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skygiantsI'm feeling oddly twitchy and want to post something here. I don't know why; I just feel like it. (Actually I do know why. It's because I'm supposed to be cleaning my room. Shhhh.) And there are some small things in my life I could post on, I guess, good and bad, but I'm too lazy to find the words to make them interesting/relevant, not to mention putting them into a format that I feel okay releasing to THE WORLD.*
*sidenote: I think I may start keeping a journal. Not because of any desire to keep things from THE WORLD, just because I think it would be nice to have some kind of written record of the way I feel when I feel it, for later, and also a place to put thoughts without having to make them interesting. Note that I have made this decision many times before, when I was small, and it came to nothing, but I'm older now! Surely this will be a relevant factor!
Anyways, as is always the case when I want to post and don't know what, I will revert to my default - writing about books and stories and things, and demanding that you all entertain me by writing back. One book that I wanted to review in my Massive YA Book Post of a few weeks ago and forgot is The Perilous Gard, by Elizabeth Marie Pope. The book is yet another iteration of the Tam Lin story, and any book that's based off of that is about 90% certain to catch my interest anyways, just because of the main story element: there's a young man in trouble, and there's an ordinary girl who puts on her ass-kicking boots and goes to face down the Queen of the Fairies to save him. It's predictable that this is one of my favorite base stories. There are other ancient story plots, though, that I love and have no idea why. Rapunzel, for example. Princess in a tower raised by a witch gets compromised by a prince and then has to go wander the desert; why do I latch onto this story? Is it because of the pretty hair? (This is sadly plausible, though I've always kind of thought my eternal desire for long hair came from the story, and not the other way around.) There are trope-plots I'm even embarrassed to like. Confession: I almost always fall for the girl-and-her-mentor romance, like Daine/Numair, even though intellectually the age difference and the power differential disturb me when I think about it.
So tell me, what does it for you? What storylines are almost guaranteed to reel you in, and why? Bonus points if it's against your intellectual judgment. I may have asked this question before, I can't remember, but whatever; I want to hear your thoughts now.
(And relying entirely on character tropes is cheating.)
*sidenote: I think I may start keeping a journal. Not because of any desire to keep things from THE WORLD, just because I think it would be nice to have some kind of written record of the way I feel when I feel it, for later, and also a place to put thoughts without having to make them interesting. Note that I have made this decision many times before, when I was small, and it came to nothing, but I'm older now! Surely this will be a relevant factor!
Anyways, as is always the case when I want to post and don't know what, I will revert to my default - writing about books and stories and things, and demanding that you all entertain me by writing back. One book that I wanted to review in my Massive YA Book Post of a few weeks ago and forgot is The Perilous Gard, by Elizabeth Marie Pope. The book is yet another iteration of the Tam Lin story, and any book that's based off of that is about 90% certain to catch my interest anyways, just because of the main story element: there's a young man in trouble, and there's an ordinary girl who puts on her ass-kicking boots and goes to face down the Queen of the Fairies to save him. It's predictable that this is one of my favorite base stories. There are other ancient story plots, though, that I love and have no idea why. Rapunzel, for example. Princess in a tower raised by a witch gets compromised by a prince and then has to go wander the desert; why do I latch onto this story? Is it because of the pretty hair? (This is sadly plausible, though I've always kind of thought my eternal desire for long hair came from the story, and not the other way around.) There are trope-plots I'm even embarrassed to like. Confession: I almost always fall for the girl-and-her-mentor romance, like Daine/Numair, even though intellectually the age difference and the power differential disturb me when I think about it.
So tell me, what does it for you? What storylines are almost guaranteed to reel you in, and why? Bonus points if it's against your intellectual judgment. I may have asked this question before, I can't remember, but whatever; I want to hear your thoughts now.
(And relying entirely on character tropes is cheating.)
no subject
Date: 2007-07-27 09:45 pm (UTC)*snort* Just like saying "don't stick beans up your nose!" You'd think he wanted to murder his wives.
My post-grad area of study was the Romantics, the era of the gothic novel (and so much else wonderful stuff--I love those nutcases) and so I have a HUGE soft spot for them, no matter how ridiculous they are. And it's so funny to think about how influential that model turned out to be--romance novels still thrive on Byronic heroes and windswept moors.
(I have no book icons on this account! Something is wrong here!)
no subject
Date: 2007-07-27 09:56 pm (UTC)Gothic novels are SO MUCH FUN. I love them dearly, even though I often want to pat the heroes and heroines on the head and prescribe some nice prosaic porridge or something. It's fascinating the way they all play off each other, too - I read Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White last month, and there's a bit where he's totally like, "aHAH! You think you know where I'm going with this, you demon gothic novel readers you, but you would be WRONG!"
(Everyone should have book icons!)