Hmmmm...

[chubling.livejournal.com]

So, it's been a while since I read the Merry series, but my Mom and I have started this tradition of giving each other really awful romance books along with our actual Christmas presents. This year, I got her the first Merry book. I was flipping through it at her house the other day and was reminded about the Branwyn's Tears (or something really close to that) plot.

Now, the Tears are this AWFUL thing that the book makes a big deal about. They make you want to have sex with someone and are like a drug. Sound familiar? How is it that it's fine when Anita does that to people (and herself honestly), but in Merry's world, it's seen as the awful rape drug it is.

How did LKH miss that?

Comments

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

She's really quite obsessed with sexual coercion, isn't she?

[chubling.livejournal.com]

And sometimes its good, sometimes its bad. Where is the line?

[knitterleigh.livejournal.com]

I think it is probably a response to her super oppressive upbringing. She has said on many (many, many, many) occasions that she "earned her white dress" at her wedding. So one has to extrapolate that she didn't really have that healthy experimentation phase in her late teens and as a result it fucked her up (<- I'm a psych major, so I know all the technical terms :P).

[queenmeow.livejournal.com]

If you ever watch crime shows, I'm thinking Wicked Attraction or Deadly Women, their are women who do sexual torture and murder in order to please a man and stay part of a couple. Anita strikes me as one of those women. The Merry books started about the same time as Anita's slide, so the Merry books are equally as crappy. I listened to book one of Merry on a road trip and I had forgotten how repetitious and vile it is.
The whole scene with the Branwyn's Tears is written although it is sexy to be raped. I would like to say it must have been a man with issues who wrote this rape scene that would be found online at forcedfantacy.com, made up site, but LKH is more than capable of writing against women. After the Branwyn's Tears villain is caught by police there is a scene of Merry almost being raped by cops.
It's a good thing LKH has somewhere to put violet sexual fantasies, not such a good thing that they are published.

[chubling.livejournal.com]

What blows my mind is that she seems to get its bad in one book, then toddles off and writes THE EXACT SAME THING in another book and goes, "Well, now its good 8D It's not rape if they love you!"

[knitterleigh.livejournal.com]

"It's a good thing LKH has somewhere to put violet sexual fantasies, not such a good thing that they are published."

Rape fantasies are very common for those who have been sexually abused. It makes a mind wonder........

[queenmeow.livejournal.com]

I've been wondering for a while. If that is true, the way she writes doesn't seem a very healthy way of dealing with it for her or readers. That would explain why both she and Anita go around in emotional circles. If that was true I'd think even less of her for choosing the path of victimizer for Anita.

[pearkiwi.livejournal.com]

Simple, she justifies it because Anita can do no wrong, ever, she's always right and justified. And Anita is supposedly in love with all those guys, and they're supposedly in love with her. Or it's okay because they're gaining power or whatever from having sex with her.

A good example of this, IIRC (it has been a while) was when the leader of the Lions and his wife got fled St. Louis because he wouldn't have sex with Anita, and it was sex with her for power base solidifying, or death? He was painted as the bad guy for not wanting to have sex with someone other than his wife.

[chubling.livejournal.com]

I hate that she uses that excuse |: It really reeks of, "Well, they /really/ wanted it, so it's okay."

And ew |: I don't think I got that far in the Anita books or I blocked that out. I'm still so sad Rafael fell into the black hole between her legs. IS NO ONE SAFE?!

[pearkiwi.livejournal.com]

Or a more scummy example, IIRC (again, it's been a while) that London who was easily addicted to the ardeur, going so far to making JC promise to protect him from his addition even, but Anita readdicted him to it anyway because he was the perfect food and she needed to feed. And was written as totally 100% in the right and justified.

[chubling.livejournal.com]

I think someone posted something about that here once and I sadfaced forever.

[the-mome-wrath.livejournal.com]

The really sad thing was when the power from the arduer was rising, he tried to get out of the room so he wouldn't be trapped by it and he was forced to stay.

[knitterleigh.livejournal.com]

The Rahael thing really pissed me off. I still like the books (mostly) but when I read that, it filled me with GEEK RAGE.

[kelpqueen.livejournal.com]

Well, all the books are a bit rapey, frankly. And up there setting the women's movement back on a regular basis, just like Twilight (the opposite end of the spectrum). And let's not forget LKH's homophobia. I just hope I'm never on a panel with her at a convention. Honest to god, I have no idea what I'd do! : )

[knitterleigh.livejournal.com]

Just pretend like there is a hole in the universe where she is sitting.

[queenmeow.livejournal.com]

I've thought about that in my "I am a successful author" fantasies. If she started spewing the unreal crap of how she's the first writer in her field and Anita is empowering to women, I don't think I could sit quietly on the panel. I know it's unprofessional to say something to her about her lies during a panel, for all I know after panels she's given a good thrashing by the other authors. I don't think anyone but someone who used to like Anita Blake and watched the series go to hell knows the extent of LKH's depravity and twisted morality.
I couldn't live with myself if I didn't say anything.