BlogFlog: Mother's Day

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

LKH: Emphasis
Me: Regular

We did our celebrating last weekend because Trinity is with her father this weekend.

I am probably getting the rarest gift of all for Mother's day. Time to myself.

I can't think of any custody arrangement wherein the child doesn't get to be with the mother on Mother's Day. I've heard of half-day arrangements. I've heard of combined Mother/Step-Mother celebrations. But not being there at all?

All I can think is that this is what she asked for - because ''the rarest gift of all for Mother's day. Time to myself'.

Considering she has dual custody of her child and thus doesn't have her child fulltime in the first place - what the heck is she talking about?

Also her child isn't a toddler who'll follow her into the bathroom and go 'Mommy can you get me a glass of milk?' Or a kindergartener who gets into mischief if left alone.

So what?



I bring this up not for the sole opportunity to bash LKH, but because this kind of selfishness and self-involvement seems to me to be part of what translates into her books and is why they suck and she can't take direction/advice/suggestion.

It also makes me think of Anita Blake (specifically) and the character's utter selfishness and how the world is seen through Anita's eyes.

I really wish it were possible if someone was messing up a franchise that someone else could write it better and get all the credit and kudos and money. Somehow it's just not enough to run circles around LKH in fanfiction. I'd love to see her truly threatened by someone else not locked into a selfish self-wanking point of view in exploring the universe.

It makes me wonder just how close could you get to mocking her in an original work? How close could you get to exploring a similar world? Would it have to be a strict parody? Or could you mention the brain-damanged Vampire Executioner who wonders the streets dirty and out of touch with reality and occasionally turning tricks on people with no scruples?

http://blog.laurellkhamilton.org/2007/05/happy-mothers-day.html

Comments

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

See, that's why I search for parallels in her writing. Because I do deal with an inattentive, self-absorbed, possibly border-line personality parent. So, I wonder about Trinity. I wonder a lot.

[jdemorae.livejournal.com]

She named her kid 'Trinity'?

Well, if she was Catholic, that makes *some* sense. I know some Catholic families where they had debates over how to name the girls in honor of the Holy Mother (which is how a very Irish girl got a very Italian-sounding first name). So 'Trinity' fits, if you wanted a religious-themed name but didn't like the traditional offerings. (Dozens of girls named 'Margaret', 'Mary', or 'Magdalene'.)

What's more disturbing is that I recall her dedicating one of the early books to Trinity. She dedicates a *horror* novel (okay, thriller authors do it, too) to her (then) very young daughter, then proceeds to render the series into mindless, mechanical porn. Not to mention how she skewered the man who fathered her child, not just in characterization, but that dreadful afterward, for her daughter and her daughter's peers to see.

Times may have changed, but I recall that whichever parent in a divorced couple gave in and bad-mouthed the other in absentia before the kid(s) was largely considered... negligent, not mature enough to keep adult matters between adults.

She's claimed more than once that her grandmother took the maternal role in her life--and used the woman's surname for the lead character of her swinger fae porn. (I know 'Gentry' can be a term for the fae... but if I had an older relative I cherished who had that surname, and knowing how explicit the stories would become, I'd have found another name. Pronto.)

Is it surprising that Mother's Day seems like more than she can cope with?

[freyalorelei.livejournal.com]

My own theory is Narcissistic Personality Disorder. No, seriously. Everything fits. She just doesn't seem self-destructive enough for BPD. Granted, armchair analysis, but I get the feeling she'd burn through friends and relatives a lot quicker if she had it. And her self-absorption is beyond the norm for BPD...they tend to be a lot more concerned with what others think of them, if only to keep them for emotional/financial/other forms of support. I think she honestly doesn't give a shit about other peoples' feelings.

...yay for amature psychoanalysis!

[freyalorelei.livejournal.com]

Not to mention, didn't she say somewhere that her 90+ year-old grandmother read everything she'd published right up until she died? Now that's a scary thought.

[myrrhmade.livejournal.com]

I actually saw that. I have to say, as a daughter who was abandoned by her own mother, this made me really sad. Maybe even more sad than I should have been. I mean, yeah, parents love to have their own time alone, both together and even apart, I -SO- get that, but... just... wow.

Parent!Neil Gaiman is made of CAPSLOCK

[mad-troll.livejournal.com]

After reading the introduction to "Fragile Things", I'm of the opinion that Gaiman is somewhat between what a parent should aim to be and what a good parent can be.

I'm not sure if this is Off Topic

[mad-troll.livejournal.com]

I really wish it were possible if someone was messing up a franchise that someone else could write it better and get all the credit and kudos and money. Somehow it's just not enough to run circles around LKH in fanfiction. I'd love to see her truly threatened by someone else not locked into a selfish self-wanking point of view in exploring the universe.

It makes me wonder just how close could you get to mocking her in an original work? How close could you get to exploring a similar world? Would it have to be a strict parody? Or could you mention the brain-damanged Vampire Executioner who wonders the streets dirty and out of touch with reality and occasionally turning tricks on people with no scruples?

..has anyone here read Kit Whitfield's "Bareback" ("Benighted" in the US-edition)?
Because the protagonist is female, somewhat short, with lots of scars and a bad attitude. And has other points in common with Anita that I cannot write 'cause.. SPOILER.

I just read the italian translation and it is..pleasant. Well conceived, even.

Re: I'm not sure if this is Off Topic

[catskin.livejournal.com]

I've read it. I didn't see any Anita parallels myself, but Whitfield often blogs about topics I think relate directly to LKH as an author. She's discussed "series fatigue" - as in, when an author should stop writing a series because they clearly don't have fresh ideas for it anymore. She's blogged about Mary Sues extensively, that sort of thing. It seems likely to me she's a former fan.

(Or should that be a negative reader?)

Re: I'm not sure if this is Off Topic

[mad-troll.livejournal.com]

Not exactly Anita-parallels, just what a character with several traits like A. could become-in the hands of a sensible person.

Ooh..writer blogging about "series fatigue" and "Mary Sues"? Must read. :D


I'd go for the negative reader: it seems more..sensible.

[kyalesyin.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid, I used to take my sister shopping in town on mother's day so we could give my mother a break. I guess that was a little different though, because that was us giving mum some time alone after we'd done the wakeup and dodgy homemeade card thing. That wasn't her getting rid of us...

The more I read, the more it sounds like that woman has no maternal feelings whatsoever. She's reminds me somewhat of a seahorse...

Re: I'm not sure if this is Off Topic

[catskin.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see what you mean. Yes, definitely. And only does Bareback have a small, dark-haired, scarred, LIKEABLE, ADMIRABLE female lead, it also has amazing world-building and consistency within that world.

[safrialailo.livejournal.com]

Some people shouldn't be allowed to have kids. Grrr As for mocking I have a work set in an alternate universe of our world, modern day, and my character constantly cracks jokes about how her life is far too like buffy's, so i think someone should tell her "at least your not anita blake."


As I said i might need to change the names, but considering that you can have your characters quote kipling and diss him why couldn't you do it with more current books?

Re: Parent!Neil Gaiman is made of CAPSLOCK

[saucyirishlass.livejournal.com]

The only Gaiman I've read, aside from a few blog entries and interviews, is Sandman. But his dedication of Vol. 8, World's End to his daughter Maddy? I'm torn between wanting him to be my dad and wanting him to be the father of my children. =D

[kyalesyin.livejournal.com]

Oh heck, there was a theory about this, we talked about it in psych, and a study and everything...

Wasn't it Bowlby or someone similar who did a study which pretty much showed that if you had bad or no parents, you're likely to neglect your own child? I think it was monkeys that he used, but it pretty much proved all those 'mothering is instincive' people wrong.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_shiisa_/]

we talked about it in psych

We talked avout it too. In animal behaviour, about cows. And maternal behaviour, even in animals (who are supposed to be more instinct-driven), is learned. If the farming is careless and the calves are separated from the mother too soon, they won't learn it and they'll probably ignore their own youngs afterwards.

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

*snicker*

Re: I'm not sure if this is Off Topic

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

Well, because of you I'm reading her blog right now, and I think I love her already.

World-building and consistency?

[mad-troll.livejournal.com]

..what do these words mean? I'm afraid Merita burned the part of my brain that should understand them.

No, seriously: this is the one major failure I find in LKH's books. Sigh! And to think I started reading her with high hopes of legal wrangles&everyday existence. :(

Re: Parent!Neil Gaiman is made of CAPSLOCK

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

Oh, father of children, definitely.

Wait! Dangit, I do not allow myself to lust after Neil Gaiman! *slaps wrists*

[kyalesyin.livejournal.com]

Proof I should be paying more attention, I can't remember all the details, but it does seem to make sense.

[kerame.livejournal.com]

I agree. The only maternal instincts Anita has ever shown is in her incestuous relationship with Nathaniel.

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

Well, some 90+ year olds can be cooler than you'd think (Had some of the coolest conversations EVER about things like reincarnation with my 90+ year old uncle).

I give my 70+ year old mother pretty much everything I read (and she does copy editing for what I write), though I've stopped giving her LKH, because they SUCK. She now gets Kim Harrison and Jim Butcher, and is a huge fan of both.

Don't see that in and of itself as that creepeh. The rest? Yeah.

-Dira-

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

Heh. You KNOW my mom is special every day. However, yeah, I got her the good cake shaped like a heart with all kinds of gooey fudge, and made her a card (Because that's what she asked for. I make cards.) Some years, I get her jewelry or such, when I've got more cash than I do this year. Sometimes, I get her something for the hell of it when it's not mother's day at all.

I look at it as an extra special day, and she earned it, for sure. :).

Yearly traditions like slippers are good, tho. I should probably start up something she gets every year. :D

-Dira-

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

Ya know, I'm not going to snark on her for this. A little alone time CAN be a great gift. It can also be how LKH might even be coping with NOT being the one to get Trinity for Mother's Day. (Instead of moaning because the ex did, saying YAY, alone time!)

I'm not happy with her books or her treatment of her original fans. That's for sure. Dunno though that we don't read too much, sometimes, into what she says about her kid, or doesn't say. And again...even with an older kid, some pure ME time can be the greatest gift (Let's face it, it still can be awkward to be intimate with the new hubby, I'm sure, when the kid's in the house!).

-Dira-

Re: I'm not sure if this is Off Topic

[foxfire74.livejournal.com]

That sounds interesting. Could you link me to the blog, please?