reading this book is like coming home

[jade_sabre]

OH MY GOD

IT HAS BEEN OVER A YEAR SINCE I READ THE QUEEN OF ATTOLIA

no wonder this reread feels so good. especially after Nobody's Princess because I am suddenly sick of reading about chicks who sneak out and learn how to fight and do "manly" things because "girls are just as good as boys at manly things and who says they're manly anyway" I mean not that I disagree with that sentiment but it's all well and good for Helen that she gets to sneak out and learn this stuff but you know what think of all the other women who couldn't. (Also I think, philia_fan, I finally understand what you mean by "why does this book have a sequel that makes me like it less" syndrome.)

One of the cool things about Attolia is that while she can embroider up a storm, she's also a really competent leader. These other books seem to dismiss the other women doing all the embroidering because it's so boring and all they ever do is gossip. Well, Attolia not only embroider, but also spied and prepared her husband's poison. And yes, she envied Eddis the lack of velvets and the running and playing with her cousins, and yes, she was unhappy, but she still ended up holding onto her country and having a ton of power and staying on the playing field until she finally found someone with whom she could share her burden, without becoming any less of what she was.

One of the things I liked a lot about Crown Duel was the fact that the women had all sorts of secret codes and undercurrents of intrigue that were all communicated through things like fans. I think sometimes in an author's haste to provide a really strong female character, she ignores all the wonderful chances for subtlety that were, in fact, what most women had to deal in.

Also, this time around? The parallels of Gen's and Attolia's insomnia. Will be trying to form some sort of thoughts about this.

TIME FOR NOTORIOUS

Comments

[keestone.livejournal.com]

I like both type of story. Dealing With Dragons is my most recent sanity-read, and I've always loved how Cimorene just walks out of the conventional fairy tale life. I also just recently got reminded of how much I loved The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. And by-the-bye, did you know that hundreds of women pretended to be men and fought as soldiers on both sides of the Civil War? At the same time, I love love love Little Women, and all the subtle negotiations of independent womenhood (both conventional and non) in it. I also love how Lois McMaster Bujold explores the usually-ignored female power structures in a patriarchal society on Barrayar.

What really annoys me is when a Calamity Jane gets Doris Day-ed.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

I mean, I do too, but there's a proliferation of MALONE IS THE BEST PERSON EVER AND I LOVE HER OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGYES I WISH I WAS MALONE BECAUSE SHE IS THE PRETTIEST OF ALL THE ANYONE EVER IN THE UNIVERSE EVER YES OHMIGOSH SHE IS SO COOL I AM NOT FIT TO BE IN HER PRESENCE HOLYCRAP MUFFINS.

I'll let you guess who wrote that.

Anyway, there's a proliferation of...these all-right-ly written girls, at least in the books I've read recently, and I'm sick of them. Cimorene is awesome in part due to her uniqueness--I have yet to read a book as good as hers about a character like her--and yes in part for defying the fairy tale...but that's fairy tales, and I guess my problem is with more historical-fiction-y stuff?

Calamity Jane gets Dois Day-ed? ...is that along the lines of "if you take the nerdy chick's glasses off she becomes a total babe"?

[keestone.livejournal.com]

More like the spitting, cussing, tall-tale-telling, sharp shooting, tough stagecoach driver suddenly gets whitewashed, prettified and shoved into a frilly dress next to a romantic interest, cause nobody wants to hear about the real Calamity Jane . . . she wasn't very attractive and not ladylike at all. But, yeah.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

...that's rather how I felt about the weird chick at the end of Breakfast Club. With less sharp shooting and more pixie-sticks-on-toast-ing. But, yeah.

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

Musicals are *never* anything approaching reality, so I just pretend they're about someone else. The Sisi movies with Romy Schneider (about the Empress Elisabeth of Austria) aren't musicals, but they whitewash things, too, and I know it and I don't care because I luuuuuv those movies anyway!

[keestone.livejournal.com]

By the way, I have no clue who Malone is. I'd say my age is showing, but it might just be general cluelessness.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

Ah-hahahaha, Malone is my name for my middle sister here on the ol' LJ. She hijacked my keyboard mid-reply. :-b

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

*also just read Dealing with Dragons*

She's so strong, and she *likes* being in charge of a house! Kinda like Sophie in HMC, but definitely in her own flavor.