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Outlander
I had four different friends from four very different corners of my little world telling me Outlander is one of their favorite books. This was what persuaded me to read it, even though the premise is not my cuppa. The premise was described to me as, "Married nurse goes back in time to 1700s Scotland. Meets some hot guy. Has adventures." All of this actually did sound like my cuppa, except for the implied adultery. Two out of four of these people said, "Weeeeeeeeeeeelll, but she kind of made the adultery okay."
Usually when I hear recommendations from a bunch of different people it's still from the same corner. It's fandom, or people at work, or people I knew back in Texas, or it's young people, or it's the media. It was strange to hear so many different people have such intense love for this book, so I decided to try it. I had to stop after the first three chapters. It was intensely boring.
But then another friend I had got super into it, so I started reading again. And then I got pretty interested when I heard Ron D Moore was doing the show. I love DS-9 and BSG, so this is fairly excited me.
Now I'm about halfway through this book, and I feel like I'm going to throw up. I wanted to know if other people felt the way that I do about it, so I looked at Goodreads and accidentally spoiled myself for the rest. I'm going to trudge on through, because I promised my friend I would, but seriously? I don't just find this book bad; I find it upsetting. It's like some unholy combination of Song of Ice and Fire (which I think is awful) and 50 Shades (which I don't think is awful, but I haven't bothered to read it. What I do know is that it seems to have a lot of S&M which isn't handled as nearly as carefully and deftly as half the fics in fandom).
But seriously, I want to know--am I just a hater, or is this book really as extremely homophobic and misogynist as it's coming off to me? Inquiring minds, guys.
Usually when I hear recommendations from a bunch of different people it's still from the same corner. It's fandom, or people at work, or people I knew back in Texas, or it's young people, or it's the media. It was strange to hear so many different people have such intense love for this book, so I decided to try it. I had to stop after the first three chapters. It was intensely boring.
But then another friend I had got super into it, so I started reading again. And then I got pretty interested when I heard Ron D Moore was doing the show. I love DS-9 and BSG, so this is fairly excited me.
Now I'm about halfway through this book, and I feel like I'm going to throw up. I wanted to know if other people felt the way that I do about it, so I looked at Goodreads and accidentally spoiled myself for the rest. I'm going to trudge on through, because I promised my friend I would, but seriously? I don't just find this book bad; I find it upsetting. It's like some unholy combination of Song of Ice and Fire (which I think is awful) and 50 Shades (which I don't think is awful, but I haven't bothered to read it. What I do know is that it seems to have a lot of S&M which isn't handled as nearly as carefully and deftly as half the fics in fandom).
But seriously, I want to know--am I just a hater, or is this book really as extremely homophobic and misogynist as it's coming off to me? Inquiring minds, guys.
no subject
I don't think it is, really, but with the time travel there's the possibility for someone to actually talk about feminism. Though I guess she's from the 40s which isn't quite the same as being from modern times, but still.
I remember when my mom gave me Whitney, My Love by Judith McNaught when I was a teenager and I told her I was interested in historical romance. I was horrified, but after that learned to expect that sort of thing from historical romances written around that time. I just didn't expect that of this since it's popular now, but ugh.
The problem is that I have absolutely NO PROBLEM if Claire decides she wants her husband to take a whip to her. I also have no problem if she thinks it's problematic but considers how deeply misogyny is ingrained in the culture and realizes that if she just digs her heels in instead of working on it a little bit at a time, she won't do any good. BUT THIS IS APPALLING. Ugh I just feel gross.