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[bites-the-sun.livejournal.com]

Random thoughts about LKH and AB:VH

- LKH is essentially a very mediocre writer who had the luck to find her niche in the marketplace in the mid-nineties when empowered, ass-kicking heroines and the hip, supernatural mystery genre were the new black in popular culture. I'm just sorry that a better writer didn't get there first with the same basic premise.

- Where the LKH books went wrong - and I mean so wrong you couldn't ignore the sheer wrongness anymore - was when the authorial presence went from a polite indoor voice to a hectoring, raging shriek. I just skimmed the sample chapters from Incubus Dreams and am quite sure now that not only do I know to the decimal point LKH's stance on abortion, I am also certain I can discern her, rather than Anita's, disdain for commitment-phobic women through the text. You could always smell the author in Anita through the details, but later on it got to the point where Anita had basically become nothing more than a shrill mouthpiece for LKH's opinions/issues/hang-ups/prejudices. It's the self-importance that seems to come with some authors when they achieve success and start believing that their message is more important than their craft.

- LKH's take on sexuality in AB:VH reeks of the Madonna/Whore complex. There's no middle ground regarding sex in the AB:VH series - one is either a frumpily-dressed, born-again virgin (early Anita) or a raging whore (late Anita) who'll do anyone at any time and dresses like the world is their gynocologist, or if male, out of the 'Do Me' section of the International Male catalogue. Of course, this being LKH, even the raging whores can't have good clean fun - we can neatly divide the shagsters into the ranks of Sexy, Irresistible, Empowered Whores (basically Anita and her lovemuffin du jour) with everyone else who so much as thinks about cock herded into the Pathetic, Needy, Out-of-Control Whores catagory, where they get sighed at and periodically worried about by the Sexy Irresistible Empowered Whores. It's such an immature version of sexuality it makes my teeth ache. Nobody in LK:VH has their sexuality integrated into their character to the point where it isn't a huge issue or a great, big, important lifestyle choice. It reads as the work of someone who discovered the pleasures of shagging late in life and has to squee publicly about it in the manner of all converts, whilst still retaining a core of Judeo-Christian-based sanctimony in regards to the subject.

Comments

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

That was an incredibly well done rant on exactly what is wrong with Anita Blake, and LKH for that matter.

Have you also noted? Aside from her ONLY screwing what's male, and hating all other females, that she only sleeps with WHITE and HISPANIC men, men of a similar background to her own? Jamil hates her, and Shang Da isn't that close, either...the token OTHERS, and neither of them are hitting her bed, though the rest of St Louis has been through it repeatedly.

I'm just wondering when she'll start on cops.

Oh, wait. No..they're ONLY HUMAN.

-Dira-

[kuzunoha.livejournal.com]

I think LKH writes from a very limited view.

She doesn't know anything about the kind of people she writes... And so she writes them stereotypically and badly.

Even her view on being an "Hispanic American" is askew.

My family is half descended from a mix of the original Spaniards(the bad men that came for gold and conquering) and the Native Mexicans, throw in some Native American here and there. The other half German, add a little Italian. And voila!

My mother has pretty much the same background as the Anita Blake character(I have a similar one, but I get the bit of Italian from my bio dad's family). And race does NOT play a factor as much as LKH writes into the character(I mean... Especially in the early books her being half Mexican was all over the place). It's almost like she talks about it as a handicap she has to overcome... Like being a woman. All of it would be vaugely insulting if I cared enough.

Le sigh... She needs to research more then guns and Nike swooshes.

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

Now, to be fair, that may have been more of an issue for her where she lives, and where she grew up. St Louis did at one time have some pretty heavy racist background to it, and if you're of a younger generation than we are, you may not have seen nearly as much of that kind of crap.

I've actually faced some prejudice from time to time just being part ITALIAN, but I do wholly agree. She does not develop her characters well, and tends to dwell on negative events entirely too often, so that they would appear to be the norm.

Of course, let us also face facts, she's dealing with an alternate world, where things might just be a little different in those respects, too...but I don't know why the differences would go that way, when, rather than having racial hatreds, a world like that might be far more likely to focus on the more obvious differences of human or not.

-Dira-

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

Oh GOD yes.

It's really rather sad, especially since her angst type, and lack of angst type doesn't even ring true with it.

-Dira-

[demoncougar.livejournal.com]

"I'm just wondering when she'll start on cops."

Nah, LKH is too busy portraying them all as mysoginistic brutes who have to pick on ladies because they're ladies. e......e

I'm sorry, one of my friends has a father who's a cop...and two of my husband's cousins are cops. Maybe Canada here is way different from the states, but...if a lady is at a crime scene, is QUALIFIED and REQUESTED at the crimescene, NOBODY GIVES HER SHIT FOR BEING A WOMAN. I'm so sick of Anita getting into pissing contests with cops at crimescenes. SO SICK OF IT.

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I'm pretty damned sure it's the same here, especially with the chance for sexual harassment suits, if nothing else.

Too, I don't think nearly as many men are that foolish about such things anymore. Women are all over law enforcement these days, and the men themselves are different, many more tending to hold degrees, and even advanced degrees. It's not quite as blue collar as it was at one time. She's rather stuck in a time warp with that.

[lovedstrangely.livejournal.com]

I do agree that her choice in men is only varied by what species they happen to be. but can someone refresh my memory of what hispanic man she has slept with? the detective in new mexico never really made it with her.

oh, and on another note

1. i'm 5'2 1/2, which makes me shorter than anita. i've hung out extensively with very tall males. they DO NOT INTIMIDATE ME THAT MUCH. nor do they try. really, the whole gender/height thing anita/laurell have going on is really ridiculously antiquated.

2. As a hispanic female, i'd love it if anita would own up to her mexican-ness for more than just really really dark hair and her first boyfriend dumping her. I mean really. w.t.f. add into the mix that laurell is NOT hispanic and i was severely disappointed and confused that an author would go to such lengths to um, give their character dark features...and then NOT explain anything about the origins (i.e. i'm mexican, whoo i'm dark, oh noes boyfriend dumped me...wtf is an empanada? huh, cinco de mayo?) it's just really gratuitous.

whoa. sorry, long rant.

[lovedstrangely.livejournal.com]

sing it, sistah.

[demoncougar.livejournal.com]

You know, I never thought about that before. O.O

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

I won't hold that against someone on heritage. Heritage is more than food. I'm not so fond of some of the food-types typical to my heritage. Thing is? She doesn't get into any kind of art, or music, or culture, either. She doesn't even talk about some day, say, wanting to take a trip somewhere, and explore.

[demoncougar.livejournal.com]

Tacos and fajitas OWN MY SOUL, yo.

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

I don't believe she has, actually, slept with one. Though she has commented extensively on them being attractive.

Yeah, right? 5'4" is not that short, besides. Funny is seeing my one friend who's 4'11" stand up to six four.

I wish that she'd developed ethnicity better, as well, since she pulled it out. I have nothing against writing characters of a different background, but agreed...be good about it.

[vanity-lost.livejournal.com]

LKH is essentially a very mediocre writer who had the luck to find her niche in the marketplace

It's rather shocking how often that happens.

LKH's take on sexuality in AB:VH reeks of the Madonna/Whore complex.

I suppose she can blame it on the Catholics?

This was a very well-put rampage. Kudos. I also agree with the height issue someone else brought up. I'm 5'1, and while I do get unnerved when large men get upset (and are displaying signs of Very Unpleasant Tempers), I don't just look at a bigger guy in a normal situation and become worried. When I was six, maybe... But wait! That's Anita's maturity level! Mystery solved.

Eurgh. I also wish her ethnicity served as more than a token plot device. If she doesn't like Mexican food, does not speak Spanish and is generally just a white girl with dark hair and tanning ability... wtf was the deal with that college fiancee? Did he just dump her for a blond? For a blond with a rich daddy? Then she shouldn't have been dating a frat boy anyway. ;)

God, I hate the character of Anita so frelling badly. It's all wrong! It doesn't fit and she's a 13-year-old with make-up and a slutty wardrobe, damn it. Anita is that girl in high school that was so uptight/angry/sheltered that you didn't even bother teasing her, you just ignored her. So now that she's an adult she's acting on all that crap the rest of us got out of our systems in 7th grade.

[lovedstrangely.livejournal.com]

word. it's so gratuitous and almost pisses me off sometimes.

[vanity-lost.livejournal.com]

She's like a gawth who hasn't found her way to hot topic yet. But she has found the Frederick's of Hollywood and Priscilla's outlets, sadly.

yeesh. Anita Blake: Emo before Emo had a name.

[vanity-lost.livejournal.com]

True. My apologies to those emo kids. Anita would only make them cry more. But until zomgopressed angsty-gawth-zombiegrrls get their own scene, I fear their scene is closest.

Because, come on, we all know that Anita would get her ass kicked in a goth club. And I won't even mention what the ravers would do... ;P

[vanity-lost.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I found her weird puritannical attitudes off-putting from the first. It was a look at the world from this totally alien point of view and I couldn't understand it at all. (Granted, I was a freshman at the biggest party college in the state at the time, raised by a New Age mom and discovering my own relationship phobias at the time.) It was like someone took my beloved Buffy and sapped all the fun out of her and then set her down in St Louis. I liked the humor, though. The humor was the only thing that let me keep reading and inhabiting that bizarre headspace.

But I did like the noir-ish bits in the first book and the world of it captured my attention. Then I read Cerulean Sins next and went "WTF was that?" So I started skipping through the books randomly and it just is all very much "Wtf?"

It makes me wonder about Laurell. She is or was a good enough writer that she could keep a reader inside the thoughts of a character with which they had little/nothing in common, create a noir-y scary horror world and supporting characters that stay with the readers.... WHAT HAPPENED??!

Can ego and divorce really have that much effect on one's writing ability?

[demoncougar.livejournal.com]

"Can ego and divorce really have that much effect on one's writing ability?"

It certainly can when one re-marries the president of one's own fan club.

[ninjacooter.livejournal.com]

BUH! Are you shitting me?

I had no idea.

[demoncougar.livejournal.com]

Seconded.

[http://users.livejournal.com/belladonna_/]

But she doesn't even tan. She mentions, like 50 gagillion times that she inherited her brown eyes and almost black hair from her Mexican mother and her pure white skin from the German side of the family. Achtung! Achtung! :P

She goes on at great length about her pure, perfect, pale white skin.

Oh, and nice rant, bites_the_sun.

This is like my gripe about the vamps and weres. It's like, all they *do* is sit around doing creepy shit. I mean, I know they're, like, preternatural and all, but they still have to vacuum, you know?

[lovedstrangely.livejournal.com]

It's like, all they *do* is sit around doing creepy shit. I mean, I know they're, like, preternatural and all, but they still have to vacuum, you know?

let's get married?

[http://users.livejournal.com/belladonna_/]

Heh. :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/belladonna_/]

Now all of them seem to exist on fresh air, angst and pack/pard intrigue.

Ha!

[arabel.livejournal.com]

It's such an immature version of sexuality it makes my teeth ache.

Word! The constant undertone overtone of "sex is evil and bad and nasty and nice girls never have it" really started to grate on me, especially when it became apparent that LKH seemed almost incapable of writing consentual sex without guilt-trips all through it. *sigh*

[cicipsychobunny.livejournal.com]

Dear GOD the abortion issues in the DM excerpt annoyed me. LKH is the classic, "Oh, I'm prochoice, HONEST, but *I* would never have an abortion 'cause it's evil and bad and wrong, but I'm STILL prochoice, even though I clearly think only sluts and prostitutes ever get them! Honest! Look how liberal I am! But *I* would never have an abortion!"

My flatmate and I have a theory that Anita will forget all about the pregnancy test due to vampire attack / sexing everything in sight, and in the epilogue of DM we'll find out the test was negative.

[demoncougar.livejournal.com]

I think my brain refused to allow me to see that part of the excerpt, the way Anita ALWAYS goes on about how her brain doesn't want to make sense of the body at a crime scene. I can't recall reading the abortion bit.

And wow. Yeah, I'm of a similar mindset...I'm pro-choice and, when an accident sprung that choice on me, I chose to carry to term. My son just celebrated his first birthday at the end of last month. But I don't feel abortion is wrong or evil or bad...and I would never presume to judge anyone who would choose it.

Is the excerpt still posted somewhere? I want to re-read.

[vanity-lost.livejournal.com]

http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/Anita/DanseMacabre.html has the excerpt and then some. Three whole gloriously typo-ed, misspelled, angsty, whiny chapters! Click at your own risk...

Laurita's riff on omg-abortion's-ebil-but-it's-their-own-choice pissed me off. It would have done a lot more than that, but I was already so busy rampaging about the way she was acting toward Ronnie and the whole scene in general that I was distracted.

[cicipsychobunny.livejournal.com]

Is it wrong that I find it incredibly apt that it's 69 days till the release?

[vanity-lost.livejournal.com]

Nah. It's Laurita's fave number. 69, 77, and any other sexually-active numerals.

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

HELL yes. It's sad to say, but it has gotten to where I truly dislike the character. I used to like her. Really, I did. Loved the wisecrackies, and all. She was young, and I can even understand the sex hang-ups as an Ex-Catholic. I know plenty of Ex- and current with those.

It's gotten mad stupid, though. Even her reason for leaving the church rang as NAHNAH..I'm leaving, because you don't agree with me, but deep down, I never really left...until the ardeur, that is..though that's just an excuse along the lines of 'devil made me do it'.

Argh.

-Dira-