(no subject)

Man, my thoughts on Georgette Heyer's Devil's Cub are so conflicted. On the one hand, the hero is a rake in the old-school sense, which - since generally I assiduously avoid rakes in the old-school sense - makes him one of the biggest assholes I have ever encountered in a Heyer novel! Not just on the level of 'gets drunk and gambles a lot' but on the level of 'sexually harasses ladies, kills people for no reason and just does not care.' He could die and that ending would probably make me just as happy.

On the other hand, I sort of love that his assholeishness is not explained by any kind of secret inner kindness or background trauma. NOPE. Dude is just a jerk! And Mary, the sensible and unromantic heroine whom, of course, I love, is totally aware of this. There are no false pretenses or hidden depths here; she's just like "Yep, he's a total asshole of a spoiled brat with few redeeming qualities and I acknowledge my awful taste, and that just makes me enjoy ordering him around even more. *___* Those days after I shot him for attempting to sexually assault me, when he was bedridden and I came to mock him and force-feed him gruel and exert my will on him in all ways? AWESOME DAYS." Which has the result of making this one of the few Heyer couples that have actual chemistry and for whom I believe in the existence of a sex life! (And I suspect kind of a kinky one too.) Like, I would not wish Dominic Marquis of Whatever on anyone, but Mary seems to want him and to know what she's in for, and as long as she keeps up her position of shooting him and/or throwing cold water on him whenever he gets out of line I guess I can ship that . . .?

On the other other hand, this is one of those Heyer books where Heyer makes her classism very clear - the basic plot is that Mary and her sister are the result of an ill-fated marriage between a nobleman and a TERRIBLE BOURGEOIS, and Mary's sister inherited all the TERRIBLE BOURGEOIS and Mary inherited all the class. Mary secretly takes her sister's place on an assignation because the sister is, alas, too dumb and classless to save her own reputation, figuring that once Dominic figures out they've tricked him he'll send her home and everything will be cool. Only, because Dominic is an asshole, this quickly turns into an abduction followed by a quick round of Engagement Chicken and several full-speed horse chases across France and Mary shoots Dominic (on purpose) and Dominic stabs Mary (accidentally) and(literal) cold water is thrown on everyone, and Mary is like "seriously, guys, I'll admit I'm kind of into him but I am not into being penniless and disowned so can someone just get me a position as a governess please?" while everybody else is like "oh, well, if it was the bourgeois sister we wouldn't care about anyone's reputation, but Mary has class!" and I spent all the scenes in which that was discussed gritting my teeth. Except the other half the scenes I was cracking up, because all the hilarious melodrama is done quite deliberately tongue in cheek and keeps getting interrupted by Mary being sensible or wacky uncles popping up and buying a boatload of Bordeaux.

. . . so you see what I mean about mixed feelings?

(no subject)

So hey FMA nerds, remember the fma_ladyfest?

Because we are ENORMOUSLY SENSIBLE people who HUGELY VALUE our free time, we are considering giving it another go! Tell us whether or not you think this is a good idea over here!

(no subject)

Three posts in one day! WHAT IS THIS MADNESS. But gramarye1971 has instructed me to post the photoshopped romance novel book cover she purchased from me for help_japan, and I am not one to ignore Shannon's dictates.


( Below the cut! )