tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3350096535937978369.post2172027661752134402..comments2024-01-09T18:40:53.465-08:00Comments on Ramblings of a Creative Double Dipper: Caress of Twilight--chapter 20Christwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17590823821715820817noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3350096535937978369.post-4028409948701506372016-06-07T18:33:25.363-07:002016-06-07T18:33:25.363-07:00^THAT. Is fucking brilliant right there.
I can...^THAT. Is fucking brilliant right there. <br />I can't tell if I'm supposed to be terrified or pitying of Andais. A better author could do both. LKH... can't.<br />But this analysis of why the first description matters and how we read into things? Awesome. Just had to say that.Sabertooth Screaming Lemurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18299284382384619823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3350096535937978369.post-1466831106800545882013-02-26T23:54:29.236-08:002013-02-26T23:54:29.236-08:00The problem is that a good villian, like Caligula,...The problem is that a good villian, like Caligula, is established as being psychotic long before his clothing and behavior become outlandish. Another example would be the scene in Silence of the Lambs where Hannibal Lecter beats up his guards and then pauses to listen to classical music before he cuts that one guy's face off. Isolate that from his conversations with Clarice and his creepy behavior, it's hilarious. But combine it with that build up, and you realize that you're looking evil in the face, and it really likes classical music. There is a LOT of background work that goes into selling a villian as a villian before you put them in the crazy wig and have them dance around and mutter "I'd fuck me".<br /><br />LKH skipped all that and went straight for that goddamned dress.<br /><br />The way you frame a character for the first introduction is very important. That impression is going to stick through the rest of the book. Darth Vader had a scary black helmet to "show" that he was an impersonal robot-man of death. Hannibal had the mask. This is LKH's chance to "Show" us how dangerous Andais really is, this is her chance to begin a build up to something else, and she blows it hard by describing an impractical ball gown before she does anything else with the character. She could have gone with "Eyes like daggars" or an expression, or the glimmering blade of a knife twisting in the folds of lace and whatnot. Anything to lodge the image of violence in the reader's mind before we get to the pretty dresses. Instead, LKH goes straight to the ruffles, and it kills the character. Ribbons and flounces are silly, little girl things, so two sentences in we've given Andais this air of silliness and innocence. The impractical dress implies that she's impractical. And there's something really sad about being in a party dress and not having a party to go to, a kind of implied loneliness that is reinforced during the conversation with Doyle. All of this leaves the reader with the impression that under all the knives and ugliness Andais clothes herself with, there's a sad, lonely and silly little girl in desperate need of a teddy bear to hug. It implies that the dangerous personality is simply the wrapping and not the whole package.<br /><br />If she'd started off with ANYTHING ELSE, the dress is immaterial. It's window dressing. But because of her sloppy writing she's minimalized a dangerous character into something that could be fixed if it only got a little love. It's sloppy writing, and it's DANGEROUS writing, because I've been in that "but we only need to love it" trap. It's re-enforcing an awful steriotype that gets people hurt every day, and it could have been avoided if LKH cared a little bit more about character development and a little bit less about her readers getting every glittery ruffle and rainbow skin-tone right.Christwriterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17590823821715820817noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3350096535937978369.post-46983369380171805582013-02-26T19:49:39.558-08:002013-02-26T19:49:39.558-08:00"LKH is simultaneously shoving every single s..."LKH is simultaneously shoving every single scary thing that can go wrong in the human brain into one package, and is minimalizing it by putting it into a fluffy lace dress. "<br />Out of curiosity - what does it matter that she's in a fluffy lace dress?<br /><br />If a crazed serial killer is flouncing around in a neon thong, flashing LED nipple pasties, and clown wig, does it make her any less deadly? I mean, if a bunch of ogres clad in denim miniskirts and latex halter tops come roaring at me, I'm not going to comment on their fashion sense - I'm going to run. <br /><br />Just to take a film example, it doesn't make Caligula (in "I, Claudius") any less scary when he's made up like an eighty-year-old grandmother trying desperately to cling to her teenage years and wearing the predecessor to Princess Leia's golden bikini. He's still an insane psychopath who could have everyone in the room murdered for lavishing anything less than exquisite praise upon his exotic-dancer act. <br /><br />I'm enjoying the sporks so far, but that just seemed like a strange objection. :|Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3350096535937978369.post-11374460459878927762013-02-24T09:07:49.738-08:002013-02-24T09:07:49.738-08:00I'm a huge fan of seafood, and I love sashimi....I'm a huge fan of seafood, and I love sashimi. I even like smoked or cooked oysters. But I will not eat the damn things raw, because they taste like a the drainage from a sinus infection.<br /><br />From what I've heard, the terms sociopath/psychopath are in flux right now thanks to new research. One of the interesting things that's been found is that the majority of people with these disorders are, for the most part, law-abiding citizens. Douchebags and deeply selfish jerkasses, yes, but law-abiding. Because it's in their own self-interest to be so, and if you don't obey the law you end up in prison - Where the majority of old studies drew their populations from, thus skewing their results to focus on sociopaths/psychopaths with lousy impulse control.<br /><br />I refuse to touch the rest of this chapter.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05828438966741169694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3350096535937978369.post-28465464674649889752013-02-24T07:56:13.966-08:002013-02-24T07:56:13.966-08:00Of course we have to be told Merry has big boobs. ...Of course we have to be told Merry has big boobs. Of course.<br /><br />And yeah, not enough to be told her aunt is a landmine. Merry has to act like it, or it's not believable, as you pointed out.<br /><br />...how do you mate with the Wild Hunt and why is it evil to do so specifically in dog form? That statement might carry more of an impact if we had any idea why it was A Bad Thing. <br /><br />And yaaay, thanks for the plug! Just got up the first spork of Bullet a few minutes ago btw =D <br /><br />I don't get eating shellfish either. At all. It's gross. No. Just, no. I love fish, but anything else that comes out of the sea should not be on my dinner plate. Blugh blugh blughRFhttp://a_sporking_rat.livejournal.com/noreply@blogger.com