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Apr. 8th, 2021 01:55 am![[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}
secretfanspaceA space to chat fandom! Anon!
Got a WIP you're excited about? Want to rave about your fave? Or is your fandom absolutely in love with a character who detracts from every scene they bumble into, and you need somewhere to vent? You're in the right place!
(start a comment thread by replying to this post)
Got a WIP you're excited about? Want to rave about your fave? Or is your fandom absolutely in love with a character who detracts from every scene they bumble into, and you need somewhere to vent? You're in the right place!
(start a comment thread by replying to this post)
Re: Books - Detransition, Baby
Date: 2021-04-17 12:39 am (UTC)Katrina schedules an abortion because Amy/Ames isn't stable enough for her. Amy/Ames feels like it's some huge betrayal. Katrina invites Reese to come along as well, even though Reese privately is all pro-life now:
In her mind, she had given the baby up to Katrina, and now, it was with dismay—perhaps even horror—that she had to acquiesce that the baby’s mother had the right to abort. That another woman could end the existence of a baby that she had come to imagine, softly, tentatively, at the center of her future life. She had found her emotions and, in the two days since Ames told her about the abortion, had veered in the direction of pro-life politics.
Sure, Reese. Anyway, he still tries to guilt-trip her into waiting longer. Finally, everybody gets philosophical:
“Well, what if this is our solution? Maybe this is so awkward and hard and without obvious precedent because we’re trying to imagine our own solution, to reinvent something for ourselves, whatever kind of”—he pauses, and looks down at his own feet, the boots and jeans he wears—“whatever kind of women we are.”
“Maybe,” Katrina says.
Reese hears this, an indefinite to Katrina’s tone, and she raises her head, eyes shining in the dark circles. “Yeah,” Reese agrees, “maybe.”
Katrina gets up to make some tea. The kettle boils, and she pours out three cups and returns with them. The three of them sip in silence as the clock ticks. They are together, and miles from each other, their thoughts turning to themselves, then turning to the baby, each in her own way contemplating how her tenuous rendition of womanhood has become dependent upon the existence of this little person, who is not yet, and yet may not be.
THE END!
This is just...nonsense. Try-hard philosophical gobbledygook. What if...the real baby was the friends we made along the way?? Reese has not grown or changed. Amy/Ames is still an indecisive weenie. Katrina is a paper cut-out of a woman who is only in this story because her womb is convenient to the author's fantasy. It makes no sense to imply that Katrina has changed her mind after this conversation because she has no connection to the theme of evolving transwomanhood.
I mean, what more can I say? The book has well-placed thematic parallels and it's incredibly honest, but that's where my praise ends. I don't want to think about any of the characters ever again. They hurt each other, they hurt themselves. They don't learn. Now, you can make a great book out of terrible people - I admire Lolita as much as I hate it. But I don't know what the author thought he was writing. It comes across as self-harm, a ritual humiliation. What does the trans community think about this book? Because I can tell you right now - don't worry about this being nominated for a women's prize. It'll be viscerally disgusting to 90% of the women reading it for their book clubs. It's more #transphobic than anything radfems have ever said about trans people.
Re: Books - Detransition, Baby
Date: 2021-04-17 12:51 am (UTC)Yes, I like honest tell-all literature; I think this piece might have worked better if he'd just written it as a journal instead of trying to shoehorn his feelings into a fictional world. Because he doesn't seem very interested in crafting that world. My guess is he's not entertaining enough on a sentence-by-sentence level for people to read if he writes in a journal format. So there's a plot tacked on in an attempt to get people to listen to him drone on about his feelings and opinions.
Anyway. I find it funny how, if these excerpts are any indication, he's constantly using adverbs like "softly, daintily, tentatively" and so on to describe himself because he thinks it makes him seem feminine, without realising how very male that entire attitude to women is.
Congrats for getting through it, anyway!
Re: Books - Detransition, Baby
Date: 2021-04-17 12:54 am (UTC)Re: Books - Detransition, Baby
Date: 2021-04-17 01:07 am (UTC)I know he's written short stories before, but TBH I have no interest in subjecting myself further, LOL. I think his main issue is narcissism - he clearly loves writing about thinly-veiled versions of himself to the point of being humiliatingly honest, but - like many male authors - doesn't really have the empathy to give believable characterization to characters UNlike him. Like, if I'd written this story, I'd have Reese beaten down at the end emotionally, have him lose the chance at parenthood through his selfishness, but give him redemption and hope in his mother/daughter drag/trans relationships (didn't mention in my review, but it's a decent chunk of the book). But with Reese and the author, it's motherhood or nothing. He doesn't get redemption because he's done nothing wrong in the first place. Trans culture is always second best to biological womanhood - and HE'S saying that, not me! But he didn't have to say that, is my point.
Re: Books - Detransition, Baby
Date: 2021-04-17 01:18 am (UTC)Except the author dohoho =p
Oh yeah, narcissistlit is unsalvageable. I find it only holds my interest when they're describing the factual details of a situation I know nothing about, but then it's more that it's interesting in spite of their writing. I agree it's not worth reading more, I just have a habit of trying to work out how I'd change any bad book I read or bad film I watch into a good one. Treating bad media as a brainteaser like that makes it much more entertaining/bearable.
Re: Books - Detransition, Baby
Date: 2021-04-17 01:21 am (UTC)This made me lol, nonny. :)
Re: Books - Detransition, Baby
Date: 2021-04-17 01:39 am (UTC)Re: Books - Detransition, Baby
Date: 2021-04-17 01:43 am (UTC)Re: Books - Detransition, Baby
Date: 2021-04-28 09:27 pm (UTC)Re: Books - Detransition, Baby
Date: 2021-04-28 11:23 pm (UTC)Re: Books - Detransition, Baby
Date: 2021-04-28 11:30 pm (UTC)