Not quite a blog flog

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

Me: Plain Work A Day

LKH: Italics

This is an entry about how Dolph's going to bite it.

Darla's brother died. He was a cop. He fell off his roof. And unlike American's Funniest Home Videos, he did not get up again, having banged his crotch in some bushes and only in need of an ice-pack and soothing of his pride. He died and his family mourns him.

But this is an entry about how Dolph is now going to bite it. Dolph has been the 'racist' in the Anita books for a while now, as far as I know. I'm not going to attempt to go into Anita Blake, half Mexican, passing happily for white, created that way by a woman who thought it'd be exotic and doesn't think about the opportunities she's passing up or the wrong impressions/messages/messed up sh*te she's giving.

This is about Dolph.

Laurell K Hamilton has just been to a police funeral.

http://blog.laurellkhamilton.org/2008/02/saying-good-bye.html



... this is about the amazing. We had a sea of uniforms at the church. I have never seen so many police vehicles as I saw that day. It wasn't just the metro either, but every flavor of police that you can imagine was there, or had talked to Darla and her family in the last few days. It's been amazing.

...brothers and sisters in blue. I'd heard the phrase, but I didn't understand what it meant, now I do... I was very aware of the fact that no matter how much research I do, I won't get all of it. I just won't.

It wasn't just the police officers that showed their respects. The fire department had two ladder trucks with a huge American flag hanging from them. The flag spanned the road where the procession had to drive, so that we all drove under it. How cool was that?

The head of the procession was all police cars, and the shiny black S. W. A. T. van. When I first met Rob and was doing research for INCUBUS DREAMS, there was no sexy black van.

This is an entry about how Dolph is going to bite it. Because as the excerpts show, this funeral has impressed itself heavily onto LKH's mind.

Sexy Van. Cool. Amazing.

Not humbling, awe inspiring, or notes about how the rituals of the death of a police officer that can help bring people together. This was a visual feast.

So this right here? This is an entry about how Dolph is going to bite it. I'd originally thought it'd be Zebroski who was affected by this; Mostly cause Zebroski was my favourite.

But then as I looked up the police related characters, I saw that Anita and Dolph have been on the rocks. And now I think it's far more likely that there will be big drama with Anita and Dolph trying to re-kindle a friendship and then LKH will remember Dolph's son who wanted to be a vampire and how dramatic would it be for said son to become potentially more powerful than a mere human, needing more specific things to die or something.

Do I think Anita would end up banging Dolph's son, the vampire gf be damned? Well, it's an Anita Blake book. So the possibility is not at all unlikely. And who knows, maybe it'd be seen by the author as a way to merge those two parts of the character's life.

But right now I'm just thinking about Anita forcing her way into a police funeral, with lots of inner commentary about being the outsider and the wall of blue, or silence behind the shield that she'd meet when just trying to pay her respects.

It'd be an opportunity for a wife (one of those feminine women) to break down and either a)beg Anita to bring him back or b) want that depraved vampire slut away from the body of her dead husband.

They closed down 55 south, completely from Broadway to Reavis Barracks. The last person that the high way was shut down for was, I believe, the president. When I say this day was amazing, I mean it.

There were police at every on-ramp keeping back traffic. Some saluted, and I had to fight not to salute back. I have not earned that right, not in anyway, but I saw it, and it meant a great deal.

This is an entry about how Dolph's going to bite it.

I...I just had the scary thought of it being Zebroski dying, and Dolph near death but his son (who somewhere along the way became a vampire after all - turning him) and....

I may need chocolate when I finish typing this. I really don't want either of the two police characters I'd grown to like at the start of the book, somehow ending up as Necromancer Boy Toys and fighting to be Vampire Police Men.

LKH's never been to a wake before.

She talks about the story telling.

I can just see Anita moving past the impressive funeral to go have drinks with Jason and be all 'remember that time he arrested you?' or with JC 'Remember how much he bristled at you?' or even with Richard 'Remember how he used to think you were good for me? You're not, but he used to think so'. With Anita knocking back more drinks than an ordinary woman could handle.

Most of all though, Anita's not been doing much police work at all. Does LKH have other resources for police procedure etc? I don't know. But it looks like a prime opportunity to formally severe ties to the human world - after all they're just haters and sex phobic and she'll become a major power/player in Supernatural Politics - sleeping with all the right people, creating alliances.

Would she still be a Marshal? I think so, since the government's wanted a way to keep an eye on her / have her on their side.

But the impact this funeral has had - I think Dolph's going to bite it.

Oh, and of course whomever originally died in the latest book she's writing, is dead no longer. Because having had to deal with death in real life, she won't want a hint of it among her 'friends'. Even if it's the seventh body guard once removed.

Comments

[kerame.livejournal.com]

"Does LKH have other resources for police procedures etc?"

Another source, (and the person I believe was the model for Dolph), is Laurell's ex-brother-in-law, which explains the post-divorce character-assassination. He's even in the dedication to BM. Darla's brother probably jumped aboard after the train-wreck started.

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

Now you say this, I remember it. I had been confused as to where she was getting police information from post divorce. Right.

But this now makes the possibility scarily more real to me. Lost her current source, get back at her previous source, officially shift perspective all at once.

[karmyn75.livejournal.com]

She seems surprised at how many law enforcement people showed up. It's like she's never even tried to comprehend anything about law enforcement. When someone in law enforcement or a firefighter or somebody like that dies, in the line of duty or not, other people in law enforcement or firefighting, etc, will show up even if they didn't know the person. That's how these things work.
I once went to a funeral of a man who was a Justice of the Peace in a very small town. There were reps from many area law enforcement groups in the area, some of whom probably didn't know the man personally.
Same thing goes for Freemasons, Elks, Lion's Club, Rotarians, etc. You die and lots of people will show up because you were part of a group. When my parents and I were in Eastern Star we went to many funerals where we didn't know the person, but went to represent our local chapter.

And she still manages to make Darla's tragedy about her in a way.

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

The sun revolves around...

Nahh, too easy.

And I think that was part of the reason I found myself writing an entry about it - her sheer 'OMG, so many people! And firefighters! And trucks! And a procession!!!!'

I don't know if she somehow thought that such things only happened if the officer in question died in the line of duty. But that's a bit of how it came across.

And the impact it made on HER (all about EveLaura)is so overwhelmingly all over the post, I can't help feeling it'll show up in the books.

[miladygrey.livejournal.com]

It really does sound like she viewed the whole thing as a source for new information--like she went just so she could soak up all this kewl police stuff and incorporate it into a later book along with some smexin'. No doubt at somebody's wake (only please not Dolph! I liked him, once!) the ardeur/arduer/arduur will force all the attendees into a mass life-affirming orgy, with Anita directing...

...can it still be life-affirming if vampires are involved?

I freely admit that I could be reading it wrong, and I kind of hope I am. At any rate, my prayers are with Darla and her family.

[thesaneminority.livejournal.com]

(On an unrelated note, I am still convinced that Dolph is black. I don't know why, but my mind refuses to picture him any other way.)

Oh good, I'm not the only one.

[the-ellcrys.livejournal.com]

On an unrelated note, I am still convinced that Dolph is black

I always thought he was a cheap rip off of Dolph Lundgren. The description of him fits.

[darkese.livejournal.com]

>>. I can't help but notice she can't simply type "Darla's brother". No, instead they have to add in that he was Laurell's police expert or whatever. I don't know why this bothers me, but it does, immensely.<<

That bothered me too because she's trying to insert herself into the funeral. She is trying to supersede Darla's claim to grief by highlighting her 'special' relationship with him. It's a cheap and selfish move and I hope Darla caught it.

[atypia.livejournal.com]

He is black, isn't he?

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

Me too-I'm actually convinced that Dolph is a tall, attractive black man. In my head he looks a little like Forest Whitaker-but maybe not quite as broad.

[tehuti.livejournal.com]

In LKH's defense, even in tragedy, an author SHOULD find inspiration in the rituals of life and death, no matter how personal (or perhaps even more especially when they are personal), and a GOOD author should be able to incorporate her close friend's loss into her work in a way that honors the memory of the deceased.

That being said, I highly doubt that will happen here, but would be surprised if LKH didn't try.

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

If she'd mentioned noticing herself take in all these details and thinking that even in death said individual was some how managing to teach her - she could imagining him pointing things out for her to take notice of, that would be one thing.

But I found myself instead thinking that she so very much wanted to be a part of what, she saw, as stylized drama. And I couldn't help but think she'd find a way to be in the drama by re-creating some circumstances in a book.

[clover-elf-kin.livejournal.com]

When my then-girlfriend was in the hospital, I made her take me on a tour so I'd learn a few things about the place for a certain story. -cough- (In my defense, she was just there for observation.)

And seconded; I've read stories inspired by very personal, often very painful RL events written in ways that evoke the same emotions the author had from it. Somehow I can't see LKH pulling off the same. >_>

[ellenel13.livejournal.com]

Am I the only one who feels vaguely insulted by the way LKH responded to this? First of all, Darla is supposed to be her friend, so shouldn't she be talking more about how Darla is feeling and how much she wishes that she could help Darla? Also, how come she didn't say more about the mournings?

The more I read about this woman, the more I feel that she's a sociopath. She likes to keep around her people who constantly say yes and don't demand her to work on the relationship (Jonboi). She constantly bitches about people who ask that she act like an adult or show some caring and compassion (some of her readers, her own daughter.) She's always preoccupied with her own issues (her mother's death, her failed marriage, how "different" she is) but she's incapable of recognizing that other people might feel similar to her when they go through similar things (right now, her friend lost a loved one and she only remarks on the cool helicopters). She has an inflated ego (I invented fantasy detective novels! I invented "edgy" sex) and she doesn't do anything merit the kind of pride she exhibits.

I'm sure there are more things to say about this.

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

You were far harsher on her than I. And yet the scarier thing is, you make perfect sense.

[brandiweed.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder)

[daphne-gateau.livejournal.com]

I met and spoke with Darla for few minutes while at LKH's booth at a convention. It was an odd moment in that there was no one at the booth other than the two of us so we weren't rushed in conversing or afraid of being candid. Darla was very nice, open and easy to talk to. In fact she started the conversation with me as I was strolling by admiring/arching a brow at Sigmund and some of the other swag they had. lol She struck me as being pretty sweet, actually. Anyway, I'm sorry to hear about her brother and my thoughts are with her.

As for LKH, is it just me or does she seem to attend a lot of funerals? Perhaps she just tends to make sure we all knew she went to one. Since LKH is apparently incapable of sensitive discussion, even in her novels, I wish to hell she'd just leave other people's anguish out of her blog. Let Darla blog about this, if she wants to.

As for Dolph, I'd rather he'd been killed off than read what happened to his character already.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I would agree with you except for one thing; Darla's been taking over LKH's blog to air her grief. Never mind that she's got her own MySpace, she also felt the need to post about it (and then copy and paste it) on her boss's blog. I'm now starting to think that Team LKH was like working for the government; nicest people ever, couldn't organise their way out of a wet paper bag.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

You too? I read that and was all, "Yep, there's totally gonna be a police funeral with all of RPIT to farewell Some Officer that nobody knew and this is going to lead to the conclusions that killing characters, even minor ones that nobody but the author cares about, is bad. And then copious amounts of life-affirming sex, and wangst about said life-affirming sex."

But then you mention this. And I hope to the Gods of Literature (at least, the ones that haven't been nommed by Commathulhu...who ran rife through that post) that you're wrong. But you may be right I may be crazy, but it just may be a lunatic you're looking for! and that makes me a sad panda. Partly because I still love Dolph, despite all the stupid character assassination he's been through, and partly because OH DEAR GOD, THAT'D MEAN ZERBROWSKI IS THE STRAIGHT MAN OF THE OUTFIT. Pun intended. He used to be light, comedy styling and that's why I love him, but now he's gonna have to be SRS BZNZ, and RIP Zerbrowski.

He needs to get John Burke to create a distraction for Anita, by raising a bunch of feral zombies, and then release Cthulhu from his car. *cries*

[lilacwire.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure why everyone thinks there's going to be a policeman death. Laurell can't kill ANYONE and has stated such multiple times. If she did, I would think she was directing more "control" over her books than she seems to do.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

See, that's why I thought it'd be some Nameless Officer that wasn't in RPIT. Because he (and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be she) wouldn't be part of the Team, but everyone would show up in a display of solidarity. There'd even be a monologue about how, "I didn't even know the deceased, but we all felt an obligation to be here. We had lost one of the family, and everyone felt it." or some shit. LKH seems to have no trouble killing off people like that (I would say "random nobodies" but that describes pretty much every single character post-NiC).

I have every belief she'd do something like that so that everyone can grieve and hug and air their feeelliiinnngs rather than Some Preternatural Nasty has slain this young and promising officer and now the entire police force is going to track down Zee Killah but only our spunky heroine can do it because she's so damned speshul. That would require plot.

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

While

"Officer Nameless was one of us. He was a human out there fighting on the front lines to protect us all."

could happen, with Anita being squirmy about the whole 'he was human' part and doing the stir-shit-up that dwg speculated, which would make it all about her...

She's not sleeping with Dolph or Zebrowski. And Dolph's been the most vocal about her changed circumstances. We've already seen how bad things happen to people who don't love her.

And LKH's emotional focus has been on the harem for AGES now. I'm not really sure how much connection she might feel to these particular characters.

Of course THE OTHER OPTION....

Is that she turns Dolph evil BEFORE she kills him off. And then she's expected to be at the funeral and maybe gets dragged there by RIPT or Ronnie or something. And then leaves in a huff because it's all all a farce and Dolph was evil and needed killing (cause he wouldn't sex her).

And then there'd be reflections of how she used to be 'One of them' and behind the wall of blue. But they'll never understand the reality of the supernatural world the way she does. So she'll leave them to their innocence and get the hell away from their fragile, bigoted minds and get some smexing from Micah until she feels whole again.

Or some such.

*stretches*

Man, I hadn't tapped the wanky angst pool since I was 11. It's all begging me to add single trailing tears and the wife screaming "You bitch! You could have saved him!" while on her knees in the mud.

Cause it's raining.

[juju-bean.livejournal.com]

LKH already kinda did the "I don't know him well but I'll show up because he was one of us" funerals already. Unless I'm mistaken, it happens in Laughing Corpse, when an animator dies. Back then, before the books started to suck hard, the scene was rather well done.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

IIRC, it was Circus of the Damned with Peter Burke, which is how we met John (and thank the Gods of Literature that he was essentially written out for having issues "dating a female version of himself" only without the Southern sensibilities or whatever, because the John Burke that lives in my fangirlie little mind is awesome. He fights zombies! He kills vampires, he does the whole Voodoo priest deal without apology. He teams up with Zerbrowski to fight crime.

[acostilow.livejournal.com]

My head jerked so hard at the saluting part. Because, of course, it's all about what it means to her, about how sexy and edgy it is.

And, yes, I'm airing my own grief here, but to me, that cheapens my father's funeral. He had both a military and Masonic funeral, but it wasn't the rituals, it was the emotions behind the rituals. The people performing the rituals were trying not to break down.

Just, god. LKH makes me so angry, because she never sees the point. It's all about the show. And when she gets her claws into it, it's a bad show.