well behaved women

Title: Big Fish
Author: shiegra
Fandom: True Blood/Southern Vampires
Rating: R
Pairing(s)/Character(s): Callisto, Mary Anne, Sookie. Assorted.
Warning(s): Blood, gore. Mostly implied.
Summary: Turf is unexpectedly contested. Callisto meets Mary Anne.
Notes: I was rereading the second book and thinking about how much I loved the book!verse maenad, and I sat down and wrote this little thing, just for fun.

( Read more... )

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I was just reading one of the Aurora Teagarden novels and thinking that what I really appreciate about Charlaine Harris's books is how human her protagonists are.

They have silly fantasies and selfish urges and ignoble thoughts--and actions--just like any human being, and sometimes even when you know you're being unreasonable you are anyway (or at least I know I am) and it's realistic. You can sympathize. Overall she takes a rather unromantic view of people in general, I think--but not one that's cynical to the extent of being without hope.

Of course, since they're women, any little flaw gets a ridiculous amount of venom directed their way (someone called Sookie stupid for having a Word A Day calendar) but, well, whatever. I hope they don't hold the women they encounter in real life to the same unrealistic standards.


In other news: IT'S TOO DAMN HOT.

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One last whining post about True Blood, because this is actually a bit analytical.

Quoting from a comment of mine where I finally managed to nail my previous relatively nebulous feelings of discontent: My problem with Bill and Sookie's relationship in book vs TV series is that they change it from the cold, quiet, only-human-for-Sookie Bill and the Sookie who cares about him and fights for him and views him rather realistically (e.g. her remark in the bar about his motives) to a Bill who is clearly aimed for Edward Cullen's fans; someone who whines and angsts constantly about being ~vampire~ and ~monster~ and controls and condescends to Sookie, and a Sookie who is just grateful to not be treated like a freak and very clearly in her very first relationship.

Book!Sookie, I think, had more cynicism and was a little more worldly than TV show Sookie, simply by exposure to the minds around her. She would not have been remotely amused by Bill's behavior. TV Sookie is illogically naive for having worked telepathically in a bar for years, and very prone to bending and being apologetic to her boyfriend.

I was also troubled, way back in the first season, by the depiction of the vampires. Charlaine Harris is very good at making the vampires inhuman, at portraying them as creatures with an entirely separate mindset, often monstrous and unpleasant. Deeply practical, insular--as one would be if one was underground for centuries, even millenia in some cases--and ruthless.

The TV show vampires are, as a whole, imbued with ridiculous, campy arrogance and self-absorption. This is not an attitude which would keep you alive hiding for centuries because you knew these people would kill you if they knew you existed. There is none of the brutal predator's perspective of the books; instead, the racial allegory seems to have been reversed, putting the vampires in the position of blind, snobbish pride. Their sense of superiority, rather than being centered around how much stronger and more dangerous they were--as it makes sense to present them--is simply nauseating propaganda about how much greater they are and what lower life forms humans are with no sense of underlying logic.

When it's a predator's view, it's alien. I can find it interesting as part of the narrative. This just feels...off to me. It's why I can't really like Pam anymore, after that ridiculous little speech by Jessica's grave. No matter how much I love her actress.

(Eric's just kind of a cocky bastard to everybody, so I don't tend to have that problem with him.)

Just like making Sookie ridiculously innocent and chirpy and naive--disregarding the logic of her life that directly contradicts that. It's like they thought 'oh, this would be so kewl and gritty to change' and ignored all the background that made the changes positively ludicrous.

In other news, I finished rereading the second book. I loved Bill in the first two books, damnit. Also? Callisto would rip Mary-Anne apart and dance laughing and singing in the gore. And yes, Allan Ball, I am rolling my eyes in contempt all over again about the agenda inherent in changing the ferocious, powerful women who survived their gods' demise and rule as chaotic powers into pathetic, deluded creatures that cause orgies and hope for a possibly-imaginary deity to come sex and kill them, plzthnx.

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There was some meme going around a while back about iron clad literary/romantical kinks, and I was thinking about it, and this is the one I came up with and having been musing about a bit for a while now.

( Read more... )

Okay! Character derailment, character derailment. Book!Sookie would never have allowed some male to act like and say that he owned her, never mind say it herself. Never. She's very clear on the subject, repeatedly, as any sane woman is. Are these writers honestly stupid enough to think that's romantic?

Why do so few writers--TV, movies, books, music, anything--have enough brains to comprehend the concept of a partnership? You know, what a healthy relationship is supposed to be? Then again, these are the same writers that tried to write a verbally abusive asshole who sexually harasses his employees as a protagonist. I'm actually not surprised. Nauseated, but not surprised.

I really wish the book and TV characters would meet. SouthernGentleman!Sam would kick sleazebag!Sam's ass to the curb.

How did I miss this the first time through? Oh right, I clicked away the minute Bill muscled up and started snarling at her for going somewhere without his permission.

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I'm more tired than angry right now, but I'm trying to run down a list of exactly what is so wrong with people insulting Sookie because she isn't eager to jump Eric Northman, amoral mastermind extraordinaire.

( exhibit a: she has absolutely no reason to be )

Normally I don't find mocking the accents on the show appealing--a) it's just plain rude and b) people who are from the South have said it sounds fairly accurate so it seems to be a case of this--but. THIS ICON. (For those not looking at the Dreamwidth post, it is here.) THE SEAGULLS. I loved those freaking seagulls, you guys. The rest of Finding Nemo made me yawn at best; every time it was watched I would pop back in for those seagulls.

Hee~

Okay, the point of this post: I created two fancommunities for Sookie Stackhouse (the character) because she gets no love. On Dreamwidth and on Livejournal.

This entry was originally posted at http://shiegra.dreamwidth.org/30198.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Not only do I have to deal with the show itself shunting Sookie to the background, I have to deal with the fandom. Making constant snide remarks--constant snide icons, constant snide videos, constant snide everything--and when they do say they like her inevitably they follow it up with criticism that amounts to 'I only like her because she's my self-insertion method. Why isn't she fucking this guy? Why isn't she fucking that guy? I want him, and I'm safely in the real world, so why isn't she disregarding her ethics, personal standards and safety to jump him? What a bitch.'

I know you don't have to desire girls to like them, guys. Quit being so wretched, if you please.

Which segues into: tonight I saw a comment about how they thought they should be inserted into the True Blood world so they could sex up Eric. My first thought was; "Eric? I think I should be inserted into the True Blood world to sex up Sookie!" (My first thought. Seriously.) WHUT. I mean, Alex is pretty smokin', threesomes totally A-OK in this bizarre fantasyland, but COME ON GUYS. Anna Paquin is sexy as hell, holy crap. And Sookie is the most adorable little badass that ever adorabled.


this is how I stay happy on the internets, guys. With the attention span of a manic squirrel, and an armour of sheer crazy.

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Okay, so last night the image of the video kept freezing and going in stills and the audio was hitching so I was mostly listening to it, and somehow I missed the most horrific thing I have yet heard on this TV show. I almost considered purchasing the second season if I could find it in the cheaper store, but. Allan Ball just dropkicked this thing off of my 'to buy' list for good.

( spoiler )

Considering the outfits this show has her wearing, it is ridiculously hard to find Sookie-cleavage icons.

Not that I've been, like, searching high and low. But I watched episode four and reread cleolinda's summary, and I couldn't help but go, 'damn, but this show sure is dressing her rather scantily, so where are the icons acknowledging it?' I feel on some level that I should protest, given the show creators' general misogyny and dubious content, but geez you guys. I've got to have some eyecandy to soothe the raw wounds Jason Stackhouse left in my retina and psyche.

ETA: And Sam Merlotte. I don't know what I deserve for enduring a naked Sam Merlotte, but it's big.

And yet, given how much abuse she gets for not a) having a vagina, b) being attractive and c) not mindlessly worshipping and falling at the feet of the shows' attractive men, I cannot quite bring myself to be surprised.

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I'm going to try to explain exactly what bothers me so much about True Blood--one serious matters, rather than the tawdry, terrible and constant sex and the abysmal writing--to try and put it down on, so to speak, paper. If you have issues with the points I raise--as in, valid discussion points--please do. I am not experienced at this kind of thing.

( season one spoilers )


( season two spoilers )

I reread some of book three of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, and my strongest thought on Bill is now; 'oh boy, I wish Sookie had gotten to slug you in the face. Or shoot you. Whichever gave her the most emotional catharsis.' I mean, he would've healed, but it would've been nice to read.

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Just to be a further downer, I would like to link you to this, which compares all the ways Meyer pretty blatantly ripped off Charlaine Harris. I knew she had, of course, but I hadn't bothered to compare it to this extent.

Meyer’s lead squee-inducing male character, Edward, is a telepathic vampire who hears people’s thoughts all the time & who’s driven nuts by them. Then he meets Bella, whose thoughts he can’t hear. Then he saves her life a few hundred times and they get together.

Harris’s lead female character, Sookie, is a telepathic waitress who hears people’s thoughts all the time & who’s driven nuts by them. ...Then Bill the vampire walks into the bar, and . . . miracle of miracles, she can’t hear him thinking. Then they save each other's lives, fight crime, and get together.

Quote is just the stuff I noticed. How much more there is is sort of hideous.

Hopefully my last Twilight post! Like, ever!

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