That's ten times as much bickering as sex in this book so far, and that's only counting this section, not the bullying of Ronnie or the strange arguments with Auggie and Thea. Plus it's entirely centered on how Richard is unhappy with Anita's sex life and how terrible he is for that. It is not only poor writing; like “Shutdown”, it's also embarrassing. I'm beginning to think that the sex, contrary to popular opinion, IS what's keeping these books afloat. With the sex removed, it would become hideously apparent that these books are Shutdown, Expanded Edition: Volume I/II/III/IV/V...
I still think it's odd that LKH wrote this, but avoided writing foreplay or describing the one sex scene in this book so far with any clarity or making it longer than thrust-thrust-thrust-bang. She'll do anything for wordcount, but she won't do that. For a woman who claims to be so liberated, she's clearly incredibly prudish. I think the thrust-thrust-thrust-bang writing is her way to write about Teh Hawt Se>< without having to actually go into detail about the sensations, the emotions, or any physical quirks beyond Cousin It hair and Wonderdong "bodies".
It really feels like an exaggerated template of what she thinks is Teh Hawt Se>< so that she doesn't have to think too hard about it. And then everyone has long and distracted conversations during all this can't-help-ourselves sex.
...And here we run into one of the great dangers of using writing as an unedited memory dump for one's id: the readers will be able to see it all, and feel very, very uncomfortable.
Apparently only the shallowest, dullest, most ignorant, most inflexible people are ever turned into vampires. Actually, this explains so much. If they're all low-IQ psychopaths, that... actually does explain why they act like the worst imaginable prison population.
Anita is severely pissed off, though she doesn't say anything. Samuel asks why Anita is so angry. She tells him, “don't tell me how to feel, Samuel, you don't have that right.” Anita, he did not tell you how to feel. He asked why you are feeling the way you are. You stupid, stupid person. In all fairness, some people (...with slight verbal-processing issues) do take questions like that as invalidating their emotions, since... apparently their every motivation and quirk of mental reasoning should be immediately clear to everyone for miles around?
I'm not actually sure that's sarcasm. Said people often display strange boundary issues with distinguishing between themselves and other people. On the one hand, this can glitch and make them extremely anxious and obsessed with others' opinions because their self-images are apparently synonymous with how others perceive them. On the other hand, this can make them go bugfuck bonkers with trying to convert people to whatever True Path they're on today, because, basically, their point of view is so obviously right that any heretics are clearly disagreeing out of spite, selfishness, and possible psychopathy.
I do think it's honestly a mental disability, and not voluntary behavior. Unfortunately, Anita's inability to Ever Be Wrong has escalated it to such levels that she's essentially become a psychopath. And one with a world condoning and enabling her psychopathy, because obviously The World Must Agree With Her...
(A general note - said people can be perfectly nice, naive, and normal-behaving. LKH herself is probably benign, though massively stupid. I don't want to indicate in any way whatsoever that Anita is anywhere near typical for those with such processing.)
Hm. I think this is connected to the fact that Anita never has sex that is consensual, that LKH does not describe Anita's emotions in sex scenes, and that Anita seems to avoid men who want her but rapes men who don't instead. It sounds cheesy, but I think Anita is terrified of love. Not solely romantic love, but that's the only kind she seems to recognize. Additional creepy factor: she seems to treat men who want her as wanting her as a possession without a will of her own. And in Shutdown, this is obviously what her narration thinks Richard and Ellen want from each other. Ellen SUPPOSEDLY wants Richard without all the stuff that he ~needs~, and Richard obviously wants a good little wife he can play House with and who doesn't argue with ANYTHING else he chooses to do on the side. So it's evident that, in Anitaverse, it isn't just limited to Anita-based interactions.
And judging from Nicky? 'Mindless possession without will of its own' is exactly what her ideal man looks like. So she's playing some sort of perverse game of objectify-and-lobomotize-or-be-objectified-and-lobotomized.
I honestly don't know how these POVs reflect on that of the author herself. I don't want to know.
I'm often sad for Anita because she's such a pitiable example of a self-insert. Instead of men falling at her feet because she is awesome, they HAVE to fall at her feet; they are forced to by the ardeur, or because they sense an “animal” in her that matches theirs, or because no other woman wants them. Instead of men staying with her because they want to, they HAVE to stick around or they will die, or they're metaphysically bound to her by being her animal to call, or she's a therian queen to their king. It gets worse as the books go on, so that in her latest books, she has a mind-wiped sex slave who literally cannot do anything to displease her. Eh. You think that's pitiable? I think that's being too charitable. Anita doesn't WANT anyone to serve of their free will. She WANTS slaves. And she doesn't want to have slaves by her own choice - she wants to be compelled into causing others to be enslaved.
That's a horrible thing for any sane person, but for a sociopath who can't quite shut up the last shreds of her conscience? Evidently, that's just lovely.
Anyway, to make Richard stop looking at her like he loves her, Anita says, “what if it's not yours?” She tells us that she wants this to hurt Richard. Whhhyyyyyy why do you keep beating up on Richard. Is it because you love him? Naaaaah, because she loves him and he won't be her lobotomized possession. Once he gets a lobotomy 'therapy', she lets up on him a little.
“As if on cue,” Micah and Nathaniel pop up. Did LKH lampshade herself there? I don't think it's INTENTIONAL lampshading. I think it's a result of LKH's poor separation between fiction and reality, such that Anita sometimes reacts as though she's a sane human being thrown into a ludicrous psychopathic talkalot Mary-Sue mainstream porn film and LKH doesn't quite connect the dots about this ACTUALLY being an indication that it's a ludicrous psychopathic talkalot Mary-Sue mainstream porn film.
I mean, in Bullet, we get the line - "So I what, fuck everyone into their next power level like some pornographic computer game?"
Stop all the sporkings, Anita has just summed up all the AB plots from here 'til doomsday.
Nathaniel had once of the most careful looks I'd ever seen on his face. He looked blank, pleasant, but not sorry, not submissive. [WTF do “sorry” and “submissive” have to do with each other?] Always before when dealing with Richard, Nathaniel had given off subservient vibes. Now, suddenly, there was nothing subservient about him. He might still bottom for me, but his days of doing it for Richard were over” Well, you get it right there. Anita sees submissive as equal to subservient. I think she also conflates humility with submissiveness, which explains what's going on with the 'sorry' and 'submissive'.
She also, as Shutdown abundantly demonstrate, thinks "bottom" is just like "submissive", only with less lobotomization.
It would be like a heterosexual woman wanting to have sex with every man in the world and wanting sex at all times. *long face* Consider Anita's attitudes towards sexuality, then think about whether that's really such an absurd statement in Anitaverse...
Perhaps his relative opinions of Richard and Nathaniel are the same as mine; namely, Richard's kind of an ass but redeemable, while Nathaniel is a vile manipulative bully who looks like Cousin It. Alternatively, that Richard is irritating but rather cute and provides a convenient foe for Anita, while Nathaniel is a sleazy manipulator who might interfere with HIS sleazy manipulations... :P
Great sporking, but dear gad you should get a stiff drink after this. From all accounts, the book doesn't get any better after this. (You have two more chapters of this before Anita even gets around to peeing on the stick! :D *dodges rotten tomatoes*)
no subject
I'm beginning to think that the sex, contrary to popular opinion, IS what's keeping these books afloat. With the sex removed, it would become hideously apparent that these books are Shutdown, Expanded Edition: Volume I/II/III/IV/V...
For a woman who claims to be so liberated, she's clearly incredibly prudish. I think the thrust-thrust-thrust-bang writing is her way to write about Teh Hawt Se>< without having to actually go into detail about the sensations, the emotions, or any physical quirks beyond Cousin It hair and Wonderdong "bodies".
It really feels like an exaggerated template of what she thinks is Teh Hawt Se>< so that she doesn't have to think too hard about it. And then everyone has long and distracted conversations during all this can't-help-ourselves sex.
...And here we run into one of the great dangers of using writing as an unedited memory dump for one's id: the readers will be able to see it all, and feel very, very uncomfortable.
Actually, this explains so much. If they're all low-IQ psychopaths, that... actually does explain why they act like the worst imaginable prison population.
In all fairness, some people (...with slight verbal-processing issues) do take questions like that as invalidating their emotions, since... apparently their every motivation and quirk of mental reasoning should be immediately clear to everyone for miles around?
I'm not actually sure that's sarcasm. Said people often display strange boundary issues with distinguishing between themselves and other people. On the one hand, this can glitch and make them extremely anxious and obsessed with others' opinions because their self-images are apparently synonymous with how others perceive them. On the other hand, this can make them go bugfuck bonkers with trying to convert people to whatever True Path they're on today, because, basically, their point of view is so obviously right that any heretics are clearly disagreeing out of spite, selfishness, and possible psychopathy.
I do think it's honestly a mental disability, and not voluntary behavior. Unfortunately, Anita's inability to Ever Be Wrong has escalated it to such levels that she's essentially become a psychopath. And one with a world condoning and enabling her psychopathy, because obviously The World Must Agree With Her...
(A general note - said people can be perfectly nice, naive, and normal-behaving. LKH herself is probably benign, though massively stupid. I don't want to indicate in any way whatsoever that Anita is anywhere near typical for those with such processing.)
Additional creepy factor: she seems to treat men who want her as wanting her as a possession without a will of her own. And in Shutdown, this is obviously what her narration thinks Richard and Ellen want from each other. Ellen SUPPOSEDLY wants Richard without all the stuff that he ~needs~, and Richard obviously wants a good little wife he can play House with and who doesn't argue with ANYTHING else he chooses to do on the side. So it's evident that, in Anitaverse, it isn't just limited to Anita-based interactions.
And judging from Nicky? 'Mindless possession without will of its own' is exactly what her ideal man looks like. So she's playing some sort of perverse game of objectify-and-lobomotize-or-be-objectified-and-lobotomized.
I honestly don't know how these POVs reflect on that of the author herself. I don't want to know.
Eh. You think that's pitiable? I think that's being too charitable. Anita doesn't WANT anyone to serve of their free will. She WANTS slaves. And she doesn't want to have slaves by her own choice - she wants to be compelled into causing others to be enslaved.
That's a horrible thing for any sane person, but for a sociopath who can't quite shut up the last shreds of her conscience? Evidently, that's just lovely.
Naaaaah, because she loves him and he won't be her lobotomized possession. Once he gets
a lobotomy'therapy', she lets up on him a little.I don't think it's INTENTIONAL lampshading. I think it's a result of LKH's poor separation between fiction and reality, such that Anita sometimes reacts as though she's a sane human being thrown into a ludicrous psychopathic talkalot Mary-Sue mainstream porn film and LKH doesn't quite connect the dots about this ACTUALLY being an indication that it's a ludicrous psychopathic talkalot Mary-Sue mainstream porn film.
I mean, in Bullet, we get the line -
"So I what, fuck everyone into their next power level like some pornographic computer game?"
Stop all the sporkings, Anita has just summed up all the AB plots from here 'til doomsday.
Well, you get it right there. Anita sees submissive as equal to subservient. I think she also conflates humility with submissiveness, which explains what's going on with the 'sorry' and 'submissive'.
She also, as Shutdown abundantly demonstrate, thinks "bottom" is just like "submissive", only with less lobotomization.
*long face* Consider Anita's attitudes towards sexuality, then think about whether that's really such an absurd statement in Anitaverse...
Alternatively, that Richard is irritating but rather cute and provides a convenient foe for Anita, while Nathaniel is a sleazy manipulator who might interfere with HIS sleazy manipulations... :P
Great sporking, but dear gad you should get a stiff drink after this. From all accounts, the book doesn't get any better after this. (You have two more chapters of this before Anita even gets around to peeing on the stick! :D *dodges rotten tomatoes*)