I've never officially called myself a 'feminist', but I've always believed that girls can do everything boys can do. And I've played in the same sandbox with the boys throughout my military career in the Army, as well as my succeeding personal career as an engineer (~14% females in the workplace). I'm also living on my own in a nice two story house that I purchased myself, own one vehicle and paying off the second, and feel confident in my own body. By anyone's standards, as a woman, I've succeeded. (Unless you consider having children something a woman has to do to succeed, and then I have a whole separate discussion for you).
I've also read the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy, and I liked it. I'm also excited for the movie.
Now, I'm not going to go into what the story's about. Either you've read it and you already know, or you haven't and you only think you know what you're talking about. What I am going to talk about is why you should feel free to like the story if you liked the story and not have anyone pressure you into feeling differently, or feeling guilty. Liking 50 Shades does not make you anti-feminist. All the people and blogs and tweets that are berating us readers for even thinking this is acceptable and blah blah blah....well, they irritate me.
Why? Because they assume we are dumb enough to think that the relationship is good. I mean, I even read a blog where the man claimed that the readers thought, or would think, that was the ideal relationship. Are you kidding me? I am smart enough to know that the characters are flawed, and many times I found myself disgusted with the main character. That doesn't mean I can't like the book. Many times I've read material, celebrated classics included, where the actions of the main character went so far as to piss me off. But that only made me think what I would do in that situation, what I would say. I know without a doubt that I'd never let anyone treat me that way. But that only made me self-reflect and strengthen my own internal feelings about my personal worth. In no way would I date someone like Christian Grey. He may be hot, wealthy, sexually intense, but he is damaged goods.
That leads me into Point 2. Many times the story reminds the reader that Christian has a bad past. He has troubles, and those directly influence how he is and why he prefers certain things. But no one is perfect. The haters claim any woman in her right mind wouldn't be with a guy like that, that we should know our self worth, etc. etc. But at the same time, even if someone has chosen the wrong path, don't they still deserve to be loved? And there are people who choose that lifestyle for themselves--granted their relationships with each other will be different than that portrayed by Christian and Ana, as diverse as relationships can be--but if society rails so much against the Dom/Sub idea, they are also saying in the same breath that what those people choose to do is unacceptable, and I don't believe anyone has the right to criticize the romantic relationship and interests between two consenting adults. (Read: I support Dom/Sub relationships, I support Gay/Lesbian/Other-than-Hetero relationships.). Give women a break: most of the time, we are smart enough to know what we want, and will make our own choices, especially when it comes to our sexual desires. A woman can get excited over a whip in bed and still have the self-respect to walk out on a man who hits her. We aren't dumb. Let me reiterate: we are not stupid!
My third point is to again point out that the characters are FLAWED. And Ana is young! Just 21-22. Girls are known for being overly dramatic when they are in love, and say and do stupid things. It is extremely common. Anyone who's had a teenage girl knows this is true. Ridiculously true. And most girls have had that one friend that drops everything for the guy she likes.You know who I'm talking about. All this leads up to the thoughts and ideas Ana has about her lack of self confidence before meeting Christian, and how he completes her, yada yada typical teen romance mushy crap. It makes her believable. How do normal drinking-age girls act and talk when they're head over heels? If you want to write a 21-year-old girl that has it all together and doesn't need a man, you need to go do some real life research and meet a few of them. Women constantly strive to think and act like that, but for most of us, that wisdom doesn't come until later, after we've been through a few rough-and-tumble relationships.
The same blog post I grumbled about earlier also made a comment that Ana moped around and starved herself after the breakup until he came back into her life. Hello?! She just went through a breakup. That is normal activity for a female, even when she is the initiator of the breakup. Some girls just choose to go the tub of ice cream route.
My last point is that this is entertainment. Entertainment means that you can view something or read something or listen to something that you normally wouldn't be compelled to do yourself. It's exciting. It's stimulating. It's a journey. Books like this that go beyond our own comfort zone allow us to safely explore our feelings about topics without having to directly experience them. Why are movies about war so popular? Explosions? Zombies? We don't honestly want these things in our life, but we like to think about how it would affect us if it was. Most everyone I know has a 'zombie-apocalypse' plan. Most people that read 50 Shades won't go out and find their own Sub or Dom.
So, that's my point of view. Feel free to disagree, object, throw a tantrum, etc. I will respect that you have an opinion, but please do the same for me.
Friday, July 25, 2014
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
The Black Stallion and the Lost City
This book came into my reading group purely by accident. My sister and I were visiting our childhood library in search of the next Sword of Truth book in the series (which they didn't have), and we ended up in the YA and childrens' sections, looking at books we remembered from long ago. I was absolutely in LOVE with Walter Farley's Black Stallion when I was little, so I of course had to check what was in stock. After he passed away, his son took over the franchise and has put out a few books, the latest being The Black Stallion and the Lost City.
Even as a younger me, I knew when I read Steven's first book, that he didn't have the same touch as his father when it came to writing horses. This latest one was true to his nature and revolved more around the boy and the mythology aspect than the Black. I did, however, enjoy the two or three chapters that were written from the Black's viewpoint, a refreshing change from most books written from human angles.
Another peeve of mine is lack of research, especially when it is right at your fingertips with the internet. Steven mentions an "albino" mare, quite often. The truth is, horses do not come in the color albino as we know it for mice and birds, and even alligators. They have an overo gene that creates a similar look as an albino when homozygous (both copies of the dominant gene), but it is always fatal. I can cut him some slack, as the mare was actually the flesh-eating mythology beast, and not technically a real horse, but it is doubtful that a young reader in love with horses is going to know that, and is going to take that inaccurate information to heart and believe that horses come in albino. (I know I would have believed anything Walter Farley said as stone cold truth. I worshiped him, ha).
The plot was decent, and gave a plausible excuse for them to be halfway around the world. The characters were shallow and not well developed, but I didn't expect much more from a YA book, to be fair.
I do applaud his underlying current of dread, as it gave me the tense stomach feeling of being trapped and not able to escape, similar to movies like The Descent. This feeling carried through to the end, when he mentioned the missing filmographer, who is presumed to have reached the lost city.
I would have liked to see the mythology behind the flesh-eating mares presented a little more thoroughly, as it is not nearly as common as some other Greek myths. There were four mares, but only one had the red eyes, and there was also a gray stallion mentioned that was a maneater. Where did the stallion come from? Why did only the one mare have red eyes? Just questions for curiosities sake, as it felt like the most interesting part of the story was missing juicy details.
Even as a younger me, I knew when I read Steven's first book, that he didn't have the same touch as his father when it came to writing horses. This latest one was true to his nature and revolved more around the boy and the mythology aspect than the Black. I did, however, enjoy the two or three chapters that were written from the Black's viewpoint, a refreshing change from most books written from human angles.
Another peeve of mine is lack of research, especially when it is right at your fingertips with the internet. Steven mentions an "albino" mare, quite often. The truth is, horses do not come in the color albino as we know it for mice and birds, and even alligators. They have an overo gene that creates a similar look as an albino when homozygous (both copies of the dominant gene), but it is always fatal. I can cut him some slack, as the mare was actually the flesh-eating mythology beast, and not technically a real horse, but it is doubtful that a young reader in love with horses is going to know that, and is going to take that inaccurate information to heart and believe that horses come in albino. (I know I would have believed anything Walter Farley said as stone cold truth. I worshiped him, ha).
The plot was decent, and gave a plausible excuse for them to be halfway around the world. The characters were shallow and not well developed, but I didn't expect much more from a YA book, to be fair.
I do applaud his underlying current of dread, as it gave me the tense stomach feeling of being trapped and not able to escape, similar to movies like The Descent. This feeling carried through to the end, when he mentioned the missing filmographer, who is presumed to have reached the lost city.
I would have liked to see the mythology behind the flesh-eating mares presented a little more thoroughly, as it is not nearly as common as some other Greek myths. There were four mares, but only one had the red eyes, and there was also a gray stallion mentioned that was a maneater. Where did the stallion come from? Why did only the one mare have red eyes? Just questions for curiosities sake, as it felt like the most interesting part of the story was missing juicy details.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
*SPOILERS*
I actually finished this book yesterday, after spending most of the day devouring it. I have to say this at the start- it was not my favorite of the three. Heck, it was probably my ~least~ favorite of the three. Part of the way through it, I looked up to tell my boyfriend that it's going to make one heck of a movie when they get around to it. But then I realized, therein lied the problem--it felt too much like a movie. Constant drama, not enough downtime to allow the characters to reflect. You knew something out of the ordinary crazy drama was about to happen the moment they had a breather, because they weren't allowed to. Now, I understand that books are made to be entertaining, but there's something -better- about a book than a movie because it takes the time to spend on details that might not necessarily matter. Mockingjay read too much like a movie script for me to enjoy it like a book.
I AM happy to say that she ended up with the guy I thought she belonged with. In Hunger Games, I was all for Gale, but once I realized the sheer amount of what Peeta did for her, I couldn't help but care about him most. And he became my favorite character. I read through Catching Fire in nearly one sitting mostly because I was afraid for his life!
Other than the drama being shoved down our throats, I wasn't happy with the blatant drug abuse. It annoys me when I'm reading a book and every time I turn around, the character is passing out and waking up somewhere else. Like that's the only way the author knows how to segue into a new scene. This was kind of like that, except she was CONSTANTLY in the hospital, or being drugged, or waking up after passing out. Does she not know how to go to sleep and wake up normally? But not just her- many of the other characters were very attached to the morphling or alcohol. Understandable in real life. Maybe not acceptable in children's books.
I didn't like the ending. Felt like the author killed her sister just out of spite for the character. As if she hadn't suffered enough. And killing Finnick off enraged me. He was a hero in his own right. You could take his story and turn it around and he could be the main character- but instead he got thrown out like trash. I hate when characters that are likable but not the main one, get killed off just because. Movies do it, too. You can almost 90% of the time tell who is going to survive. The mostly pretty, "smart" girl (not the prettiest one, because that one is generally the "slut" and dies early on), and -maybe- the guy she gets to spend happily ever after with.
I have a whole list of reasons I didn't like this book, so bare with me. This is an overall theme in all three though. Katniss sounds like a heartless bitch. We never get a chance to see how she actually feels about things until her sister dies. Most of it is just an interpretation of what she sees, and that's frustrating. If we're supposed to be in her head, why don't we know what emotions she's having? She doesn't have many unique thoughts about anything. Instead, all we get is her constant confusion. How can she be a hero if she's walking around without an idea in the world about what's actually going on? And when she does things, we don't get to see her reasoning about it. Because of this, I think the book would've, and ought to have been, better written from a third person point of view. I felt cheated being inside the characters head but being kept out of her innermost thoughts.
I do, however, applaud her for killing the new prez. The moment Boggs mentioned Katniss was a threat because she didn't support her, I knew she was just another tyrant and needed to be taken out of the picture. So thankfully she was!
Let's go back to something easy- my favorite part. My favorite part in this book was the end when she finally told Peeta she loved him. It was a relief that he could finally be happy and we finally got to see what she felt.
My least favorite part was the mutts. Very unhappy with Finnick's death, again.
Feel free to add comments on how you interpreted this book!
I actually finished this book yesterday, after spending most of the day devouring it. I have to say this at the start- it was not my favorite of the three. Heck, it was probably my ~least~ favorite of the three. Part of the way through it, I looked up to tell my boyfriend that it's going to make one heck of a movie when they get around to it. But then I realized, therein lied the problem--it felt too much like a movie. Constant drama, not enough downtime to allow the characters to reflect. You knew something out of the ordinary crazy drama was about to happen the moment they had a breather, because they weren't allowed to. Now, I understand that books are made to be entertaining, but there's something -better- about a book than a movie because it takes the time to spend on details that might not necessarily matter. Mockingjay read too much like a movie script for me to enjoy it like a book.
I AM happy to say that she ended up with the guy I thought she belonged with. In Hunger Games, I was all for Gale, but once I realized the sheer amount of what Peeta did for her, I couldn't help but care about him most. And he became my favorite character. I read through Catching Fire in nearly one sitting mostly because I was afraid for his life!
Other than the drama being shoved down our throats, I wasn't happy with the blatant drug abuse. It annoys me when I'm reading a book and every time I turn around, the character is passing out and waking up somewhere else. Like that's the only way the author knows how to segue into a new scene. This was kind of like that, except she was CONSTANTLY in the hospital, or being drugged, or waking up after passing out. Does she not know how to go to sleep and wake up normally? But not just her- many of the other characters were very attached to the morphling or alcohol. Understandable in real life. Maybe not acceptable in children's books.
I didn't like the ending. Felt like the author killed her sister just out of spite for the character. As if she hadn't suffered enough. And killing Finnick off enraged me. He was a hero in his own right. You could take his story and turn it around and he could be the main character- but instead he got thrown out like trash. I hate when characters that are likable but not the main one, get killed off just because. Movies do it, too. You can almost 90% of the time tell who is going to survive. The mostly pretty, "smart" girl (not the prettiest one, because that one is generally the "slut" and dies early on), and -maybe- the guy she gets to spend happily ever after with.
I have a whole list of reasons I didn't like this book, so bare with me. This is an overall theme in all three though. Katniss sounds like a heartless bitch. We never get a chance to see how she actually feels about things until her sister dies. Most of it is just an interpretation of what she sees, and that's frustrating. If we're supposed to be in her head, why don't we know what emotions she's having? She doesn't have many unique thoughts about anything. Instead, all we get is her constant confusion. How can she be a hero if she's walking around without an idea in the world about what's actually going on? And when she does things, we don't get to see her reasoning about it. Because of this, I think the book would've, and ought to have been, better written from a third person point of view. I felt cheated being inside the characters head but being kept out of her innermost thoughts.
I do, however, applaud her for killing the new prez. The moment Boggs mentioned Katniss was a threat because she didn't support her, I knew she was just another tyrant and needed to be taken out of the picture. So thankfully she was!
Let's go back to something easy- my favorite part. My favorite part in this book was the end when she finally told Peeta she loved him. It was a relief that he could finally be happy and we finally got to see what she felt.
My least favorite part was the mutts. Very unhappy with Finnick's death, again.
Feel free to add comments on how you interpreted this book!
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Insistent Characters
Along with being a reader, I fancy myself a pretty good fantasy fiction writer. In junior high and high school, I got straight As. I was so bored with school that while the teachers lectured and in between homework and having no interest in sports or boys, I wrote a book. I wrote it straight through, with absolutely no outline planned out. I just let it flow, let the characters talk to me and tell me what they wanted to say, what they would do, and they became so ingrained in my mind that they feel like old friends.
Well, my main character, a rogue named Viper, decided that some day, he deserved a quartet. It was going to be just a three-book series, but somewhere after deciding the end to the third book, he wanted a chance to reflect back on everything that happened. So the idea for a fourth book appeared.
That's the back story.
My main point is this: somewhere in the middle of my extremely stressful dead week at college, Viper demanded to be heard. He had a scene he wanted in the fourth book and without permission, he carried on a complete conversation with a minor character.
How very frustrating for me, lacking pen, paper, or time, to acknowledge his request. So, while studying for my worst final this semester, I took out a piece of paper, a pen, and wrote an entire page without stopping once. It could have been more, but I didn't have the patience to expand with details. I merely wrote the grit of it and set it aside.
But I felt better afterward. Maybe, in a different life, I could've been a successful author. However, much as I like Viper, I am not too proud to think he could compete with the likes of Harry Potter or Edward for the affection of the nation. I can humbly acknowledge that they are better authors than me, just for the mere fact that they are published, and I am not. However, my dream of getting my book published, if only for the satisfaction of seeing it bound as a real book before me, is still there. I enjoy my characters very much, and they are alive and very vocal inside of me, no matter what anyone else thinks :)
Sometimes, you just need to listen to them, and write.
Well, my main character, a rogue named Viper, decided that some day, he deserved a quartet. It was going to be just a three-book series, but somewhere after deciding the end to the third book, he wanted a chance to reflect back on everything that happened. So the idea for a fourth book appeared.
That's the back story.
My main point is this: somewhere in the middle of my extremely stressful dead week at college, Viper demanded to be heard. He had a scene he wanted in the fourth book and without permission, he carried on a complete conversation with a minor character.
How very frustrating for me, lacking pen, paper, or time, to acknowledge his request. So, while studying for my worst final this semester, I took out a piece of paper, a pen, and wrote an entire page without stopping once. It could have been more, but I didn't have the patience to expand with details. I merely wrote the grit of it and set it aside.
But I felt better afterward. Maybe, in a different life, I could've been a successful author. However, much as I like Viper, I am not too proud to think he could compete with the likes of Harry Potter or Edward for the affection of the nation. I can humbly acknowledge that they are better authors than me, just for the mere fact that they are published, and I am not. However, my dream of getting my book published, if only for the satisfaction of seeing it bound as a real book before me, is still there. I enjoy my characters very much, and they are alive and very vocal inside of me, no matter what anyone else thinks :)
Sometimes, you just need to listen to them, and write.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Dead (ish)
by Naomi Kramer.
*Warning: explicit words used in reference to direct quotes in the book*
My first post is, ironically enough, on a book of the type I don't normally read. I was bored at school, waiting for my next class to start, so I was looking through the Amazon Kindle app on my smartphone. I did a search on "free" and came up with a variety of different books, including a few "free" short stories.
The first thing that attracted me to the book was the cover. I know you're not supposed to judge the story based on some different artist's work, but the cute female skull and cross bones made me think of my sister, who tends to like the emo things. After reading the reviews, I decided to check it out.
It's about a girl ghost who is haunting her ex-boyfriend, who killed her, "accidentally". All she wants is to find her body so she can move on to the afterlife. She can appear to people, and so she hires a PI to investigate the case and find her body. He poses as an exorcist to the still-living boyfriend, and finds himself in the middle of a crazy story.
In the beginning I felt bad for the guy, she seems like a real bitch. His side of the story is she cheated on him and during their argument he slapped her and she fell over on her high heels and cracked her head on something, dying in her sleep later that night. As far as I was concerned, she halfway had it coming to her.
But then you find out what he did with her body and....all those pitying feelings went away. No spoilers!
My favorite quote from the book is probably this: Arty-farty doesn't just equal freaky in the sack, it also equals nasty genius revenge.
I would recommend this book for anyone who likes paranormal things, and only for mature readers. They say Fuck alot, although I never did understand why they'd say that, but then only say arsehole. I don't know any real person who uses that world. If you're going to say arsehole, then fuck should turn into frick, or something. They also reference a threesome, which I wasn't exactly expecting. But, you've been warned, lol.
I'll give it a two/five stars for the books I've read, but a three/four stars for a short story.
*Warning: explicit words used in reference to direct quotes in the book*
My first post is, ironically enough, on a book of the type I don't normally read. I was bored at school, waiting for my next class to start, so I was looking through the Amazon Kindle app on my smartphone. I did a search on "free" and came up with a variety of different books, including a few "free" short stories.
The first thing that attracted me to the book was the cover. I know you're not supposed to judge the story based on some different artist's work, but the cute female skull and cross bones made me think of my sister, who tends to like the emo things. After reading the reviews, I decided to check it out.
It's about a girl ghost who is haunting her ex-boyfriend, who killed her, "accidentally". All she wants is to find her body so she can move on to the afterlife. She can appear to people, and so she hires a PI to investigate the case and find her body. He poses as an exorcist to the still-living boyfriend, and finds himself in the middle of a crazy story.
In the beginning I felt bad for the guy, she seems like a real bitch. His side of the story is she cheated on him and during their argument he slapped her and she fell over on her high heels and cracked her head on something, dying in her sleep later that night. As far as I was concerned, she halfway had it coming to her.
But then you find out what he did with her body and....all those pitying feelings went away. No spoilers!
My favorite quote from the book is probably this: Arty-farty doesn't just equal freaky in the sack, it also equals nasty genius revenge.
I would recommend this book for anyone who likes paranormal things, and only for mature readers. They say Fuck alot, although I never did understand why they'd say that, but then only say arsehole. I don't know any real person who uses that world. If you're going to say arsehole, then fuck should turn into frick, or something. They also reference a threesome, which I wasn't exactly expecting. But, you've been warned, lol.
I'll give it a two/five stars for the books I've read, but a three/four stars for a short story.
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