Today's links

[hawkwing_lb]

Rod Rees' The Shadow Wars (The Demi-Monde: Spring in the UK) arrived in ARC form a little while ago. Well, I started reading it for review, and tweeted a few egregiously awful quotes, and the (in)famous Requires Hate got in on the act...

The Storify of the Untethered Breasts:

"Odette gave a wiggle and was pleased to see that her untethered breast jiggled in a quite charming fashion."

Someone passed on a link to the cover of the latest Kindle magazine: Rape In Wonderland.


WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS?

Ronan Wills discusses Hounded by Kevin Hearne, and his view on the banality of urban fantasy.

Nerds of A Feather discusses grim/dark iterations in fantasy:

[W]hat's the purpose of all the violence and cruelty in the art we consume, and specifically in fantasy fiction? When is it acceptable and when is it not?

A certain author turns up in the comments to defend his precious, as is becoming tediously de rigueur in his case, and diametrically opposed to the response of Joe Abercrombie to criticism as quoted in the post. (I have Important Thoughts, natch, on violence and fantasy, but they'll keep.)

(No, really, they'll have to keep. I've reached my procrastination limit for today.)


And! If you've made it this far, you deserve some reward. Stylist Turns Ancient Hair Debate On Its Head:

By day, Janet Stephens is a hairdresser at a Baltimore salon, trimming bobs and wispy bangs. By night she dwells in a different world. At home in her basement, with a mannequin head, she meticulously re-creates the hairstyles of ancient Rome and Greece.

Ms. Stephens is a hairdo archaeologist.

Her amateur scholarship is sticking a pin in the long-held assumptions among historians about the complicated, gravity-defying styles of ancient times. Basically, she has set out to prove that the ancients probably weren't wearing wigs after all.

And a Dutch television show enlists two men to undergo simulated labour contractions.

Comments

[jennygadget.livejournal.com]

hmmm

It seems to be that this may be big issue with all these special, original snowflakes. That, by not being properly aware of their influences, the deconstruction they are engaging in is shallow and aimless. Which leads to even more problematic books. Whereas the writers who are doing this purposely have more interesting things to say, and are more willing to listen to criticism and improve.

And I think it's related to the urban fantasy (and YA) issue we were talking about yesterday - prompted by the other link. A lot of what is going on in urban fantasy, especially sex wise, reminds me of the same thing that romance went through in the late 70's and '80s. The romance books of that time often included a very specific type of rape scene that essentially served to give women who had mixed feelings about sex and sexual freedom permission to enjoy light erotica. But while this is clearly why they were so popular, it wasn't exactly deliberate - so the scenes and overall story lines were extremely problematic.

I've always seen Laurell K Hamilton's work as an extension of this - only with regards to kink and multiple partners, rather that just sex in general. Same with Twilight, which has always felt to me as much of a reaction to the impossible demands we place on teen girls, with regards to sex and love, in addition to perpetuating them.

Which is why crits of these books and genres that aren't nuanced annoy me. It's not that these books don't deserve a smack down. But the underlying problem of why these books are popular includes the fact the conversation about these topics is not nuanced enough. So cursory criticism is only going to create more impossible and conflicting demands on the women who are fans of them, rather than highlight that tension as the central problem and working to eliminate it.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

That, by not being properly aware of their influences, the deconstruction they are engaging in is shallow and aimless. Which leads to even more problematic books. Whereas the writers who are doing this purposely have more interesting things to say, and are more willing to listen to criticism and improve.

That thing precisely, is my feeling.