Still babbling about books
Apr. 13th, 2004 08:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsI have come to the conclusion that I despise "chick lit." I like romances, particularly historical ones, but chick lit? Feh.
Yeah, they're both about getting married. And yeah, I get a vicarious thrill out of reading courtships. So what's the diff? In a historical romance, particularly the time periods I prefer to read, a woman's future really did depend on who she married. It was as much a business arrangement as a romance, and the plots make a point of that. The plots also switch back and forth between his and her points of view; one or both characters might be dumber than the horse he rode in on, but at least their points of view are heard. There is a reason for it all.
As opposed to chick lit, where the sole impetus appears to be "OMG! I'm almost 35 and don't have a rock on a ring, a white picket fence, or 2.5 children! Something MUST Be Done!" and the sole point of the male is to provide same by the end of the book.
I like chick flicks. I get a kick out of While You Were Sleeping and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. But they had heroines that I could identify with, or at least laugh at, and the guys got to say at least one or two lines that weren't "yes dear, whatever you want, dear."
But all the modern chick fic I pick up tends to read more like a novelization of Kate and Leopold. We're supposed to spend the entire movie hoping that Meg Ryan gets to live happily ever after with Hugh Jackman. After the first 10 minutes, I spent the rest of the movie hoping the whiny shallow selfish little bitch would get hit by a crosstown bus. The books are the same: Maneater, where I'm supposed to root for the woman who's marrying because she hasn't crossed that off her life list. Accidental Bride, where she gets cold feet about her marriage, can't bring herself to tell him, and quietly plans on divorcing him "gently" in a few weeks once she's "forced" through the wedding. Elegance, where... actually, I never even made it through the first chapter of that one. Something about feeling intimidated by his family, so she remodels herself based on a book named "Elegance."
Root for them? Sympathize with them? Emulate them? I want to smack them all around with a copy of The Feminine Mystique and Miss Manners.
I'm finding it rather interesting that as I go through the TBRs, I'm getting rid of maybe 1/8th of the nonfiction books, 1/3 of the mysteries (mostly Holmes pastiches), 1/5 of the F&SF, 1/2 of the romances, and every single one of the "modern chick lit" books.
Current book: Storm Front (still)
Yeah, they're both about getting married. And yeah, I get a vicarious thrill out of reading courtships. So what's the diff? In a historical romance, particularly the time periods I prefer to read, a woman's future really did depend on who she married. It was as much a business arrangement as a romance, and the plots make a point of that. The plots also switch back and forth between his and her points of view; one or both characters might be dumber than the horse he rode in on, but at least their points of view are heard. There is a reason for it all.
As opposed to chick lit, where the sole impetus appears to be "OMG! I'm almost 35 and don't have a rock on a ring, a white picket fence, or 2.5 children! Something MUST Be Done!" and the sole point of the male is to provide same by the end of the book.
I like chick flicks. I get a kick out of While You Were Sleeping and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. But they had heroines that I could identify with, or at least laugh at, and the guys got to say at least one or two lines that weren't "yes dear, whatever you want, dear."
But all the modern chick fic I pick up tends to read more like a novelization of Kate and Leopold. We're supposed to spend the entire movie hoping that Meg Ryan gets to live happily ever after with Hugh Jackman. After the first 10 minutes, I spent the rest of the movie hoping the whiny shallow selfish little bitch would get hit by a crosstown bus. The books are the same: Maneater, where I'm supposed to root for the woman who's marrying because she hasn't crossed that off her life list. Accidental Bride, where she gets cold feet about her marriage, can't bring herself to tell him, and quietly plans on divorcing him "gently" in a few weeks once she's "forced" through the wedding. Elegance, where... actually, I never even made it through the first chapter of that one. Something about feeling intimidated by his family, so she remodels herself based on a book named "Elegance."
Root for them? Sympathize with them? Emulate them? I want to smack them all around with a copy of The Feminine Mystique and Miss Manners.
I'm finding it rather interesting that as I go through the TBRs, I'm getting rid of maybe 1/8th of the nonfiction books, 1/3 of the mysteries (mostly Holmes pastiches), 1/5 of the F&SF, 1/2 of the romances, and every single one of the "modern chick lit" books.
Current book: Storm Front (still)
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Date: 2004-04-13 06:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-13 07:20 am (UTC)She said something about "optioned for a series," I think? Suri, you reading this? What's the scoop, oh bahwana of the books?
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Date: 2004-04-13 07:45 am (UTC)I heard that Sci-Fi channel was considering doing a series. Not sure that that's been finalized yet, but I believe Nicholas Cage was involved in production. Did I dream that? I haven't read any of the books, but I've heard it's a good series.
As to the chick lit stuff, I haven't looked at any of it. I assumed it was a trend for mostly very young women that would run its course and disappear.
It sounds like you're still "shedding" a lot of things. I was born in the Beaver clan. Which probably means I should be building a cleaner house.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-13 09:44 am (UTC)Yes, it's the first of five and counting. (I'd list the other titles, but they're at home...) It would work on Sci Fi if they didn't mess with it much; it's basically paranormal murder mysteries.
Y'know, if they're making a separate imprint for paranormal romance - and they are - you'd think there would be one for paranormal mysteries. There's enough interest - and enough authors doing them.
The shedding is going to go on for a while - there are rooms and rooms to clear out, and a lot of clutter to go through. If you page back through my LJ, there were something like 575 TBR books to deal with, and it's taken me close to two months to cull that down to the books that I really want to read (around the 450ish mark), as opposed to the stuff that seemed like a good idea at the time, or was part of a job lot, or was handed to me when I walked into WFC.
Got 'em all cleaned up just in time to be handed another brimming bookbag when I walk into Malice Domestic!