pm UTC (link)

"Although he hits six of the seven points.... he shows remorse"? AHAHAHAHAHA. I look forward to her next essay explaining that although Jack the Ripper DID kill five/six women, he then stopped himself somehow from killing even more of them, which is a clear sign of remorse and hence we should not be too hard on him.

Any book which doesn't call TWILIGHT an enormous pile of poo is by default a waste of tree-pulp, but at the same time I look forward to more evisceration of the essays in this one, if your stomach can take the horrid fannish worship that is...

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	randomsome1 2008-07-13 04:33 pm UTC (link)
	Heh, I don't know that I can. But if the logic is this poorly thought out for all of them then I could probably do it while half-asleep and drunk. :D (Reply to this) (Parent)

	threeoranges 2008-07-12 06:36 pm UTC (link)
	Also, thanks for the good news re CC's writing! Nice to see her second unplagiarized book selling significantly less, though sadly her status as pathetic hanger-on of the YA "Algonquin Circle" will probably mean more guest essays in anthologies. (Sigh.) (Reply to this) (Parent)

	newageamazon 2008-07-13 01:41 pm UTC (link)
	saying that Edward couldn't possibly be one because though he hits six of seven points, he shows remorse. saying that Edward couldn't possibly be one because though he hits six of seven points, he shows remorse. saying that Edward couldn't possibly be one because though he hits six of seven points, he shows remorse. ...WHAT? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	randomsome1 2008-07-13 04:25 pm UTC (link)
	YARLY I KNO (Reply to this) (Parent)

	threeoranges 2008-07-13 06:31 pm UTC (link)
	Stumbled on a single sentence in CARELESS IN RED which made me smile (and wish George had had a more attentive editor)! Lynley's late wife is described as the "daughter of an earl who had married an earl" - my first response was "Blimey they're broad-minded, these upper-classes!" ;) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	randomsome1 2008-07-13 07:29 pm UTC (link)
	And so medically advanced! :D (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

threeoranges
2008-07-16 05:41 pm UTC (link)

HAHAHAHAHAHA

Finished it last night, and apparently a bunch of British cops can listen to a man giving a sort-of-confession along the lines of "Suppose this guy hated this young man's guts because of something his father did, so suppose he sabotaged this young man's equipment like this, see" and that confession in itself, plus the fact that the man is clearly Some Guy Who Hated The Victim's Dad And Is Now Using An Alias, would not be enough to convict said man of murder. LAME.

Also, traveller communities abuse their children and are basically insane.

You didn't miss much.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	randomsome1 2008-07-16 05:45 pm UTC (link)
	To Defoe with both of us, then? :D (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	threeoranges 2008-07-16 05:51 pm UTC (link)
	Which Defoe? Also, if you want a decent Defoe-style pastiche, try David Liss - Dad passed me A SPECTACLE OF CORRUPTION (a 17th-c period historical mystery) and it's witty, fun, full of action and just generally enjoyable. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	randomsome1 2008-07-16 09:34 pm UTC (link)
	The Pirates! one, if at all possible. But I also must read Pratchett soon as well. :) Pirates first, Pratchett next, and from there I'll . . . be lost. (Reply to this) (Parent)

hzlgrl204
2008-07-11 09:43 pm UTC (link)

Heh, I don't know if The Feminine Mistake alone will account for that cultural... mishap. There tend to be many of the same variety out there. I'm not sure what exactly has created the big hoo-ha (spll?) around the Twilight series, but, at least amongst my age group of swept along readers, it seems to simply be a sort of herd mentality.

I think I mentioned before that I read and enjoyed the first book in 9th grade (three long years ago...) and tried to pass it off to my boyfriend-of-the-time. He really didn't like it, couldn't get past the first chapter, and handed it back saying he guessed it was a "chick book".

Thus, I was perturbed to say the least, when about a week before the end of school (this year), said ex-boyfriend approached me raving about the book series because his current girlfriend got him onto it. Seeing as I am incredibly unimpressed by him at this point, I must have showed some type of disgust on my face, while politely (and somewhat childishly, I must admit) quipping something to the effect of "that was 9th grade", attempting to express that I was not the person to talk to about it.

But still, I must wonder. If not for some type of pop lit. herd mentality, what would make a relatively intelligent boy's opinion of the same book change so rapidly... as he got older? Then again, he is somewhat of a romantic airhead. His "epic vampire poem of tragic love and devotion" was much worse than anything Twilight has come up with. (The book's influence???)

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randomsome1
2008-07-11 11:23 pm UTC (link)

"epic vampire poem of tragic love and devotion"

*brain dribbles out of eyes*

It's sad to say, but I probably would have liked it when I was a lot younger . . . back when my idea of relationships was near-hopelessly warped & I was one of those silly girls who thought relationships had to be perpetual drama. (It took me years to get past that, to realize that none of my relationships were working and that I needed to figure out what was wrong.)

Our social idea, though, still seems to be for women to want to wait for their Prince Charming to come dashing in & take them away from all the ick of choice and work and independence.

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hzlgrl204
2008-07-12 01:34 am UTC (link)

Hmmm... Are you talking about the women who work until they are married and then decide they don't want/need to work anymore, or are you talking about the women who decide they don't need to worry about promotions, getting a great education (aka: at least learning finance and how to take care of themselves), and making good money because their solution is simply to get married? The first I would say is a personal decision. The second I would say is pathetic, but up to them.

I do however believe that women will not be completely free of a barrier in the business world until men (the husbands) start taking responsibility (on a communal/large scale) for some of the child-rearing. It winds up being a factor in the hiring process (men are seen as less of a "future liability" because maternity leave is expensive, and then many women quit their jobs after it anyways.) And this is beyond the obvious benefits such a cultural change would bring.

And trust me, the poem made me want to pull my eyeballs out... He used the phrase "she looked at him with her doe eyes" in the context of the guy getting ready to sacrifice himself to ward off a horde of vampires in order to save the girl. "If I don't come back... I want you to..." "No!" "please, promise me" "No, I Can't!!!" "You have to! If I don't come back, or worse... promise me you'll .

He then pushes her behind a metal bar, and kisses her good bye.
At the time, the author was trying to poll the girls on what kind of kiss was sweetest as a goodbye. All agreed that a kiss on the lips was romantic, a kiss on the cheek was friendly, and a kiss on the forehead was bittersweet/a goodbye. But he seemed somewhat set on the lips kiss, so he shoved the (5 page- front and back, thankfully in verse) manuscript at me and asked me to read it. I was trying to be nice to the poor boy and did so. At the end I had a sour look on my face and said "the lips, has to be the lips". It was too over the top for anything else. And what's a pole gonna do? Is she gunna strip tease them to death... or till sunrise?

Sorry for typos, i'm tired.

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	hzlgrl204 2008-07-12 01:36 am UTC (link)
	God, I write a ton. (Reply to this) (Parent)

randomsome1
2008-07-12 04:27 am UTC (link)

I'd say the line between the two is blurry at best. I do know there's still girls out there who go to school only with the intent of getting their "Mrs. degree," though. But yeah: as long as a "stay-at-home dad" is a curiosity and a "stay-at-home mom" isn't something to really think twice about, we've got work to do.

Eew, poem sounds terrible. And hardly epic. Thank Dog for small favors, I suppose. :)

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	HAM? (Anonymous) 2008-07-13 07:51 am UTC (link)
	Yay! Gideon Defoe! I have all his pirate books and they make me super happy. Pirates, luxuriant beards and a Nietzsche-doom-bot. Does anyone need anything else? Perhaps...HAM? And a pirate in a scarf! -Gemchansan who lacks an insanejournal account and therefore can only post anonymously. (Reply to this)

	newageamazon 2008-07-13 01:39 pm UTC (link)
	Your link to "The Feminine Mistake" isn't working any longer and an Amazon search turns up two different titles. And I need to know which one you're reading 'cause it seems like the sort of thing I should dig into as well. Also, have you read Reviving Ophelia? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	randomsome1 2008-07-13 04:23 pm UTC (link)
	I carried it around for a while on Friday, actually, but I haven't done more than skim over a few pages. And I can def. hand off my copy to you when I'm done. :) (Reply to this) (Parent)