Marked Redux: Chapter 1

[zelda_queen]

ZeldaQueen: Here we go! Ready to begin, Ruin?

Ruin: Yes!

ZeldaQueen: Brilliant!

Comments

[stormswift]

You know, I get the sense from re-reading this that neither Cast lady has ever truly felt like an outcast. Zoey constantly faux-sighs over her "freakish inability to fit in" but let's look at the evidence - she has a best friend, and a football player boyfriend who, in this stereotype-laden universe, represents the pinnacle of high school caste achievement.

So why, oh, why, does Zoey bemoan her "outcast" status? What about her screams "outcast"???

It's pandering. The Casts know that their target audience is going to be the teens who read vampire books, and that was predominately the "less popular" ones. It sets my teeth on edge to hear Zoey reference HIGHLY HOMOGENIZED cultural touchstones like Tolkein or Star Trek and make a weary aside to the reader going "Yeah, yeah, I'm a nerd". She completely misses what the point of self-identifying as a nerd even IS.

Calling yourself a nerd means you don't CARE what the world at large thinks of your likes and interests. It means you happily campaign in your month-long D&D group because damn it, you've worked hard on this character and you want to see what they can do. It means passing notes to your friends in Sindarin because you learned it for that express purpose. It means hashing out the finer points of a book's canon because you feel that strongly about it.

It absolutely does not mean apologizing for your interests, no matter how obscure. And for that, Zoey Redbird is forever on my fictional character shit list. PC and Kristen Cast don't know what it's like to be socially isolated due to their inherent likes and dislikes, but they pander to an audience who lives with it every day and, much like Meyer, they sink to the Mean Girl level instead of rising above it. Zoey never shows the Means Girls that they were wrong: instead, she affirms their prejudices by ascribing to them. She plays into the wrong power fantasy.

Okay, real talk. I'm a huge Tolkein fan. I'm a huge Star Trek fan. I have liked these things long before their cultural resurgence. I have made Tribble jokes that flew over the heads of people, but I've also had extremely fulfilling conversations with almost-strangers about the differences between movie and book canon in LotR. In high school. Christ, the one-dimensional portrayal of everything, including high school cliques, just leaves me cold. This in no way represents my high school outcast status, especially because I managed to make it through high school without making snide comments about a person's sex life.

So just assume that every time she makes some back-handed reference to "tee hee, I'm SO QUIRKY AND NERDY!" I'll be over here in the corner, re-watching Princess Tutu episodes and weeping softly.

[carakasla]

My fiancé and I are LOZ nerds. It's what we bonded over. We talk about Zelda canon, we both have a huge dislike of Toon Link (no apologies. We just don't). We are both waiting for our Hyrule Historia and Magic Heart necklace to come in the mail (stupid, slow, Canada Post) from Amazon. We are constantly hunting down new information about Zelda Wii U and will probably get it opening day. We played Skyward Sword together and we are working through the Twillight Princess map in Hyrule Warriors. We finished the main storyline and completely finished the Adventure Map. And never, ever, EVER call Link 'Zelda', because we will hate you.

So, yeah, I totally get what you are saying. Zoey is not a nerd because she doesn't take PRIDE in being a nerd. To me, being a 'nerd' is about loving something (a book, a movie, a video game, whatever) and taking pride in that love. Not apologizing for that love. Loving that something because you legit enjoy it. It's not about shame or silliness, it's about love.

So, yeah. Fail, Zoey. Get away from my nerdom.

FUN ZELDA FACT: Did you know that Princess Zelda was named after Zelda Fitzgerald? F. Scott Fitzgerald'a wife? :3 :3

[ruin_takada]

'To me, being a 'nerd' is about loving something... and taking pride in that love'.

That's definitely the definition, at least according to Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, A Fantastic Fear of Everything, Star Trek, At World's End).

(Not to apologise, but I love squirting facts and factoria like that. It's one of my special skills.)

[zelda_queen]

Agreed on all of that. And not only does she take no pride, but her "love" of "nerdy" things are incredibly shallow. She has one mention of owning Monster's Inc. figurines, but never talks about them after or shows any interest in collecting items like that. She apparently loves movies like Star Wars, but never discusses if she likes the original trilogy vs. the prequels, which movie is best, whether or not she accepts the EU as canon, how she'd feel about Star Trek VII, etc. When it comes to movies, all she does is talk about if she thinks the actors are hot. That's all she cares about!

If you want media about nerd love, incidentally, I recommend the webcomic "Weregeeks". It's awesome and written by people who actually are geeks themselves and thus understand geeky culture (unlike the Cast ladies) and is a lot of fun.

"FUN ZELDA FACT: Did you know that Princess Zelda was named after Zelda Fitzgerald? F. Scott Fitzgerald'a wife? :3 :3"

I did! :D And I'm glad he did, it's such a pretty name. ^^

[ruin_takada]

I love this rant. This is just everything about why I found that nerd shame shit so bloody skeevy in the books.

Like, com on Zoey, own that nerd love. Nerd love won't make you less of a girl, just as nerd shame won't make you more of one.

Explanation: So far, that is my stance on the nerd shame - Zoey constantly points out her nerd shame because the creators don't think nerd love can possibly co-exist alongside a 'legitimate' teenage female identity. This 'theory' of theirs just perpetuates the stupid idea that some nerd boys will desperately hold onto, that nerd girls don't belong in nerd culture (which I can safely say both Zelda and I totally disagree with).

[captain_square]

Well, to be completely fair, this book shows that women can often perpetuate stereotypes about themselves.

[zelda_queen]

That's true, however I'm pretty sure most of it wasn't on purpose. We're supposed to think Zoey's a kind, intelligent girl who's worthy of every blessing a goddess can offer her. There's a couple of times when she gets called out on stuff, but nobody ever says anything like, "You know, maybe it's unfair to call a girl a slut for that reason". Not to mention that the same thing happens in PC Cast's other books, so I just think she's not aware of it. :/

[aikaterini]

/Zoey constantly faux-sighs over her "freakish inability to fit in"/

Just like Bella Swan. And like Bella, Zoey fails to realize that maybe the reason why she can’t fit in with others is because she constantly looks down on them. And, like Bella, she’s a hypocrite: she calls Kayla shallow while turning up her nose at ‘nerdy chess-club kids’ and emo kids who wear “girls’ pants.”

/It absolutely does not mean apologizing for your interests, no matter how obscure./

Yeah, it’s one thing to admit that a bad movie adaptation of your favorite book is not, in fact, the end of the world and it’s quite another to be ashamed of what you like. Zoey’s not even saying something along the lines of, “I love this series, but I know that there’s some stuff that can be considered problematic.” The Casts just throw in a few references and that’s it: she’s a nerd. It’s no different from Meyer tossing in “Wuthering Heights” to make Bella seem like a bookworm when Bella never spends any time having serious discussions with people about books.

/much like Meyer, they sink to the Mean Girl level instead of rising above it. Zoey never shows the Means Girls that they were wrong: instead, she affirms their prejudices by ascribing to them. She plays into the wrong power fantasy./

Exactly. Instead of wanting to show up the Mean Girls, the fantasy’s more along the lines of wanting to *be* the Mean Girls. Of wanting to be popular and shallow and cruel in their own way, but to have nobody call them out on it because they used to be the underdog.

/I managed to make it through high school without making snide comments about a person's sex life./

And the irony is that as much as Zoey dislikes her fundamentalist Christian stepfather, she would be the stereotypical devout Christian girl in a teen movie, based on all of the sex-policing she does. The way that she looks down her nose at girls who have sex is not that different from the image of the prim librarian stereotype who purses her lips at the idea of any ‘licentiousness.’ Yet Zoey has a boyfriend (and will have multiple love interests as the series goes on), but that’s okay, because she’s our Designated Protagonist.

[legal_assasin]

IKR? Whenever Zoey goes all "I'm such a nerd, LOL," I keep thinking of my brother's friend, who can recite the oath for each Lantern Corp. Including the one that has no English translation. And the more devout fans of MLP, who theorize about the inner workings of Equestria.

And then I just nod and go "Yeah, sure. You are such a nerd, Zozo."