Literary Prostitutes

I have to echo what Alyssa said: Wow. Good postings. For some reason the email function wasn't working, so I didn't get my email notices and didn't check the site (and didn't see Laura's dig about my hair grrrr).

I started reading the Alanna series again a few days ago. I read them as a child and they've been on my list of recycled books for years (the ones I read at least once a year). I hadn't picked them up, however, in a while and so when I was reading them again, I felt very conscious of what I was reading, rather than reading to relive old memories, which is what I usually do. It's happened to me a lot lately (maybe college is finally sinking in?), and it's somewhat disheartening, because a lot of my old favorites have lost a little of their gleam in the process. I'm sorry to say that this happened with Alanna. I have to agree with most of Bronwen's criticisms--the writing really is atrocious at times, and the plot predictable. It read as a "children's" book, somewhat dumbed down and overexplained (her later books definitely show an improvement). Pierce's strength, I feel, is in her characterization of Alanna. She makes you root for her characters, and that makes you keep reading to see that they succeed, even though you're pretty sure they will. The gender issue Bronwen discussed is key because Pierce tries(and succeeds on some level) to break the divide between what is considered male and female literature, and consequently male and female roles.

Alanna is a great "sheroe," because she combines the best of boys' and girls' books--as my lit professor would say, it's a combination of boys' school stories/adventure tales and girls' fairy tales/romances. My sister used to say that fantasy/sci-fi books were really just romance novels dressed up in armor for boys. Pierce's books are appealing because her characters battle in wars AND get the prince to fall in love with them. As Laura said, Alanna's problem throughout is that she tries to put on a false performance as a boy according to the stereotypes she's grown up with, and she doesn't think she can be both feminine and knightly (?) and be accepted. I think that is why she includes the part about Alanna wanting to dress like a female, because she's suppressed one side of her entirely, from her clothes to her emotions, and she has to learn that it isn't healthy. If you continue reading the series, you'll see that Pierce handles the problem in interesting ways, especially in dealing with sexuality and marriage. As you follow her character through the series (and other Pierce books she appears in) you see that Alanna sort of breaks the boundaries of the female domestic sphere and the male war/politics sphere and helps to push the idea that a maiden knight (oh sounds ridiculous) is a "proper" role for a woman (this comes to fruition in the Kel series).

I just realized how boring this must have been for people who haven't read the books. Apologies!

To sort of make up for that, some questions:
What does squiffy REALLY mean?
What do you think of the translation from book to film? This comes to mind because Anne Hathaway, who starred in the murder that was Ella Enchanted, is starring in The Devil Wears Prada, another book to movie I really want to see for some frivolous reason, though I haven't read the book. And The Da Vinci Code, of course.

And an answer:Why do we love those "not real" books so much? Because they're fast, cheap, and easy. Literary prostitutes. I can't stay up all night reading if I actually have to think about what I'm reading; it's too exhausting. And the metaphor gets disturbing...

Last words:I'm blown away by Alyssa's reading list FOR THIS WEEK--I can't read ONE "real" book in a week, let alone three. But I'm going librarying soon, so maybe I can try.