Update and Clockwork Angel

[lady_schrapnell]

Well, despite another trip to A&E, which was very quick and very useless, one to the GP, which involved a life-threatening entry and exit for the crutch-bound Becca, and one to the hospital joint & bone clinic (don't think the J&BC would have been explanatory enough) which was extremely long and very painful, a total of 6 taxi trips, 8 x-rays and

Comments

Icon has actual quote from Godchild

[rachelmanija]

"Parlor maids, of course, are chosen for their looks".

That reminds me of one of the author's notes in the completely non-historical (but marvelously cracky) manga Godchild, which starred Count Cain, who solves mysteries and collects deadly poisons to ease his troubled mind, and his "butler" (actually a valet, judging from his duties) Riff (short for Riffael Raffit) that went something like:

"Many readers have written in to remark upon Riff's close relationship with Cain. This was not unusual at the time. Approximately 50% of all Victorian butlers were homosexual."

Too bad about Clockwork Angel. Despite its flaws, I very much enjoyed Clare's first trilogy.

Re: Icon has actual quote from Godchild

[steepholm]

Approximately 50% of all Victorian butlers were homosexual.

It's right there in the 1881 census...

Re: Icon has actual quote from Godchild

[sartorias]

I wonder if somebody was mixing up butlers with valets. (And even then, I'd want to see where the statistics came from . . ."

Re: Icon has actual quote from Godchild

[rachelmanija]

Yes, and I expect they came from Kaori Yuki's fevered imagination - she is the same mangaka who created Angel Sanctuary.

Later in the series, she notes, "By the way, historically Cain would have slept in a nightshirt, but I thought it was sexier for him to sleep naked so that's how I drew him."

[semyaza]

Oh dear. I must confess that I couldn't manage her first trilogy (or perhaps I'm morally incapable of reading anything by Claire/Clare) but I put a hold on Clockwork Angel at the library. I'll remove it. The book would obviously drive me round the bend.

[lady_schrapnell]

I don't think there was too much selecting of unrepresentative cr-- uh, I don't think I selected unrepresentative passages from the book! So, yes, probably not going to be your cup of tea.

I'm guessing that you read the fanfic before the trilogy, from your use of Claire. I didn't, but I was thinking about that when all the references to other novels kept cropping up in Clockwork Angel. It's sort of interesting if you compare it to the allusions to other novels in books like What Katy Did, but those were so naturally woven in, and were books that the readers would know. Is it at all analogous to fanfic? The number of teens today who'd have read - or even heard of - The Lamplighter I'd imagine is very, very small, and then the purpose of making the allusion seems shifted from the kind of conversation between books lovers you get to a -- I don't know. Showing off, maybe? Or perhaps it's just a clumsy attempt to make Tessa seem just like her readers only "Look how Victorian!". I'm not sure at all, but it is odd.

[semyaza]

I read her fanfic 'back in the day'. I find that when you know too much about a published author's beginnings in fandom it's hard to read with a straight face. :D

But setting aside my unfair bias -- the best way to be Victorian is to be Victorian. I'd vote for 'clumsy attempt' although, as you say, who now has heard of The Lamplighter? It's not clear to me, from the passage you cited, what The Lamplighter has to do with girls raised by wealthy protectors.

On the subject of Neo-Victorian fiction -- have you read this?

[lady_schrapnell]

That Little Professor post is wonderful! Thank you for that! It'll be fun to see how many adaptations are needed in order to make it YA.

[shark_hat]

I'll avoid this one, then!
I've just given up on Soulless, which seems to be universally liked. I think I'd have enjoyed it if it'd been set on another planet that was going through a Victorian fad, or something- I liked the fantasy elements, and the characters were OK- but it was supposed to be set in actual Victorian England, and DOIN IT SO RONG. It felt like the author's total research was reading a couple of Regencies and looking at a picture of someone in a bustle; there was everything from bizzarrely wrong attitudes to sex for the era, to unconvincing names ("Duke of Snodgrove"?), to massive (modern-)Americanisms.

[lady_schrapnell]

I read Soulless, and liked it okay, although the super-manly, ALPHA MALENESS of the romantic hero bored me silly. Actually the whole romance bored me silly. Dunno whether I was less bothered by the thin-veneer Victorianism in it than in Clockwork Angel because of its not being YA (so not one we could use for our study) or whether it was more that it just didn't seem to take itself so seriously. I really felt Clockwork Angel gave off an air of self-satisfaction with the awesomeness of its Victorian steampunkdom that grated.

If you change your mind, though, I'd be interested to see how you think the two compare!

[generalblossom]

I thought Soulless OK, it was so camp and over the top at being pastiche that one thing it was not was coy. And coy I can not stand. Clockwork Angel is coy, and full of references to things in a way which feels contrived but not clever.

The things which bothered me most were not even the things lady_Schrapnell mentions, but things like gullible characters which should know better, ridiculous powerful powers which feel very convenient for achieving small plot objectives ( but who nobody seems to think through to what they could achieve), really shallow characterization, a "plot twist" which was obvious up to small details since the beginning. First book, first anything, of hers I have read, and for me it seems enough!

[sarah_prineas]

Thanks for the review! Interesting. No plans here to read it--the first series didn't work for me (from the moment the girl protag does the tstl move of going back to her mother's apartment where the monsters are).