Genericalisms

35 notes

wtfbadromancecovers: Congrats, you landed three over-tanned confused guys. I really don’t know why you look so smug. Is it just me or are they the same guy in slightly different clothing?

wtfbadromancecovers:

Congrats, you landed three over-tanned confused guys. I really don’t know why you look so smug.

Is it just me or are they the same guy in slightly different clothing?

12,114 notes

wickedace: aeromachia:m-azing:lizdexia: Hey guys. So I want to talk to you about one of the greatest heroines ever written for young adult literature, and that is A Series of Unfortunate Events’ Violet Baudelaire. In any discussion of women in YA lit, there are basically three names that come up: Bella Swan (generally derided as weak and useless), Hermione Granger (whom everyone agrees is THE BESTEST!!!!), and Katniss Everdeen (jury’s still out on that one, but the consensus as far as I’ve seen is that feminist bloggers and Twilight haters alike super love her). Violet rarely comes up, which I think is a shame, because I would argue that she’s perhaps better written than all three of those other young women. Note that I’m not saying she’s a better woman. This isn’t one of those posts where someone tries to empirically prove that this character is TOTALLY BETTER than that character, because I find that sort of thing dull and counterproductive. I’m not trying to pit different ladies against each other, because I’m generally against that sort of thing (though I don’t think having a preference between two female characters or real-life women makes you sexist). This is more of an exploration on how young women are treated in books geared toward tweens, and how we could all perhaps take a lesson from Daniel Handler (a male writer, interestingly enough) in this arena. The first thing that strikes me when analyzing ASOUE from a feminist perspective is that Violet is, of course, a skilled inventor, a field in which you don’t see many fictional women. A different writer might have stuck to more “traditional” gender roles and cast Violet as the bookish wordsmith and Klaus as the science-minded inventor, but wouldn’t that have been boring, really? The boy tinkers around in his laboratory and invents things that save the day, and his sister occasionally correctly defines a word. Boring. But what’s even more interesting to me is that Violet, despite having tremendous skill in a traditionally “non-feminine” area, is never presented as The Exceptional Woman, which is perhaps my least favorite trope in fiction, one that has ruined countless characters for me (Veronica Mars, Ginny Weasley, River Song). Rather, each of the kids in the book has one particular skill that saves everyone else’s asses at least once, and even among the girls, they’re evenly split between the “feminine” (Sunny the cook, Isadora the poet) and the “masculine” (Violet the inventor, Fiona the mycologist). Furthermore, her looks are only commented on once or twice, and always by another character — never by herself or the narrator. This is significant. Young women in literature are almost always given a thorough physical description, whether it’s fawning or, more commonly, one of those “So-and-so was hardly beautiful — in fact, she was really rather plain, with boring brown eyes and long dark hair that fell into her face” deals that contemporary authors love. Even in Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, Katniss and Hermione’s appearances are mentioned quite a few times. But in ASOUE, none of the Baudelaire kids are really described in detail, aside from Klaus’s glasses (which are often a plot point) and Violet tying up her hair when she has to think. THIS IS HUGE. I don’t know if I’m making a mountain out of a molehill here, but honestly, it’s so refreshing to see a teenage girl character who isn’t defined in any way by her looks, whether beautiful or exceptionally “plain.” It simply doesn’t matter; she’s got 99 problems but a zit ain’t one. Similarly, while she and Klaus both get romantic subplots with tertiary characters, they never threaten to take over the actual plot. These kids are kind of busy trying to escape a crapton of people who want them dead, and there’s not a ton of time left over to moon over Quigley Quagmire (though I loved their little romance, don’t get me wrong!). Furthermore, LET’S TALK ABOUT THE MORAL AMBIGUITY OF THIS CHARACTER. There are quite a few moments in the books wherein Violet and Klaus discuss whether or not their actions — causing lots of deaths, burning down the carnival and the Hotel Denouement, et cetera — mean that they’re just as bad as the people from whom they’re running. I mean, there have probably been lots of essays written about how smart these books are (come on, it’s essentially a kids’ book series about ethical relativism!) but honestly, how often in the lit world, kids’ or adults’, do you see teenage female characters struggling with these kinds of huge moral issues? Not particularly often, to my knowledge. This obviously isn’t the most well-written little post and I’m probably going to revise it a bunch of times until it’s actually a smart piece of analysis and not just a FEELINGS GEYSER about a criminally underrated kids’ book series, but for now, I’m just going to post it and that’s that. The end, but not really. #accurate as fuck excellent character, excellent series I never got past the first few pages of ASOUE, but Violet is cool.

wickedace:

aeromachia:m-azing:lizdexia:

Hey guys. So I want to talk to you about one of the greatest heroines ever written for young adult literature, and that is A Series of Unfortunate Events’ Violet Baudelaire.

In any discussion of women in YA lit, there are basically three names that come up: Bella Swan (generally derided as weak and useless), Hermione Granger (whom everyone agrees is THE BESTEST!!!!), and Katniss Everdeen (jury’s still out on that one, but the consensus as far as I’ve seen is that feminist bloggers and Twilight haters alike super love her). Violet rarely comes up, which I think is a shame, because I would argue that she’s perhaps better written than all three of those other young women.

Note that I’m not saying she’s a better woman. This isn’t one of those posts where someone tries to empirically prove that this character is TOTALLY BETTER than that character, because I find that sort of thing dull and counterproductive. I’m not trying to pit different ladies against each other, because I’m generally against that sort of thing (though I don’t think having a preference between two female characters or real-life women makes you sexist). This is more of an exploration on how young women are treated in books geared toward tweens, and how we could all perhaps take a lesson from Daniel Handler (a male writer, interestingly enough) in this arena.

The first thing that strikes me when analyzing ASOUE from a feminist perspective is that Violet is, of course, a skilled inventor, a field in which you don’t see many fictional women. A different writer might have stuck to more “traditional” gender roles and cast Violet as the bookish wordsmith and Klaus as the science-minded inventor, but wouldn’t that have been boring, really? The boy tinkers around in his laboratory and invents things that save the day, and his sister occasionally correctly defines a word. Boring. But what’s even more interesting to me is that Violet, despite having tremendous skill in a traditionally “non-feminine” area, is never presented as The Exceptional Woman, which is perhaps my least favorite trope in fiction, one that has ruined countless characters for me (Veronica Mars, Ginny Weasley, River Song). Rather, each of the kids in the book has one particular skill that saves everyone else’s asses at least once, and even among the girls, they’re evenly split between the “feminine” (Sunny the cook, Isadora the poet) and the “masculine” (Violet the inventor, Fiona the mycologist).

Furthermore, her looks are only commented on once or twice, and always by another character — never by herself or the narrator. This is significant. Young women in literature are almost always given a thorough physical description, whether it’s fawning or, more commonly, one of those “So-and-so was hardly beautiful — in fact, she was really rather plain, with boring brown eyes and long dark hair that fell into her face” deals that contemporary authors love. Even in Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, Katniss and Hermione’s appearances are mentioned quite a few times. But in ASOUE, none of the Baudelaire kids are really described in detail, aside from Klaus’s glasses (which are often a plot point) and Violet tying up her hair when she has to think. THIS IS HUGE. I don’t know if I’m making a mountain out of a molehill here, but honestly, it’s so refreshing to see a teenage girl character who isn’t defined in any way by her looks, whether beautiful or exceptionally “plain.” It simply doesn’t matter; she’s got 99 problems but a zit ain’t one. Similarly, while she and Klaus both get romantic subplots with tertiary characters, they never threaten to take over the actual plot. These kids are kind of busy trying to escape a crapton of people who want them dead, and there’s not a ton of time left over to moon over Quigley Quagmire (though I loved their little romance, don’t get me wrong!).

Furthermore, LET’S TALK ABOUT THE MORAL AMBIGUITY OF THIS CHARACTER. There are quite a few moments in the books wherein Violet and Klaus discuss whether or not their actions — causing lots of deaths, burning down the carnival and the Hotel Denouement, et cetera — mean that they’re just as bad as the people from whom they’re running. I mean, there have probably been lots of essays written about how smart these books are (come on, it’s essentially a kids’ book series about ethical relativism!) but honestly, how often in the lit world, kids’ or adults’, do you see teenage female characters struggling with these kinds of huge moral issues? Not particularly often, to my knowledge.

This obviously isn’t the most well-written little post and I’m probably going to revise it a bunch of times until it’s actually a smart piece of analysis and not just a FEELINGS GEYSER about a criminally underrated kids’ book series, but for now, I’m just going to post it and that’s that.

The end, but not really.

#accurate as fuck

excellent character, excellent series

I never got past the first few pages of ASOUE, but Violet is cool.

(via suicide-in-the-trenches)

9,025 notes

consider the bank.

gyzym:

You know, a few months ago this dude friend of mine showed up to hang out with me all dejected. Over a couple of drinks he explained his long face — earlier that night, he’d been walking down the street behind this really cute girl, and when she looked back at him over her shoulder, he thought it was in interest and smiled at her. Now, this guy is tall and skinny, can most commonly be found in glasses and t-shirts scrawled across with math jokes, is kind to animals, considers himself a feminist. What he doesn’t consider himself is threatening, so he was surprised, confused, and even hurt by what happened next: the girl in front of him responding to his called greeting of, “Nice skirt,” by taking off down the darkened street in a dead run. 

“Yeah,” I said, “she probably thought you were going to rape her.” 

“But that’s not fair,” he said. “I’m a good person; I’d never rape anyone! How could she think that? She doesn’t even know me.” 

Out here in the wilds of the internet, I often find myself making arguments about shit like feminism and rape culture unilaterally. For one thing, there’s so much (like, so much) out there arguing unilaterally against this shit that I feel it’s necessary; for another thing, ‘round these parts there’s a lot of people jumping to hostility when it’s painfully clear they don’t have a handle on all the facts. But I’m more lenient with the people in my real life, especially dudes like the one mentioned above. I’m willing to extend to them a patience that I wouldn’t with strangers on the internet, because they matter to me, and it matters to me that they understand. So when my friend sat there that night, whining over his beer and responding to my attempted explanations with, “But I’d love it if a girl smiled at me on the street, or even catcalled at me! Fuck, even if a dude did it, I’d be flattered,” I decided to spend some time thinking about how to clear things up for him. It took awhile, but I finally came up with a metaphor to get the job done:

Consider the bank. 

Read More

528 notes

livesandliesofwizards: The beautiful witch was mad for Muggle romance novels, so she very happily followed the vampire to his lair. This was a dark and crumbling castle high on an isolated hill charmed against Apparition, a perfectly-laid trap decorated in the most morose manner possible; but so helpfully laid out, she thought, with romantic candelabra for mood lighting and also many convenient velvet-covered antique beds. “What,” she began, in what she hoped was a breathy and titillating and feminine voice, “Are you planning to do to me, you fiend?” “Tell me,” said the vampire, pinning her menacingly on the bed, baring his fangs and his chest, with the dim light of the lamps setting his alabaster skin to best effect, “What do you think of paragraph twelve of the Guidelines for the Treatment of Non-Wizard Part-Humans?” “…what?” said the witch. “Because I find that Ministry regulations are often promulgated by those with little interest in cultural competence, and it’s a real problem,” said the vampire. “Never mind how preconceptions color the terms on which our people deal—” “Wait a minute—” the witch said. “—and canny undersecretaries use media outlets like the Prophet to make the situation worse,” said the vampire. “Oh, not again. Kill me now,” muttered the witch. But the vampire hardly thought that was the way to achieve interspecies cooperation, and privately felt that he could never bind himself for eternity to someone with no interest in current affairs. When he finally met the right girl, the girl he’d spend millennia with, the girl he’d transform into a fiend, into one of the living dead — she’d care about failures in public policy. She’d concern herself with injustices wrought by the MLE. She’d campaign to fix the flaws inherent in the structure of the Wizengamot. And she was out there, he was sure of it. “Every time,” said the witch. 

livesandliesofwizards:

The beautiful witch was mad for Muggle romance novels, so she very happily followed the vampire to his lair. This was a dark and crumbling castle high on an isolated hill charmed against Apparition, a perfectly-laid trap decorated in the most morose manner possible; but so helpfully laid out, she thought, with romantic candelabra for mood lighting and also many convenient velvet-covered antique beds.

“What,” she began, in what she hoped was a breathy and titillating and feminine voice, “Are you planning to do to me, you fiend?”

“Tell me,” said the vampire, pinning her menacingly on the bed, baring his fangs and his chest, with the dim light of the lamps setting his alabaster skin to best effect, “What do you think of paragraph twelve of the Guidelines for the Treatment of Non-Wizard Part-Humans?”

“…what?” said the witch.

“Because I find that Ministry regulations are often promulgated by those with little interest in cultural competence, and it’s a real problem,” said the vampire. “Never mind how preconceptions color the terms on which our people deal—”

“Wait a minute—” the witch said.

“—and canny undersecretaries use media outlets like the Prophet to make the situation worse,” said the vampire.

“Oh, not again. Kill me now,” muttered the witch.

But the vampire hardly thought that was the way to achieve interspecies cooperation, and privately felt that he could never bind himself for eternity to someone with no interest in current affairs. When he finally met the right girl, the girl he’d spend millennia with, the girl he’d transform into a fiend, into one of the living dead — she’d care about failures in public policy. She’d concern herself with injustices wrought by the MLE. She’d campaign to fix the flaws inherent in the structure of the Wizengamot. And she was out there, he was sure of it.

“Every time,” said the witch. 

(via mardukthalia)

121,482 notes

earl-grey-girl: HEY LOOK A GIVEAWAY So yeah, I’ve seen a lot of people who don’t have 3DSes that really want one after E3, so here’s another chance to get one! If you win, you’ll get a brand new 3DS in whatever color you want, plus a copy of Animal Crossing: New Leaf~ (or whatever game you’d like if you’re not a fan) Reblog as many times as you’d like  Likes count! And you don’t have to follow unless you want to  No giveaway blogs please Shipping will be covered, you don’t have to worry about that Ends June 17th!

earl-grey-girl:

HEY LOOK A GIVEAWAY

So yeah, I’ve seen a lot of people who don’t have 3DSes that really want one after E3, so here’s another chance to get one!

If you win, you’ll get a brand new 3DS in whatever color you want, plus a copy of Animal Crossing: New Leaf~ (or whatever game you’d like if you’re not a fan)

  • Reblog as many times as you’d like 
  • Likes count!
  • And you don’t have to follow unless you want to 
  • No giveaway blogs please
  • Shipping will be covered, you don’t have to worry about that
  • Ends June 17th!

(via the-butt-prince-ike)