shaken author syndrome (& car troubles)

[derien]

I'm currently reading "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova, and aaaauuuuuugh!! Holy fuck, there's a difference between making the reader feel that they're smarter than the characters and making the reader feel like the characters are numb as fucking hakes. When I get the next step in the puzzle 127 pages before the characters do, that MIGHT be overdoing it a bit.

Granted it was 127 pages of telling us how beautiful the country is and how handsome all the people in it are (except for evil people, who are ugly) (is this why the person who loaned this book to me feels the book is 'beautiful'? Because somehow it doesn't strike me quite the same way. The book is not beautiful to me just because the character is apparently in love with the world.) and also a long detour into telling us about a medieval manuscript and why it's terribly important and then giving us the actual text of that manuscript, which takes up less space. And you invented that manuscript for this book, it's part of the fiction! Do you just wish to give an academic verisimilitude? Because here's a clue - this is fiction. Even people who like reading academic texts don't necessarily want fake ones inserted in the middle of their fiction.

Do-do is a very dull girl, lately - all I do is rant about houses and this damned book. The sooner I can finish it and move on to something I like, the better. A pox on coworkers forcing books upon me! And the worst thing is, I had to work with this particular coworker all day, yesterday, and all I wanted to do was talk about how much I hate the book she made me read. So I thought of anything else I could talk about, and was ridiculously chatty all day.

Must go find a new fuse for the van. It blew while I was driving, yesterday and let me tell you it's hard to drive in a snowstorm with no wipers or front heater blower. I was relatively pleased with the fact that it took me no time to diagnose the problem as a fuse; I pretty much knew instantly what was wrong, but then I didn't know where to find the fuse box... panel? ...so it didn't do me much good at the time. Eor has now yanked the bad one, and told me where to put the new one, so I can run down to the parts store and get it this morning - and it's not snowing, today, so I can see while I drive.

(Yesterday I had to take a cab to work, was 15 minutes late and didn't get to eat proper breakfast. I was not a happy camper. All cereal and no eggs gives me a tummy ache.)

Comments

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

Read Fix Bay'nets! instead, and let the manly love take you away from your troubles! (I have to say, most people I know who have read The Historian get rather ranty about it, so you're not alone!)

[derien.livejournal.com]

Oh god I'm so glad I'm not alone! Actually, one of my other coworkers read it, and she informed me that it's not going to get better, and by the time I get to the end of it I'm going to go "I did all this work for that?" Which doesn't give me hope. I don't even know why I'm bothering to finish it, except that I started.

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

This review made me laugh so I had to go look at the Amazon comments to see what the book was about and see if there were any more lulz to be had. But but but... you never said there were vampires! I supose even that was not enough to save it. Actually now that I think of it, it does tend to be rather crappy authors who explore that mythology...

Wow, it's been years since I had the experience of having a book pressed on me by a friend and then hating it. It makes me feel nostalgic. What are you going to do when she looks at you expectantly when you've finished reading it I wonder?

[derien.livejournal.com]

I DREAD when I finish and she looks at me expectantly! I suppose I'll have to say something dissembling like, "I, er, like the way she tried to slip us some history in the guise of entertainment. But then I kind of didn't like the way she made things up. Like the mention of a play by Shakespear about vampires. It was clunky. And then the... well, I pretty much hated the whole book."

[derien.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's the fact that crappy authors go for vampires and werewolves that made me stop writing my vampire and werewolf story. :)

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

Aww, c'mon. They'll never stop being cool, no matter how many authors mess with them.

[sospan-fach.livejournal.com]

Which does mean you are sort of obliged to redress the balance... :whistles innocently:

On the other hand, re The Historian, thanks for taking one for the team there. Now I know to avoid it. ;)

[cygny.livejournal.com]

I have the book on my bookshelve for quite a while now, but I never got around to reading it. It'll happen someday, surely, but for now there's still too much of the good stuff laying around, fortunately :D

Tell Eor I'll try to get around to replying to his mail tomorrow or Thursday at the latest. *hugs*

[derien.livejournal.com]

Who knows, you might like "The Historian" - obviously the person who gave it to me did. She thought it was "beautiful!" I think my problem is that I'm a geek. I want there to be some kind of internal logic to a story which I can figure out as I go along. I'm not getting that, here. I've gotten no clues as to what Dracula's limitations are - he seems to have none. He's not just a vampire; he's a sorcerer of some sort as well. Although I had less than a quarter of the book left before the magic was introduced. That really goaded me - if there was magic in this universe it should have been introduced before! We should have had the rules laid out for us of how their magic worked! I'm a geek. :)

Not only that, I'm a sociology geek, and I've gotten nothing at all on that front. Just pretty people drifting through pretty backgrounds, no social issues at all.