Laurell V Agatha and Arthur

[naomi_jay]

(Most gracious thanks to dwgfor bringing this to my attention, you fox, you.) 

So LKH reckons hating your characters is TEH EBIL. And therefore Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle are also TEH EBIL for hating Poirot and Sherlock. And neither of them could possibly match LKH herself for compassion, empathy and downright, flat-does-it-for-me sparkly artistic heart for being so in love with Anita Blake that she wrote her twice and invented Merry Gentry. Two characters so transparently based on LKH herself, it's no wonder she's madly in love with them, as she assumes the world is and by proxy therefore in love with her. And also OMG how dare Conan Doyle write a book for money?! Couldn't the guy live off the adoration of his squeeling fangurls like Laurell does? God forbid he should make a living!

Here's the thing: I don't really care if Conan Doyle and Christie hated their characters. It clearly didn't affect their ability to write brilliant, successful books that have gone onto spawn numerous TV and film tie-ins, legions of devoted fans and copy-cats. LKH on the other hand, has let her love for herself Anita and Merry affect her ability to write brilliant books. The once sharp, ballsy Anita is now nothing more than a blow-up doll even Quagmire might hesitate to use, and Merry never really was anything more. Engaging supernatural mysteries have given way to turgid, mechanical sex scenes and endless wangsting about tru wuv, vampire politics and who said what about Anita and why they are evil and wrong for saying it. LKH reckons Agatha Christie was "hateful" for killing off Poirot? I think LKH killed off Anita round about book six and all we've had ever since is author wish-fullfillment in which Laurell uses Anita as her mouthpiece to shoot down anyone who disapproves of Anita and therefore Laurell herself.

I'm not saying it's wrong to love your characters. As readers and writers, we get invested in characters; that's why we read. I adore some of my characters, but even at my most medicated and fog-brained, I'm lucid enough to know they're not real. Laurell acts as if Anita lives around the corner and pops in for tea with her coterie of anime-esque fanbois lovers. She talks as if Merry goes clothes shopping with her on a regular basis. Guys. This is not healthy behaviour for a woman in her 40s. And personally, I'd take Conan Doyle and Christie's approach over Laurell's any day. Nobody ever accused them of being bat-shit crazy.

Comments

[stacia-kane.livejournal.com]

*applause*

I enjoyed those first few books. I was even eager for the sexing to begin and really glad when it did. But...somewhere along the line...the characters got dumber. The sex, never particularly well-written as it was, got worse and worse and worse. The plots went bye-bye (for me it was Narcissus in Chains--um, if she can complete the obstacle course it means she's a were now, so the poor wereguy "killed" her, and if she can't complete it they'll kill him anyway, but nobody even stops to think that if she can't complete it she's not a were and he therefore didn't actually "kill" her to begin with? Sheesh. I've read bad porn with less plot holes. Oh, sorry. AB is bad porn.)
And yeah...I'll be honest, I tend to fall a little in love with my heroes, and I usually like my heroines, but I don't see something in a store and think, "Oh, I should buy that for so-and-so" and then realize on my way to the register that that person isn't real and is in fact a character from one of my books. I seriously worry about the woman's mental health.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

I'm in complete agreement. NiC was a disaster and the series became unreadable (for me) about three chapters into Incubus Dreams. Such a disappointment after the early books.

[six-old-cars.livejournal.com]

Nobody ever accused them of being bat-shit crazy.

Umm... not actually strictly true. Towards the end of his life Conan-Doyle started to believe some seriously wierd things and was widely regarded as completely doolally. But that was after he'd done all his great writing.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Lol, well probably by then he was entitled to go crazy...

[tezmilleroz.livejournal.com]

Dude, you better make this a Friends-Only post - just to make sure it doesn't get into the wrong hands ;-)

Have a lovely day! :-)

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Ha ha! I spit in the face of danger!

[chaostheory.livejournal.com]

It's made me angry that she's hating on classic writers. Sure, compare yourself to your contemporaries, but not to people like that.

[ex-lark-asc.livejournal.com]

ICON JOY.

I have no idea who the characters are, but that's hilarious :)

[chaostheory.livejournal.com]

Oh how you should play Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney! Its one step away from being canon gay.

Angry lawyer courtroom sex, how I never imagined it would be so hot.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHAHAYOURICONOMFG.

[chaostheory.livejournal.com]

That was my reaction to it as well!

[ex-lark-asc.livejournal.com]

I've got to admit I'm as guilty as hell of loving my characters to bits - it doesn't help that the male lead in my NaNo novel is based on a character my other half created in a D&D game, and always makes me think of him - but, yeah, I acknowledge that you have to be willing as an author to abuse your characters a bit for the sake of the story, and I don't think I fail on that. The female lead is going to spend the middle part of the book stuck on her own with no-one to talk to except someone she hates (the male lead); he on the other hand loses his love interest, and shockingly enough doesn't get to pull the female lead instead. They just both get to Grow As People and learn to deal with each other instead.

I also don't think I'd ever want to write a series, though; I get bored too easily and I'd hate the whole universe after a while.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

*foxes you, for she is foxy*

I'm all for doing mean things to characters, hell...I thrive off it and I've had to stop myself from just dooming everyone in my stories to some kind of horrible, horribel fate that may be worse than death. It's just that being dead isn't necessarily permanent in the universe I created. Even Death gets a bit fuzzy on the details. But I've been working hard to give a couple of characters a slightly more pleasant fate than the others, but for the most part, I'm allergic to anything other than a good, violent future dystopia. With zombies. And Cthulhu.

But I'm pretty sure sharkbytes was onto something -- and you -- for mentioning that Hamilton's taking this far too personally as an attack on Anita is obviously an attack on herself. And what's worse is that for a reader, it's getting increasingly more difficult to come up with criticism that isn't some kind of underhanded swipe at the author. We know the difference between fiction and reality, but when the two are this convoluted, there's no way to soften the beating to the ego.

In short: she crazy.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Definitely. Anyone who puts their art out in the public forum has got to accept there will be criticism. Jackie Kessler is a fine example of how to handle criticism of her work, IMO. Laurell would have you believe anyone who doesn't like her work is an illiterate, sexually repressed misogynists who wishes LKH was dead.

[sanguinepen.livejournal.com]

I came to the AB books late, my friends were all enamored with them, but I hadn't read one. So in a short period I read all of them that led up to NiC except OB - because they all HATED what she did to Edward. I read NiC. It was a mess.

Back then my biggest complaint was the first person. I'd have much rather seen the stories from JC's POV (at least some of the time)... Then I read the ARCs of the first two Merry books. I liked MG better.

Then it all went to shit. I started some later books, by the time I got to page 100 with no plot I put them down. I refuse to read a book that is nothing but fanfic of your own characters.

I've met LKH at a couple of signings. At the NiC event she was still an author. For the next one she was a diva. I was done with her books by then, but I could really see the difference in her.

Only one of my friends still reads her books. I don't know why. Probably because she works in a bookstore, so can read them for free. But she never has anything nice to say about them.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

I really prefer the early MG books to the late AB ones, but even Merry has lost appeal for now. I think I just know too much about LKH's personal life from her blog to feel comfortable reading her books - they're so clearly wish fullfillment books.

I think LKH is amazingly talented and her first 10 books were amazing......

[dracschick.livejournal.com]

With this last book, I think she's 'back' (writers do tend to go up and down sometimes over time) and I look forward to the next in her series.

PS--I think there are two different philosophies about vampires and their lovers: one mate for life (what I write) vs. several mates (what she writes). Though we have differing ideas, I do enjoy reading her very much:)

Re: I think LKH is amazingly talented and her first 10 books were amazing......

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

I still love the first seven books and always will. And you can't deny that she really opened up the urban fantasy genre, but I have no interest in reading her personal opinions via her characters, which is what I think you get from her books nowadays.

And I MUCH prefer vampires mating for life than having several pseudo-polyamorous relationships!

[leatherzebra.livejournal.com]

*worships*

I admit I drag personal stuff into why I don't like LHK's book anymore. The slut thing isn't true poly, but some people think it's glamorous and have approached me, using the Slutty Sues as their patron deity, and have seem out right entitled to hop into be with me because they call themselves poly and that means they have the right to have sex with anyone they want. (I'm not poly, btw, but wasn't against it before I settled into a relationship. but I should repeat, that attitude isn't poly, and my problem is that a series I used to like is now being used as a reason why everyone is/should be in an open relationship.)

But besides that I was iffy at Obsidian Butterfly, dissatisfied at NiC and gave up when I started hearing about diva-ness. I still have friend and a sister who regularly buy LKH in hardcover and then complain about how much they disliked the books (but can never pin point why). I tell them to stop buying the books, but they apparently can't listen.

Lately the books are as other people pointed out, crappy angst and sex and a mere fan fiction reflection of what LKH CAN do. I have to admit, it's kept me from querying her agent, because IMHO no good agent, and no good editor would let this happen.

LKH needs to get off the cross, take a year or two off and stop surrounding herself with yes men, finding people who actually give a damn about her enough to tell her when she's being an idiot.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

I do wonder if burn-out is part of the problem. I think she had four books out last year, maybe five - that's gotta be draining for her. A long break from Merry and Anita would probably do her good ... IF she could take a break from the yes-men and ego-pamperers.

[leatherzebra.livejournal.com]

Now that I have read the blog in question I'd like to point out one glaring bit of logic. What makes LKH think she would get along with her characters? Stuck in a room with Anita and Merry she would be passed up and likely not paid a bit of attention in favor of the MarySues with the magical va-jayjays. Sitting around with those characters would make her miserable! They'd drive any woman to just pull out a gun and shoot the bitches.

Hehe. Maybe that's what she needs. A good dose of her own medicine where instead of getting to BE the main character she, like the rest of us, has to put up with them!

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

LOL, love that scenario...