I have been reading some really great books lately. It's rare that I get such a string of good ones in a row, so I'm loving it and dreading when the streak will end
( Read more... )
I'm so happy to hear a good review of _Bossypants_ from someone I know. I've been eying it as my "Engrossing Transatlantic Flight Read" for the trip to England in August. I love love love Tina Fey (though I guess who doesn't?) so was kind of wondering whether I was more interested in reading the book because I like her than because I actually want to read the book. So, you've sold me!
And I totally agree about _Game of Thrones_. I actually did read them all, mainly because when I start a series I usually feel like I can't *not* finish it unless I absolutely hate it. The first one was the only one I really really liked (and Dany is totally my fave too)--I think it's by far the best one, although all the people I know here who are actual committed GRRM fans and who didn't just pick up the series to study up before watching the show like I did completely disagree with me, so maybe I'm missing something. But even with the first book I felt a little uneasy about some of the violence. I'm not particularly squeamish of violence in books or movies per se, but I do find it troubling when sexual violence in particular is fetishized, as I felt it was in GoT. Again, my friends here who are Martin fans don't think the rape is fetishized at all, but just a world-building detail that is accurate to the time period in "real-world" history that Martin is modeling after. And I can see their point, but I'm kind of on the fence; I guess I felt like the narrative gaze is a little too enthusiastic for my taste during some of these rape scenes. What's really interesting to me is the way they decided to handle all this sex in the show, which I don't know if you've watched at all? Obviously they had to take out most of the rape, so to keep the sex quotient equivalent they've replaced it with all these utterly nonsensical and absurd softcore porn-type scenes where male characters give expository narrations of background info while naked girls get it on next to/atop/behind them. So silly!
Yes! Thank you for articulating better than I could. It's one thing to have sexual violence be a reality of a certain fictional culture and another to have it described with quite so much relish. I have not watched the show, and probably won't now that I've decided against the series as a whole for me but glad to know it's been turned into the Game of Thrones Soft-Core festival!
And I totally agree about _Game of Thrones_. I actually did read them all, mainly because when I start a series I usually feel like I can't *not* finish it unless I absolutely hate it. The first one was the only one I really really liked (and Dany is totally my fave too)--I think it's by far the best one, although all the people I know here who are actual committed GRRM fans and who didn't just pick up the series to study up before watching the show like I did completely disagree with me, so maybe I'm missing something. But even with the first book I felt a little uneasy about some of the violence. I'm not particularly squeamish of violence in books or movies per se, but I do find it troubling when sexual violence in particular is fetishized, as I felt it was in GoT. Again, my friends here who are Martin fans don't think the rape is fetishized at all, but just a world-building detail that is accurate to the time period in "real-world" history that Martin is modeling after. And I can see their point, but I'm kind of on the fence; I guess I felt like the narrative gaze is a little too enthusiastic for my taste during some of these rape scenes. What's really interesting to me is the way they decided to handle all this sex in the show, which I don't know if you've watched at all? Obviously they had to take out most of the rape, so to keep the sex quotient equivalent they've replaced it with all these utterly nonsensical and absurd softcore porn-type scenes where male characters give expository narrations of background info while naked girls get it on next to/atop/behind them. So silly!
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment