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[botias]

Reading Material: War for the Oaks by Emma Bull

This book started out quite cool, and a has settled in for the duration at pleasantly cool. Women's fiction, it's all really the same. This one's got the classic 'tiger for a lap dog' theme so far. How handy if she should ever decide she wants to act out her fantasies about being attacked by a German Shepard (sexually). I guess that's a fantasy shared by most people of either sex. Not the dog thing... being the focus of extra attractive members of the opposite sex. In men's fiction the dangerous (lithe like a dancer... Eeee!) woman (or two) uses the protagonist for hot monkey sex before ditching him (exhausted, with a touch of pleasant melancholy) at the end of the book. Or perhaps she betrays her black catsuit and falls in love, the mark of death. Either way, she generally departs without engaging in any awkward relationship gab. In women's fiction, the protagonist generally has a fling with the bad boy before riding the hero off into the sunset. In 'pure romance', sadly, this is not allowed. Sex is permitted with the hero only, during the course of the work, but her stable of contenders may ply her with hot kisses and a bit of a fondle before abandoning the field.

Perhaps that is the key to good and successful fiction. It takes imagination and skill to give our basic fantasies believable, even novel, flesh and a bit of dignity.

I am relieved. We have a rental, excruciating mouth pain is gone (love those salt water rinses Mmmmm!)

Comments

[elynne.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed WftO; it was fun, and I'm a total story-sucker - I'll get dragged into it, cry at the sad parts, laugh at the funny parts, and feel happy at the obligatory happy ending. It did have some parts that I thought set it a bit above run-of-the-mill first-shot women's fantasy, but overall it definitely read like a first novel. Nice, fun, but not startling or anything. Of course, you're still reading it, but you seem to have picked up on that idea. ;)

I've read some women's fiction where the female protagonist doesn't have any flings at all before finding her One True Wuv. Off the top of my head, I'll be damned if I can remember any women's fiction that doesn't have the protagonist end up with her One True Wuv... except for Gideon's Decline and Fall by Sherri Tepper, which isn't the right title, but I won't bother to look it up as the book was utterly awful. Gah, it was basically a dressed-up feminist screed. Gag, choke, spit. Urgh. Utterly unsatisfying. I finished it, with my usual bloody-minded "Argh, this sucks but I'm over halfway done, it might have a good ending" determination. No, the ending was just as awful. And now it's sitting in my room, and I can't decide if I want to give it away, throw it in a gutter somewhere, or set fire to it.

Uh... I didn't like it. ;)

On the other hand, I'm currently re-reading the Exiles series (the two books of the trilogy that have been written) by Stephanie Rawn, which I enjoy greatly. I just started into the second book, The Mageborn Traitor, and I'm once again getting mightily irritated with one of the main characters. I now remember having the same thoughts the first time I read it: "Fucking stop whining already! God, the reason you're going through all this damn angst is because you're putting yourself through it! Just - stop whining and talk to somebody! Shut up and think for two minutes! Argh!" Of course, the character is 18, and has been through a lot of really unpleasant stuff... but, as I remember, she doesn't get noticeably better by the time she's thirty. Oh well, there are other characters that are much less whiny.

Salt water rinses, fun fun. Ever tried a clove poultice? It's pretty effective, but tastes... well, like a mouthful of stewed cloves. Eeeurgh. Someday, when I'm all done with school and I'm making $40K a year (or more), I'll have health and dental insurance, and I won't have to worry about cloves or salt-water rinses ever again... heh.

[botias.livejournal.com]

One True Wuv *hee* He hangs with the Easter Bunny and used to date the Tooth Fairy right? I've been trying to reintroduce some fantasy into my diet lately. I mostly read non-fiction and romance these days.