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What happened to the Yuletide counter and fandom-displayer thingie? (It says 11 stories! And doesn't show the random fandoms that have been submitted!)
Dec. 19th, 2008
Samurai Deeper Kyo Vol 31
Dec. 19th, 2008 10:57 amSamurai Deeper Kyo writeups are a bit odd for me at this point, because I’ve read the rest in a combination of raws + translations, scans, and summaries and start getting confused as to what has and hasn’t been revealed yet, and half my thoughts are about things that are being built up to.
( spoilers )
Urban Fantasy
Dec. 19th, 2008 01:59 pm"Here, hold my veil. I don't want it to get caught in the catapult."
I love turning on the TV to lines like that.
ANYWAY!
For most of the week, I've been following this post by Lilith Saintcrow, which is essentially about "what is urban fantasy," which she starts with "chicks in leather kicking ass," and then continues. Earlier today, I read this post at her LJ, which is a followup.
As expected of anything that says any variety of "Hey, maybe women like to be important in fiction, too!" there are troll comments, though in this case, I think some of the troll comments had valid criticisms of the genre buried inside.
*recs everyone read the posts and at least some comments before reading further*
When I started reading urban fantasy, what attracted me was that a lot of it seemed to be a blend of noir and fantasy, applied to the modern world (or a close equivalent), and that it did a much better job of giving female characters their due, even in books with a male protagonist. What caused me to eventually burn out was the endless romantic machinations and revolving doors on love lives and how so many series seemed to eventually turn into how she was somehow Special, and focusing more on what guy she'd choose (resulting in often either making her seem wishy-washy, or making me irritated because not only was it obvious, but it also asn't being portrayed as being her choice) than the interesting meta-arcs and the paranormal aspects. I mean, seriously, I love it when there's a romance that I like, but I can only take so much of being jerked around in that department.
Also, as I've been reminded of elsewhere, I often want to shove Elisa and Fox of Gargoyles (awesome UF cartoon from before the UF boom) at UF writers (and writers in general) as examples of awesome badass heroines with romances who aren't just their romances, are never undermined or lessened, and never code as remotely male.
So, thoughts on the article? On UF in general? Even if you aren't a fan of it?
ETA: I understand that many on the f-list are suffering from a snowpocalypse. I apologize if I caused this by complaining about the cold earlier this week.
I love turning on the TV to lines like that.
ANYWAY!
For most of the week, I've been following this post by Lilith Saintcrow, which is essentially about "what is urban fantasy," which she starts with "chicks in leather kicking ass," and then continues. Earlier today, I read this post at her LJ, which is a followup.
As expected of anything that says any variety of "Hey, maybe women like to be important in fiction, too!" there are troll comments, though in this case, I think some of the troll comments had valid criticisms of the genre buried inside.
*recs everyone read the posts and at least some comments before reading further*
When I started reading urban fantasy, what attracted me was that a lot of it seemed to be a blend of noir and fantasy, applied to the modern world (or a close equivalent), and that it did a much better job of giving female characters their due, even in books with a male protagonist. What caused me to eventually burn out was the endless romantic machinations and revolving doors on love lives and how so many series seemed to eventually turn into how she was somehow Special, and focusing more on what guy she'd choose (resulting in often either making her seem wishy-washy, or making me irritated because not only was it obvious, but it also asn't being portrayed as being her choice) than the interesting meta-arcs and the paranormal aspects. I mean, seriously, I love it when there's a romance that I like, but I can only take so much of being jerked around in that department.
Also, as I've been reminded of elsewhere, I often want to shove Elisa and Fox of Gargoyles (awesome UF cartoon from before the UF boom) at UF writers (and writers in general) as examples of awesome badass heroines with romances who aren't just their romances, are never undermined or lessened, and never code as remotely male.
So, thoughts on the article? On UF in general? Even if you aren't a fan of it?
ETA: I understand that many on the f-list are suffering from a snowpocalypse. I apologize if I caused this by complaining about the cold earlier this week.
I Hate You More Than Anyone Vol 2
Dec. 19th, 2008 02:58 pmThe romance took a backseat this volume to Kazuha’s friendship with Senko. As I’m much more interested in that and the family aspect than the romance, I approve. It probably says a lot that I utterly despise the whole “heroine afraid to be with guy because of friend, cue angst” trope, but like it here. Then again, is pretty much reversing the normal shoujo trope in that it’s the “we won’t let liking the same person ruin our friendship” approach usually reversed for males, without reducing Sugimoto to an object used to showcase the girls’ friendship as tends to happen in the trope’s normal gender assignments.
( spoilers )
Apparently, this series is set before the mangaka’s other works about Kazuha’s family, which came out earlier, and she’s changing some of Kazuha’s story because of it. Does anyone know where I can find the other manga about the family to read, as I doubt it’ll get licensed. (You don’t need it for I Hate You More Than Anyone, but I like the siblings, and the mangaka’s positive focus on family.
(no subject)
Dec. 19th, 2008 10:42 pmI can't take a screenshot on the work computer to display the evidence, but I'd like to mention that yuletide's counter is currently at 666.