Reading & Forward Momentum

[maplemood]

A couple of days ago I gave up on a book that I've tried to get into once or twice before, since it really is full of things that are usually catnip to me: Folklore and fairy tales! Creepiness! A romance with a maybe-evil, tall-dark-and-mysterious man! A complicated, sometimes-cold heroine! Food! And the thing is, objectively it is a good book, really beautifully and distinctively written with gorgeous descriptions and a wonderful sense of place. But it's just... so very, very slow. 

I'm not talking in terms of the actual page count; things happen in every chapter, and it's not an especially long book. The things that happen are interesting, and again, the writing's gorgeous. The problem is, even though I do get a sense of the overarching plot, I'm not getting the sense that all the things that are happening are that important to said plot. Which is fine! I'm not a fan of books that put plot above everything else, and I usually love rambling, thick, atmospheric books... but I like having the sense that things are moving along, even if they're moving slowly. It will all come to a point eventually, and the detours will matter. I didn't get that from this book. Which doesn't mean it isn't there, but it does mean that, for whatever reason, it's not clicking with me this time around. I don't feel like I'm reading a story, I feel like I'm reading something that's just there. If that makes any sense. And a lot of my reaction also probably has to do with the fact that I'm in school right now, and burned out and exhausted with reading anyway, so when I'm reading for pleasure I really do want it to be for pleasure--Victorian Lit eats up most of my patience for slow-burning stories. 

That being said, trying to read this one again and abandoning it again did make me realize why certain stories I've tried writing never grew beyond the first few pages. Even with fics, where the plot isn't usually my major focus, I need to have that movement, the sense that things are going somewhere, not just wandering around aimlessly. And it's funny, because I've started reading another book that feels a bit like the one I just gave up on--descriptive and atmospheric and slower-paced--while actually having a pretty good pace. It might not be brisk, but it is going somewhere. I guess at the end of the day I'm looking for books that will take me on a real journey--I don't like feeling like I'm just running in place.  

Comments

[rachelmanija]

What book was it? I might like it.

[maplemood]

It's Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente! I am planning on trying it again at some point, since it really is very well-written and a good book--the way it's plotted just isn't working for me right now. It's a retelling of the Russian fairy tale Marya Morevna set during the Russian Revolution, and the food descriptions (among other things) are to die for.

[rachelmanija]

I don't know why but I bounce off her prose style.

[maplemood]

It's funny, because I know people who it really works for (my sister loves her Fairyland series), but even though I can appreciate how gorgeous it is, it's almost...to much of the point, I guess? For me, anyway. I love a good turn of phrase as much as the next person, but characters and plot will always win for me over a fantastic metaphor (even a really fantastic metaphor), and I haven't really latched on to the characters in any of her books yet.

[fiachairecht]

Ooh, Valente ... I go back and forth on her prose, tbh. I've read a lot of her stuff and she feels to me v much like someone who has one (1) prose style and applies it to every plot and all characters regardless of suitability. It worked really well for me in Deathless (as opposed to, hm, some of the Fairyland books) but I did come into it with a lot of knowledge of/affection for the characters and the legend and was more interested in seeing how she wrote about them, rather than finding out what happened, so it definitely can depend on what you're looking for.

(And she can get Too Much with the metaphors so easily. 'Nipples like fawn's hooves' is unfortunately never ever leaving my memory.)

[maplemood]

Yep, I think a lot of my reaction to it this time around comes from being more invested in what happens and wishing the story was, too? And this is a book I badly want to like, because my mom is Russian, so I grew up reading a lot of these fairy tales and transplanting them into the time of the Russian Revolution is a really amazing idea. But this time around it;s just not clicking. And yeah, I've found that she does have a very distinctive style that meshes better with some stories than with others. (On the other hand, I think I remember reading a really good short story of hers involving zombies that was pretty scaled-back in terms of the prose style, so she can switch things up when she wants to.)

Hoo boy. That's a good one. I was trying to think of other crazy ones I've come across, but that pretty much takes the cake.

[rj_anderson]

I have not read this one, phew! I was holding my breath for fear it might be one of Naomi Novik's (not that I don't believe other readers have every right to critique books that don't work for them, I would just feel sad about it because I loved UPROOTED and especially SPINNING SILVER).

Anyway, I've felt a bit less enthusiastic about trying Valente's work since she slagged off Reylo on Twitter, so I will take this review as permission to go on putting off reading her a bit longer. I do love beautiful prose and will even put up with not having a clue what's going on in the plot (see: Patricia McKillip) but I do like to feel that something significant is happening even if I don't fully understand it.

[maplemood]

Haha, no, I've actually been meaning to read Uprooted and Spinning Silver for ages and still haven't got around to either of them (thanks, college!). I have heard a couple people say they're a bit slower to get into, so I'll probably wait until one of my breaks when I'll have a little more patience (and time, especially) for stories that take some time to develop. I think half my frustration with this book--though frustration isn't exactly the right word--came from just not being in the right mood/headspace for it at all.

Oh, she did? I don't go on Twitter much, so that completely passed me by, but it's a little funny since I've seen SO MANY people compare the main romance in Deathless to Reylo. I didn't get far enough along to tell if the comparison was super-accurate or not, but from the first few chapters at least, those people have a point. And, I don't know... obviously people have the right to ship or not ship any pairing they want, but at the same time, why make a huge deal about criticizing a pairing you don't like, especially if it mostly comes down to personal taste? Like, they're plenty of pairings I don't ship/like all that much, but I know they're people out there who do, so why bother them just because the pairing doesn't work for me personally? It just seems unnecessarily mean-spirited.

[rj_anderson]

Yeah, I heard a lot of people say the same about DEATHLESS being Reylo-adjacent and how it made Valente's vocal dislike of Reylo seem awfully ironic.

Hating Reylo seems to be a bandwagon a lot of YA authors have felt the need to jump on, though. WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE TEEN GIRLS??? (Or something. I don't understand it either. Reylo is vanilla soft-serve compared to a lot of other "problematic ships", including some that are pretty popular in YA.)

[maplemood]

And that's also the justification that I think I hate the most--won't somebody think of the teen girls because OBVIOUSLY they have no idea what they're doing and are probably just shipping it because they think Adam Driver is hot, and also since they ship Reylo they must think that dysfunctional and "problematic" relationship dynamics are okay, and basically it all just boils down to "teens are too dumb to distinguish between real life and fiction, we must protect them". When people who ship Reylo are probably the most aware of all the problems in the relationship--it's not about unquestionably loving a guy who does evil things, but believing a guy who's done evil things can be redeemed. But nope, apparently we're all just a bunch of backwards idiots! Whew, okay, rant over. Sorry about that. :)

(And yeah, it's not like, with Deathless, she can claim to have written this perfectly unproblematic, totally functional relationship. Heck, it's the fact that it ISN'T that makes it interesting!)

Love that icon, btw!

[rj_anderson]

Which is exactly all the same things that people used to say about women reading fiction -- that it would entice them to foolish and immoral behaviour. The more things change...