It's the time of month when Jenn is an EXTRA pretentious snob
Item Number One: I read what was quite possibly the worst young adult novel ever written yesterday in one fourty-five minute sitting. Not that this is a tragedy, mind you, as I was informed beforehand (by both Cat and Natasha) that it was capable of inducing deep depressions and making one lose their lust for literature for indeterminable lengths of time. What can I say? I'm morbidly curious from time to time.
Although it was supposed to be a book about a realisitic experience as a gay teenager, Rainbow Boys is better suited as anti-homosexual propaganda as it is so badly written, I'm sure it's caused many a reader to spontaneously develop an intense hatred for gay people, regardless of their sexual orientation.
Belive me- that's only a slight exaggeration. Aside from having cardboard cut-out characters, hackeyend attempts at "modern slang", improbable science and the lamest romantic subplot outside of Final Fantasy VIII it also had a bad habit of demonizing father figures and notably only focused on the gay MALE experience refusing to elaborate at all on the experiences of the teenage lesbian. Oh, and did I mention that most people could write better in third grade? The author's writing style reminded me of a five year old stumbling around in the dark trying to fit together Scrabble pieces while stabbing himself in the eye with adverbs and descriptive pronouns.
De-pantsed. Seriously, folks- what kind of a word is De-pantsed? (note: it was used in a SEXUAL context).
I have not been so thoroughly disgusted by a novel since I attempted to read The Davinci Code. Only I'm not sure which makes me angrier- The Davinci Code is possibly a better novel, but Rainbow Boys at least had a perverse trainwreck factor that forced me to follow through until it's thoroughly lame conclusion. I gave up halfway through The Davinci Code because it was just stupid. And not in the funny way.
Okay, okay. So yeah, Jenn, the book was terrible. But that's not the worst of it. Rainbow Boys in all it's vast, majestic sukitude has won no less than THREE awards and was hailed unanimously as the 'Youth Book of the Year- no, DECADE!' One reviewer even went so far as to say that it was one of the top ten books of 2003 which simply boggles my mind in a way that causes me intense pain.
The fact terrible books get glowing reviews and yet fantastic series like Scorpion Shards (which, by the way, deals with teenage homosexuality in a much more interesting and effective way than Rainbow Boys without even *trying*) appear to be univerally panned by any literary journal makes evident the collective intellectual deficiency of Western Society. I frown in the general direction of the academic community.
Item Number Two: On the upside, I finally did two things I've been meaning to do for a while- I read The Watchmen (a graphic novel by Alan Moore of the recent 'V for Vendetta' fame) and watched the entire Revolutionary Girl Utena TV series. Which is a whole lot of stuff to think about in three days. o__O Utena is one of those things I feel I need to watch again fairly soon and Watchmen is one of those things I need to buy and read again in five years.
I was almost surprised by what a fantastic series Utena actually was. XD I saw the movie years before seeing the series, and even after Cat introduced me to it I only had rudimentry knowledge of the first arc, nothing beyond. It was nice being sincerely surprised by some of the plot twists (well, character twists would be more accurate). But it also made me wonder where the "Great Experimental Psychological Philisophical" anime genre even went. I was just getting into anime when series like Serial Experiments Lain and Utena were gaining attention, meanwhile Evangelion was at the apex of it's popularity. These days, instead of drawing on the sincere emotions and thoughts of the writer/director, "Deep, Symbolic Anime" tends to focus too much on striving for that weird, abstract sort of splendour that made Utena so beautiful and Evangelion sohilarious creepy. Too much time spent trying to impress the audience with percieved intellectual imagrey and not enough time devoted to creating an honest and palatable universe. Yes, I'm looking at you RahXephon and Melody of Oblivion.
Item Number Three: So I was looking through the wikipedia entry on Watchman and found this gem of a quote referenced under the 'critism' section.
Before Moore came along, comic books were not generally in the habit of quoting Nietzsche, or scrambling their time schemes, or berating their heroes for their crypto-fascist politics, or their readers for reading them. It was Moore's slightly self-negating triumph to have allowed it to do so. But did the comic book have to "grow up"? The last time I looked, the only ones reading Ulysses and quoting Nietzsche were teenagers. No adult has time for aesthetic "difficulty" or "self-consciousness." Life is too short. Frankly, we'd much rather be watching The Incredibles.
Uh, no. Really no. No times a million and you can go jump off a bridge now, kthx. The stupidity in this comment is plainly self-evident, so I feel no need to elaborate on it but... gah. On some level I understand the point the reviewer is trying to make about young people being so obsessed with a kind of surface intellect which they adopt in order to win respect (I complained about it all the way through High School, afterall), but...
... nevermind. I have no words. -___-;;
EDIT: On second thought, can someone please explain the appeal of The DaVinici Code to me?
Although it was supposed to be a book about a realisitic experience as a gay teenager, Rainbow Boys is better suited as anti-homosexual propaganda as it is so badly written, I'm sure it's caused many a reader to spontaneously develop an intense hatred for gay people, regardless of their sexual orientation.
Belive me- that's only a slight exaggeration. Aside from having cardboard cut-out characters, hackeyend attempts at "modern slang", improbable science and the lamest romantic subplot outside of Final Fantasy VIII it also had a bad habit of demonizing father figures and notably only focused on the gay MALE experience refusing to elaborate at all on the experiences of the teenage lesbian. Oh, and did I mention that most people could write better in third grade? The author's writing style reminded me of a five year old stumbling around in the dark trying to fit together Scrabble pieces while stabbing himself in the eye with adverbs and descriptive pronouns.
De-pantsed. Seriously, folks- what kind of a word is De-pantsed? (note: it was used in a SEXUAL context).
I have not been so thoroughly disgusted by a novel since I attempted to read The Davinci Code. Only I'm not sure which makes me angrier- The Davinci Code is possibly a better novel, but Rainbow Boys at least had a perverse trainwreck factor that forced me to follow through until it's thoroughly lame conclusion. I gave up halfway through The Davinci Code because it was just stupid. And not in the funny way.
Okay, okay. So yeah, Jenn, the book was terrible. But that's not the worst of it. Rainbow Boys in all it's vast, majestic sukitude has won no less than THREE awards and was hailed unanimously as the 'Youth Book of the Year- no, DECADE!' One reviewer even went so far as to say that it was one of the top ten books of 2003 which simply boggles my mind in a way that causes me intense pain.
The fact terrible books get glowing reviews and yet fantastic series like Scorpion Shards (which, by the way, deals with teenage homosexuality in a much more interesting and effective way than Rainbow Boys without even *trying*) appear to be univerally panned by any literary journal makes evident the collective intellectual deficiency of Western Society. I frown in the general direction of the academic community.
Item Number Two: On the upside, I finally did two things I've been meaning to do for a while- I read The Watchmen (a graphic novel by Alan Moore of the recent 'V for Vendetta' fame) and watched the entire Revolutionary Girl Utena TV series. Which is a whole lot of stuff to think about in three days. o__O Utena is one of those things I feel I need to watch again fairly soon and Watchmen is one of those things I need to buy and read again in five years.
I was almost surprised by what a fantastic series Utena actually was. XD I saw the movie years before seeing the series, and even after Cat introduced me to it I only had rudimentry knowledge of the first arc, nothing beyond. It was nice being sincerely surprised by some of the plot twists (well, character twists would be more accurate). But it also made me wonder where the "Great Experimental Psychological Philisophical" anime genre even went. I was just getting into anime when series like Serial Experiments Lain and Utena were gaining attention, meanwhile Evangelion was at the apex of it's popularity. These days, instead of drawing on the sincere emotions and thoughts of the writer/director, "Deep, Symbolic Anime" tends to focus too much on striving for that weird, abstract sort of splendour that made Utena so beautiful and Evangelion so
Item Number Three: So I was looking through the wikipedia entry on Watchman and found this gem of a quote referenced under the 'critism' section.
Uh, no. Really no. No times a million and you can go jump off a bridge now, kthx. The stupidity in this comment is plainly self-evident, so I feel no need to elaborate on it but... gah. On some level I understand the point the reviewer is trying to make about young people being so obsessed with a kind of surface intellect which they adopt in order to win respect (I complained about it all the way through High School, afterall), but...
... nevermind. I have no words. -___-;;
EDIT: On second thought, can someone please explain the appeal of The DaVinici Code to me?