(no subject)

[meganbmoore]

Sooo...I am reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo at work and, um, am kind of curious as to how it got to be an international best seller?  The ebook I'm reading doesn't have page numbers, but I feel like I've read about 100 pages for 15 pages of plot.  Perhaps my brain isn't wired to appreciate most things that get widespread critical praise?  I'm curious about a few things and have few other options besides thumb twiddling  (said options being things like attempting Dan Brown again) so i'm sticking with it out of hope.

Also, aside from the somewhat promising prologue, we started with two very long seeming chapters that went into (unnecessarily) meticulous detail about the lives and accomplishments of well off men (one white, one I don't know-the author spent so much time telling us what he guy kept getting taken for that I missed if he actually had a conclusion to that) who, uhm, are kinda dull so far?  And when we did get to the titular character, she's shown exclusively through the eyes of one of the men, and extremely Othered to an almost uncomfortable degree, especially since the Othering was done with a patriarchal framing even moreso by it claiming to not be a patriarchal view) and when it eventually does spend some time in her POV, the narrative becomes extremely detached.

So, uhm, holding out hope?  But mostly mystified as to the popularity so far, and wishing there were more books available at work that were my speed.

Also, I am watching Warehouse 13 and just when I adjusted to Bianca from Dresden Files not being Gleefully Evil (and right after Harry showed up as an evil character in White Collar) John Sheppard and his hair walked in and pretended tyo not be John Sheppard and his hair.  Skiffy does love the Stargate vets, doesn't it?  I'm kinda surprisedthat I didn't spot any in Haven.  They are flirting!  It is very strange to me!

 

Comments

[laceblade]

I liked Warehouse 13!!

[meganbmoore]

It is very fun. If a bit silly in some ways. It's genre brain popcorn!

Which is not a bad thing.

[morwen_peredhil]

Have you read Nora Ephron's The Girl Who Fixed the Umlaut? From what I saw while idly leafing through my mother's copy of the first book, NE is spot-on.

[meganbmoore]

Well, hey, at least she gets to have thoughts, italics or otherwise, eventually. I was wondering.

(But, yeah...wellm the names/geography may...be more the translator? If we lived in Sweden, it wouldn't be as much of a difficulty for readers.)

[octopedingenue]

Yeah. I laughed at the essay, but the name/geography stuff, this is not about cultural context...how? It looks an awful lot like the complaints I hear about anime/manga/Jmedia. "They're all black-haired and named Sakura and calling each other 'san', and they don't use surnames and can't use S right and the comics are backward, and they ALL LOOK SAME!"

[octopedingenue]

It got to be an international bestseller because Lisbeth Salander is my personal Swedish girlfriend. And she played Global Thermonuclear War and won.