Don't trash this book! I've read this trilogy four times!

[amanuensis1]

I need to make a Public Service Announcement, because a lot of you have seen this post. Ron Miller's Bronwyn trilogy (Palaces and Prisons, Silk and Steel, and Hearts and Armor), is an effin' awesome set of books. Ron Miller writes clever plot, rich prose with a good deal of self-mocking tongue-in-cheek, and there are two sex scenes in the middle book that he deliberately writes in an over-the-top, overly purple, substance-altered haze of text. If you take these scenes out of context, they have the potential to sound ridiculous. I'm begging you, if you read these and judged, have the courtesy to consider that they make much more sense in context, when you see what a skilled author he is, and that he's doing this deliberately.

/psa

Comments

[minavox.livejournal.com]

Don't want to say anything about the text in question - just that I admire you for admitting you like the author's work despite of 8 pages of mocking comments saying the exact opposite. That's true courage!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

They're only looking at those two pages and they're completely out of context--I don't blame them one bit for vilifying the author based on that! But some of those people I know and respect and they have good taste, and the idea of them languishing under the misconception HURTS.

[abusing-sarcasm.livejournal.com]

You know, I laughed at that for about five solid minutes and not in a mocking way, either! I figured the author was either a genius or insane. :p

I'm SO glad to see that it's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, because I imagine that I would enjoy the series quite a bit! I'm putting it on my to-read list!

Thanks!

*hugs*

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

It really is meant to be tongue-in-cheek--I'm glad you felt that "genius or insane" vibe!

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

I'd never heard of these books until your post, but nothing gets on my nerves more than lifting stuff out of context like that--way to willfully fail to get it.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I definitely understand why it sounds insane out of context! But, omigod, he's such a good author, I'm dying inside. Or, to put it another way, "Oh, no! Someone is wrong on the internet!" :D

[vlredreign.livejournal.com]

I read your post, read the other post, and the one thing that comes to mind is...

Anne Rice.

Why? Oh, come on! What I loved about Anne Rice was the fact that she knew her stuff was over the top, and wrote it anyway.

And I bought it, anyway. Because I knew what I was getting, I knew what she was intending, and she had a way of taking existing mythology and history and tweaking it to fit her universes.

Have you ever read The Mayfair Witches trilogy? The best part of that for me was the history of the Mayfair family. It felt like a real geneaology.

K, SUN

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed Anne Rice terribly much, once I got past whiny Louis in Interview, and, damn, the Beauty trilogy is amazing erotica, just amazing. Yeah, either you sign on for her or you don't. ^_^

[puella-nerdii.livejournal.com]

Out of curiosity, what is the context? It definitely reads like some kind of hallucinatory experience; is that off the mark, or closer to it?

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

It is very close to the mark! The protagonist (a very practical, if a bit privileged, girl) is being seduced by the Fairy King, and he's doing that "this is an otherworldly experience you won't understand, or remember, or refuse" mind-altering thing with her.

[mosrael.livejournal.com]

Ahahahahahahahaha oh man. I have no problem finding it both ridiculous and part of an excellent book. Because, come on, that bit was ridiculous. But he did seem to have ample writerly skill when he wasn't comparing the heroine to a wine bottle covered in otters.

So, does that mean his usage of the word 'pubes' was intentional? XD

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

It is an insane section, but it's meant to be hallucinatory--it makes more sense when you've read one-and-a-half books to that point and are enjoying them and can see the author's very good and clearly knows what he's doing!

[(Anonymous)]

Your icon is great even though I do not know the context! Where does it come from?

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Mine or mosrael's? ^_^

[(Anonymous)]

mosrael, actually, although I am curious about yours too...

:)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I'm curious about mosrael's myself, it's cuuute!

[(Anonymous)]

Isn't it? I cannot resist the cute!

:D

[mosrael.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It's based on characters from Grayling (http://www.grayling.com/), who have various animal forms as well as human - and the crow and the snake are in a relationship, which is rather strange to think about when they're both in animal form. :D This is what they look like in their usual state, complete with snarkiness. *points to icon*

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you so much! This (http://grayling.arborwin.com) does look like a wonderful webcomic which deserves to be widely known!

*dashing off to read*

[lady_songsmith]

I read those and kinda figured that, even without having seen your post, it had to be deliberate. No one other than a few teenages trying out the sex scene for the first time writes that purple. And no editor would let them get away with it if they did.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm glad you had that vibe, yayyyy!

[drgaellon]

Since I don't read anything that involves even mildly graphic het sex, I'll take your word for it... but, honestly, taken out of context, those two pages were so luridly purple, so insanely overblown, as to be not just ridiculous but psychotic. (Looking at the man's career, I found it hard to believe he could be SUCH a bad author and be so successful, so I was inclined to believe something along these lines anyway.)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I absolutely understand why everyone's gaga over those two pages, I do! Out of context, it's...well, eight pages worth of people have said it. ^_^

[misofuhni.livejournal.com]

I have no intention of reading this, but I will tell you this; it reminds me very much of the fanfare and love for Goldman's The Princess Bride. To think that a story that has no plot what-so-ever, has a complete fabrication for a frame, is probably the most fangirled over piece of work written in the past two decades. I read that (not saw the movie) just to see what the hoopla was all about and...had to give serious kudos to Goldman for running to the bank for not writing a story at all.

This, I believe, is a case of a squid in the mouth. (see Turkey City lexicon for reference. http://www.sfwa.org/writing/turkeycity.html ) It's only funny if you understand the joke. It takes a finesse and dry humour to get it. Consider yourself privleged to understand the joke.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, I love that lexicon--thank you for giving me an opportunity to reread it again!

[phrogg.livejournal.com]

I might be able to understand if it was a simple matter of tongue-in-cheek writing. But to take up two full pages of a book describing a female body in nonsensical metaphor (it really, really makes very little sense) is over the top to a point of downright annoying.

I've come across similar things from different authors (having trouble coming up with an example at the moment) where i've been so annoyed by a stream of nonsense or pointless filler that i've been forced to skip ahead a page or two and still manage to miss nothing of the story. Other times i've simply had to put the book down and walk away, never to return.

So yeah, he could be a brilliant author, but there really is no reason to take that long to describe a female body. Especially if that description is as bizarre and pointless as the quoted example.

Good on you for sticking to your stance, though.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it really does help when you've read a full book-and-a-half of the trilogy before you get to that section, enjoying the author's style immensely up to that point, and then you see what he's doing and it's gleeful. That was my perception when I first read it; still is to this day.