Sixth Post!
Nov. 5th, 2022 03:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hoisinsauce posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
secretfanspace"The thing about illegally breeding fire-breathing possums is that you gotta keep a bucket of water handy."
*Those fools! Fire-breathing possums are greasy; water will only feed the flames! Oh, if only I could tell them of my empire...*
(Context: https://secretfanspace.dreamwidth.org/1839.html?thread=2678831#cmt2678831)
Talk fandom! Making things! Reading, writing, drawing, whatever! Miscellaneous life chatter! Meme's happy to see you again!
(start a comment thread by replying to this post)
*Those fools! Fire-breathing possums are greasy; water will only feed the flames! Oh, if only I could tell them of my empire...*
(Context: https://secretfanspace.dreamwidth.org/1839.html?thread=2678831#cmt2678831)
Talk fandom! Making things! Reading, writing, drawing, whatever! Miscellaneous life chatter! Meme's happy to see you again!
(start a comment thread by replying to this post)
Re: Books - The Golden Enclaves (Naomi Novik)
Date: 2023-01-14 03:52 am (UTC)https://blackforestbasilisks.com/2020/10/13/a-deadly-educations-mishandled-treatment-of-sexual-assault/
"If I read Y as a analogy to X, then when Y doesn't match X in all respects, it's bad and harmful".
I don't understand why people with this approach even read fantasy.
Re: Books - The Golden Enclaves (Naomi Novik)
Date: 2023-01-14 04:42 am (UTC)Hahahaha this is great...
(odd cuts as I attempt to keep my commentary unspoilery)
> While on the surface it appears to be a bit more on the YA side, the tone and content of the novel is more akin to a dark adult fantasy
Lol okay so straight off the bat this is a person who doesn't read
> We’ve seen a great deal of controversy surrounding it these past few weeks, specifically regarding its multicultural cast
Oh, is this written by an AI? O suppose bots don't read.
> It is unexpected, jarring
I'm sorry what how is this a criticism "plz make an upsetting experience more expected and less jarring thx"
> She’s a loaner
Lol
> on the whole, I did genuinely enjoy this novel. It was around a 3.5-4 star read for me, give or take
I feel like I'm reading something written by a cat.
(Then there's a too-detailed-to-function trigger warning.)
> or perhaps frat house.
This is so specific and doesn't map to anything wut
> This description comes out of nowhere; [...] hasn’t been touched on with any sort of depth in the book prior to this moment.
This is fair; iirc I thought the same.
> Given that El is not, to the reader’s knowledge...
But *this* is insane. So she should've been fine with it??? Huh?
> Where did this reference point come from for her?
Oh, right, that's what it meant. But... El's female. In our world. With all the cultural awareness that comes with that.
> in academic settings
This is defo a catbot. Anything else would have given up the attempt to stretch this so far by now.
> While I feel that there is a large grain of truth to this
(or maybe a weaselbot)
> There is value to exploring this idea and these emotions, but Novik fails to put in the work to do so.
i mean she wrote 3 books what did u do
> Rather than exploring confession as catharsis, however, Novik chooses to retraumatize El by having someone confront her about it. With this narrative choice, Novik deprives El of a character arc that allows her to regain her sense of agency
So... It's now immoral to write anything that isn't a monologue? Authors "deprive" characters now?
> her (presumable) PTSD from the earlier incident is not explored. It has zero impact
Most people would conclude that she therefore does not have PTSD.
(I do actually agree that it's a hodgepodge of grossness done for shock value and to distress El, rather than some sustained didactic metaphor-- and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. :))
Re: Books - The Golden Enclaves (Naomi Novik)
Date: 2023-01-14 04:50 am (UTC)That ptsd thing was my hilight. If I were more of a troll I would comment:
"As someone who went through a very traumatic experience and did not get PTSD, this book made me feel SEEN. But this review made me feel unsafe because it was like you were literally erasing my existence. Representation Matters, especially for those of us who could have had PTSD but didn't. So much discussion of trauma leaves us out, and it's deeply harmful to be swept under the rug like that, a dirty little secret. This is just one more example. :("
Re: Books - The Golden Enclaves (Naomi Novik)
Date: 2023-01-14 12:28 pm (UTC)It's been hours and I still can't get over the ptsd thing.
"You didn't sufficiently address her PTSD"
"What but she doesn't have PTSD."
"EXACTLY"
Something that occured to me, though... I wonder if these readers react this way because they make their past suffering a cornerstone of their identity and of their career. So it's not just that they feel an author gets it wrong, it's that they read it as a judgement and feel threatened. If trauma!= PTSD != authority, where does that leave them? Must be a scary thing to contemplate when you've built up a career as a sensitivity reader despite barely being able to read. Every book is treated as a vehicle for validation, and attacked if it doesn't supply it.
Re: Books - The Golden Enclaves (Naomi Novik)
Date: 2023-01-15 08:19 pm (UTC)I think you're on to something with that.
(Not even touching on the part where I--and admittedly, my PTSD was diagnosed by someone other than my own damn self, and I'm touchy about it--suspect that many of the people claiming PTSD in those kinds of circles do not, in fact, actually have PTSD. Not that my PTSD makes me an authority on anything but my own, but these people all act like their PTSD is exactly like movies portray it, and nothing like the complicated and fucked-up reality of it. It's like those TikToc Tourettes kids. My professionally diagnosed ex-military friends, OTOH, totally get it and, like me, try to get through it instead of sinking into it or exploiting it.)
Re: Books - The Golden Enclaves (Naomi Novik)
Date: 2023-01-15 09:13 pm (UTC)Agree. At this point I basically don't believe anyone on the internet about anything. =D (my current fave is when they use "dissociate" to mean "tune out" or "feel sad and get distracted", like they think everyone else is always happy and paying total attention 100% of the time.)
Re: Books - The Golden Enclaves (Naomi Novik)
Date: 2023-01-15 09:17 pm (UTC)(I suspect they figure that getting ptsd is the measure of how bad some experience is, so they have to have it or it means they didn't *really* suffer and thus May Not Speak. Rather than it being a bit random (or at least based on factors that aren't easy to identify).)
Re: Books - The Golden Enclaves (Naomi Novik)
Date: 2023-01-15 09:33 pm (UTC)I think that you're right. And, to be fair to them, even before the current times, people loved to compare and weigh trauma. (Meanwhile, I'll be over here cracking morbid jokes about the time that someone [redacted for personally identifying information, but was the kind of bad that shocks your therapist into silence, rapidly followed by an almost as bad]. Because some of it's funny! And because I'm mostly okay now! And because I'm not going to let that shit define me, even if it changed me.)
Re: Books - The Golden Enclaves (Naomi Novik)
Date: 2023-01-14 12:34 pm (UTC)> didactic metaphor
Also gotta note that one of the things I find most annoying about this series is how often it lectures on how to treat others; so many scenes are presented as characters helping each other but are just lectures on the Right Way to comfort someone in distress etc. Makes the books feel strained. It's not unique to these books but I usually avoid YA atm, so I notice it more.
Re: Books - The Golden Enclaves (Naomi Novik)
Date: 2023-01-15 11:52 pm (UTC)Re: Books - The Golden Enclaves (Naomi Novik)
Date: 2023-01-16 12:50 am (UTC)I did think the parallel was implied, personally, but that she kept it fuzzy and she didn't want to say it was 1:1 identical.
I'm not sure any more time in the oven would have helped the series, because I think the problem is that the author is marinating in YA culture and it's toxic to literature. Whether it's 3 minutes or 30 years spent in that marinade, it isn't gonna make a tasty series. Needs some fresher ingredients.