a book on a Wednesday
Aug. 30th, 2017 05:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaznettiI am currently reading The Power, by Naomi Alderman, which is falls into the "science fiction (or other genre) elements but shortlisted for literary prizes" category, but which I am also still 85% convinced began life as the author's post-Chosen Buffy fanfiction. Not that that's a bad thing in itself! The conceit is that all over the world, women start developing the power to electrocute people with a touch -- starting with teenage girls but eventually spreading to women of all ages. Over time (but not much time: a few years) this results in changes in society; the book starts very well but I'm now about halfway through and it's starting to become a little heavy handed about power and violence and sexualisation, and all a little too quickly for my taste. Suddenly, women have physical power and men are sex objects! I mean, I spend enough time on tumblr to know that men are sexy, but this still felt a little rushed to me. Actually, it is possible that having spent a lot of time reading pornography generated by women is what makes the particular nature of the sexualisation feel off to me.
The is not unenjoyable, although the larger framing device which makes this a story within a story actually drives me crazy, and I am starting to wonder about the worldbuilding BECAUSE HISTORY DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY GOD DAMN IT!!!! Sorry. Sometimes I get a little crazy about this sort of thing; I had to stop rading the Temeraire books because I started to wonder about the development of sedentarty societies in the post-Holocene transition and it was starting to keep me up at night.
What is particularly good here, I think, and isnt always in books of this kind, is the character building -- I am interested in pretty much all the major characters (although some of the minor ones are really one-note caricatures), especially Allie, and especially the distinction between "Allie" and "Mother Eve." (I am holding judgement on the religious elements of the storyline until I get to the end of it.)
Has anyone else read this? I'm still not quite sure what I think of it.
The is not unenjoyable, although the larger framing device which makes this a story within a story actually drives me crazy, and I am starting to wonder about the worldbuilding BECAUSE HISTORY DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY GOD DAMN IT!!!! Sorry. Sometimes I get a little crazy about this sort of thing; I had to stop rading the Temeraire books because I started to wonder about the development of sedentarty societies in the post-Holocene transition and it was starting to keep me up at night.
What is particularly good here, I think, and isnt always in books of this kind, is the character building -- I am interested in pretty much all the major characters (although some of the minor ones are really one-note caricatures), especially Allie, and especially the distinction between "Allie" and "Mother Eve." (I am holding judgement on the religious elements of the storyline until I get to the end of it.)
Has anyone else read this? I'm still not quite sure what I think of it.
