BOOK REPORT

[shalanna]

"What I Hope to Do On My Summer Vacation"

That would be a fun post.

Meanwhile, I wanted to say that I was trying to toss a few paperbacks into the giveaway pile yesterday and ended up re-reading Sharyn McCrumb's _Bimbos of the Death Sun_. This time around, I had a hard time enjoying it. This time around, the author's* hate and contempt for fat women and all fat people just bashed me over the head continuously. The hate for "oddballs" and guys who don't have the kind of "social skills" that the author thinks people should have just kept hitting me in the head.

* [Yes, it really REALLY came across as not just a belief shared by characters, but as the author's at-core belief, partly because most POV characters shared her beliefs, even the "fat girl" who gets a couple of scenes of her own--she's portrayed as fairly pathetic and self-hating. Aack!]

Seriously . . . it's apparent that the snarky tone the author takes was funny to me as a young adult because I had been conditioned and "socialized" to believe a lot of the things that this book's lead female character says about "fatties" and "fandom" and so forth, and was giving the gallows laugh to all of it. Now, I'm more enlightened and it bugs me a lot more when people just take for granted that "all of us think you fat women are pathetic losers" and "all of us think you people who go to cons and are passionate about gaming or whatever are outcasts." **SIGH** It's kinda like the way somebody on my f-list reacted to re-watching some old movies with his daughter and felt awful when he saw them through her eyes without the baggage and the context he'd had for them when he originally saw them . . . I was disappointed that my experience of the book was so different this time, when I expected to be laughing out loud.

But anyway, now I understand better why most of fandom spits at the very mention of this book. And some of them spit at the mention of this AUTHOR. *GRIN* She reportedly isn't outstandingly friendly/nice when she makes author appearances, and she says her books are NOT nasty dirty old MYSTERIES but LitRaChoor (as reported on Dorothy-L, anyway.) Hmph. And it's obvious (at least to ME during this re-reading time) that the attitudes of the characters are actually the author's--this book is her bully pulpit, and it doesn't paint a very flatterng portrait. I mean, who is SHE to set herself up to judge an entire group of people? Why does SHE think she is so bee-y00-tee-ful that she can criticize people with oily hair or pimples or whatnot? To hell with that. That kind of person needs a good thump on the head that leaves a mark, and then we all need to go mock her for having a mark on her head. No, that probably wouldn't teach her a thing, and it would lower us down to her level. Phooey! (Oops, my rant reflex kicked in. But it just bothers me . . . I try not to let my books have this kind of attitude, though sometimes I fail.)

Of course, maybe she isn't that way at all. Maybe I'm reading all this into it. Or maybe she isn't that way any more. But it just really BUGGED me this time.

Maybe I'm overreacting. I suppose I should re-read my little rant about "the author is not her characters, and the agenda of the book is not the author's secret little agenda." Except that in this case I get the strong impression that these ARE one and the same. I mean . . . it's as if somebody said, with a curled lip, "some of my best friends are those oily-haired, loudmouthed fans." *cringe* Ugh! Spare me!

Oh, well. It just means that I don't enjoy the book as much any more. I still "got" all the inside jokes and funny lines, but they were tainted by the snarky attitude towards everyone who was running the con. Of course, It Could Just Be Me.

I'll bet there is another book out there set at a fantasy/SF con that y'all can recommend as an antidote. I mean one that is generally nice to the con people, although it can poke gentle fun. Donna Andrews does this kind of thing very well. Anyone have a book in mind like this? I need a "cleansing."

In other news, I have a Neuros MPEG-4 Recorder that I bought sometime last year for hubby, and he doesn't have any interest in it. The box is covered with dust and still sitting on top of his computer desk. I wonder if any of you know what this is and might like to buy it? It's the size of a paperback (or smaller) and is a video recorder with real-time MPEG-4 capturing from any analog video source. You can record directly to CompactFlash or SD cards at around 512MB of storage per hour, so you can use it to transfer video content to mobile devices for watching later. It also plays back MPEG-4 and other audio formats) from SD cards. The beauty of it is that you don't waste a bunch of time waiting for a file to convert--you record in real time, which was the attraction of this gadget. I intended it for him to use to get TiVoed episodes of his shows off the TiVo and carry them around to watch when he was bored or something. He just isn't interested. Maybe I was a bit misguided in buying the thing. Anyone want one? I also have a Neuros MP3 player (with hard disk) with various capabilities (and full of "my" music on the hard disk, and with all manuals and such), and I'd be willing to make a package deal. Wonder if this would sell on eBay for more than a dime? Hate to see them just sitting here. We have so MANY gadgets that just didn't turn out to be useful to us.

The iPod is useful, but iTunes really makes me mad in many ways. . . .

Comments

[coneycat.livejournal.com]

* [Yes, it really REALLY came across as not just a belief shared by characters, but as the author's at-core belief, partly because most POV characters shared her beliefs, even the "fat girl" who gets a couple of scenes of her own--she's portrayed as fairly pathetic and self-hating. Aack!]

I had EXACTLY the same reaction and, like you, when all the POV or important characters share the same core beliefs, I tend to think they are coming directly from the author.

The only funny thing about BIMBOS these days, to me anyway, is the fact that thanks to the Internet every fandom is much like the one in the story. Now every fandom has its BNFs, its remote squabbles, and a lot of people arguing about which of them is the most pathetically over-invested. There is no band so obscure it hasn't got at least one over-invested fan with a Web site. (Or, in the case of Gloryhound & the Skyhawks, a blog.)

The No Fat Chicks sentiments of the book made me really angry when I read it. I found the writer could find sympathy for everyone else in the story, at least a little, but not for the fat girl. And have you seen the author? She is not tiny herself! I don't know what to make of that!

I did wonder briefly whether a Canadian had ever saved her from drowning, because Diefenbaker really is the only member of the fan group who has any social skills at all (in fact, his are pretty good.)

The business of disavowing her novels is a turnoff too--the Elizabeth MacPhersons weren't all that good, really, but she must have had a reason for writing them.

Maybe I'm overreacting. I suppose I should re-read my little rant about "the author is not her characters, and the agenda of the book is not the author's secret little agenda." Except that in this case I get the strong impression that these ARE one and the same. I mean . . . it's as if somebody said, with a curled lip, "some of my best friends are those oily-haired, loudmouthed fans." *cringe* Ugh! Spare me!

Everyone overreacts once in a while (!) but in this case... no. The tone is too contemptuous all the way through to be a joke. It's a pretty mean little story.

And not much of a mystery.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I haven't read Bimbos of the Death Sun and though I had heard it mentioned before, I now feel life is too short to go and seek it out -- or any other books by that author. :)

If you want a story set in a con where the participants are treated more affectionately, I can only think of the movie Galaxy Quest (which I love and ought to watch again) and Diana Wynne Jones's Deep Secret. Either of those any good?

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Lovely, both of them. The movie especially is fantastic.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Her writing is awful, and so are the attitudes in that book, Eccch.

[coneycat.livejournal.com]

(a) When she writes well, she writes very well, so I get the impression she didn't even try very hard on this one.

(b) Aren't the fan characters based on friends of her husband? That, and some war-between-the-sexes stuff in other books of hers, makes me wonder about her marriage. And feel a bit sorry for her husband.

But I may be over-reacting because that book annoys me so.

[coneycat.livejournal.com]

Have you read Donna Andrews We'll Always Have Parrots yet? It seems to be at a convention for fans of a Xena-like television show.

[lexica510.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to revisit a creative work after a chunk of time has passed. When I was a teenager, the movie The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension was the #1 favorite movie among my crowd of geeky friends. When I watched it again a year or two ago, I found myself yelling at the screen almost every time the main female character was onscreen. "Could you have written her ANY MORE STUPID if you tried? Could you have made her ANY MORE VAPID and SHALLOW? Oh, FFS, you wrote the 10-year-old boy character smarter and more resourceful than her!"

[pameladean]

It's just a mean-spirited book, and always has been. Maybe she really doesn't think that way, but that hardly matters unless one is contemplating having coffee with her -- if she doesn't think that way, then she wrote badly, and the BOOK thinks that way. I've always hated it.

P.

Some thoughts.

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

McCrumb's a rather large woman whose girth is increasing steadily these days. I think that a lot of that book, which is an early work, is autobiographical, to tell the truth. I've always read it that she was an isolated, overweight teenager who had nobody to talk to. Then she discovered SF, and went to some cons, found friends, and got motivated. She lost weight and Got a Life. Much of the book's tone is the preachiness of someone who Has a Life talking to those who apparently Have No Lives. I wonder if she has any secret guilt now that the pounds are back.

McCrumb's writing has improved over the years. She is a lot better at sarcasm now. I prefer her mountain books to anything else, though I don't like the two books with NASCAR themes.

It is true, I must admit, that when I attend cons, I do see a number of very overweight young girls trolling for young men, as she indicates. The young men do indeed jump for that bait. That part of the book is definitely accurate, although she portrayed it quite cruelly. I see as many overweight young men in inappropriate costumes as I see women. Our local con, Archon, has a strong costuming component, so sometimes I really wish for strong goggles, to tell you the truth, not because of acres of jiggly flesh, but because of beginning costumers.

However, I've also seen a few situations that gave me the willies. For some reason Archon tends to attract young women in their mid-to-late teens who are already over 200 pounds. I fear for their health, to be honest, and hope that they're taking some measures to at least monitor their blood sugar, blood pressure, and other basic health measures.

In increasing numbers, these young women are also being led around in bondage gear as well. There's a much higher component of overweight women than thin or underweighgt women in gear that makes them look like submissive partners or slaves. I'm not sure why that is. I talked to a few of my friends about it, and I wondered if some of the young men persuaded them that they'd only have relationships with them if they'd agree to the D/S component.

[ladyjaguar.livejournal.com]

I read Bimbos years ago, as did my con-going compatriot AS, and we both laughed. I may take it on the plane with me and read it again and see how it plays now that I'm much older, too. I'll see if I have the same reaction you did.

AS and another friend BK and I always wanted to write a con-based story in which a fan goes postal, and they find that the cause was that he had read too many Harlan Ellison novels . . . (grin)

If you want a very funny satire of s-f AND mystery stories, try Hawaiian UFO Aliens. It truly is funny without being mean-spirited. I don't remember who the author was. It's also very weird. I don't know how well you may like weird . . . Heehee.