The hook on the back cover
Wed, Apr. 14th, 2004 11:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterSo Laura Kinsale's Shadowheart is still lurking in my head right now and sinking its kinky barbed hooks into me. I feel like I should not still be in the "GUH" mode, except obviously, I am.
This, linked with thoughts on if it would hit another reader this hard if the entire control thing wasn't their kink, along with a newly revived passion for EAS non-fiction and sexual anthropology type non-fiction in general, has somehow combined and merged in my head into a "What makes me pick up a book?" type post (this is the post I was going to make before being distracted by white corn, which, if anyone is wondering, was quite good despite the un-prettiness).
Nowadays, since I have gone past my mad binge on sff (mid-high school) and am now situated in a place in which books are deliriously plentiful, I very rarely make impulse buys.
Don't laugh at me, I really don't, despite my utter lack of control in bookstores and libraries.
Instead, I have a giant list of Books to Read, as recommended by various people on LJ, real life, newspaper and magazine reviews, and general word of mouth. I think I have trained myself to do this because before, in Taiwan, I would get one chance a year to buy books, during summer vacations in America. Obviously, I could not lug entire bookstores back to Taiwan, although I really wanted to. My suitcase would fit about ten paperbacks, give or take, and my mom would yell at me if I bought too many (too heavy). So I had to pick really good books that would stand up to multiple rereads throughout the year.
That said, there are some things, if I see them on the back cover, will almost certainly guarantee an impulse buy. For no good reason, listed below:
Romance (obviously at the top of my thought processes right now):
- Prostitutes or courtesans. Doesn't matter if they're retired or still working. Also, male ones (gigolo? sounds weird). Half of them are awful and glamorize excessively (which I, of course, lap up with a spoon) and most of them have the hero morally object, but yeah. I think for me it's something about experience and the contrast to viriginal innocence. Eve was sexier after she ate the apple.
- Control in sex, which has just been pinpointed as a potential foundation kink (ala Eliade), but in general, only if the control is not completely imbalanced. Perhaps better put as shifts in control? I am more interested in shifts in the balance of control and the delicacy of that, although I am much more biased toward the woman in control thing. I have a heroine addict. I really need one of those icons...
- Unrequited childhood crushes being requited. Even better if the person with the crush has become world-weary and the crush-object is now in love with the previously doting but now unattainable person. I blame this one solely on many adolescent fantasies and a very, very long-lived crush. I also like having spurned people find true love (I've always felt bad for the third party).
- Older brother and sister type relationships, particularly when coupled with the childhood crush one. I think this is because despite liking being the older sister, I always wanted a big brother and had some sort of ideal of the protective big brother. Hrm, this one is turning out more kinky than I thought. Probably also influenced at a very early age by Flowers in the Attic.
- The heroine who has become disillusioned of love (and is of course overwhelmingly re-convinced), most likely because I harbored some romantic ideal of this in adolescence. This also ties into childhood crushes, along with the overriding one of being chased after. Although I like some of them, mostly I am rather put out by romances in which the women chase after the men, or fall in love with them first. If this is supposed to be an ultimate fantasy, as some critical essays pose, I don't want my heart (or the heroine's, hee, overidentification) exposed first!
- In general, anything in which the hero falls in love first.
- Vampires. Well, this used to be one. And then I read a few with vampires, and they were so unlike the vampires in my head (Anne Rice ones as a teenager, Whedon ones now) that it's now sadly become something to avoid. I may have to pick up Laurell K. Hamilton after all.
- Anything in which the central relationship is very dark and morally ambiguous, in which love is not equated with salvation. Also I have realized that I'm not in general against non-consensual sex scenes. I'm perfectly fine with them and rather like them if they are of this sort of dark flavor, in which the author walks the fine line between sexiness and moral repugnance. I think it's a hard line to stay on, and of course it depends on the reader -- too often in romances the author strays to the sexiness side and completely discounts the moral repugnance, and other times, the author makes it too black and white morally.
Sci-fi Fantasy
I don't have as many in this -- I think romances in general are more suscept to the bulletproof kink theory for me, and romances in general have a more obvious underlying trope or plot cliche. Not that sci-fi doesn't, but romance currently seems more tightly constricted as a genre.
That said...
- Fairy tales. Anything with fairy tales I will pick up, no matter how horrible it looks or turns out to be. This doesn't mean I won't throw it against a wall while reading, but it's a surefire guarantee to picking up the book. This goes in the romance section as well. I hunted down Kara Dalkey's Nightingale and Patricia C. Wrede's Snow White and Rose Red for several years, still must read all the other stuff on the Endicott Studio recs page. Legends and myths are like this, but not quite as strong. I will pick up things that aren't based on actual fairy tales if they are written fairy tale style.
- History and magic/technology, particularly if it is magic in the nineteenth century. I really need to read The Difference Engine. I'm not that big of a fan of cyberpunk or urban fantasy, but I am a complete sucker for anything magic taking place in the turn of the century, or futuristic technology in that era. I think it's the entire thing with turn of the century, changing times, industrialization and modernization. I've never seen one for Meiji Japan, although if there were one, I would buy it in a jiffy.
- Asian fantasy/scifi. I feel I should not have to explain this ;). Although on the other hand, Asian romance is a giant turnoff, much like the vampires. They just get it wrong too often.
Non-fiction
- Anything about modernization, globalization, post-colonialism, sexuality, gender, nationality (or rise of) and any combination thereof. I am particularly interested in the formation of the idea of the modern nation-state, in the change between pre-industrialization and industrialization, in globalization and the spread of cultures or cultural ideas through national boundaries, and the cultural changes that take place because of these changes. Bonus points go through the roof if this includes discussion of sexuality and/or gender and how that changes with westernization or modernization.
- Sex sociology or anthropology, or just plain history. Actually, I like looking at almost anything of cultural importance and of how ideas of it change through time. I am particularly in love with the idea that everything should be seen in its social and historical context and that there can be no grand sweeping universal statements. I like what's in the cracks of those statements.
I don't think I have a list of general fiction kinks, because I don't surf the general lit. area unless I'm hunting something down. It's a very large and intimidating section.
Now I'm curious... what are yours? Feel free to change the categories.. I was going to put in fanfic, but then I realized it would have to be by fandom, and by that time, this would be waaaaay too long.
ETA because I must have proofread before with my eyes closed or something.
This, linked with thoughts on if it would hit another reader this hard if the entire control thing wasn't their kink, along with a newly revived passion for EAS non-fiction and sexual anthropology type non-fiction in general, has somehow combined and merged in my head into a "What makes me pick up a book?" type post (this is the post I was going to make before being distracted by white corn, which, if anyone is wondering, was quite good despite the un-prettiness).
Nowadays, since I have gone past my mad binge on sff (mid-high school) and am now situated in a place in which books are deliriously plentiful, I very rarely make impulse buys.
Don't laugh at me, I really don't, despite my utter lack of control in bookstores and libraries.
Instead, I have a giant list of Books to Read, as recommended by various people on LJ, real life, newspaper and magazine reviews, and general word of mouth. I think I have trained myself to do this because before, in Taiwan, I would get one chance a year to buy books, during summer vacations in America. Obviously, I could not lug entire bookstores back to Taiwan, although I really wanted to. My suitcase would fit about ten paperbacks, give or take, and my mom would yell at me if I bought too many (too heavy). So I had to pick really good books that would stand up to multiple rereads throughout the year.
That said, there are some things, if I see them on the back cover, will almost certainly guarantee an impulse buy. For no good reason, listed below:
Romance (obviously at the top of my thought processes right now):
- Prostitutes or courtesans. Doesn't matter if they're retired or still working. Also, male ones (gigolo? sounds weird). Half of them are awful and glamorize excessively (which I, of course, lap up with a spoon) and most of them have the hero morally object, but yeah. I think for me it's something about experience and the contrast to viriginal innocence. Eve was sexier after she ate the apple.
- Control in sex, which has just been pinpointed as a potential foundation kink (ala Eliade), but in general, only if the control is not completely imbalanced. Perhaps better put as shifts in control? I am more interested in shifts in the balance of control and the delicacy of that, although I am much more biased toward the woman in control thing. I have a heroine addict. I really need one of those icons...
- Unrequited childhood crushes being requited. Even better if the person with the crush has become world-weary and the crush-object is now in love with the previously doting but now unattainable person. I blame this one solely on many adolescent fantasies and a very, very long-lived crush. I also like having spurned people find true love (I've always felt bad for the third party).
- Older brother and sister type relationships, particularly when coupled with the childhood crush one. I think this is because despite liking being the older sister, I always wanted a big brother and had some sort of ideal of the protective big brother. Hrm, this one is turning out more kinky than I thought. Probably also influenced at a very early age by Flowers in the Attic.
- The heroine who has become disillusioned of love (and is of course overwhelmingly re-convinced), most likely because I harbored some romantic ideal of this in adolescence. This also ties into childhood crushes, along with the overriding one of being chased after. Although I like some of them, mostly I am rather put out by romances in which the women chase after the men, or fall in love with them first. If this is supposed to be an ultimate fantasy, as some critical essays pose, I don't want my heart (or the heroine's, hee, overidentification) exposed first!
- In general, anything in which the hero falls in love first.
- Vampires. Well, this used to be one. And then I read a few with vampires, and they were so unlike the vampires in my head (Anne Rice ones as a teenager, Whedon ones now) that it's now sadly become something to avoid. I may have to pick up Laurell K. Hamilton after all.
- Anything in which the central relationship is very dark and morally ambiguous, in which love is not equated with salvation. Also I have realized that I'm not in general against non-consensual sex scenes. I'm perfectly fine with them and rather like them if they are of this sort of dark flavor, in which the author walks the fine line between sexiness and moral repugnance. I think it's a hard line to stay on, and of course it depends on the reader -- too often in romances the author strays to the sexiness side and completely discounts the moral repugnance, and other times, the author makes it too black and white morally.
Sci-fi Fantasy
I don't have as many in this -- I think romances in general are more suscept to the bulletproof kink theory for me, and romances in general have a more obvious underlying trope or plot cliche. Not that sci-fi doesn't, but romance currently seems more tightly constricted as a genre.
That said...
- Fairy tales. Anything with fairy tales I will pick up, no matter how horrible it looks or turns out to be. This doesn't mean I won't throw it against a wall while reading, but it's a surefire guarantee to picking up the book. This goes in the romance section as well. I hunted down Kara Dalkey's Nightingale and Patricia C. Wrede's Snow White and Rose Red for several years, still must read all the other stuff on the Endicott Studio recs page. Legends and myths are like this, but not quite as strong. I will pick up things that aren't based on actual fairy tales if they are written fairy tale style.
- History and magic/technology, particularly if it is magic in the nineteenth century. I really need to read The Difference Engine. I'm not that big of a fan of cyberpunk or urban fantasy, but I am a complete sucker for anything magic taking place in the turn of the century, or futuristic technology in that era. I think it's the entire thing with turn of the century, changing times, industrialization and modernization. I've never seen one for Meiji Japan, although if there were one, I would buy it in a jiffy.
- Asian fantasy/scifi. I feel I should not have to explain this ;). Although on the other hand, Asian romance is a giant turnoff, much like the vampires. They just get it wrong too often.
Non-fiction
- Anything about modernization, globalization, post-colonialism, sexuality, gender, nationality (or rise of) and any combination thereof. I am particularly interested in the formation of the idea of the modern nation-state, in the change between pre-industrialization and industrialization, in globalization and the spread of cultures or cultural ideas through national boundaries, and the cultural changes that take place because of these changes. Bonus points go through the roof if this includes discussion of sexuality and/or gender and how that changes with westernization or modernization.
- Sex sociology or anthropology, or just plain history. Actually, I like looking at almost anything of cultural importance and of how ideas of it change through time. I am particularly in love with the idea that everything should be seen in its social and historical context and that there can be no grand sweeping universal statements. I like what's in the cracks of those statements.
I don't think I have a list of general fiction kinks, because I don't surf the general lit. area unless I'm hunting something down. It's a very large and intimidating section.
Now I'm curious... what are yours? Feel free to change the categories.. I was going to put in fanfic, but then I realized it would have to be by fandom, and by that time, this would be waaaaay too long.
ETA because I must have proofread before with my eyes closed or something.
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