A light bulb joke, and LKH's rape fantasties

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

As some of you have seen, kippurbird has been flogging Danse Macabre something fierce. The flog is now on Chapter 33. While the whole thing made me laugh, there was a little joke that made me want to post it here, with Kippur's permission:


How does Anita Blake change a light bulb?

She holds it up and the world revolves around her.


This, I think, sums up everything about the Anita Blake books. As well as Hamilton's life, really. Or what she thinks of as her life. As Kippur said, the self-centeredness of both Anita and Laurell are starting to really grate.
The scene with London being forced to have sex with Anita actually scared me, especially considering London's obvious reluctance and outright fear. From what I got out of it, Anita essentially raped London, and didn't even care how it had affected him. I'd told Kippur that I'd once had a friend who had been a rape victim more than once, and one of her rapists had been an ex-boyfriend with a cocaine addiction. When my friend read that scene, she started having severe flashbacks to both the rape and watching the boyfriend's addiction, because she saw Anita's ardeur as a metaphor for a date rape drug as addictive as cocaine.
It's so frustrating -- and frightening -- to think that LKH writes this crap probably knowing full well that it could compare to such serious trauma.

Comments

[mranon-y-mous.livejournal.com]

Never mind the fact that no one has sex for fun in her book. They have to have sex, because they're told to, and never because they want to. If someone said to me "You have sexing-up powers and now we must test them on this guy, and you have NO ARGUMENTS!" I'll kick them in the balls and go out to have sex with my boyfriend because I want to. Fuck guy I've never met before, I want boyfriend!

[longtail.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I don't think LKH realizes that the sex in both her series is quite often basically rape, and if it isn't rape it's only because the reader might distinguish between someone who is only consenting because they have no choice and someone who outright says no.

I think she realizes it, but she doesn't quite "get it." Hence the whole "testing of understanding" ad nauseum where Anita finds out that she's actually MAKING guys fall in love with her and the endless discussions of "Did they want to do this or am I using some kind of mind power to make them love me?"

Clearly in the case of London, she making them...but all these guys seem so happy and blissful afterwards and changing life-long issues for the better...such as Nathanial starting to finally grow up and Micah finally gaining the peace and stability in his enviroment that he's been working for all his life within his person (yes, I know, not really, I'm working on the idea that LKH was going towards and failing miserably to convey in writing, so bear with me here).

So...now we have the questions: Is it rape if you like it? Is it wrong to force someone to feel something so life-changingly positive like love and acceptance, the one thing that everyone hopes to find?

That seems to be a very central theme that she is playing with, seeing just how far she can blur the lines of non-consent and rough consent, and starting out no, and becoming "Yes, yes, OH GOD YES!"

If this theme was played out by anyone OTHER than LKH, I would find this an incredibly wonderfully creepy and clever plot idea. Except that it IS LKH, and I know she isn't doing this because she's clever. She's just a bad porn writer who's sloppy drivel just spilled (sorry) over it.

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

Is it rape if you like it?

Personally, I'd say "yes, it damn well is." I mean, I'd probably enjoy a shot of morphine, too, but I'd still be furious if someone forced on one me without asking first.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

It's interesting, because if you think about it, Anita initially rejected sex, but through the ardeur has been forced to confront it. Being essentially forced to confront *their* sexuality via Anita's ardeur/rape has made all these other characters grow up and become better people. It's not Anita who's growing, it's them.

I suspect, from what I've read here, that LKH discovered she liked certain Darkity Dark things sexually, and Richard her ex wasn't up for it, hence the breakup, and in some ways Anita/Merry forcing sex on all these different men, who subsequently become better/more powerful/generally all round more desirable versions of themselves, is like LKH playing out a fantasy that, if hubby just did what she wanted, he would be better.

[belledewinter.livejournal.com]

I remember that lighbulb joke, I think it had to do with horoscopes as well? :) (I specially remember it because I am a Leo & I think it was for us.) Than again, if LKH is a Pices, Anita most likely is as well. :/

Onto the serious topic - yes. Some of the scenes are awful, and the excuse is probably that a) it's meant to show how bad the ardeur ARDUER is and b) how powerful & speshul Anita is.

[acostilow.livejournal.com]

Nooooo, don't ruin my astrological sign by linking LKH to is. SHUN. SHUN THE UN-FISHYPERSON. SHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN.

.....That might have been funnier in my head, I'm tired.

[mizmalice.livejournal.com]

Nope. It's Funny.

[rin-x-x.livejournal.com]

I wonder if people like your friend would email LKH with these stories and insights on how badly her characters have gone. I mean it might do nothing, but its better than doing nothing? Of course if they are comfortable with it. Many might not be, just because its a book series and they can choose not to read it. But I think LKH really needs her eyes opened.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

Thing is LKH might see such an email as a stab at her writing or her characters; she might whine that "They just don't understand what I'm trying to do!"

[ladymina.livejournal.com]

I fear you might be right
we are all just too delicate to get her writing on the edge of a taboo that we need to be freed off
Oh and naturally we are jealous about her good sale statistics

[oh-hay-britney.livejournal.com]

LKH could care less, if she's even allowed to see her emails-- after all, she never checks them herself.

But yeah, my friends and I have emailed on a few different issues, and Darla always gets back to us (I guess we should be happy for that much) with a brief, inevitably defensive response that doesn't answer/resolve the actual question, and then never speaks to us again even if we reply back.

I understand they're 'busy' but... yeah. I get the feeling feedback is of little-to-no importance to them.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that tells me that Laurell will just keep on being sheltered from the Big Bad World. Reminds me of that Simpsons episode that spoofed "Star Wars Phantom Menace" and how Bart and Lisa wrote a letter of complaint to "Randall Curtis," but his response was incredibly generic and didn't even address the issue (Dear letter writer, thank you for your interest in my work, sorry it didn't please you; please have a signed copy of your favorite character).

[bludflower.livejournal.com]

Unless, of course, that feedback happens to be loaded with tons of praise and worship... That's different. *oy*

[drho.livejournal.com]

I think there's a reason that LKH bans discussion of sexual assault on her boards. Her books are full of rape as a blatant shortcut to characterization (Character X was raped! Isn't he angsty!), but she's either too stupid or too cowardly to face the fact that she's let her beloved Mary Sue rape and be raped by people that allegedly wuv her. It's really sickening.

[mranon-y-mous.livejournal.com]

Dunno where you got that idea, but okay. That was really boarderlining Captain Obvious.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's how I feel, now that I've given it some thought.

[easol.livejournal.com]

But of course, all this basically apply in LKH's mind to Anita and no one else. I recently reread some LKH books in a library, and almost snorted when I read JC solemnly announcing that in the mind of teh ebil blonde Musette, a man has enjoyed himself sexually if he has an orgasm and it isn't rape. Since this focuses on someone other than Anita, she and JC immediately agree that this isn't true.

So LKH is aware of these facts as described, but somehow doesn't think that it applies to her.

To Hamilton "no" does not mean "no". It means "convince me some more".

Also saw that in CS, where Asher telling Anita no led to her trapping him in the room and insisting that she wouldn't "let" him decide to leave.

[graesea.livejournal.com]

A misandrist hates men. A misogynist hates women. A misanthrope hates people regardless of gender.

Which of these labels do you feel best fits Anita? Do any of them fit the character?

Personally, I don't think this character cares for men at all. She seems to be a bottomless pit (you should excuse the term) of need for manbits. And despite what Freud thought, most women do not have penis envy. After all, we can borrow one most any time we want and we don't have to worry about maintenance or upkeep.

The ardeur as I understand it removes choice from its victim(s). Anita's partner (for lack of a better term) is reduced to food. Dehumanized, his intrinsic worth as an individual is stripped away and he exists only to sustain Anita's need.

Rape is about power and control. It is not about sexual desire. It is still rape if your victim has an orgasm.

My current theory is that the more LKH feels out of control, the more rape scenes she'll write add in the Anita/Merry-verses.

[pastygothchick.livejournal.com]

Rape is about power and control. It is not about sexual desire. It is still rape if your victim has an orgasm.

I wonder if part of the "magic" of her ardeur is making it so the "victim" is ok with it. So, not only are you raped, but you don't know it and you like it. That's even worse than just being raped. In ways that's the level that incest from childhood gets or even child molestation.

Kind of strange that a character who would kill a vampire illegally in public for going a little over with the charm to maybe get a free meal is fine with this. Score one for Nietzsche.

[easol.livejournal.com]

On a small sidenote, rosefox -- big hugs to your poor friend...

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Next time I speak to her, I'll let her know about this.