dotsandlines (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dotsandlines) wrote2012-10-29 07:58 pm
dotsandlines) wrote2012-10-29 07:58 pm
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Sigh...this book.
I finally hit the "Oh PLEASE, you have GOT to be kidding me" point, at about 75%.
At about the 75% mark, Pirate Cinema devolves into the last episode of Evangelion, minus the angst that precedes it. The narrator's girlfriend, friends, sister, parents, girlfriend's parents, friendly neighborhood anarchist, local governmental representative, and video-editing subject / movie idol all line up to give speeches, one after another, about how awesome he is. And that list is not hyperbole. It's literal, except for the fact that the movie idol is long dead and passes along his blessing through his descendants. I fully expected God Himself to descend from on high and proclaim MY CHILD, THOU ART MOST AWESOME. GO FORTH AND EDIT. I REALLY LOVE YOUR STUFF, YOU KNOW. BIG FAN.
It's the point at which the narrator would be dragged out of the depths of despair by this rallying of his support network, except that we already passed that point a long time ago, after he made up with his family. Before this Let's Hear it for Shinji moment, he had a kind-of-moderate moment of doubt. The reaction is overwhelming as the universe unites behind him in an enormous groundswell of support, and the only critics are cartoon-villain corporate fat cats and his girlfriend's unfortunately straw-manned biological father, who is a policeman. (And one stooge, whom the book takes great pains to tell us is dressed like a tooooootal dork, OMG.)
The story is shot in the foot by its own fluffy-bunniness. It seems like the author loves the narrator and his cause so much that, in wrapping him in cotton wool and showering him with all the praise of the universe, he loses the thread of the story itself.
I'm not asking for gunfights here, but I get irritated when the only people who disagree with the protagonist are cardboard cutouts that kick puppies and eat evil for breakfast. This is a problem in a lot of books, and I rant about it a lot. But this book takes that to 11 by making sure that nobody is even neutral toward the protag. They are ENORMOUS FANS or Snidely Whiplashes. There's nothing else in the universe. That's just not reasonable, and as drama, I don't think it adds much tension either. You know right away who's on your side and who can be written off as a jerk before they even give their speech on copyright, what with all the bad fashion and puppy-kicking.
And mind you, I pretty much agree with the protagonist. But "We're right because obviously the people who are wrong are DUMB" is not much of an argument.
So here's my plea to bookdom: Someone who is a reasonable human being needs to disagree with your protagonist, for reasons that hold up to scrutiny. Otherwise you don't have an argument, and you don't have a three-dimensional fictional world. You have a paper doll set for your Gary Stu.
And yes, I invoke the Gary Stu even though the narrator has flaws, has doubts, and makes some bad decisions. The pattern of "all decent people throw themselves at this character's feet to worship her/him" is Sue/Stu all over.
breathe, breathe!
I still enjoyed this book in broad strokes, and I still hoped that all would turn out well for the narrator. (Though it was obvious all along that it would, the way the author had been paving his road with gold.) But I am exasperated. You are a grown-ass adult, a world-famous writer and a multiply published author, for heaven's sake. This is elementary level stuff that you must know about. I mean, really.
I'd write my own book, but I am not in the community. I'm available for ghost-writing! ;) (Besides, every documentary I've ever seen about obsessive hobbies - Scrabble tournaments, Donkey Kong, etc. - reminds me of the AMV community. I had to quit watching the Scrabble doc because of it, actually. Anyway, I think at some level, fandom is fandom.)
...so it still made me want to edit something. Argh...
At about the 75% mark, Pirate Cinema devolves into the last episode of Evangelion, minus the angst that precedes it. The narrator's girlfriend, friends, sister, parents, girlfriend's parents, friendly neighborhood anarchist, local governmental representative, and video-editing subject / movie idol all line up to give speeches, one after another, about how awesome he is. And that list is not hyperbole. It's literal, except for the fact that the movie idol is long dead and passes along his blessing through his descendants. I fully expected God Himself to descend from on high and proclaim MY CHILD, THOU ART MOST AWESOME. GO FORTH AND EDIT. I REALLY LOVE YOUR STUFF, YOU KNOW. BIG FAN.
It's the point at which the narrator would be dragged out of the depths of despair by this rallying of his support network, except that we already passed that point a long time ago, after he made up with his family. Before this Let's Hear it for Shinji moment, he had a kind-of-moderate moment of doubt. The reaction is overwhelming as the universe unites behind him in an enormous groundswell of support, and the only critics are cartoon-villain corporate fat cats and his girlfriend's unfortunately straw-manned biological father, who is a policeman. (And one stooge, whom the book takes great pains to tell us is dressed like a tooooootal dork, OMG.)
The story is shot in the foot by its own fluffy-bunniness. It seems like the author loves the narrator and his cause so much that, in wrapping him in cotton wool and showering him with all the praise of the universe, he loses the thread of the story itself.
I'm not asking for gunfights here, but I get irritated when the only people who disagree with the protagonist are cardboard cutouts that kick puppies and eat evil for breakfast. This is a problem in a lot of books, and I rant about it a lot. But this book takes that to 11 by making sure that nobody is even neutral toward the protag. They are ENORMOUS FANS or Snidely Whiplashes. There's nothing else in the universe. That's just not reasonable, and as drama, I don't think it adds much tension either. You know right away who's on your side and who can be written off as a jerk before they even give their speech on copyright, what with all the bad fashion and puppy-kicking.
And mind you, I pretty much agree with the protagonist. But "We're right because obviously the people who are wrong are DUMB" is not much of an argument.
So here's my plea to bookdom: Someone who is a reasonable human being needs to disagree with your protagonist, for reasons that hold up to scrutiny. Otherwise you don't have an argument, and you don't have a three-dimensional fictional world. You have a paper doll set for your Gary Stu.
And yes, I invoke the Gary Stu even though the narrator has flaws, has doubts, and makes some bad decisions. The pattern of "all decent people throw themselves at this character's feet to worship her/him" is Sue/Stu all over.
breathe, breathe!
I still enjoyed this book in broad strokes, and I still hoped that all would turn out well for the narrator. (Though it was obvious all along that it would, the way the author had been paving his road with gold.) But I am exasperated. You are a grown-ass adult, a world-famous writer and a multiply published author, for heaven's sake. This is elementary level stuff that you must know about. I mean, really.
I'd write my own book, but I am not in the community. I'm available for ghost-writing! ;) (Besides, every documentary I've ever seen about obsessive hobbies - Scrabble tournaments, Donkey Kong, etc. - reminds me of the AMV community. I had to quit watching the Scrabble doc because of it, actually. Anyway, I think at some level, fandom is fandom.)
...so it still made me want to edit something. Argh...