Who here is creeped by the "nor he us" part? 'Cause, as cool as Edward is as a character, it scares me that LKH treats him as a REAL PERSON.
Actually it creeps me the hell out that she acts like ALL her characters are real people, when...they're NOT.
...They are to her. And that's something that happens to a lot of writers. It can be a very good thing - a real person has depth, has complexity, has motivations beyond the author's personal preferences.
It USED TO BE that this showed itself to its fullest in the Anita Blake novels. Did you ever read the earlier ones? Did it not feel like every character had his or her own LIFE, that Anita might not necessarily know squat about? That they ALL had motivations of their own, whether it showed up in text or not? That they had reasons for being (okay, LKH has never been that good at this one) other than to be the Bad Guy or Good Guy?
The problem is that Anita Blake has become a self insertion. And LKH, in doing that, can't let Anita be hurt because that's hurting HERSELF. And because she's the writer and can therefore dictate the story, the story warps to be All About Anita. Characters that used to have life and independent existences now exist merely to laud and magnify Anita, whether willingly or no.
...I used to adore Edward. I really did. You could see it, hear it, that he didn't give a rat's ass about Anita at all. He just got to kill more critters if he took her side - and at the same time, see for himself how she worked in case he ever decided to take her on personally. There were reasons that made sense to Edward's brain.
By the end of Obsidian Butterfly, he'd been sucked into the web of OMGANITAISGODONEARTH...I don't know if I'll be able to bear whatever he's been turned into.
But I do know that if Edward ever sleeps with Anita, the core of that character hasn't just been withered, it's been completely gutted.
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Actually it creeps me the hell out that she acts like ALL her characters are real people, when...they're NOT.
...They are to her. And that's something that happens to a lot of writers. It can be a very good thing - a real person has depth, has complexity, has motivations beyond the author's personal preferences.
It USED TO BE that this showed itself to its fullest in the Anita Blake novels. Did you ever read the earlier ones? Did it not feel like every character had his or her own LIFE, that Anita might not necessarily know squat about? That they ALL had motivations of their own, whether it showed up in text or not? That they had reasons for being (okay, LKH has never been that good at this one) other than to be the Bad Guy or Good Guy?
The problem is that Anita Blake has become a self insertion. And LKH, in doing that, can't let Anita be hurt because that's hurting HERSELF. And because she's the writer and can therefore dictate the story, the story warps to be All About Anita. Characters that used to have life and independent existences now exist merely to laud and magnify Anita, whether willingly or no.
...I used to adore Edward. I really did. You could see it, hear it, that he didn't give a rat's ass about Anita at all. He just got to kill more critters if he took her side - and at the same time, see for himself how she worked in case he ever decided to take her on personally. There were reasons that made sense to Edward's brain.
By the end of Obsidian Butterfly, he'd been sucked into the web of OMGANITAISGODONEARTH...I don't know if I'll be able to bear whatever he's been turned into.
But I do know that if Edward ever sleeps with Anita, the core of that character hasn't just been withered, it's been completely gutted.