bironic

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I want to am going to make a vidlet! It is from Powder, a movie I've been afraid to admit in fandom-public to liking. Just need to find a better song.

While researching music, came up with a fun idea for a multisource vid. Yay for being enthused about a vid idea. Doing research and gathering clips will take some time, though.

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My college/Star Trek friend S. is leaving town on two weeks' notice. For good reasons, but still sad to lose him.

We hung out last night and watched the DS9 ep "The Quickening"; it seemed (in)appropriate, given current events. Now, this is the same friend who, during "Past Tense," spun a tale with me about how Sisko was pimping out Bashir in exchange for clothes and rations, and who is of course fully on board with Garak/Bashir. Last night he decided someone should write a slash story where Sloan continues to creep on Bashir by ( cut for inappropriateness involving stuffed animals ).

On Friday, before S. does his final packing, we'll get to see Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun, Brunt, Re-Animator, etc.) in a one-man show about Edgar Allan Poe. It got good reviews, so I'm looking forward to that.

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Have you ever encountered the modern dance company Pilobolus? Saw them perform last night and they were spectacular.

( details, with bonus male stripper bondage )

Such a fun evening.

First post about the book
Second post about the book

Through page 514/the "end"

I was wrong before about Ana making a choice. The tennis match—or, more appropriately, the ping pong match—continues for 200+ pages in which I still can't pin down Christian, figure out what Ana wants or guess how successful their attempt at a BDSM relationship will be. The second is more forgivable because Ana is also struggling to figure out what she wants, but seriously, waffle for a couple of chapters instead of more than half the book. Then we could have had an actual conclusion after 500 pages instead of cliffhanging things over to the sequel. Or we could even have closed with a triumphant/scary/exhilarating moment for Ana in which she decides to take the plunge, and then all the resultant BDSM festivities take place in book two, along with whatever fixing she thinks she needs to do to make Christian "normal" and un-manpainy.

Instead, we get ( spoiler for the end ). Sigh.

Right, so BTW Christian Grey has manpain. This is a man in need. His fear is naked and obvious, but he's lost . . . somewhere in his darkness. His eyes are wide and bleak and tortured. I can soothe him, join him briefly in the darkness and bring him into the light. It seems his predilections for sadism and control stem from an emotionally and physically abusive childhood. Fine, that's fine, of course abuse can lead to fucked-up-edness in adulthood, but for an erotica novel that's theoretically introducing a lot of people to BDSM arrangements it's unfortunate that the book seems to be arguing that liking kink is a cause-traceable pathology that needs to be cured.

( It's also unfortunate that Ana doesn't understand the difference between hesitance, preference and having a trigger. )

Oh, and on page 413, Ana finally Googles Christian. Starting with Google Images.

( Two LOLs )

All right, but criticism aside for a sec, ( sometimes Ana has a clear opinion and Christian says something smart about d/s dynamics. )

( However, it's impossible to judge whether this is really how Christian will treat Ana when the book can't make up its mind about his stalker-controller tendencies or Ana's responses to same. )

( As for the sex... )

Summary Thoughts

This book was not good in the following areas: prose; pacing; coherent characterization; relationship building; conflation of day-to-day controlling behavior with a penchant for sexual dominance; strong insinuation that liking kinky sex means you are abnormal and broken; inner goddess writing tic; overblown sex scenes; OH and ETA the random racism, like, "Oh, there is an African-American young woman over there at my potential internship reception desk and she seems like someone I could be friendly with" -- not "friends with" -- "let me describe her hair." To quote Bella and Ana, "ugh." /ETA I think that it did a fair job of depicting the nature of kink negotiation and some of the appeal of BDSM play. At least, it didn't do nearly as terrible a job as I was braced for. And while Ana and Christian were giving me whiplash as they tried to get something off the ground, the book succeeded in making me think hard about the nature of dom/sub lifestyle relationships (this reader is more familiar with dom/sub scenes), at what point enough trust has been established between partners to go further safely, and whether I personally would ever feel comfortable giving blanket consent. Even if those might not have been challenges issued by the author but rather consequences of the aforementioned inconsistency.


TBD whether the second book merits a complete read...

Thanks much to those of you who've been following along these last few days and who have not made fun of me for giving the book a shot. Now to respond to comments!

ETA: oh holy GOD I am not going to make it through the second book. Page 1 squicked me the hell out and by page 15 I've already snorted out loud, shut my eyes in pain, and boggled at the density of repeated phrases from the first book.

ETA 2: Notes on the sequel.