I was kind of excited to read Dead After Dark at first. I had heard a lot from my friends who have seen True Blood, all of them saying that the show was great, full of social commentary and allegory. I personally had never seen it, but I was sure that the book would be pretty cool considering how loved the show is. However, I felt like the book just fell kind of flat. Sookie was a better character than others we have read about, mainly Bella, but she still seemed helpless at some points, and was consistently annoying throughout. I was most bothered by Sookie when her grandmother died though, as she seemed to not really care too much. Elvis un-alive as Bubba was funny and a cool part to add the story, even if it was only for comedic affect.
The thing that really got to me about the entire book though was what I was expecting: I heard so much about how True Blood had a great plot about race relations and the gay community, but all that seemed to come out of the book was a throw away line about Vampires being out of the closet. Had Harris put more focus on the other characters in the book, telling more about their struggles and lives, I think I would have enjoyed the book a lot more. Instead we ended up with the chronicles of Sookie and Bill's love affair and a half-assed mystery story that has a fairly anticlimactic ending, with the murderer as someone who did not really matter in the story.
Maybe I am just being a jerk, but I really wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. And I also can't shake the feeling that all of the authors of all the books we have read just really want to have sex with vampires.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
Anita Blake
Overall, it was definitely cool to read the Anita Blake graphic novels. I think what I enjoyed more than the actual story itself was the breaking up of reading novels with a different medium, and while I've never been a huge comic book fan, I can still enjoy a good graphic novel every now and then. While Anita didn't live up to my two favorite comic book novels, The Watchmen (everyone's favorite) and Red Son (coolest Superman story by far), it still had some good action, an involved script, and very cool cartooning, despite the impossible-to-avoid male gaze. While I feel it probably does not live up to the series of novels for purist fans, the adaptation seemed to remain fairly faithful, and the books could be enjoyed by just about anyone interested in mild social allegory, anyone looking for good vampire-cut-in-half action, or anyone who who wants a good, female driven storyline.
While briefly discussed in class, one of the things I took from the reading was the recurring theme of penguins on much of Anita's clothing and in her bedroom. It was explained in the comic and more extensively in the novel that Anita was a very big fan of penguins, and as a result, she has penguin merchandise galore. While it could be meaningless and completely arbitrary, I looked at the depictions of penguins as being a representative either of how Anita saw herself, or how she wanted to be. Throughout the book, it is made clear that Anita is very talented, powerful. However, the visual depictions of her tend to cast her in a more vulnerable light, looking innocent and scared fairly often, not to mention it leaves her in situations where she needs the help of men for everything to work out. In scenes where Anita is wearing her penguin garb, the penguin will be cold, stoic, looking strong and unafraid. This is often the way Anita speaks, but it is not always how she appears and acts. In fact, the penguins on her shirts usually appear more tough than Anita in any given scene. As a result, I feel like Anita was intended to be tougher, but the cartoonist fell a bit short of the original author's image, and instead offered the penguin as Anita's true side, or at least what she wishes she could be.
I also found that, with all of the male gaze, there were a surprising amount of homoerotic scenes throughout the work. The more we read into different vampire texts, the more I notice and become interested the idea of using a genre typically used for fear inducing as a vehicle for social commentary or metaphor or allegory, etc. The part of this book that I actually enjoy the most is the flashback scene, when the narration depicts how life as a vampire was before the Supreme Court decision of Addison V. Clarke. To look at it that way, that these people who were once not considered people, and had to deal with upheaval towards gaining rights, that makes the entire idea more relatable and thought provoking, although it obviously is not as powerful as real life social change/progress that has happened.
While briefly discussed in class, one of the things I took from the reading was the recurring theme of penguins on much of Anita's clothing and in her bedroom. It was explained in the comic and more extensively in the novel that Anita was a very big fan of penguins, and as a result, she has penguin merchandise galore. While it could be meaningless and completely arbitrary, I looked at the depictions of penguins as being a representative either of how Anita saw herself, or how she wanted to be. Throughout the book, it is made clear that Anita is very talented, powerful. However, the visual depictions of her tend to cast her in a more vulnerable light, looking innocent and scared fairly often, not to mention it leaves her in situations where she needs the help of men for everything to work out. In scenes where Anita is wearing her penguin garb, the penguin will be cold, stoic, looking strong and unafraid. This is often the way Anita speaks, but it is not always how she appears and acts. In fact, the penguins on her shirts usually appear more tough than Anita in any given scene. As a result, I feel like Anita was intended to be tougher, but the cartoonist fell a bit short of the original author's image, and instead offered the penguin as Anita's true side, or at least what she wishes she could be.
I also found that, with all of the male gaze, there were a surprising amount of homoerotic scenes throughout the work. The more we read into different vampire texts, the more I notice and become interested the idea of using a genre typically used for fear inducing as a vehicle for social commentary or metaphor or allegory, etc. The part of this book that I actually enjoy the most is the flashback scene, when the narration depicts how life as a vampire was before the Supreme Court decision of Addison V. Clarke. To look at it that way, that these people who were once not considered people, and had to deal with upheaval towards gaining rights, that makes the entire idea more relatable and thought provoking, although it obviously is not as powerful as real life social change/progress that has happened.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Fledgling
I'm just going to make a critical blog and the comparison in one post.
The book Fledgling was a more enjoyable book to read than last week's Twilight, although it also had some awkward moments. Fledgling tells the story of Shori, a 53 year old Ina who has the appearances of an 11 year old girl, who wakes up with amnesia. An Ina is a non-human race that has traits similar to vampires, but does not have a malevolent relationship with humans. She has been badly beaten and burned, and sets out on journey find out who she is and what happened to her. While the story plays out like a mystery, it takes on many more complicated themes than Twilight had, making for a better book. Among the themes are racism, as Shori is a hybrid of black human female and an Ina, and some Ina are not accepting of her for her appearance and lack of "purity." However, Shori is able to walk in the day, unlike other Ina, making her a more advanced than other members of her species. Here, we find an allegory for the race struggle in the world, as well as an answer to it: the idea that different people living in acceptance of one another can create a better, stronger race.
Among the most interesting aspects of Fledgling for me was the symbiotic relationship shared between Ina and humans. The interactions were always very sexual, making it awkward considering the small stature of Shori. The relationship was interesting though, as not only did Shori need another being for blood, her humans would grow to need her bite in return, and would die without it. The structure was different and took on a communal familial aspect of sex rather than an intimate closed relationship, with Ina needing multiple humans while also mating with other Ina. In this way, the idea of family is seen as a more sprawling idea, with the sharing of good and bad feelings and using people as crutches of help when it is needed.
Part 2-Quotes from essay
"For giving our bodies what they want and crave, for
exploring ourselves and others, we are punished like Eve reaching for
more knowledge."
-This quote stuck out to me. I have always felt bad about the story of Eve, trying to grow and being portrayed as evil. I agree with the quote that women are all too often made to feel guilty about their bodies and image and sexuality.
"If sex is about communicating, let us think about what we want to say and how will we
say it. We need more words, images, ideas."
-I agree with the idea of liberating sex, of informing all people, especially any confused youth. If sex is continually treated as evil or negative, people will always be fucked up.
I liked this article a lot. I feel it shared some ideas or even responds to questions in Fledgling.
It is important for Shori to gain knowledge, to learn who she is and she learns a lot about humanity. In the same sense, sex is sometimes ambiguous in the novel, and it reflects the importance of learning about your body and who you are.
The book Fledgling was a more enjoyable book to read than last week's Twilight, although it also had some awkward moments. Fledgling tells the story of Shori, a 53 year old Ina who has the appearances of an 11 year old girl, who wakes up with amnesia. An Ina is a non-human race that has traits similar to vampires, but does not have a malevolent relationship with humans. She has been badly beaten and burned, and sets out on journey find out who she is and what happened to her. While the story plays out like a mystery, it takes on many more complicated themes than Twilight had, making for a better book. Among the themes are racism, as Shori is a hybrid of black human female and an Ina, and some Ina are not accepting of her for her appearance and lack of "purity." However, Shori is able to walk in the day, unlike other Ina, making her a more advanced than other members of her species. Here, we find an allegory for the race struggle in the world, as well as an answer to it: the idea that different people living in acceptance of one another can create a better, stronger race.
Among the most interesting aspects of Fledgling for me was the symbiotic relationship shared between Ina and humans. The interactions were always very sexual, making it awkward considering the small stature of Shori. The relationship was interesting though, as not only did Shori need another being for blood, her humans would grow to need her bite in return, and would die without it. The structure was different and took on a communal familial aspect of sex rather than an intimate closed relationship, with Ina needing multiple humans while also mating with other Ina. In this way, the idea of family is seen as a more sprawling idea, with the sharing of good and bad feelings and using people as crutches of help when it is needed.
Part 2-Quotes from essay
"For giving our bodies what they want and crave, for
exploring ourselves and others, we are punished like Eve reaching for
more knowledge."
-This quote stuck out to me. I have always felt bad about the story of Eve, trying to grow and being portrayed as evil. I agree with the quote that women are all too often made to feel guilty about their bodies and image and sexuality.
"If sex is about communicating, let us think about what we want to say and how will we
say it. We need more words, images, ideas."
-I agree with the idea of liberating sex, of informing all people, especially any confused youth. If sex is continually treated as evil or negative, people will always be fucked up.
I liked this article a lot. I feel it shared some ideas or even responds to questions in Fledgling.
It is important for Shori to gain knowledge, to learn who she is and she learns a lot about humanity. In the same sense, sex is sometimes ambiguous in the novel, and it reflects the importance of learning about your body and who you are.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Twilight
As a whole, I have not been very surprised by the novel Twilight. Based on what I had heard from fans of the series beforehand, and also the phenomenon that it created, I expected the book to be an easy and fairly captivating read. Sure enough, once I picked up the book, it became easy to run through multiple chapters without noticing it. While the book is enjoyable enough, reading it with a feminist lens made it more difficult and a more trying experience. While I understand the book was written for a young audience, I still wish there was more character development and less focus on stereotyping.
The protagonist of the story, Bella, is presented throughout the story as being completely helpless and defenseless. Her character is extremely bland, and is never given any real defining characteristics. Almost as soon as Bella meets the vampire Edward, she is consumed by him: all she can think about is Edward and her love for him, how much she needs him. At the same time, Edward spends a large amount of time stalking and watching Bella while she is sleeping or just unaware of him. His reasoning behind this is that he feels compelled to protect her, as only he apparently can. While Edward protects Bella, she spends her days going to school, coming home to cook for extended periods of time, doing homework and sleeping at night. During all of these activities, Bella also constantly obsesses over her love for Edward.
Overall, Bella is filled with constant desire for Edward, who is always stalking her and warning her that he has the ability and urges to kill her. While most people reading the Twilight series don't look to the book for morals and feminist lessons, it is worrying that some of the young people reading it could idealize values seen in this book. Considering Twilight has one of the more obvious anti-feminist protagonists in recent memory, it is surprising it has become the phenomenon that it is. While I have not read the entire series, and Bella could change to a more complicated character by the end of the books, I still feel as though the first book does a lot to damage the image of women.
The protagonist of the story, Bella, is presented throughout the story as being completely helpless and defenseless. Her character is extremely bland, and is never given any real defining characteristics. Almost as soon as Bella meets the vampire Edward, she is consumed by him: all she can think about is Edward and her love for him, how much she needs him. At the same time, Edward spends a large amount of time stalking and watching Bella while she is sleeping or just unaware of him. His reasoning behind this is that he feels compelled to protect her, as only he apparently can. While Edward protects Bella, she spends her days going to school, coming home to cook for extended periods of time, doing homework and sleeping at night. During all of these activities, Bella also constantly obsesses over her love for Edward.
Overall, Bella is filled with constant desire for Edward, who is always stalking her and warning her that he has the ability and urges to kill her. While most people reading the Twilight series don't look to the book for morals and feminist lessons, it is worrying that some of the young people reading it could idealize values seen in this book. Considering Twilight has one of the more obvious anti-feminist protagonists in recent memory, it is surprising it has become the phenomenon that it is. While I have not read the entire series, and Bella could change to a more complicated character by the end of the books, I still feel as though the first book does a lot to damage the image of women.
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