(no subject)

[oyceter]

Rather annoyed at the reviews of Kinsale's Shadowheart on Amazon, particularly the therapist who was rather touchy about the "deviant behavior," which she didn't agree was "mild S&M." I dunno. From what I've seen of some S&M sites (and just read in fanfic), Shadowheart really does seem rather mild. But then, what do I know?

Ah well. Want LJ people to all read this book so I can read what they think, heh heh.

Also very annoyed because I submitted two resumes to Google to get automated responses that the positions I applied to apparently do not exist. Except they're on the website. I am very confused. Emailed the help people, hopefully something will be explained?

I'm just rather tired and bored -- I go to work and sit at the computer all day, come home, eat, and move things from the old apartment. Then diddle around on the computer and sleep. No time for other things if I want to get moved out. Urk.

And the Snape/Hermione fanfic thing is not working out. I'm so used to reading Jossverse fic solely through recs, of which there were no shortage, that having to wade through all the bad fic on my own is really, really frustrating. And not many of the reccers share this strange kink of mine =(. Doh. Need fic crack!

Comments

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

So, i got the book from the library because this entry piqued my interest. I really liked the book a lot and then i checked out the Amazon reviews because of what you'd mentioned and sheesh, not only was i really frustrated by people's inability to comprehend BDSM relations, but the fact that it was this huge factor for them. I mean, there are like 3 BDSM scenes in the entire 500 page book. Okay, so you're uncomfortable with the fact that he abducted and raped her and then she fell in love with him? Fine. But it's not like every other romance book out there is full of happy healthy relationships where there is no manipulation or anything, so let's not have a double-standard here, kthx.

I thought the BDSM made a lot of sense given the danger and power dynamics inherent both in their relationship and in Allegreto's entire world. I went into the book knowing there would be BDSM content, obviously. I expected something like the Beauty trilogy where Elena would get initiated into BDSM perhaps at first against her will but would then come to like it, but i expected her to be the sub. Having her being the top in the relationship was really interesting. And i thought it was done really interestingly. It begins when she's fighting off his rape, and we learn that he wants her to hurt him, and at first i thought of how a lot of subs are people who are very powerful and in control in their lives outside of their bedroom, and then we learn about his relationship with his father and how love and pain and power have always been so intertwined for him and that added an additional aspect to his relationship with Elena.

Honestly, it was all the fecking Catholicism that bothered me more than anything. I mean, it was done well, it was just one of those things where you think the characters are so wrong that it pains you to watch them.

Anyway, i read the therapist's Amazon review, and she's definitely had some patients with serious problems ("I have some regulars in my group who have come close to killing or being killed (nearly bleeding out in one case and suffocating in another)" Hi, the key words for BDSM are: safe, sane, consensual.) but it frustrates me that she can't seem to see the difference between that and healthy BDSM. And yes, though the BDSM between Allegreto and Elena also had so much darkness and power play and danger and everything, which might have made it seem more intense than those exact same actions would be in terms of say a modern white bread couple, i would agree with those who called it mild BDSM.

[oyceter]

It's funny because the BDSM scenes are a giant deal on the romance review sites as well, which is really quite frustrating, given all the other tropes that annoy the hell out of me (particularly the "I am a big manly guy and disregard the word no and you will fall for my forcefulness" one).

I'm glad you liked the book ^_^. One of the reasons I liked it so much was because Kinsale didn't do what I thought she would... I had read some comments on the book before, so I thought it would be a BDSM type relationship with Elena as the sub, like you. Plus, I can count on one hand the number of times a romance novel heroine is sexually aggressive. So on the meta level, I adored having the relationship really not conform to most romance novel plots, and I loved the fact that the sex advanced both the plot and the character development for both Allegretto and Elena.

I actually enjoyed the Catholicism in the book, mostly because I liked how the author actually acknowledged that religion was a pretty big factor at the time instead of conveniently ignoring it, like many romances set in the period do.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's definitely a certain integrity in acknowledging the power of Catholicism given the setting, and she made it work doing interesting things with how the characters related to Catholicism, but it's one of those things i would have been happy to have had left out, which i know is tied to the fact that i am so not Catholic.