Three things I don't like in pop fiction
1) Families who die in car crashes, leaving the hero/heroine all alone in the world. Admittedly, many books benefit from having the hero/heroine not be able to resort to family for aid. But if I see ONE MORE entire set of relatives wiped out in a car crash, I'll...roll my eyes and whine in LJ about it.
2) Heroines who are "strong and smart and courageous" according to the author, when in fact everything they do seems to show ignorance, weakness, and terror. All heroines these days are officially strong and smart. This doesn't mean that they can tie their own shoes without help from someone. Yes, it's great to have interaction between two characters, and sexual tension, and this usually plays out by having a hero and a heroine who work together to stop the bad guy. But if I see ONE MORE book where the hero does everything important, but the heroine is nonetheless "strong and smart and courageous," apparently because she trails after the hero while he does the important stuff (as opposed to staying at home and waiting for him to return)...I'll roll my eyes and whine again. "He and she are equals," we're told. Well, surprise. They're not equals, no matter how much you say so, if he's got the gun and he's using the gun to kill the bad guys and she's just standing behind him saying "look out! be careful!" That is so fucking not equality.
3) Heroines who are getting over incestuous rapes or unloved childhoods or other youthful traumas, but who have super-powers. There's just something exasperating about a heroine who is saving the world/galaxy/universe but is emotionally crippled because the other kids didn't play with her when she went to kindergarten. No, I don't find it touching, or something that I can connect to or sympathize with. I just wonder why super-kid didn't wipe out the mean kindergarteners at the time, since she apparently had the power to do so. I feel as if the author is talking down to me, assuming that the heroine needs to be loaded down with weaknesses and vulnerabilities before I can sympathize and identify with her. No.
And that is my grump for today about pop fiction.
2) Heroines who are "strong and smart and courageous" according to the author, when in fact everything they do seems to show ignorance, weakness, and terror. All heroines these days are officially strong and smart. This doesn't mean that they can tie their own shoes without help from someone. Yes, it's great to have interaction between two characters, and sexual tension, and this usually plays out by having a hero and a heroine who work together to stop the bad guy. But if I see ONE MORE book where the hero does everything important, but the heroine is nonetheless "strong and smart and courageous," apparently because she trails after the hero while he does the important stuff (as opposed to staying at home and waiting for him to return)...I'll roll my eyes and whine again. "He and she are equals," we're told. Well, surprise. They're not equals, no matter how much you say so, if he's got the gun and he's using the gun to kill the bad guys and she's just standing behind him saying "look out! be careful!" That is so fucking not equality.
3) Heroines who are getting over incestuous rapes or unloved childhoods or other youthful traumas, but who have super-powers. There's just something exasperating about a heroine who is saving the world/galaxy/universe but is emotionally crippled because the other kids didn't play with her when she went to kindergarten. No, I don't find it touching, or something that I can connect to or sympathize with. I just wonder why super-kid didn't wipe out the mean kindergarteners at the time, since she apparently had the power to do so. I feel as if the author is talking down to me, assuming that the heroine needs to be loaded down with weaknesses and vulnerabilities before I can sympathize and identify with her. No.
And that is my grump for today about pop fiction.