Gah!

[cactus-wren.livejournal.com]

One of the things that drives me insane about LKH is her inability to keep facts straight. Is is really that damn hard? I don't write, so I don't know, but it seems to me that if you had this big universe going, and it was hard to keep track of all your characters, you would have an encyclopedia of the facts to refer to.
From chapter 26 of The Whoreliquin:


Jason: I am your wolf in case your beast decides to rise.

Anita: I thought Sylvie..........

Sylvie: With the ardeur raised in the room, I'm not staying. Nothing personal, Anita, I mean you're cute but I don't do women.

(Big sidebar: IIRC, I could have sworn that Jason said in an earlier book that Sylvie liked girls. And when Padma's son raped her, it was even more evil because Sylvie was suppose to be gay. Am I crazy or am I thinking about someone else?)

Sylvie: With you this weak, Anita and JC out of it, I don't want to take the chance of the ardeur spreading throughout the room. The wolves will do everything they can to get you all through this.

Dammit, Sylvie is gay! This is one of the few facts we do know about Sylvie. Since she's written so little about this character, is it that difficult to remember this one thing? I'm so tired of her YABBI's and her sorry excuses 'oh, sorry, it's so hard to keep track of the details of so many characters - oops!' *smacks her*

From here, chapter26, at the boards.

Comments

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that. Now I'm going to imagine Jason and the other menz running away from the giant boulder that chases them out of her vagina. DO NOT WANT!

[brightlyiburn.livejournal.com]

Sadly, at this point she could fit several men and a giant boulder in there.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

If any of the boys find a snake, spider, bug, and/or rat pit in there...then they need to first escape, and then have a chat with her about personal hygiene as baby wipes really aren't cutting it.

Great, I squicked myself. *brainbleaches*

[brightlyiburn.livejournal.com]

This whole thing is reminding me of an essay I read about the sexual symbolism in Tolkien...

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

Suddenly I'm looking at Shelob in a whole new light.

Jesus. I need to turn that light off. WHY did I say that, less than an hour before bed...

[brightlyiburn.livejournal.com]

Have you actually read that essay?

Or was that just an astonishingly good guess?

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

I guessed? But there was a lot of context in the comments! Spiders, caverns, huge scary female thing hiding in the dark...

Dammit, now I want to read the essay. ^__^ I cannot control my inner lit geek. (A summary is cool too? *wheedles*)

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

Sorry, brain burp -- I'm not trying to force you to write extra! (For some reason, in my Benadryl-heavy mind it made sense to ask for a summary rather than asking you to post the whole article, but... that's... oh never mind, I need sleep.)

IN A NUTSHELL... what's the name of the article, if you don't mind?

[brightlyiburn.livejournal.com]

It's been a while since I read the article...over a year now. It was one of the things I had to read for my fantasy and imaginative lit classes.

I can't remember the title. I believe it was in a book of essays on his work, though, and those are likely easy enough to track down at your local bookstore (my professor had an article published in one such book, too). I believe it was an older article, from the 1980s, and I KNOW it was written by a woman. Sorry. :( Wish I could be more help in those regards.

However, you should also Google the article "No Sex Please, We're Hobbits". That one sparked quite some debate in class. Astonishing how many female LotR fans have no issue with the way the women are in his books. One of my classmates got all huffy when I pointed out all the ways Tolkien had undermined what strength he gave his women. Oops. ^^