RANTY RANT
Just a warning, some of you won't agree with my assessment that this is an agenda driven point by the author. Also, some of you might agree with the author. However, even if you agree with her, that doesn't stop this from being a soap-box delivery that annoys the crap out of me.
Anyway, onwards.
So, I'm reading the first of Sharon Green's series called The Blending. The first novel is called "Convergence". In short, it's where all the main characters meet up and start getting their act together. It's got rather trope heavy characters and setting, but the magic system is great and I'm a sucker for the mechanics of magic systems, so I give it a read. I've devoured it in the past couple of days. I'm about 80% through it.
Then, this crap happens. (Nota Bene: I really, really wanna swear. This really ticks me off. However, I try not to swear on the internets.) Main Boy is infatuated with Main Girl. Main Boy is from a small farm town and has traditional views on love, marriage and such. Main Girl is a courtesan, in all its stereotypical, tropy fashion. She's the most beautiful courtesan ever, she's very successful, but at her core she's a very expensive prostitute.
THE ONLY PERSON WHO HAS A PROBLEM WITH THIS IS MAIN BOY FROM THE FARM. He proceeds to talk to Other Main Girl. Other Main Girl and Main Girl are friends, so Main Boy sees this as the perfect way to figure out how to get Main Girl to want to marry him instead of just making him a Special Client With No Fee. Other Main Girl is PERFECTLY okay with Main Girl being a prostitute and completely convinces Main Boy that it's perfectly okay. In fact, throughout their conversation, he's portrayed as a complete idiot and his ideas are stupid, backward, and ignorant. Not only that, the author does it in about two pages of almost monologue from Other Main Girl. Seriously, inserting an "Ummm..." and an "Uhhh..." does not a dialog make.
I've no problem with characters being courtesans. A book about perfect people is boring. I've no problem with some people agreeing with it. To have one imperfect person in a book of perfect people would also be boring.
I do have a problem with the ONLY objecting character being portrayed as stupid, simple, backwards and ignorant. (Why? Because I agree with Main Boy, and thus take the implied insult that the author is insinuating about me.) The worst of it isn't the message. I can understand and tolerate the message. It's the delivery with which the author, Sharon Green, does it. It's COMPLETELY preachy. If I want to be preached at, I'll go watch Avatar again. At least that movie is the prettiest thing I've ever seen. This is just an average book with unoriginal characters and a fixation on lengthy descriptions of people taking baths. WE GET IT. THEY BATHE A LOT.
Seriously. I don't want every book to conform to my moral code. I just don't wanna be preached at.
Anyway, onwards.
So, I'm reading the first of Sharon Green's series called The Blending. The first novel is called "Convergence". In short, it's where all the main characters meet up and start getting their act together. It's got rather trope heavy characters and setting, but the magic system is great and I'm a sucker for the mechanics of magic systems, so I give it a read. I've devoured it in the past couple of days. I'm about 80% through it.
Then, this crap happens. (Nota Bene: I really, really wanna swear. This really ticks me off. However, I try not to swear on the internets.) Main Boy is infatuated with Main Girl. Main Boy is from a small farm town and has traditional views on love, marriage and such. Main Girl is a courtesan, in all its stereotypical, tropy fashion. She's the most beautiful courtesan ever, she's very successful, but at her core she's a very expensive prostitute.
THE ONLY PERSON WHO HAS A PROBLEM WITH THIS IS MAIN BOY FROM THE FARM. He proceeds to talk to Other Main Girl. Other Main Girl and Main Girl are friends, so Main Boy sees this as the perfect way to figure out how to get Main Girl to want to marry him instead of just making him a Special Client With No Fee. Other Main Girl is PERFECTLY okay with Main Girl being a prostitute and completely convinces Main Boy that it's perfectly okay. In fact, throughout their conversation, he's portrayed as a complete idiot and his ideas are stupid, backward, and ignorant. Not only that, the author does it in about two pages of almost monologue from Other Main Girl. Seriously, inserting an "Ummm..." and an "Uhhh..." does not a dialog make.
I've no problem with characters being courtesans. A book about perfect people is boring. I've no problem with some people agreeing with it. To have one imperfect person in a book of perfect people would also be boring.
I do have a problem with the ONLY objecting character being portrayed as stupid, simple, backwards and ignorant. (Why? Because I agree with Main Boy, and thus take the implied insult that the author is insinuating about me.) The worst of it isn't the message. I can understand and tolerate the message. It's the delivery with which the author, Sharon Green, does it. It's COMPLETELY preachy. If I want to be preached at, I'll go watch Avatar again. At least that movie is the prettiest thing I've ever seen. This is just an average book with unoriginal characters and a fixation on lengthy descriptions of people taking baths. WE GET IT. THEY BATHE A LOT.
Seriously. I don't want every book to conform to my moral code. I just don't wanna be preached at.