Because it's Labor Day, y'all

[cleolinda]

And on the fourth day God said, "Bitch, did you just compare yourself to Me?", she rested.

(I'm not quite as limp as I was after recapping Breaking Dawn, but then I somehow--seriously, in retrospect, I do not know how--did the whole 750-page book in a day, but spread 264 pages of Midnight Sun plus large chunks of Twilight over three. So basically

Comments

[cleolinda]

Aww. (Nooo! Not lupus too!) I'm just to a point where I keep trying to tell myself, you know, you do the best you can, and feeling bad about it isn't going to help you do any better or make you any happier. Right now I'm trying to stay out of a death spiral of guilt that this annotation project is now going into its sixth month (I'd hoped it would take a week or two), and we still really, really need the money. Because feeling bad just makes it take longer, you know?

(It had something to do with a statue of Paris Hilton sculpted from cheese, and cheese feeling very bad about this. I don't know, it's a long story.)

[worldforawhile]

This probably won't help either of you, really, but I frequently use you both as examples to slap myself around when I'm feeling useless about where my life is going (or not going). I tell myself, "look at how much you complain about X, Y and Z!" You make your life too much about the things that you're missing! Look at akathorne and cleolinda! They aren't whiners! They have these awesome lives that they are rightfully proud of!

Aaaand then I feel like more of a loser because I don't actually stop thinking about the things I don't have, at all.

[elizardbits]

All those ONTD links are locked. SADFACE.

[cleolinda]

Ohhhh, that's right, because they're scared of the Twilight Moms too. Well, it's a huge comm--you can probably join without any problem and leave when you're done, no one will notice, for real.

[r_a_black]

Meyer's answer to the anti-feminism in her books was ridiculous, I wanted to slap her around a bit after I read it. It's like she has selective attention issues. She never actually acknowledges that we think Bella is weak because of the way she lets Edward walk all over her, instead she goes on about how it's all about choice and that's why she's not an anti-feminist character. Now she even makes it look like the people criticizing her don't even understand the basic principles of feminism and are instead going backwards.

It figures they'd go back to film a scene that doesn't exist in the books- I wonder how much of that there is in the movie? It would have been funny to watch the script-writer cut down all the fluff and purple prose from the books and see what they end up with. :P

[cleolinda]

So... Bella choosing to be weak means it's not anti-feminist?

See, I think you can--and I even did, in the last recap--make an argument that Bella is not always passive. That's just not the way you go about it, though.

[r_a_black]

Yeah, you can make the argument for Bella a bit, but Meyer's ignoring the most obvious things that people complain about, scenarios like the part where he messes with her engine. I'm positive she must have come across a mention of that, since she said she's read a few articles on the anti-feminism accusations, but she never addresses it. Then when you look away from Bella, you see it in the other female characters as well. It shouldn't be that Bella specifically is anti-feminist, it should be that the whole series is anti-feminist. In a real debate with someone, I don't think Meyer could come up with satisfying answers. She gave a reason as to why she's bad at it during the interviews (she blames it on one never knowing what they're going to ask you, which I can sorta agree with, except that this is universe she created, so you'd think she'd put much more thought into it and be more prepared) but there's not excuse for it on her FAQ page, and she still comes up short. I'm waiting for her to just finally throw up her hands and say, "

[cleolinda]

Well, I think the reason she can't answer it is because it's going to come down to, "I just write what I feel"--which is basically what she's said, so... she herself is inherently anti-feminist? I mean, I'm not saying that's true necessarily; I'm just saying, there's just no good way for that argument to end for her.

It's to a point where--if given the chance--I don't think even raise the question with her. I think it's an interesting question to argue from a textual perspective, commenter to commenter, but it seems so clear now that it just is what it is with her and she has a really hard time answering questions, period. I don't think we'd get anything useful out of her. (Not to shut this discussion down--I'm just musing to myself here.)

[gwynnywonk]

Weirdly enough, you mentioned Jane Austen in your post just when I was thinking that your life was sort of similar to hers. You don't need to get married or even leave home to be a great literary success, and she proved that a long time ago. A fulfilled life makes its own milestones and doesn't necessarily have to follow the "Life Boardgame" steps.

Glad to know that you're feeling better.

[cleolinda]

Aww, thanks.

In a weird way, the recent suckage of the economy is making me feel a little better, because a lot of people are going back home and retrenching right now. I look a little less weird at the moment, at least.

Retrench!

[promise19]

Last year, I almost had to retrench (and I'm old enough to be your mother). But at the time, I kept remembering the line from the 1995 version of "Persuasion," where Lady Russell says, "Mr. Elliott, you must retrench!" Lovely to know I could have had that conversation with you without having to explain it! ;-)

[tytaniaherself]

Thanks for this post. Frankly, you're one of the people that I look up to as successful. You're an excellent writer with a large audience whose work has been published in actual book form by an actual publisher

[cleolinda]

See, exactly. It's like you have to describe the best version of yourself that way and stick to that. Except that when I try to do that, the guilt kicks in all like, "See, now you're just getting arrogant, and people are going to hate you if you start to actually like yourself."

[insomniacafe547]

I hate that mentality where, if you start to believe in yourself and your abilities, people start going "SHOW-OFF!" and you must hate yourself to conform. It's like the movie The Incredibles (oh God, am I seriously making this connection?) - the superheroes have to cover up their powers and people are going "Everyone is perfect the way they are", which essentially means that NO ONE CAN STAND OUT. It's a very fine line.

(am i rambling? can i even be understood?)