la_marquise (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
la_marquise) wrote2011-08-16 07:28 pm
la_marquise) wrote2011-08-16 07:28 pm
What doesn't work for me
At the moment, I'm reading a book by an author whose books I like a lot, and whose characters I always find engaging and attractive. I really loved the last thing I read by them and I expected to be drawn into this one at once, too.
And I wasn't, which made no sense, because all the things I loved about other books in the series were present: the detailed milieu, the strong characters, the intrigue, the sense of danger... yet my eyes kept sliding away and I found myself reaching for my current non-fiction book (which I'm reading for research reasons) instead.
But I kept on, and a few chapters in suddenly my interest picked up and I was happily absorbed.
Which was when it hit me. The first part of the book was set mainly on a ship. Ships just don't do it for me. Even when I writer I love, when characters I find fascinating are involved, one the naval stuff starts, I find I start to skim, to gloss, to rush on to get to the next bit without boats.
It's not the fault of any of the writers. It's me. For some reason, I don't want to read about boats. I never cared for Swallows and Amazons and their sequels, nor for the Hornblower books. I've never been able to get into Patrick O'Brien: indeed, despite many people whose opinions I respect telling me how good those books are, my head drags at the thought of reading them. I'm just not a sea-story person.
I have no idea why. I'm a perfectly good sailor, and I enjoy travelling on boats. I have enjoyed films set on ships, too. I just don't want to read about them. There seems to be no logic to it (unless Arthur Ransome, who I read young and found dull for other reasons as well as the boats, put me off for life -- sorry,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chilperic). I don't mind when the characters are on ships and non-sailing/sea battle/pirate stuff is happening. Sea-board politics and romances? Fine. Hauling on sheets and reefing sails, loading cannon and chasing frigate? No, thank you.
It's a fault in me as a reader, I know that. I can see that the ship bits in the book I'm reading are well written and exciting. But I just don't have that button in my head. If someone wrote a book in which Aramis, who, as we know, is my favourite fictional character ever, became a sea captain, I'd read it, certainly. But I might well not be that engaged by it, unless he was all about politics, and not about capturing enemy colours and splicing mainbraces. And I wouldn't believe it, because Aramis doesn't like sea-travel: that's canon -- he tells d'Artagnan so in Twenty Years After.
So, here's a question for you all. What doesn't work for you? I don't mean things you just don't like in books, or find a turn off or a bore, I mean things that you just don't quite get, somehow, that even in the hands of your favourite writers leave you lukewarm? Do you have any idea why? I'd like to think it's not just me!
And I wasn't, which made no sense, because all the things I loved about other books in the series were present: the detailed milieu, the strong characters, the intrigue, the sense of danger... yet my eyes kept sliding away and I found myself reaching for my current non-fiction book (which I'm reading for research reasons) instead.
But I kept on, and a few chapters in suddenly my interest picked up and I was happily absorbed.
Which was when it hit me. The first part of the book was set mainly on a ship. Ships just don't do it for me. Even when I writer I love, when characters I find fascinating are involved, one the naval stuff starts, I find I start to skim, to gloss, to rush on to get to the next bit without boats.
It's not the fault of any of the writers. It's me. For some reason, I don't want to read about boats. I never cared for Swallows and Amazons and their sequels, nor for the Hornblower books. I've never been able to get into Patrick O'Brien: indeed, despite many people whose opinions I respect telling me how good those books are, my head drags at the thought of reading them. I'm just not a sea-story person.
I have no idea why. I'm a perfectly good sailor, and I enjoy travelling on boats. I have enjoyed films set on ships, too. I just don't want to read about them. There seems to be no logic to it (unless Arthur Ransome, who I read young and found dull for other reasons as well as the boats, put me off for life -- sorry,
chilperic). I don't mind when the characters are on ships and non-sailing/sea battle/pirate stuff is happening. Sea-board politics and romances? Fine. Hauling on sheets and reefing sails, loading cannon and chasing frigate? No, thank you.It's a fault in me as a reader, I know that. I can see that the ship bits in the book I'm reading are well written and exciting. But I just don't have that button in my head. If someone wrote a book in which Aramis, who, as we know, is my favourite fictional character ever, became a sea captain, I'd read it, certainly. But I might well not be that engaged by it, unless he was all about politics, and not about capturing enemy colours and splicing mainbraces. And I wouldn't believe it, because Aramis doesn't like sea-travel: that's canon -- he tells d'Artagnan so in Twenty Years After.
So, here's a question for you all. What doesn't work for you? I don't mean things you just don't like in books, or find a turn off or a bore, I mean things that you just don't quite get, somehow, that even in the hands of your favourite writers leave you lukewarm? Do you have any idea why? I'd like to think it's not just me!
no subject
Grot. Gritty realism. Wading through mud and manure. Characters who are constantly on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion, but somehow manage to force themselves to fight another three-day battle or climb another mountain, and before they can get more than a smidgen of rest they're off again, still exhausted (Pyanfar Chanur, I'm looking at you). Stories where the protagonists track down the bad guy or solve the mystery, but nothing can be done about it because of politics or money. Stories where a happy ending is fairly bought and paid for, but never arrives. Stories, in short, that make me think of real life. And that's why. I don't need fiction to make me think about real life. I have real life for that.
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no subject
If I want to get really emotionally involved with something, there have to be levels at which I can find it realistic, and stories where the material universe conforms to ideals of justice or fairness, where money or politics can be set aside, or where striving is guaranteed to get the desired result will break my suspension of disbelief. I'm not asking for all gloom and doom by any means, I just can't believe victory is meaningful unless it feels like there is a real chance of defeat. I'm not going to believe a war is real if the state of being a protagonist is enough to guarantee that you will come through it however many spear-carriers may die, or if it means the only death you can have is heroic and meaningful.
I am very fond of well-crafted, convincing, hopeful endings. I find them comforting and supportive in ways that the sort of happy ending where everyone gets to have their cake AND eat it AND gets a pony (for some reason remarkably few genre protagonists want to eat the pony) just aren't.