This book hurts...in the NOT FUN way.

[demoncougar.livejournal.com]

So I'm reading Incubus Dreams right now. And I have to share a really annoying thing.



I just finished the part where Anita is talking to detective Arnet on the street curb...and, pet peeve ahoy! Anita does the internal monologue thing, part of it I shall post here: "How do you explain color to the blind? How to explain that pain can be pleasure to someone who isn’t wired that way? You can’t, not really, but I tried anyway."

But...she didn't even really try!!! Arnet stayed pissy 'cause Anita pussyfooted around the issue. Frankly, the whole argument probably would have halted if Anita had done two things: explained that what happened on stage WAS consentual, because if it wasn't then it probably would have been reported 'cause...yanno...that would have made it ILLEGAL. As to the whole pain/pleasure how-to-explain-it? Say to Arnet something like the following: "It's called MASOCHISM, look it up, it's in the dictionary."

Instead, Anita is unbelievably and detrimentally vague! ARG!

Sorry for this unbelievably short little rant...it's just a massive nuisance to me. I want to reach into the book and throttle Anita for basically making the situation worse when any intelligent person would have said two sentences to adequately explain things.

Though, to paraphrase Johnen Vasquez, this issue is a fairly small lump in a sea of crap. Worst...AB:VH book...ever.

Comments

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I got annoyed with that scene too. Because anyone who has a point of view that differs from that of the heroine is automatically:
A) Stupid
B) a bigot
C) A stupid bigot, or
D) So narrow-minded and misguided in her ways that she doesn't see the glory of the heroine and is therefore stupid, or bigotted.

Because Anita knows what's good, right and proper, as she's the shining light of humanity that everyone must aspire toward being. *nods*

I don't think she tried to explain it fully, because Arnet would clearly never understand - she's not allowed to be an intelligent female character with thoughts and motives of her own, beyond putting in a bit of conflict and angst for the heroine.

[refche.livejournal.com]

Funny how pretty much the same applies to any reader that doesn't think the world of LKH and her writing...

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

Funny how pretty much the same applies to any reader that doesn't think the world of LKH and her writing...

Dang, you just had to go and beat me to it! Oh well, great minds think alike!

(Same gutter...*WEG*)

-Dira-

[freyalorelei.livejournal.com]

Anita can't explain because LKH can't write well enough to explain it for her, and she certainly can't write concisely enough to sum it up as "masochism". She simply must write pages of superfluous dialogue and exposition.

Also, this isn't explaining colour to the blind, because one can at least have at some level an intellectual grasp on why pain turns other people on, even if they can't emotionally understand it themselves. Instead she chooses to be condescending and makes vague, inaccurate comparisons. This isn't even apples and oranges; it's apples and oranguatans.