Danse Macabre, Chapter Three
Jun. 26th, 2013 11:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lliiraCN: Anita Blake book, long descriptions of clothing, hypocrisy, harem
Chapter 3 starts at the "Circus of the Damned" (yes really), the strip club Jean-Claude owns where his party will be taking place. We learn, in depth, that Nathaniel helped Anita with her eyeshadow. We also learn Anita's carrying a gun and a knife, and wearing a black top and skirt. She's afraid someone is going to try something with her tonight because she's "the Executioner".
Micah and Nathaniel are both wearing tailored Italian suits (flash bastards), and I think they both look ridiculous. And again, we get more detailed descriptions that are highly necessary. Nathaniel is wearing a black suit, lavender shirt, and purple silk tie. He's braided his hair "so that it gave the illusion that his hair was short, until you saw the braid waving around his ankles" (20). That doesn't work. One can tell the difference between short hair and pulled-back hair. Also, for a braid to wave around Nathaniel's ankles, his hair must be longer than floor-length. It must slide along the floor behind him when it's not braided. Micah's wearing a grey suit with a black pinstripe, a green shirt with yellow undertones to match his eyes, and -- LKH doesn't tell us what color his tie is. What?! How can I go on without knowing the color and material of Micah's tie! Ugh, I'm totally pulled out of the story now.
We learn Jean-Claude wanted Anita to wear a "skimpier outfit", but settled on persuading her to wear 4-inch heels. Well that makes sense, just hobble your "Executioner" there. Also, this is the second instance of one of Anita's "sweeties" getting her to do something with her appearance she didn't want to do. Ick.
The werewolf Graham opens the door. Anita obviously has the hots for him, though she doesn't say so outright. She describes his hair as "very, very short on the bottom" -- guh. "Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be." - Mark Twain. This is the fifth long paragraph that's been almost pure description of people's looks. It is a challenge to keep reading. We learn about Graham's parents' looks, and what he inherited from them, and gods just make it STOP. Description of looks can reveal character, but this is totally static. These people may as well be paper dolls. And why should I care about Graham's parents?
There's a pissing contest about going through the door. I think it's here so that LKH can info dump more. First, it provides her the opportunity to reveal that Micah and Anita are king and queen of the wereleopards. That's what Micah pulls out when Graham won't move. Then Graham says that doesn't give them authority over him, because he's a werewolf. This is all over going through a door to a strip club. Gripping stuff.
Anita tells the audience that if you have one form of lycanthropy, you can't catch another, but she has "wolf, leopard, lion, and one mystery strain that the doctors couldn't identify" (22). And she's queen of the wereleopards AND she's queen of the werewolves AND she's the girlfriend of the most powerful vampire in her orbit. When I played World of Warcraft, I met a few people like Laurell K. Hamilton. I hated them.
Anita steps up and tells Graham he'll be in trouble if he doesn't move from the friggin' door. Not, "dude, we're invited and your boss is my boyfriend and he is gonna be pissed if he finds out about this," like a rational being, but by spitting out all her titles and the way she outranks him in. Another. Goddamned. Infodump. Then some kind of nonsense happens with her internal wolf, which she calls "Richard's beast" (23), but she resists shapechanging by clinging to her catpeople, especially Micah, and it is really difficult not to psychoanalyze LKH in this bit.
Graham submits to Anita's authority, sort of, and he does it by licking her lower lip because that's one way wolves in the wild show submission. This will not be the last time Laurell writes her werepeople as if they're animals in human bodies. This both squicks me out and makes me think LKH is lazy. A wereperson is not going to be just a wolf or whatever in a human body. They should be something different from either humans or wolves, something much more interesting than a clumsy splice. Werewolves may have dominance gestures, but in human form, they are not wolves, they do not have bodies adapted to do what wolves do. If they show submission, it should be in a way that makes sense for a human body.
Oh and Anita gets turned on by Graham licking her because he actually tried to kiss her or something and GUESS WHAT. "Graham had yet to see twenty-five" (26). Graham begs Anita to feed the ardeur with him, even without sex, and she won't. Why? Micah claims that Anita doesn't want Graham to get addicted, but Anita doesn't say anything, and I don't think that's it. She feeds on Nathaniel all the time -- he's her "pomme de sang" -- and she knows he's addicted to drugs, though in remission. There's no hint that Graham has an addictive personality. I think she doesn't want to give it to him because he wants it.
They finally start going into the club after two and a half pages of bickering. Graham wants to go first because he's the bodyguard. He's not carrying a gun because Richard, his pack leader, doesn't like them. Anita thinks this is stupid. I think I'm going to like Richard.
There's a dangerous female vampire named Meng Die whom Anita calls a "China doll" (28). She's ambitious and she used to fuck Nathaniel -- I think -- and now she's fucking another vampire named... Requiem. Or she was. According to Graham, Requiem dumped her for a chance to be Anita's pomme de sang, since Anita doesn't allow her men to have sex with other women. Because she's a flaming hypocrite. Why the men all go along with this when she's allowed to fuck anyone she wants, I do not understand. The only one who is submissive is Nathaniel, and Anita pretty much refuses to dominate him sexually except in not allowing him to have sex with anyone else.
Graham tells the Three Stooges that he had sex with Meng Die and the sex was great because she's a vampire, particularly a vampire of Belle Morte's bloodline, which JC also is. Hello Twilight! Vampires are so much more attractive and sexier than humans, we pathetic Muggles can never hope to compare to these authors' characters. Uh-huh. It's like a particularly stupid D&Desque game with stats for the kind of orgasm length and quality a PC can provide, since sex is all about the orgasms in Anita's world. And it's not a stat the PC can work on with levels; it's like first edition and you're just stuck with whatever you've got, barring magical intervention. I wonder if there are also magical items. Cockring +2? Kegel Balls of Tightening? It's all about the physical in the most shallow sense. No "it's not the size, it's what you do with it" here.
Anita says, "I didn't ask Requiem to sacrifice his libido for me."
"You never ask anyone to give up other people for you, but if they don't, you don't sleep with them," Graham said.
And that was a little closer to the truth than I wanted to hear. (30)
Close to the truth? That is the exact truth, unless Graham is mistaken and Anita does actually come out and demand all her men only sleep with her and no other women. She realizes that this isn't fair. Is she going to change? Hm. Forget fairness for a second, isn't she tired? There's this idea out there that women want to have sex for as long as humanly possible whenever we have sex, but er. Frankly, except in exceptional circumstances, after about an hour, I start counting ceiling tiles. I guess maybe each of her men only lasts about five minutes, but then how can she get into the rhythm?
I'll try to be fair to LKH here: I am monogamous, even in my imagination. Fucking lots of men regularly is a fantasy I really can't understand on an elemental level, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it. I think there is something wrong with not allowing those men to be free. And jeez, how does Anita find time? It's not like she goes for Nathaniel on Monday, Micah on Tuesday, Richard on Wednesday, etc. She has sex with all these men multiple times a week. She has got to be emotionally and physically exhausted. She doesn't need another harem member; she needs Calgon.
Chapter 3 starts at the "Circus of the Damned" (yes really), the strip club Jean-Claude owns where his party will be taking place. We learn, in depth, that Nathaniel helped Anita with her eyeshadow. We also learn Anita's carrying a gun and a knife, and wearing a black top and skirt. She's afraid someone is going to try something with her tonight because she's "the Executioner".
Micah and Nathaniel are both wearing tailored Italian suits (flash bastards), and I think they both look ridiculous. And again, we get more detailed descriptions that are highly necessary. Nathaniel is wearing a black suit, lavender shirt, and purple silk tie. He's braided his hair "so that it gave the illusion that his hair was short, until you saw the braid waving around his ankles" (20). That doesn't work. One can tell the difference between short hair and pulled-back hair. Also, for a braid to wave around Nathaniel's ankles, his hair must be longer than floor-length. It must slide along the floor behind him when it's not braided. Micah's wearing a grey suit with a black pinstripe, a green shirt with yellow undertones to match his eyes, and -- LKH doesn't tell us what color his tie is. What?! How can I go on without knowing the color and material of Micah's tie! Ugh, I'm totally pulled out of the story now.
We learn Jean-Claude wanted Anita to wear a "skimpier outfit", but settled on persuading her to wear 4-inch heels. Well that makes sense, just hobble your "Executioner" there. Also, this is the second instance of one of Anita's "sweeties" getting her to do something with her appearance she didn't want to do. Ick.
The werewolf Graham opens the door. Anita obviously has the hots for him, though she doesn't say so outright. She describes his hair as "very, very short on the bottom" -- guh. "Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be." - Mark Twain. This is the fifth long paragraph that's been almost pure description of people's looks. It is a challenge to keep reading. We learn about Graham's parents' looks, and what he inherited from them, and gods just make it STOP. Description of looks can reveal character, but this is totally static. These people may as well be paper dolls. And why should I care about Graham's parents?
There's a pissing contest about going through the door. I think it's here so that LKH can info dump more. First, it provides her the opportunity to reveal that Micah and Anita are king and queen of the wereleopards. That's what Micah pulls out when Graham won't move. Then Graham says that doesn't give them authority over him, because he's a werewolf. This is all over going through a door to a strip club. Gripping stuff.
Anita tells the audience that if you have one form of lycanthropy, you can't catch another, but she has "wolf, leopard, lion, and one mystery strain that the doctors couldn't identify" (22). And she's queen of the wereleopards AND she's queen of the werewolves AND she's the girlfriend of the most powerful vampire in her orbit. When I played World of Warcraft, I met a few people like Laurell K. Hamilton. I hated them.
Anita steps up and tells Graham he'll be in trouble if he doesn't move from the friggin' door. Not, "dude, we're invited and your boss is my boyfriend and he is gonna be pissed if he finds out about this," like a rational being, but by spitting out all her titles and the way she outranks him in. Another. Goddamned. Infodump. Then some kind of nonsense happens with her internal wolf, which she calls "Richard's beast" (23), but she resists shapechanging by clinging to her catpeople, especially Micah, and it is really difficult not to psychoanalyze LKH in this bit.
Graham submits to Anita's authority, sort of, and he does it by licking her lower lip because that's one way wolves in the wild show submission. This will not be the last time Laurell writes her werepeople as if they're animals in human bodies. This both squicks me out and makes me think LKH is lazy. A wereperson is not going to be just a wolf or whatever in a human body. They should be something different from either humans or wolves, something much more interesting than a clumsy splice. Werewolves may have dominance gestures, but in human form, they are not wolves, they do not have bodies adapted to do what wolves do. If they show submission, it should be in a way that makes sense for a human body.
Oh and Anita gets turned on by Graham licking her because he actually tried to kiss her or something and GUESS WHAT. "Graham had yet to see twenty-five" (26). Graham begs Anita to feed the ardeur with him, even without sex, and she won't. Why? Micah claims that Anita doesn't want Graham to get addicted, but Anita doesn't say anything, and I don't think that's it. She feeds on Nathaniel all the time -- he's her "pomme de sang" -- and she knows he's addicted to drugs, though in remission. There's no hint that Graham has an addictive personality. I think she doesn't want to give it to him because he wants it.
They finally start going into the club after two and a half pages of bickering. Graham wants to go first because he's the bodyguard. He's not carrying a gun because Richard, his pack leader, doesn't like them. Anita thinks this is stupid. I think I'm going to like Richard.
There's a dangerous female vampire named Meng Die whom Anita calls a "China doll" (28). She's ambitious and she used to fuck Nathaniel -- I think -- and now she's fucking another vampire named... Requiem. Or she was. According to Graham, Requiem dumped her for a chance to be Anita's pomme de sang, since Anita doesn't allow her men to have sex with other women. Because she's a flaming hypocrite. Why the men all go along with this when she's allowed to fuck anyone she wants, I do not understand. The only one who is submissive is Nathaniel, and Anita pretty much refuses to dominate him sexually except in not allowing him to have sex with anyone else.
Graham tells the Three Stooges that he had sex with Meng Die and the sex was great because she's a vampire, particularly a vampire of Belle Morte's bloodline, which JC also is. Hello Twilight! Vampires are so much more attractive and sexier than humans, we pathetic Muggles can never hope to compare to these authors' characters. Uh-huh. It's like a particularly stupid D&Desque game with stats for the kind of orgasm length and quality a PC can provide, since sex is all about the orgasms in Anita's world. And it's not a stat the PC can work on with levels; it's like first edition and you're just stuck with whatever you've got, barring magical intervention. I wonder if there are also magical items. Cockring +2? Kegel Balls of Tightening? It's all about the physical in the most shallow sense. No "it's not the size, it's what you do with it" here.
Anita says, "I didn't ask Requiem to sacrifice his libido for me."
"You never ask anyone to give up other people for you, but if they don't, you don't sleep with them," Graham said.
And that was a little closer to the truth than I wanted to hear. (30)
Close to the truth? That is the exact truth, unless Graham is mistaken and Anita does actually come out and demand all her men only sleep with her and no other women. She realizes that this isn't fair. Is she going to change? Hm. Forget fairness for a second, isn't she tired? There's this idea out there that women want to have sex for as long as humanly possible whenever we have sex, but er. Frankly, except in exceptional circumstances, after about an hour, I start counting ceiling tiles. I guess maybe each of her men only lasts about five minutes, but then how can she get into the rhythm?
I'll try to be fair to LKH here: I am monogamous, even in my imagination. Fucking lots of men regularly is a fantasy I really can't understand on an elemental level, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it. I think there is something wrong with not allowing those men to be free. And jeez, how does Anita find time? It's not like she goes for Nathaniel on Monday, Micah on Tuesday, Richard on Wednesday, etc. She has sex with all these men multiple times a week. She has got to be emotionally and physically exhausted. She doesn't need another harem member; she needs Calgon.
