agilebrit: (Urge to bitchslap)
agilebrit ([personal profile] agilebrit) wrote2009-09-15 01:40 pm

Wow.

I guess, because I've basically emasculated poor Ben, that I secretly hate all men and want them to die. Or something. Also, I'm totes up with adultery because of that whole Healing Vagina thing (even though that ultimately backfires and breaks him more). *thumbs up*

Repeat after me: Authors are not our characters. Sometimes our characters do Reprehensible Things, and sometimes our plots reflect that. This does not mean that we endorse all the attitudes or actions of our characters. Yes, even if that character is the Main Protagonist that you're supposed to be Rooting For.

I love it when people impute motives to writers based on stuff our characters do. No, really.

And I'm back to wanting to throw this thing that I've spent six months of my life on off a bridge anyway. It sucks, it's horrible, why did I ever think I could pull this off? I am a blunt instrument, not a laser scalpel. I so do not have the delicate touch required to be able to do this.

[identity profile] modernelegance.livejournal.com 2009-09-15 08:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Authors are not our characters. Sometimes our characters do Reprehensible Things, and sometimes our plots reflect that. This does not mean that we endorse all the attitudes or actions of our characters. Yes, even if that character is the Main Protagonist that you're supposed to be Rooting For.

Except Stephanie Meyers...

[identity profile] agilebrit.livejournal.com 2009-09-15 08:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, but she pissed me off at "sparkly vampires" even before I found out about all that other stuff. She's a Special Head Case.

[identity profile] modernelegance.livejournal.com 2009-09-15 08:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah...just BLECH!

[identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com 2009-09-15 08:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmm - I read it as Healing Viagra - which would be a wholly different thing...

[identity profile] agilebrit.livejournal.com 2009-09-15 08:18 pm (UTC)(link)
*giggles* Although, after this, Ben could probably use some, considering what happens when he tries to have sexual congress with his actual wife...

Yep. These are his balls, this is the lock-box. *turns key* I am a horrible person.
ext_9031: (Default)

[identity profile] ithildyn.livejournal.com 2009-09-15 08:18 pm (UTC)(link)
That was quite something.

[identity profile] agilebrit.livejournal.com 2009-09-15 08:23 pm (UTC)(link)
It must be awful, to read everything through Those Goggles. The number of books these people must actually enjoy reading must be miniscule.

[identity profile] rhfay.livejournal.com 2009-09-15 08:44 pm (UTC)(link)
"I love it when people impute motives to writers based on stuff our characters do. No, really."

I can only imagine what some may think of me after reading my dark poetry!

[identity profile] agilebrit.livejournal.com 2009-09-15 08:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Seriously.

I destroyed the Earth once in fiction. That probably got me on a List somewhere.

[identity profile] rhfay.livejournal.com 2009-09-15 09:03 pm (UTC)(link)
I kill my parents (sort of), in a poem due to be published shortly (like, hopefully, later today). Considering how much I hate my parents, I can see someone thinking I might really want to do them in., when in actuality the poem just explores those terrible feelings (and describes how the monsters in someone's life can turn them into a monster, too).

I may be sick, but not in the way some people may think. And I've learned to channel that sick side into my poetry.

Still, if ever anything violent did happen to my parents, I would be the prime suspect because of the poem in question. Oh well, tis the life of a writer, I guess.

(In some ways, I am the subject of my poem, but in other ways, I'm not.)

[personal profile] pensive 2009-09-15 10:10 pm (UTC)(link)
This whole post, QFT.

edited for appropos icon
Edited 2009-09-15 22:11 (UTC)

[identity profile] lady-moriel.livejournal.com 2009-09-15 10:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh...geez. I really want to post a big rant in response explaining why the Dresden Files are awesome and why Jim Butcher and Harry Dresden aren't misogynists, but I can tell from glancing at the other comments that if you don't sycophantically agree with [livejournal.com profile] winterfox, you are WRONG and will be ripped to shreds even if your argument has merit. And I seriously do not need that right now.

[identity profile] agilebrit.livejournal.com 2009-09-15 10:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I know, right? And thus, I rant in my own LJ.

[identity profile] honorh.livejournal.com 2009-09-15 11:32 pm (UTC)(link)
*pat* Don't let the bitchy people get you down, 'brit. You want to tell this story? Tell it. As for being a blunt instrument, you gotta ask yourself: What would Harry Dresden do?

[identity profile] agilebrit.livejournal.com 2009-09-15 11:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Harry Dresden would whisk Ben out of there and "Forzare!" the island into a crispy cinder...

He wouldn't be able to fix Ben, though, and that would make him feel bad.

[identity profile] bojojoti.livejournal.com 2009-09-16 04:16 am (UTC)(link)
raging, unrepentant, pubescent misogyny in Butcher

Yes! More, please.

I think the reviewer totally misunderstands Dresden.

I hate that so many people want everyone to fit into certain boxes like little automatons.

[identity profile] agilebrit.livejournal.com 2009-09-16 04:30 am (UTC)(link)
Seriously, if she saw something that was actually misogynistic, it would make her head explode.

I wonder if she watched "The Ugly Truth" and said "yes, this is how men are, absolutely." It must be terribly difficult to go through life looking at it through Those Goggles.

Harry would hold the door for her anyway. And she'd slap him. Thus reinforcing the stereotype that Feminists (note the capital, there) are raging bitches.

[identity profile] neo-prodigy.livejournal.com 2009-09-16 01:43 pm (UTC)(link)
silly misandronists.... will they ever learn?

[identity profile] agilebrit.livejournal.com 2009-09-16 05:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Apparently not.

Seriously, I wonder what people who look at life through Those Goggles would make of This Thing I'm writing. If they'd think it was some Monument of Feminist Writing because poor Ben has, like, no agency whatsoever and the women in his life have to keep rescuing him.

Which is certainly not my intention, and he kicks ass and takes names at the end, but damn.

[identity profile] neo-prodigy.livejournal.com 2009-09-16 10:33 pm (UTC)(link)
This post written by [livejournal.com profile] wedschilde: is the best response to their ignorance.

http://neo-prodigy.livejournal.com/682428.html

[identity profile] kantayra.livejournal.com 2009-09-16 03:13 pm (UTC)(link)
*facepalm* Writers can't write sexist characters, you know, because sexist people don't exist in real life. Except...wait! If sexist people don't exist in real life, then writers themselves can't be sexist to write them in the first place!

I've actually always really liked that Harry does the door-holding thing, because I do see it as a serious character flaw, and it's nice to see a central character with an actual flaw. Hell, how many women have pwned Harry's ass now by exploiting this?

That woman seriously needs to take a step back and look at the broader picture. Unfortunately, she seems to be the type where arguing with her is like banging your head against a brick wall...

[identity profile] agilebrit.livejournal.com 2009-09-16 05:24 pm (UTC)(link)
I just love how, based on one book, she's decided that Jim Butcher must be a raging misogynist. She probably hasn't even touched his Codex Alera series, which boasts several kickass women. But I'm sure she's made up her mind and little things like "logic" and "reason" won't sway her.