Ardeur essays up for viewing, in part

[naeko.livejournal.com]

Ardeur, Anita Blake, and Laurell K. Hamilton


If you follow Laurell K. Hamilton on Twitter, or read her blog, you may have seen her talking about the introductions she wrote recently for our anthology of essays on her Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series, Ardeur.

We were thrilled to have her on board for the anthology; her introductions give some fascinating insight into Anita’s creation and evolution, and touch on some corners of Anita’s universe that haven’t yet made it into the book themselves. They really cemented my opinion of Laurell as not just a great writer, but also a seriously first-class world builder.

A little preview—appropriately, about the source of the anthology’s title:

At first I, like Anita, was pretty horrified [by the ardeur]. We’re both control freaks and the ardeur is about losing control. It is the antithesis of all that hard-won refusal and discipline that Anita prided in herself. But without the ardeur Anita would still be trapped in herself, in her denials. Without it she’d still be able to hide from herself.

(You can also now check out excerpts from all of Ardeur’s essays over on its book page. The book’s officially released in April!)

I haven't read any of the essays yet, but I wanted to let the lashers know that this stuff is available, at least in part. My google alerts has also popped in to show me several people here on LJ who have written the essays for this thing. I'm not sure if that raises or lowers my opinion of the book. I'm leaning toward 'lower,' as I'm guessing none of you guys wrote anything included.

Comments

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

I'd like to read Lilith Saintcrow's essay; she always strikes me as a very down-to-earth, sensible sort of author, so I can't imagine her as pro-ardeur. Not quite prepared to fork out for the whole volume though.

[kynekh-amagire.livejournal.com]

That's why B&N has those big comfy chairs.

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

No B&N in Cambridge :(

[eldestmuse.livejournal.com]

Local library? If not, if I pick it up (I love scholarly essays on series and stuff, I have all the ones for Firefly) I'd be happy to mail it to you.

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

I'll try the library, although it's been years since I went - I've no idea what their range is like!

[queenofquails.livejournal.com]

If the library itself doesn't own it, they might have interlibrary loan, which would allow them to borrow it for you from another library system.

[ladyairy.livejournal.com]

Borders!

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

No Borders anymore either! They shut it down *cries* I'll have to hope Waterstones carries it.

[acrimonyastraea.livejournal.com]

I have reservations about buying a book of essays about an author that is edited by the author herself.

[jamoche]

Interesting - the book covers on the excerpt pages do show "Edited by LKH" in large letters, but the one here has "Edited by Leah Wilson" in something much smaller.

Either way, I don't think you have to worry much - it's not like she knows what actual editing is; I'm more worried that the person who did the *real* editing thinks she's a "great writer".

[acrimonyastraea.livejournal.com]

Weird. Amazon also lists LKH as the editor, but then "About the Author" is about Leah Wilson.

[brightlyiburn.livejournal.com]

I skimmed over the excerpts they had from the essays. It looks like Lilith Saint-Crow might have something sensible to say, and maybe even some of the others.

But there are others to the tone of "People don't understand this" and "Laurell K. Hamilton writes outside the box and this makes people uncomfortable", etc. etc. But the excerpts aren't enough to say for sure if there really is a sensible thought in the book. Not for sure, at least.

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

As someone actually doing research, here's my take.

Essays I'm looking forward to:
"Trying the System" : That would be the one on law by the woman who specializes in indigenous law. I'm interested in vampires as minorities, and it sounds like she'd have a lot of insight into that legal topic. And the topic doesn't require her to support Anita's personal relationships in any way.

"Are the Fangs Real?" This one is by the one Ph.D they rounded up, and is again on vampires as minorities. It is really hard to find studies of monsters as minorities that are not all "Dracula this, that. and the other." So I'm hoping that he'll take Drac and build on it to the modern day and not just rest on the count's laurels.

"Ambiguous Anita": The Saintcrow piece. I'm interested because Saintcrow is not known as uncritical of LKH, and it's telling that the beginning speaks only of a review of the first 5 novels before Anita became more "standard."

"Mom! Something's Sucking on My Neck!": The piece analyzing humor. I don't know if any of you have ever tried to study comedy, but there's not a lot out there that really thinks about it. So even if this one figuratively sucks, it will still be great because material is scarce.

"Dating the Monsters": Could be good, could be awful, but starting with Buffy and explaining the trend can't hurt.

Essays to avoid like the plague:

"Showing the Scars": I'm familiar with the author from his work on TWOP. He has an axe to grind in expressing his world view. And he likes to make everyone else feel rather stupid while he does it. He occasionally has brilliant insights, and then he buries them in BS.

"Death's Got Your Back": The author has clearly done no research since she credits LKH with creating a previously unseen archetype, and then lists a popular late '70s/early '80s archetype. Except Anita does magic. It's sort of like saying "Except Anita is mauve." Makes it sound like she knows nothing.

"Death Becomes Her": That's the one that insists Anita hasn't become an insane evil priestess of power. Ummm... If we believed that, we probably would not be here.

"Giving the Devil Her Due": It starts out in a tongue bath ... of the essayist! Dude, at least the other people who are crazy about Anita are, you know, focused on their topic. If you have to go off into how wonderful you are, then you're playing baseball when all the other writers are playing soccor.

Other concerns:
Number of people listed as even having a degree of any sort? 1.(I checked through all the author autobiographies by clicking on the author names.) Not that you must have a degree to be a sensible person, but you would think a book of criticism would list its writers academic credentials, but you would think they'd have more academics than 1 out of 14. Pehaps I should count the woman working as a director at a law university. Maybe she has a degree they didn't list.

Number of people who sound like they're writing so that they can stroke their own egos: At least 2. That's already more than have degrees. That's an awful ratio.


It was edited by LKH? Yeah, that's going to be impartial. Sure. Pull the other one, it's got bells on.

[gwynethfar.livejournal.com]

I think people here should write essays about her books and make our own anthology.

Well, and wait a second, what makes her works worthy of this kind of study?

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

The only reason to put your efforts into such a thing is because you do think it's interesting. The people who usually write papers either love or hate their topic.

[gwynethfar.livejournal.com]

I'm just amazed that a publisher found it interesting.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

They thought people would buy it.

That was the extent of the "interesting" I would wager.

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

I think that's a great idea to suggest for a community challenge...