lkh_lashouts | (no subject)

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Hello, I'm new to this community, and I'm really excited I discovered others like me. :) Please be gentle.

I've read most of Laurell K Hamilton's books, but in Hungarian. I slogged through the later stories because I was fascinated by Jean-Claude, and vampires in general. As the series progressed, all I did was flip to the pages that had Jean-Claude speaking. I ignored the wretched 'ma petites' and completely unexplainable scenes and tried my hardest to imagine him as he should be. Well, my imagination can only go so far.

The books have so much potential, the original idea of vampires and werewolves living out in the open is wonderful, but Hamilton seems like a very stubborn, vengeful type of person who has a difficult time separating her real life from her stories. There was an interview, I remember, where she was asked what her background was and how it impacted her writing. She immediately said "I have two degrees: English and biology." I found that a bit of an odd answer. She spoke so much of her DEGREES, her profound knowledge of political science and history (ha!) it's almost like she was bragging. She also speaks so much of how she defied and challenged her detractors, and the English professor that didn't like her. I've formed a picture of Ms. Hamilton and unfortunately it is a very negative picture, and it makes it even harder for me to enjoy her writing. She is smug and cannot keep her series steady. The series has no point! I couldn't believe my eyes when I read her response to a question about her future plans with Anita Blake; she said she didn't KNOW what she wanted to happen. So is it any wonder that the stories have so many mistakes and inconsistencies? Just compare the Harry Potter series to Anita Blake and all Ms. Hamilton's mistakes become glaringly apparent. J.K Rowling is in firm control of her characters, she kills characters that need to be killed, and has an amazing and developed purposeful plot, while Laurell K Hamilton seems to be haunted and controlled by the voices of these fantasies she created. They are just fantasies. They have no breadth.

If I weren't such a sucker for sexy French vampires, I would stop reading now. I miss Jean-Claude. I wish Laurell K Hamilton was smart enough to give him a plausible history ... and a surname!

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I'd be very curious to see if her writing improved with the translation to Hungarian. ;)

Welcome to the club!

Oh my god, they translated the books into Hungarian?? Oh god, the poor translators. I've got to find these books, reading them would be even more surreal than reading Harry Potter in Hungarian.

(Also: Hello, fellow Hungarian speaker!)

Hang around here long enough and you will get very, very tired of hearing about those damn degrees. Glad to have you aboard!

...plus, when JK Rowling makes a mistake with math/continuity/whatever, she generally says "Oh, yeah. Oops!" Rather than something along the lines of "OMG I'm perfect, how dare you impugine my masterpieces?!?"

I think the translated version is slightly better. Few words are repeated ad nauseum, and I'm spared the innumerable "spills" and other grammar problems that I've heard are in the English versions.

Thank you so much for the warm welcome!

Szia! Narcissus in Chains was the most recent book to be translated. I'm still trying to read it, but it's difficult.

I've read Harry Potter in Hungarian, English, and French. Yes, I'm weird and obsessed.

It amazes me that LKH brags about how she knows so much about History. I got really annoyed because in a blog a long time ago she was saying something about France and Germany fighting over Alsace-Loran(sp?) for hundreds of years. If she is so wise in History, shouldn't she know that Germany hasn't actually been a 'country' for hundreds of years. It was made in the late 1800s, in the German wars of unification, when Germany stole Alsace and Loran from France. France got in back afetr the Treaty of Versallies in 1919. Unfortunately my knowledge of the subject ends there, but still.

If you say you know history, know history. Don't say hundreds when you mean hundred. Big difference.

Wow ... is there something I'm missing?

Also, I live in the middle of nowhere, and I'm satisfied with enjoying just the stories. So, I'm safe from whatever you are insinuating. I think. o_O

To me it seems that Laurell K Hamilton's knowledge of history is something she got from briefly researching certain points in time that she needed to understand to make some of her vampires more real. To give them simple back stories. However, I find Jean-Claude's history ridiculous. None of her vampire characters have that depth, that intelligence and cunning and worldly experience that would be expected from beings hundreds, hell, even thousands, of years old.
The terribly stupid vampires and Ms. Hamilton's smugness about her knowledge of history bothers me the most because vampires and history are what I LOVE the most.

Ok, I just thought that when you said "If you still like JC the best thing to do is never ever EVER read Hamilton's blogs..." that there was something awful centered around Jean-Claude and I didn't know about it.

I'm definitely at that point where I can hardly reread her books because I keep thinking about how they relate to her noisome personality flaws. :(

I miss Jean-Claude.

I miss Richard...

Lol. Welcome to the club! I completely agree with you about LKH's maturity level. She does seem to have a problem with grudges. Problem being she can't let things go. Which, of course, reflects badly in her writing. *sighs* A little revenge, like naming the bad guy after the person who annoyed you in high school, is fun but revenge like destroying the character you based on your ex-husband when you divorced...Understandable but it only alienates the fans of that character.

*sniffs* I always look to Tolkien for a strong plot/world/theme/characters/etc but I do have to admit that Rowling, despite being a 'children's' author, has a much better grasp on her world than LKH does. Quite a shame since the Anita Blake books used to be extremely interesting.

Anyway, welcome to the little cluster of sanity amidst the insanity! *laughs*

Thank you so much for the welcome. :) At last, I have a place to talk to others that feel the same as I do! I can't even tell you how relieved I am.

I think the biggest problem with LKH's stories is that there is no central goal in them. There is nothing to strive towards. With LoTR, obviously we know the destruction of the one ring is the goal and the story centers around that, with neat little side plots added. With Harry Potter, the goal is to defeat Voldemort. There is no goal in Anita Blake, just whispers of evil things to come, that never do materialise. *sigh*

*grins* I could wax on for hours about Tolkien but I wouldn't do that to you. Yeah, along with PlotWhatPlot? in the Anita books, it's VillianWhatVillian? I mean, I can't remember the last time there was a bad guy smackdown!

Oh tragedy and woe.

*laughs* Always a pleasure to welcome a new member!

Alsace-Lorraine, and Germany dates its country-hood from 1870. /German major

Hence why Alsatian dogs are sometimes called German shepherds, apparently.

Waitafuckingminute. I was about to post that, "At least Voldemort isn't defeated by the power of Twue Wuv, which is incomprehensible to him", and then, you know, I thought about what I was writing, and had to facepalm.

I guess at least the last three books weren't just "Harry develops a new power and conquers the bad guys by having orgies with every single female Gryffindor", but I'm sure there's a fanfic of that somewhere.

I've formed a picture of Ms. Hamilton and unfortunately it is a very negative picture, and it makes it even harder for me to enjoy her writing. She is smug and cannot keep her series steady. The series has no point! I couldn't believe my eyes when I read her response to a question about her future plans with Anita Blake; she said she didn't KNOW what she wanted to happen. So is it any wonder that the stories have so many mistakes and inconsistencies? Just compare the Harry Potter series to Anita Blake and all Ms. Hamilton's mistakes become glaringly apparent. J.K Rowling is in firm control of her characters, she kills characters that need to be killed, and has an amazing and developed purposeful plot, while Laurell K Hamilton seems to be haunted and controlled by the voices of these fantasies she created. They are just fantasies. They have no breadth.

You know, with this, you've REALLY hit the nail on the head when it comes to our many, MANY grievances with the later books. And my advice? You might want to stop at NIC. CS is marginallly readable. Incubus Dreams is a disaster. (I burned my copy, and it was a freaking HARDBACK.) Danse Macabre...I sincerely hope you haven't read it, because that's a book I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

Anyways...welcome to the comm! You will indeed find a save haven here among us former fans. Come sit by the fire and have some tea and cookies! We are the voices of reason fighting against the sanity.

I, like you, was (and admittedly still am) a JC fan. I have a softspot for that vampire, in spite of myself, and it's a pity that his great potential as a character has been so terribly wasted. *le sigh* However, I find solace in the PDS archive. May I point you over there? It has some excellent AB fics, and the forum isn't bad either. It's a mixed bag of fans and former fans, and overall, the people there are pretty nice.

http://www.pommedesang.com/efiction/index.php

There's the link. :) And if you want to try your hand at fanfic, sign on up! Your English is very, very good, if I may say so myself. I've figured that hey, if I don't like canon, I'll go read fic instead! It's better written and best of all, FREE.

The inconsistencies in Harry Potter are minor compared to those of Anita Blake.
And JK Rowling remains humbles when made aware of them.

*humble.
*is paranoid of spelling errors*

Fighting against the INSANITY.

Bah, I fail...*HEADDESKS*

I just caught that error.

Stupid LJ for not letting me edit comments. OOooops. :p

This ... is sadly true. I enjoyed the recent books, but admittedly this is probably because I speed-read them. And when

hbpspork pointed out the ridiculous Hermione character-assassination, I just couldn't go back to reread, it was so depressing.

Now you are wrongfully making assumptions. While I'm a fan of the Harry Potter series, I realise the books are far from brilliant, and they, like Anita Blake, are books I read for the same reason: for simple uncomplicated entertainment. Thus, because the books have the same entertainment value to me, I naturally compared the two. My comparison was honest, and I stand by it.

Thank you for showing me this link and for the warnings of future books. And it's great to meet a person who shares my fondness for Jean-Claude. :)

The Hungarian translations only go up to Narcissus in Chains, so I couldn't read further even if I wanted to.

My English is good because I'm an English teacher. :)

i thought everyone knew Jean Claude last name.... van damned of course

Her English teacher hated her? Can't think why...

To be fair, there's only so much historical information that you can fit on a sanely sized calendar. ;)

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