Comments | secritcrush: Charles Stross vs. the Va-Jay-Jay

secritcrush

Charles Stross vs. the Va-Jay-Jay

Jun 03, 2014 19:41

So I'll say upfront I'm not a fan of Stross's writing. I didn't enjoy the last Laundry novella I read (back in 2005 when "The Concrete Jungle" was on the ballot for the last UK Worldcon) and I wasn't looking forward to this one. I don't find him funny, so you might as well bear that in mind. Anyway, here is what I hated about "Equoid" by Charles ( Read more... )

hugos, hugos 2014, novellas, charles stross

Comments 13

lamentables June 3 2014, 19:29:41 UTC

6. Seriously? No, seriously?
Well that confirms prejudices/opinions here at Lamentable Towers.

secritcrush June 3 2014, 20:06:28 UTC

Yes. (I have been struggling to say without saying things I didn't want to read. But that is my interpretation of a bit of the ending of the story based on earlier occurrences in the story which parallel the four-year-old's situation.

sartorias June 3 2014, 19:29:54 UTC

Oh, lord. I think I will sell back unread the two Stross I had accumulated cheap at a used sale, in another effort to see what his many many fans love so much about his work. I suspect we're all in different paradigms; in no way do I wish to read about a four year old raped by anything or anyone. There is no possible wit to cherish in that, or wisdom to be gained. Life is too short.

secritcrush June 3 2014, 20:12:14 UTC

I'll be honest, I don't recall a work of his that I've read that I didn't find sexist. (And when you meld sexist with horror it seems to inevitably lead to rape stories, because misogyny.)

There are definitely things I appreciate about his writing, like crazy inventive ideas, but I've definitely decided that it's just not for me.

sartorias June 3 2014, 20:36:40 UTC

Yeah, I've bounced hard twice off his books that people said were hilarious and inventive, but in each the women were flat, or non-existent, replaced pretty much by high-octane testosterone violence and horror. So I've been waiting for one that doesn't seem that, but I'm wondering if that is what he writes.

mnfaure June 3 2014, 19:39:47 UTC

Ugh, and I wish I hadn't read about it before going to bed. At least I didn't have to read the actual scene like you did. ;-/

secritcrush June 3 2014, 20:08:09 UTC

Sorry. I didn't put a cut because I'm just so disgusted this is on the ballot - I will add a warning.

mnfaure June 3 2014, 20:16:01 UTC

Ah, I'm not actually that sensitive! (But my brain is a weird and strange thing that is prone to producing to bizarre--and sometimes horrific--dreams.)

I wanted to convey my disgust without getting all explody-tempered, which is the first thing I wanted to do when reading about that rape. One has to wonder "why!?" that would be a necessary scene. Why go there besides shock value?

secritcrush June 3 2014, 20:21:36 UTC

It's not actually a scene - it's a sentence which makes clear (to me, anyway) that the four-year=old has been through what was described in a scene with a 13=year-old earlier in the story.

abigail_n June 3 2014, 20:35:49 UTC

It's been a couple of months since I read the story so I don't remember it very well, but I think at the time my sense was that Stross was trying to address the gynophobia of Lovecraft's writing by turning it up to eleven (at least, I'm assuming he was turning it up to eleven; I've never read Lovecraft but he surely couldn't have been as bad as that). As you say, however, what that ends up giving us is multiple scenes of detailed and ridiculously graphic child-rape, so I'm really not sure who comes out the winner.

secritcrush June 3 2014, 21:09:16 UTC

He does explicitly mention the gynophobia so it is signposted for people like me who aren't so familiar with Lovecraft's special tendencies (it's one of the things that bugs me about the fact that the racism isn't signposted.)

It's just at the end of the day, I don't see that Stross has written anything other than misogyny violence porn similar to things that are scattered across the internet. (As I've always had significant issues with his portrayal of women characters, I'm even less likely than usual to think that there is some there there, underneath the rapiness.)

oneminutemonkey June 4 2014, 00:44:46 UTC

. . .
No, wait, let me explain:
. . .

Okay, seriously, I've never had serious problems with Stross. I find maybe half his work tolerable, and some of it even a little interesting. But I've found a lot of his stuff to just be weird and offputting.
From the sound of this, I'm better off avoiding at all costs. Aiee.