![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Where I'm at now
Inner monologue:
Superego: BITCH, STOP BUYING!
Id: NOOOOO!
Ego: Got to go with the Id on this one.
Anyway, mostly I'm reading Walden and Savage She-Hulk Vol. 1 right now, but I probably shouldn't talk about them because I'm only like a third of the way into both of them. (And glad to be out of the first third, where Walden was concerned. I'm growing to love Henry David Thoreau more and more as I read him, but when I saw the first chapter was 80 pages long I was rather like "NO! I'm going to be here FOREVER!" but it turned out to not be so bad.)
But there are book-related things that have come to my attention that I want to talk about, so I will.
---
One is the whole Twilight thing. I recognized this book from when I worked at Borders but didn't really see anything significant about it, whether good or bad. Apparently a lot of people on LJ read it and were really unimpressed. Mostly because it involves a sparkly, celibate, 100-year-old vampire in love with a 14-year-old girl.
I'm kind of enjoying the LJ-rancor. I'm not proud of it, but I kind of like when people dogpile on something stupid, especially if their rage makes me laugh. It's why I like movie reviewers more than the average person. And the book sounds pretty stupid and laugh-making. I mean ... the vampires sparkle in the sunlight? SPARKLE?
And articles like this don't help. Because, sheesh, it's not like there isn't a sizable market of young adult fantasy. Rowling is the ONLY YA fantasy author, don't you know? [Chronicles of Narnia omnibus and Abhorsen Trilogy books disappear from her bookshelves]
That being said, I'm kind of disappointed at the anti-Mormon sentiment that pops up when people complain about her books. This sort of, "Oh, the characters love each other but they won't have sex because the writer is a MORMON." I don't think there's much wrong with a writer putting his or her worldview into the story on principle. If he or she is a good enough writer, it won't matter. See my Chronicles of Narnia collection. I also love the works of Alan Moore, but the day I become an Aleister Crowley-esque magik user/anarchist is the day someone puts a pickaxe in my head and I go all Phinneas Gage.
Of course, we've established Meyer is apparently NOT a good writer. But unless the book advocates something really harmful defended by her Mormonism, (like the way The Left Behind series advocates DEATH BY GOD TO THE NONBELIEVERS), I can't get too upset about it. Even those who complain about the 100-year-old vampire wanting the 14-year-old human girl ... well, pretty much the same thing happened with Buffy and Angel ... he just waited until she was 16 to have sex with her. Vampires getting a free pass on this sort of thing isn't new to the genre.
However, if he actually is portrayed like a creepy stalker and isn't meant to be ... well, the book is stupid. And if the worst thing about the book is that it's stupid, Meyer doesn't deserve to have her religion attacked for it.
---
Augusten Burroughs' new book, Wolf at the Table, is out. Since it's 40 percent off hardcover at Borders I'll probably buy it on Saturday. This one is supposed to be different. He's doing a memoir without humor. So I guess it'll be a matter of if he's still entertaining without humor or the work will just degrade into Dave Pelzer-esque child abuse porn.
I'm being a bit more dismissive than I'd like to be. I actually am fascinated. As a writer, I've always wondered what tone to take when presenting my life to others, so if Burroughs succeeds in telling his life story with two wildly different tones and yet making it a narrative it will be a good lesson for me. I have my apprehensions, but I really hope he succeeds.
John Elder Robison once stopped by here, so if he does again -- I haven't read your book yet, sir, but I hope to, soon. At the very least when your paperback comes out.
Also, your post on Memory and Memoirs is fascinating. I urge everyone who is interested in memoirs to read it.
---
I feel like I should have a third thing to write about. Some third piece of news or whatever. I don't really ... this makes it all feel lopsided. Two is hardly anything. I could talk about my book acquisitions, but that's so boring. My wrist is starting to hurt a bit, too.
I guess that's the end of the entry, then.
Inner monologue:
Superego: BITCH, STOP BUYING!
Id: NOOOOO!
Ego: Got to go with the Id on this one.
Anyway, mostly I'm reading Walden and Savage She-Hulk Vol. 1 right now, but I probably shouldn't talk about them because I'm only like a third of the way into both of them. (And glad to be out of the first third, where Walden was concerned. I'm growing to love Henry David Thoreau more and more as I read him, but when I saw the first chapter was 80 pages long I was rather like "NO! I'm going to be here FOREVER!" but it turned out to not be so bad.)
But there are book-related things that have come to my attention that I want to talk about, so I will.
---
One is the whole Twilight thing. I recognized this book from when I worked at Borders but didn't really see anything significant about it, whether good or bad. Apparently a lot of people on LJ read it and were really unimpressed. Mostly because it involves a sparkly, celibate, 100-year-old vampire in love with a 14-year-old girl.
I'm kind of enjoying the LJ-rancor. I'm not proud of it, but I kind of like when people dogpile on something stupid, especially if their rage makes me laugh. It's why I like movie reviewers more than the average person. And the book sounds pretty stupid and laugh-making. I mean ... the vampires sparkle in the sunlight? SPARKLE?
And articles like this don't help. Because, sheesh, it's not like there isn't a sizable market of young adult fantasy. Rowling is the ONLY YA fantasy author, don't you know? [Chronicles of Narnia omnibus and Abhorsen Trilogy books disappear from her bookshelves]
That being said, I'm kind of disappointed at the anti-Mormon sentiment that pops up when people complain about her books. This sort of, "Oh, the characters love each other but they won't have sex because the writer is a MORMON." I don't think there's much wrong with a writer putting his or her worldview into the story on principle. If he or she is a good enough writer, it won't matter. See my Chronicles of Narnia collection. I also love the works of Alan Moore, but the day I become an Aleister Crowley-esque magik user/anarchist is the day someone puts a pickaxe in my head and I go all Phinneas Gage.
Of course, we've established Meyer is apparently NOT a good writer. But unless the book advocates something really harmful defended by her Mormonism, (like the way The Left Behind series advocates DEATH BY GOD TO THE NONBELIEVERS), I can't get too upset about it. Even those who complain about the 100-year-old vampire wanting the 14-year-old human girl ... well, pretty much the same thing happened with Buffy and Angel ... he just waited until she was 16 to have sex with her. Vampires getting a free pass on this sort of thing isn't new to the genre.
However, if he actually is portrayed like a creepy stalker and isn't meant to be ... well, the book is stupid. And if the worst thing about the book is that it's stupid, Meyer doesn't deserve to have her religion attacked for it.
---
Augusten Burroughs' new book, Wolf at the Table, is out. Since it's 40 percent off hardcover at Borders I'll probably buy it on Saturday. This one is supposed to be different. He's doing a memoir without humor. So I guess it'll be a matter of if he's still entertaining without humor or the work will just degrade into Dave Pelzer-esque child abuse porn.
I'm being a bit more dismissive than I'd like to be. I actually am fascinated. As a writer, I've always wondered what tone to take when presenting my life to others, so if Burroughs succeeds in telling his life story with two wildly different tones and yet making it a narrative it will be a good lesson for me. I have my apprehensions, but I really hope he succeeds.
John Elder Robison once stopped by here, so if he does again -- I haven't read your book yet, sir, but I hope to, soon. At the very least when your paperback comes out.
Also, your post on Memory and Memoirs is fascinating. I urge everyone who is interested in memoirs to read it.
---
I feel like I should have a third thing to write about. Some third piece of news or whatever. I don't really ... this makes it all feel lopsided. Two is hardly anything. I could talk about my book acquisitions, but that's so boring. My wrist is starting to hurt a bit, too.
I guess that's the end of the entry, then.
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
The no-sex thing doesn't bother me. The way it's written, Mr. Sparkly Vampire is "old fashioned" and wants to marry first. The books are also aimed at young adults, so it fits. They are *very* light reading-- young, highly improbable fantasy romance of the damsel-in-perpetual-distress kind. The vampire is the white knight stereotype and it's actually the lead female who is the creepy stalker type, constantly badgering and begging to become a vampire. Super-silliness, but super-selling. Uhm... at least teens are reading?
I saw the hoopla about Burroughs' latest book and seriously feared a Dave Pelzer type of read. I'm going to pay attention to customer feedback on that one.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Burroughs' interviews seem to be easing my reservations. He said in this one video interview that his humor is a defense mechanism he didn't have at that time, and that the book is written from the viewpoint of his extremely emotional, younger self. I commend that as an artistic choice, but still wonder how it will work. I WANT him to succeed, though, so I'll probably be more lenient than normal. We'll see what happens.
From:
no subject
ETA: Er, I realized Nancy Pearl is probably more knowledgeable about this stuff than the average bear, but I do see that trend, you know?