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flemmings ([personal profile] flemmings) wrote2025-12-19 08:26 pm
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SND drops a card and a package of almond chocolates in my mailbox, so now I know how to spell her fiancé's name. Which turns out to be Arabic and thus makes problematic the bottle of wine I was going to give her for Christmas, once the steps became clear again. Of course I have no idea if he's even muslim or practising if he is, and she did give me wine when she first moved in. Oh well. Presumably she can take it to parties.

More gusty winds blew in rain and cold, putting an end to our false November, so I stayed indoors and finished Maskerade. Which is an end to my reread of the Witches arc unless I start on the Tiffany series. But Tiffany, for all she's hyped as YA reading, is much darker than the Witches IMO. The witches are a genial, largely comic, read, while Tiffany is anything but. Still militant decency but much more real world, just like the later Watch books.

I suppose I could have another bash at Raising Steam but hell. I want old women and there aren't many of those around.

Oh, and G, your parcel arrived safely and is waiting for Christmas to be opened.  Just so you know.
kore: (Default)

[personal profile] kore 2025-12-20 01:20 pm (UTC)(link)
I always kind of struggled with the Tiffany books and don't exactly know why. I think part of it is after Hat Full of Sky, the prose seemed really over-simplified and it read very much as YA, which the first books didn't seem to (and other "YA" books of his, like Maurice and maybe Nation, really don't either). And the other witches in their books are typically elderly women with some kind of power....Tiffany seems too young to have all those burdens dumped on her, with very little real help, and it just kind of makes me anxious somehow. And she feels....too good? IDK. I know she's supposed to have flaws like anger and whatever, but I read a piece once comparing her to Meg Murray, and it seemed so wrong because Meg has real faults, and I never got that feeling from Tiffany. Meg rebels and faces nasty consequences, and Tiffany just feels more like everyone's servant, and when she tries to get a bit of pleasure for herself the blowback is crushing. IDK, it's been a long time since I've read the series, and I really like the first two books. But the latter ones seemed kind of like HP to me -- a bit dumbed-down and flat. And his writing style definitely deteriorates, the opening pages of Wintersmith are awful. And like HP, I think younger readers grew up identifying with her and in my experience (again like HP!) they can get really defensive if you don't like the books. I mean, I get it, I get prickly when people criticize, say, Wrinkle in Time, which is definitely flawed, but I'm not going to start actual fights over it.

But I think part of it is also that what she does is so gendered -- a friend complained once that her first book is driven by Adventures in Babysitting, failing at caring for her younger brother, and I was like "Oh come on" but it was a little bit ruined for me by that observation. Granny Weatherwax is overburdened and the circle of her own life is pretty small, but seeing such a young girl have that much responsibility and getting blamed for not being perfect at it just squicks me or something. Which is probably just projection on my part! lol
kore: (Default)

[personal profile] kore 2025-12-20 01:21 pm (UTC)(link)
(Oh yeah, and full disclosure, the big Tiffany stans I've met all seem to HATE Granny and go on and on about how terrible she is, especially in comparison to Tiffany. That does get my hackles up!)
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[personal profile] kore 2025-12-20 08:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh yeah, I think Grant would pride herself on being unlikeable!

At least present day flame wars are metaphorical, not literal.

....so far!