Comments on: The Virgin’s Lover

By: Ramona

Ramona — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:28:49 +0000

Looks interesting. Thanks for the suggestion.

By: Corvus

Corvus — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:14:23 +0000

Oh, I don’t think I’d even bother with that Ramona. With so many good historical fiction movies out there, why watch dreck?

I’d recommend Stage Beauty with Claire Danes and Billy Crudup.

By: Ramona

Ramona — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:52:36 +0000

So, have you seen The Other Boleyn Girl yet? What did you think? I’ve never read Philippa Gregory and probably never will based on your thoughts. But I would watch the movie.

By: Ken... Just Ken

Ken... Just Ken — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:05:20 +0000

Re: Weak and fluttery Female Fic;
Could it be that these women feel that they need to be weak an ineffectual to attract a strong man who will protect them so that even in their historical novels they need to project weakness on strong female roll models?
It’s sad that women think they need to be weak to attract a strong man, or is it that they feel they need to seem weaker to make ANY man look strong enough to protect them?

Sorry, rough weekend, I’m rambling.

By: kaizerin

kaizerin — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:24:48 +0000

I was interested in The Other Boleyn Girl, until I read this book. I definitely won’t read the book now, and while hyperbolically, I’d pay good money to watch Scarlett and Natalie prance about in corsets for two hours (yummy!), realistically, I’ll be happier if I wait for it to hit cable. I don’t want to send even minute residual $$ Gregory’s way. (Ask me how delighted I am that I bought V.L. for a quarter at a library sale. G’won, ask me!)

I’ve been thinking about who this kind of thing appeals to, and I’ve got an answer: Bush voters. No, wait, hear me out! I think a book that treats one of the greatest queens in human history as a simpering Chick Lit heroine succeeds on the “vote for the guy you’d like to have a beer with” principle. We want our heroes to be relatable, and it’s just too darned hard to try to live up to Gloriana–really, how often does one get a shot at an Armada? We are nothing like the queen, so we must make the queen something like ourselves. Ditto the tendency to vote for the guy (still) who doesn’t make you feel so bad about your ill-educated, under-achieving little life. We think that Americans value independence and achievement, but we only like our tall poppies a teensy bit taller than the rest, and we’ve got the shears always at hand in case their height exceeds our comfort level.

Personally, I want the President to be better than me–a hell of a lot better. I want a President whose intellect makes me go all gooey just thinkin’ about it. I want a President I would be impressed and intimidated to meet–because that’s the effect I want our President to have on the world. I don’t want to have a beer with the President; I just want to be able to trust there’s a bright intellect in charge, handling the big stuff, so I can enjoy my own small, ill-educated, under-achieving life.

By: CountessZ

CountessZ — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:23:27 +0000

Ugh. That sounds utterly atrocious. I can’t even imagine what you have to believe about yourself and about women in general to create something like that.

To answer your question, Corvus. Yes. There is a rather large audience of women out there who indulge in this type of fantasy. I think it’s because they don’t really understand the price they are paying. And also because the vast majority of the messages they have received since childhood have been about seeking an understanding or sense of yourself through external resources and validation. If other people tell you that you are ok, then you are. This version of “history” makes more sense to them. So very sad.

The people who read and love PGs books are precisely the same people who need to read The Handmaid’s Tale. They need to understand where this type of thinking can get you…

By: Corvus

Corvus — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:52:51 +0000

It’s a creepy rewriting of history to suit… who? I’m guessing there must be some sort of audience for this. Are there women who feel they’re supposed to be strong, but really just want to be week and fluttery? I know there were in bits of the south I’ve lived in, where the messages are consistently undermining all across the board.

Have you read/seen The Other Boleyn Girl? That’s Ms. PG as well and I am under the impression that it suffers from the same sort of high-handed historic slap-dashery.

By: kaizerin

kaizerin — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 02:37:51 +0000

I quite agree. And do we not have enough weak, undermined, dependent women in fiction, that we have to pull down strong women who actually lived to make more?

By: Corvus

Corvus — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 23:42:57 +0000

I am very, very tired of the weak and simpering portrayal of women in media. Particularly women that are set up as strong characters, but wind up as shallow, vaguely misogynistic, caricatures.