Why people like it

[easol.livejournal.com]

One of the recent posts got me thinking: we all know why people snark the AB series, but why do you think people LIKE it? You know, troos and such, or just the nameless faceless masses who read the books, but don't go online to talk about it?

Is it the copious sex scenes, or the supposedly sexy undead men, or what?

Personally, I suspect that it comes from proxy-Sueing -- it allows the readers to pretend that THEY are Anita, much as LKH does. They can fantasize for a few hours about being the oh-so-tough and sexually irresistible heroine who can say and do anything and get away with it. (Which is also why so much bad Sue fanfiction still gets an audience)

Whaddaya think?

Comments

[duchym.livejournal.com]

I recently read a really good urban fantasy novel called Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews. Great setting, interesting characters, and a good plot with a lot of twists.

I looked up the reviews on Amazon. There was only one review with a one star rating. That reader complained that the book was too dense for her, and that it was too difficult a read for her. I checked a page or two of her other reviews, and she gave a really high mark to one of the Merry Gentry books (and not one of the first MG books which actually had a plot - it was one of the porn ones).

That particular review (the one of the Andrews book) made me lose a bit of my already dwindling faith in the human race.

Obviously, this reason will not be true for every troo - but at least one of them likes Hamilton because it simply does not take a great deal of reading comprehension to read her later books.

[nimnix.livejournal.com]

What's the point of fantasy if you can't fantasize, right? I'm betting there are readers who find them something of a vice. You don't even have to read them all that carefully to get the little elements you want out of it to build your own little fantasy.

My own pleasant fantasy is that the story I'm reading is actually the one in my head, and not the one she's written. She puts the situation down on paper from Anita's perspective, I imagine it from, say, JC's or Mommy Dearest's, where I cackle evilly at the ease with which Anita's sent spiralling downward into this psychological pit of madness. Or I just continue the story from there, in my head.

I skim the sex (so it takes me like an hour to read the entire book), and just lift the plot points and non-sex scenes and paste them into a larger framework of crazy psycho necro chick and the real consequences of her stupidity. It's more like a game than a book, really.

This is much easier with the AB books than with Merry books, because Anita was crafted pretty solidly in the beginning. There's more to chew on.

[lilacwire.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, I still read all the books Laurell puts out because part of my soul wishes for a return of Anita With Plot. I enjoyed the first few books so much and just keep hoping for another glimpse of it.

It's also a bit of a vice, but I wish it were vice with plot.

Yeah, I'm a sucker.

[daphne-gateau.livejournal.com]

I'll say up front that I'm not completely sworn off Anita's series. I am nowhere near a troob. What's happened to the series annoys me. But I still glean a certain amount of amusement that keeps me slogging through these bloated books after checking them out from the library.

In the beginning I liked the light reading, crime-fighting/mystery element and the strong female lead with an imperfect figure, no fashion sense and a stuffed penguin for a boyfriend. The new Anita I can't stand, but by now I am interested in the background elements and characters in the novels. JC and the vampires. I like reading new stuff about the vampire community. I don't much care for LKH's interpretation of werewolf packs, but I do like the wolves she has esp Jason and Richard. I guess I keep hoping she'll do something right by them. *shrug* I'm ready to ditch the series though if Blood Noir is drecky.

As for the troobs... I could not say. Something just clicks with some people about this series. LKH is mainstream and easy to stumble upon. But honestly I can't imagine it's just the sex that gets readers into this series. There are PLENTY of hot vampires/werewolves/dragons/faerie boys out there just burning to have sex with heroines. Books by authors that are just as well known and easy to find as LKH is in their genres. Feehan. Kenyon. Even Nora Roberts has that vampire series (it might not be hawt vampires though, I haven't read it).

So I'd have to imagine that Anita herself appeals to people who love the latest books in the series. Just like you said... they like the idea of a woman character that says and does what she wants without consequences and has whatever she desires delivered to her own personal Chippendale dancers. Perhaps a few people really love one of the guys, but since no male is featured consistently it would be hard to explain a person glomming onto a whole series just to follow JC or Richard or Micah who might not even do anything during a whole book. I'd say the draw has to be Anita.

[daphne-gateau.livejournal.com]

My own pleasant fantasy is that the story I'm reading is actually the one in my head, and not the one she's written.

I do this too! I pretty much live by the rule that Anita is an unreliable narrator.

[nimnix.livejournal.com]

"unreliable narrator" becomes practically a mantra if you want to read this series and not have your head explode. ;)

[tartful-dodger.livejournal.com]

I think we all have to be guilty of liking it on some level, otherwise we wouldn't be willing to put in the effort required to snark/keep up with other people's snarkery, or to find it entertaining.

Personally for me its because of the world its set in, and the characters that aren't Anita.

[droa.livejournal.com]

Amen. While it is by no means perfect, I think that LKH has managed to craft a pretty interesting world and related mythology. In my case I'm pretty burnt out all most all of her characters, but oh, the background itself... If it's not love, then I'm willing to settle for extreme fondness.

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

Amazon reviews will make you lose faith in humanity. I was just looking at them yesterday for a different book and sighed.

[drho.livejournal.com]

They do not mind the improper use of commas.

Things Anita Blake and Merry Gentry Fans Like

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

The people who do read it have told me the following:

1) LKH's characters are "safe"--they're roughly the same book after book. The reader doesn't have to worry about character development taking the plot or the character in a way that they're not interested in. This would not strike me as a draw, but for them, it is.

2) Anita/Merry gets to have sex with everyone. Everyone gets to have sex with her. And there's no guilt associated with this. Anita/Merry is not considered a slut.

3) Many feel that the male characters are hot. (There is a considerable debate about WHICH male characters are hot, but all of the Anita Blake/Merry Gentry readers of my acquaintance think that some of them are, even if they can't agree on which.)

4) To quote one fan, "The plots are McGuffins for the sex." Just an excuse to let the sex happen, in other words.

5) Many of them believe that Anita and Merry are strong women who are leaders, and don't think that they can find any other such characters in the mystery or in the fantasy genre.

(If you want to upset someone like this, point out that Merry Gentry's "leadership" is predicated on her fertility. If she can't reproduce, she's of no value to Faerie at all.)

6) Many of the fans I am acquainted with are not readers, by and large, and find LKH's books to be easy reads--not a lot of complexity in language and structure, and you can skim them without missing much, if anything.

[dan-lian.livejournal.com]

That's where I am. I very much like her world and setting, and the ideas behind the characters to an extent, but I hate the turn she's taken on the plots and the craptacular writing.

[sharkbytes.livejournal.com]

I agree with some of the above posters--and i'll even go a step further and say that if we didn't care so much, a community such as this wouldn't exist. Because when you peel away the purple prose and the fantastically ridiculous situations, LKH created a really complex and interesting universe. The earlier books in the series were different and in some ways, compelling. I've been a member of this community for a long time, and I've noticed that quite a few of us do retain a bit of hope. What pisses me off is that I *know* LKH is capable of delivering a great story. I'm disappointed that she cheats herself and her readers out of something wonderful because she's either too lazy or too stubborn to take the time to really put her heart and soul into it.

To be honest, I wouldn't mind all the sex if she had a reasonable plot hatched out to go along with it. Characters change and I'm willing to accept that. But I'm not willing to accept changing characters so drastically that they no longer resemble the fictional person we originally loved. She's been coasting on her sex scenes because it takes a lot more time than she allots herself to craft a story that makes sense, and to address issues that she alluded to in earlier books.

I'm certainly not ashamed to admit that I think Obsidian Butterfly was LKH's finest book. It took Anita out of her comfort zone and placed her in a situation where she had to trust Edward, where she had to leave behind her new-found relationships and actually fight for something, and also it forced LKH not to rely on her ready-stock of characters. Ever since then, I've been waiting for her to get back to that level and she just hasn't been able to do it. I think a lot of the problem is that she got greedy with a 2nd series. Her creativity has suffered and a lot of her ideas fall short of the mark.

[moonsinger.livejournal.com]

I really liked her novels through Blue Moon. After that, I've read in hopes that she will write well again. Honestly, I have read worse, but after some of the stuff I've read here, it's really sunk in that LKH is not a good writer, and I'm kind of disappointed because when she first started out with the series and the first two of the Gentry series, I really enjoyed it. I still read, and read through her stuff fast, but I'm also a fast reader.

If I want to read a good, original paranormal I have a ton of authors to choose from.

[wellowned.livejournal.com]

i'm with you. i got hooked in high school with... i wanna say NiC, then read the whole series. i've only been seriously disappointed since i bought ID in hardback and there was no substance to it at all. i read it on a 10 hour flight and threw it away when i got to my next airport, i was so disgusted.



granted, i probably should've known. the girl who introduced me to AB and MG also hooked me on romance novels.

[dominanefret.livejournal.com]

The thing that I don't understand...

Even at the beginning, when the books were actually plot driven and could still be called mysteries Anita wasn't actually a likable character. The mysteries were fairly well worked, nice and gory, there was a pretty good fantasy element, and a good cast of supporting characters all of which made up for the fairly annoying main character and kept the books worth reading.

But now all of those other elements are gone. No more mystery. No more gore. Very little fantasy. Good supporting characters, bye bye, cringe inducing supporting characters, hello!

So all we are left with is Anita. Do people really like her enough to keep reading the books?
Do people really like her at all?

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

Nah, I'm just here because this comm introduced me to Kit Whitfield and Jim Butcher.

Okay FINE, I did really, really like poor dead vamp-addicted Phillip, way way back in the day. ;-D ;-D ;-D

[droa.livejournal.com]

Those are my feelings exactly. What makes me sad (to a degree, admittedly) is that in order to fully enjoy the AB/LKH mythos, I wound up creating a RPG in the genre. I have nothing against fandoms and dig on RPGs and 'fic writing, but when one feels as though that is the only path to enjoyment, rather than reading the source material? That sucks.

[bubblefaerie.livejournal.com]

I actually read the first Merry book before reading any Anita ones. I did not mind the sex in it because it had a plot that made the sex part of it. So I picked up Anita. At first I was surprised that there was no sex but I actually liked those better because I generally liked the plots and side characters better. I didn't really hate Anita, but didn't really like her. I liked other characters. I really liked her animator job. Whether or not her facts were actually accurate, she presented it in a way that made it seem like they were.

I read all of them through ID in about 2 months. I probably really started getting bored at NIC. I still read her books. I want them to get better. I want to like her characters again. And even though I don't really care for the last few books, they are so easy to read that it takes an hour or two and I'm done. I also block out some things and try not to think about the issue of hygiene.

As for people that love the last few... I have not talked to anyone that likes them that has been able to say why they like them. But a lot of them are younger and tend to be anime fans as well. So maybe, like LKH probably is, they picture all these guys in anime form. The only person I know that was older and reading them had not quite made it to where it started to suck. I gave her a warning, but I don't know if she listened.

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

I have at least two coworkers who have identified themselves as LKH fans to me, but on deeper conversation I found that they had read 2 or 3 of the book here and there, didn't even realize how many books the series now contained (and were only vaguely aware of Merry Gentry), and the liked them because they were a quick, titillating "mind candy" read (especially since we're all in a business where we have to closely read all day, things that don't necessarily interest us and have to be read several times).

The other two people I'm thinking of were indeed fans in the beginning but have the same complaints voiced here -- they liked the world and the idea of monsters as citizens (and are generally into hot bisexual vampires anyway), but have lost interest in Anita herself. (I read "Guilty Pleasures" because of one of these friends -- we were in the same fandom about 10 years ago.)

[lastshotringing.livejournal.com]

Anita Blake is like Cosmo, in a way. You read it until you actually lose your virginity and then you realize it's all lies.

[gothgoddessrhia.livejournal.com]

I concur with you. I liked the mysteries and Anita's job in the first books. Anita was not likable, but I expected her to evolve as the series went on. The "triangle" did annoy me, but it was fun debating it with friends.

After OB, I really thought we were going to have an interesting resolution to the triangle and see what the fallout would be. I seriously thought we were on the edge of a huge evolution in the character of Anita and how she interacted with her world.

I never saw what actually ended up happening coming down the pike. I remember feeling greatly disheartened with the whole Micah situation. In fact, I wasn't sure I would keep reading. But then I told myself it had to be a plot devise since this is a series and I kept going until DM.

DM is where I lost all faith.

Of course, I may still be reading and hoping for the big reveal that Jean-Claude has been corrupting Anita on purpose to his own evil devices if not for LKH's blog telling us that isn't the case.

What really saddens me was that there was so much potential for this series and it was wasted.

[gothgoddessrhia.livejournal.com]

LOL.

You win the intertubes for that one!

[librarista.livejournal.com]

I love urban fantasy. LKH is no longer that, but it's still a fun pulp series. Light, has concepts I like, and it's hard for me to give up on things. There are at least two series I've dropped but I like LKH's characters enough to stick with it. For a while I was just waiting to see how bad they got but then there started being signs of hope.

I think if I didn't know anything about LKH, I'd have less problems with her books. And if there were less urban fantasies and paranormal romances I'd have more problems but be even more dedicated to them.

[kerame.livejournal.com]

I agree, her world-building never showed much real thought.

She used to keep up such a fast pace that you didn't pay too much attention to that, or the stupidity of Anita and the even stupider villains.

Another important difference is the direction of Anita's gaze. It used to be focused outward with action and plot, now all we see are the contents of her empty, narcissistic soul, and it's flattering reflection in the eyes of her sycophantic boot-lickers.