Quick Note to Self

[handful_ofdust]

The fun thing about today's 'Net-enabled hive-mind is that you can use other people's reactions to make decisions like: "Ah, I see that now Suzanne Collins' Mockingjay is out, the Powers That Be have dropped The Hunger Games to ten bucks as a cheap gateway drug. Are the other books worth it, after that? No? Okay: Hunger Games alone it will be."

Because I can easily make that choice, since an open-ended story that doesn't end on a total cliffhanger (Gemma Files, I'm lookin' at you!) allows for me to make up whatever eventual conclusion I want, without having to see the actual conclusion spelled out for me. Sort of like how I can still enjoy The Matrix (or, indeed, The Matrix: Reloaded, if I'm feeling silly).

In other news, I don't much care about the whole LJ/Facebook thing. I messed with my settings some and feel fairly secure, to the extent you can feel secure about anything. Dreamwidth remains not a place I want to frequent. Worst-case scenario, I'll go to Blogger for everything or stop blogging generally, which would probably be best for my output. Yet seems unlikely.;)

Anyhoo. Today the fridge supposedly arrives, so I must run to the CIBC and get a new debit card, because mine has finally worn down to the point where it won't work anymore. This caused much embarrassment at Starbuck's yesterday, a state of affairs I don't feel like repeating.

Comments

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

The general obsession with YA amongst (mainly) ladies who are not "of that age" is very odd to me, especially since (within my parameters, at least) these are also often people who spend a lot of their free time reading/making porn. I don't think YA's necessarily or consistently better or worse than stuff putatively aimed at adults, but this elevation of YA as "the next big thing" for all age-ranges is definitely...one of those things that make (me) go "hmmm".

As for the other Collinses, well--yeah, lot of backlash going on, from what I've been reading. Usual issues: Shipping run wild, lack of agency in your main/POV, female character, etc. Some people say they get too traumatic, bleak and depressing, too, but that's not too likely to put me off.:)

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree. YA has had the shit elevated out of it recently, and it probably does have something to do with the rise of fandom assoc. with YA things like HP, possibly Twilight. I've been hearing a lot of "YA is bolder/more imaginative than adult fic" too.

Slightly OT: I've read a couple good (old) YAs recently, but part of my issue is I pretty much went straight from "classic Victorian children's lit" to "classic adult lit" in my reading development. I read some L'Engle and Sleator, but not much. I think it's why I struggle with both YA and pulp-genre.

Usual issues: female character? Like, a badly written female character, I hope.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

I'm still looking for a good copy of Sleator's House of Stairs. Also Grinny, which no one seems to remember but me. Amusingly, it hit me like a punch that my husband's main association with Sleator's name is apparently Space Pig. What?!

Have you tried John Bellairs? There's some prime female characters in his early stuff, particularly Rose Rita Pottinger, though I'm also fond of Lewis, his sad, fat, well-read original POV character. Also the amAzing villainess Selenna Izzard, from The House with a Clock in its Walls.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha, TBH Interstellar Pig is what my main association with Sleator is as well, because that's the one I was assigned in school. I know I read others, but I don't remember him all that well. And this is like one of the few YA authors I did read.

I have not tried John Bellairs, no. Although this is an awesome cover.

See, a lot of the stuff I did read that was more YA (maybe a little younger than YA, IDK) was like... scary short story compilations. Was obsessed with Goosebumps, with Terry Jones' Fairy Tales, with Jan Mark's Nothing To Be Afraid Of (this one story, "Nule," is the one that fucks everybody up).

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Wow! I didn't even know The Whistle, the Grave and the Ghost existed! Clearly, I need to check out the Bellairs section more often.

[sovay]

I'm still looking for a good copy of Sleator's House of Stairs.

My fifth-grade teacher read us that entire book, in daily installments. I'm sure I can't even begin to calculate the damage to our developing psyches. It was kind of awesome.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

We had a perpetually drunk librarian (he told us he had narcolepsy, which was why he kept nodding out) who used to read us stories like "The Beast with Five Fingers". It gave me a horror of crawling severed limbs that continues to this day.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Ahahahahahaha! I'm imagining the lot of you staggering out of class when he finally wrapped it up. "Why are you terrified of traffic lights, little Sonya?"

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

snerk!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I LOVED House of Stairs I remember that COMPLETELY.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Also, re: traumatic/bleak/depressing in the Collins books - yeah, Nathan Bransford wrote a post inspired by that on the subject of "violence in children's literature" and whether there's a line. A fair amount of people said that the trilogy got too violent for them and they had to stop. Which... whatever. I'm personally in favor of traumatizing children. ;)

[greyorm.livejournal.com]

You know, I think just growing up traumatizes children. I certainly seem to remember it being that way. (And need we even mention junior high/high school? I mean, if someone wants to discuss trauma to children, let's start there...)

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the whole realizing-your-own-mortality thing. And I sure didn't need to read a fucking book to do that.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have a feeling that a lot of parents who want to protect children from traumatic literature also believe that their children will be completely well-adjusted in junior high/high school.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Does it surprise you that I agree?;) My favourite C.S. Lewis book remains The Magician's Nephew, because it features Jadis, Charn, and Polly.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

I love The Magician's Nephew (that and Silver Chair are my favorites). Although I failed to read Horse and His Boy (boredom) and The Last Battle (dismay... I got too old for it, or something. I never liked Aslan though, so I clearly fail as a Narnian.)

[sovay]

The Last Battle (dismay... I got too old for it, or something. I never liked Aslan though, so I clearly fail as a Narnian.)

No, The Last Battle is just not a very good book. I don't think it's impossible to outgrow because I don't think there's a single age it works for; it's bad sledgehammer theology and the world suffers as a consequence. The actual apocalypse of Narnia is neat. Everything else, DIAF.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

I remember skipping to the end and reading the whole "yay we're dead" scene - that's when the dismay came in - but I also remember the point I stopped reading was when Puzzle was being dressed up as the False Aslan. I never fucking got what was so great about Aslan. Whenever he showed up in the other books I was like, "oh, maaaaan." I also rooted for the White Witch, esp. when played by Tilda Swinton. Clearly I'm a Satanist or something.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Jadist? Charnist?

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Jadist conveniently rhymes with Sadist.

That's all I got.

[sovay]

Jadist? Charnist?

Jadist.

[sovay]

My favourite C.S. Lewis book remains The Magician's Nephew, because it features Jadis, Charn, and Polly.

I don't know when The Magician's Nephew became my favorite of the Chronicles of Narnia—it was a toss-up between The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair when I was younger—but however it happened, it definitely is.