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Gakked whole from winneganfake
Jan. 23rd, 2010 03:06 pmLadies and gentlemen, I'd like to share my most recent project with you:
( Cut to spare your Fpage, but well worth the click )
( Cut to spare your Fpage, but well worth the click )
An open letter to Laurell K. Hamilton
Feb. 10th, 2009 07:08 pmDear Laurell,
I really loved your first six or seven Anita Blake novels. There's nothing I like better than a bloody good, bloody supernatural horror/detective novel. I know that some of your readers lost interest when the novels became bloodier, but I didn't--I liked them as horror novels.
Some of the readers who appreciated the Anita Blake series as horror novels fell by the wayside when you added more sex and de-emphasized the horror and police procedural elements. Not me. As it happens, sex and bondage are a few of my other favorite things. The wereleopards in leather hit every sexual button I own. The shift in genre (for that's what it was) didn't faze me--although just between the two of us, I think it would be good for the books if you'd remember that Anita has a job.
I've read all of the Anita Blake novels, and I call myself a fan. But now that I've started reading the Merry Gentry books, I've started to notice something. At first it was like an itch between the shoulder blades...
...then it was more like being attacked by a badger trying to gnaw out my eyeballs--really impossible to ignore.
An absence of lesbians is one thing. The lack of something is fairly easy to overlook. It takes some looking to notice something that isn't there, and a great deal of work to find evidence in the text to support the argument that there is something that the author SHOULD be doing and isn't.
When I noticed that nearly all of the lesbian or bisexual women in the Anita Blake series were at least slightly evil, I rationalized it. They were either vampires or werecreatures, usually drawn from among the antagonists, and it was really quite understandable.
Except Anita, bless her neurotic little heart, feels compelled to let us know that she's not attracted to any of them. And that's okay. We understand. She's comfortable with the bisexuality of the men in her life, which is great, and she's coming to terms with kink, which is even better.
If the novels are a little bit formulaic, well, I feel that as readers we owe you a little bit of latitude there, because after twenty books it's got to be hard to come up with novelty. And look, I own the entire Wheel of Time series, as well as all of your books--formulas work. What many your readers are looking for is the same again, please, with extra wereleopards.
But after a certain point, Ms. Hamilton, I think it's safe to assume that certain things have been established. Anita and Merry are straight. They are Kinsey zeroes. They are not lovers of women, they are not even slightly bi-curious despite lovingly describing their own breasts dozens of times per novel. We totally believe you.
So would it have been so much to ask that you trust us, your loyal readers--I feel that I can call myself a loyal reader, having invested approximately $188.79 and at least 63 hours of my time on your books--to read one 300-word lesbian scene in Seduced by Moonlight without adding a lengthy disclaimer that it was unintentional, occult, someone else's fault, and void in all fifty states and the District of Columbia?
The sheer insistence of these disclaimers is beginning to look peculiar, Ms. Hamilton. The repetition borders on the bizarre. As readers, we got the idea after the first dozen or so novels. I'm willing to sign papers to that effect.
I've decided that the most likely explanation is that you are in fact Wintermute, and that your installation of WriteFic.exe has some corrupted files. If so, it's an easy fix. All you have to do is go into the ABlakeHangups directory and delete the omgwtflesbians.dll file, reboot, and you'll be right as rain.
Yours truly,
Esmeraldus
PS- Send more wereleopards.
I really loved your first six or seven Anita Blake novels. There's nothing I like better than a bloody good, bloody supernatural horror/detective novel. I know that some of your readers lost interest when the novels became bloodier, but I didn't--I liked them as horror novels.
Some of the readers who appreciated the Anita Blake series as horror novels fell by the wayside when you added more sex and de-emphasized the horror and police procedural elements. Not me. As it happens, sex and bondage are a few of my other favorite things. The wereleopards in leather hit every sexual button I own. The shift in genre (for that's what it was) didn't faze me--although just between the two of us, I think it would be good for the books if you'd remember that Anita has a job.
I've read all of the Anita Blake novels, and I call myself a fan. But now that I've started reading the Merry Gentry books, I've started to notice something. At first it was like an itch between the shoulder blades...
...then it was more like being attacked by a badger trying to gnaw out my eyeballs--really impossible to ignore.
An absence of lesbians is one thing. The lack of something is fairly easy to overlook. It takes some looking to notice something that isn't there, and a great deal of work to find evidence in the text to support the argument that there is something that the author SHOULD be doing and isn't.
When I noticed that nearly all of the lesbian or bisexual women in the Anita Blake series were at least slightly evil, I rationalized it. They were either vampires or werecreatures, usually drawn from among the antagonists, and it was really quite understandable.
Except Anita, bless her neurotic little heart, feels compelled to let us know that she's not attracted to any of them. And that's okay. We understand. She's comfortable with the bisexuality of the men in her life, which is great, and she's coming to terms with kink, which is even better.
If the novels are a little bit formulaic, well, I feel that as readers we owe you a little bit of latitude there, because after twenty books it's got to be hard to come up with novelty. And look, I own the entire Wheel of Time series, as well as all of your books--formulas work. What many your readers are looking for is the same again, please, with extra wereleopards.
But after a certain point, Ms. Hamilton, I think it's safe to assume that certain things have been established. Anita and Merry are straight. They are Kinsey zeroes. They are not lovers of women, they are not even slightly bi-curious despite lovingly describing their own breasts dozens of times per novel. We totally believe you.
So would it have been so much to ask that you trust us, your loyal readers--I feel that I can call myself a loyal reader, having invested approximately $188.79 and at least 63 hours of my time on your books--to read one 300-word lesbian scene in Seduced by Moonlight without adding a lengthy disclaimer that it was unintentional, occult, someone else's fault, and void in all fifty states and the District of Columbia?
The sheer insistence of these disclaimers is beginning to look peculiar, Ms. Hamilton. The repetition borders on the bizarre. As readers, we got the idea after the first dozen or so novels. I'm willing to sign papers to that effect.
I've decided that the most likely explanation is that you are in fact Wintermute, and that your installation of WriteFic.exe has some corrupted files. If so, it's an easy fix. All you have to do is go into the ABlakeHangups directory and delete the omgwtflesbians.dll file, reboot, and you'll be right as rain.
Yours truly,
Esmeraldus
PS- Send more wereleopards.
I've been reading George R.R. Martin's A Storm of Swords.
Ever hit a really unfortunate bit of text...look, you'll see what I mean. The context is a king delivering a rant on the loyalty of some of his men.
Claw Island is held weakly, yes. Held by women and children and old men. And why is that? Because their husbands and sons and fathers died on the Blackwater, that's why. Died at their oars, or with swords in their hands, fighting beneath our banners. Yet Ser Axell proposes we swoop down on the homes they left behind, to rape their windows and put their children to the sword.
Yes, really.
That's why you never take MS Word's first suggestion. I am never going to get that image out of my head.
Ever hit a really unfortunate bit of text...look, you'll see what I mean. The context is a king delivering a rant on the loyalty of some of his men.
Claw Island is held weakly, yes. Held by women and children and old men. And why is that? Because their husbands and sons and fathers died on the Blackwater, that's why. Died at their oars, or with swords in their hands, fighting beneath our banners. Yet Ser Axell proposes we swoop down on the homes they left behind, to rape their windows and put their children to the sword.
Yes, really.
That's why you never take MS Word's first suggestion. I am never going to get that image out of my head.
I've always liked this, even when I just thought it was the theme to Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
Someone sent me a link to this 6-minute fantasy film, which reminds me very much of Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman's work.
Someone sent me a link to this 6-minute fantasy film, which reminds me very much of Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman's work.
Crystal Rain review
Sep. 30th, 2008 10:01 pmI really liked Crystal Rain. I read it on my own after I was assigned to review Ragamuffin for the SFRA Review. I will read Sly Mongoose as soon as I have it in my patty paws.
( Maybe spoilers, but not big ones. )
( Maybe spoilers, but not big ones. )
We've just watched the film of Howl's Moving Castle, and I read the book while staying in Newcastle a couple of weeks ago.
They are both good, and they have many features in common, but they are not the same. In my opinion, they should be considered on their own respective merits as individual works rather as one work called "Howl's Moving Castle."
One is a delightful animated film, the other is an excellent fantasy novel. I liked them both.
Concerning one specific item brought up in discussions of the two works: I think the air war is one way to explain what Howl does when he's "offstage" in the novel. But that and Howl's nature are artistic license, and are not rigid interpretation of the novel. It's an adaptation.
They are both good, and they have many features in common, but they are not the same. In my opinion, they should be considered on their own respective merits as individual works rather as one work called "Howl's Moving Castle."
One is a delightful animated film, the other is an excellent fantasy novel. I liked them both.
Concerning one specific item brought up in discussions of the two works: I think the air war is one way to explain what Howl does when he's "offstage" in the novel. But that and Howl's nature are artistic license, and are not rigid interpretation of the novel. It's an adaptation.
