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the one I left out.
Aug. 10th, 2005 07:06 amSo there was a book I couldn't finish, and I've been trying for a week to figure out how to describe it in a way that won't give me bad writers' karma.
The book is Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife. It's a sequel of sorts to Pride and Prejudice by a modern author. I'd seen a good review of it somewhere and was curious, as I like Pride and Prejudice quite a lot.
However after interlibrary loaning the book, I got less than 100 pages into it before I gave up. And this is my most tactful attempt at a response: it's published fanfic. I was very disappointed in the quality of the work.
I finished Nancy Farmer's _The House of the Scorpion_ yesterday. It was ok. Smoothly written, smoothly plotted, morally engaging, just not really my cup of tea. Nothing I would read twice, basically. And it irked me that all of the female characters in the story (alllllll of them) were either mothers or girlfriends. What is it with adventure stories written by women where women have such limited roles? I thought about it and decided that it's because they bought into the inclusive pronoun bit. In the english language, the masculine plural is appropriate for a mixed group. "He" is supposed to be gender neutral in the abstract. So in a lot of stories, the only characters who are women are the ones who have to be due to their role (mom, girlfriend) in the story. I like to imagine that half the "men" in the story are actually women in drag, hidden behind masculine pronouns because they're not sleeping with or nurturing anyone at the moment. Now I'm luxuriating in an imaginary world of novels full of disguised women.
The book is Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife. It's a sequel of sorts to Pride and Prejudice by a modern author. I'd seen a good review of it somewhere and was curious, as I like Pride and Prejudice quite a lot.
However after interlibrary loaning the book, I got less than 100 pages into it before I gave up. And this is my most tactful attempt at a response: it's published fanfic. I was very disappointed in the quality of the work.
I finished Nancy Farmer's _The House of the Scorpion_ yesterday. It was ok. Smoothly written, smoothly plotted, morally engaging, just not really my cup of tea. Nothing I would read twice, basically. And it irked me that all of the female characters in the story (alllllll of them) were either mothers or girlfriends. What is it with adventure stories written by women where women have such limited roles? I thought about it and decided that it's because they bought into the inclusive pronoun bit. In the english language, the masculine plural is appropriate for a mixed group. "He" is supposed to be gender neutral in the abstract. So in a lot of stories, the only characters who are women are the ones who have to be due to their role (mom, girlfriend) in the story. I like to imagine that half the "men" in the story are actually women in drag, hidden behind masculine pronouns because they're not sleeping with or nurturing anyone at the moment. Now I'm luxuriating in an imaginary world of novels full of disguised women.
