Forcing myself through a book

[cupcake_goth]

Soooo, last night I started reading Dennis Wheatley's The Devil Rides Out. (I have very dim memories of the Hammer movie based off of it.)

I ... I don't know if I can keep reading it. YES, I know, it was written in 1934, and I understand that the social landscape was very different then. But good GOD, the casual and unthinking racism. Just ... wow. I nearly threw the book across the room last night, while I was reading at bath time.

I want to read it, because it's considered a classic of the supernatural/occult suspense genre. But I just don't know if I'll be able to keep at it. Which is a shame, because in terms of wacky occult and "Black Magick" stuff, Wheatley did his research, and the book could be all sorts of fun in a popcorn-reading sort of way.

Comments

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that voice in combination with the OMG Skeeeeevy nature of the character and what he talks about just made my skin crawl. I have no personal experiences that are triggered by it, but I know lots of people who do. It's just *yucky*.

I have to say that your statement about your friends thinking it is the Best Book Ever actually gave me a visceral shudder. ICK I TELL YOU ICK ICK ICK!!! These people need to get out more. There are far better writers, and FAR FAR more pleasant books.

ICK ICK ICK ICK ICK ICK

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

Well, they were English majors, so they just think about these things differently. And they're not alone--I mean, it's considered one of the best books in English literature.

(Speaking of which: sometimes I wonder WTF people are thinking when they put books on that list....have you ever read Wuthering Heights?! It's awful!)

But yeah: I've had close friends (and an ex) who were sexually abused as kids. I wasn't really able to remove myself from that when I tried to read it.

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

I do not buy being an Eng Lit major an excuse, honestly. My mother was an Eng Lit major and I grew up on Eng Lit (seriously, the first real book I read all the way through was Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare, and I could quote poetry by Christina Rosetti, Whitman, and Poe by the time I was 6). Bad taste is still bad taste. I agree that the use of language and writing are top caliber, but that doesn't make it a good book to read. Writer = genius, book = crap.

Lots of people call D H Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover a classic too, but being the first bodice ripper romance doesn't make it well written.

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

Oh, and another (another) note: The irony here is that I'm really into Japanese Lolita fashion.

Which doesn't really have anything to do with the book. I mean, I think the guy who coined the fashion's name may have heard of what the book was about, but I doubt he read it.

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

I think the person who coined the name for the fashion saw the movie - where the girl was about 16, and the actress herself was over 18.

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

I think so, too.

As someone online put it: Perverts want little girls who act like adults...not adults who dress like little girls!

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

exactly!

[marc17.livejournal.com]

Actually, the fashion was created and coined by women. At the time, Japanese women's fashions were hypersexualized and the entire lolita fashion was female reaction against it. "If you want us to wear these slutty outfits when we grow up, then we simply won't grow up." It is meant to make them look like little girls, but had the typically Victorian moral values and shows hardly any skin except hands and face. That some guys like little girls is just more to do with the fact that no matter what you dress like, some guy is going to be into it.

It probably has nothing to do with the book and just comes from the common word they both use.

[marc17.livejournal.com]

However, entemology seem to all point back to that book for the word. I'd just put it down to Engrish more than actual reference to the book. Maybe I'm wrong about who coined the name for that matter. i don't think I've actualy heard that, although I have read and been told that the original fashion designers were female.

[marc17.livejournal.com]

Etymology ( I can't say it either.)

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

I get entemology and etymology mixed up too. And of course, the other one is the study of insects!

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

Most of the stuff I've read claims that Mana (of the band Malice Mizer) started calling it Lolita.

Although I agree with the rest of your comment.

Japan loves to take our words out of context. But then, we do it too: "a la mode" doesn't mean "with ice cream on it," it means "in the fashion"!

[jisatsu-ganbu.livejournal.com]

Mana, I believe, coined the term EGA (Elegant Gothic Aristocrat), but all the big lolita brands have been around since the 70s. Whether they've been making lolita-esque clothes that long is another story. ;)

[marc17.livejournal.com]

Mana, see. It was a woman!

[ptpenguino.livejournal.com]

No, actually...

Mana is NOT a woman.

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

I can't tell if you're being facetious or not...but that's a dude. Who likes to cross-dress.

[marc17.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was an attempt at humor. :-)

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought! It can be hard to tell online, y'know?

[marc17.livejournal.com]

Yep, I just took it for granted that everybody else would take it for granted that everybody on this LJ would know that Mana was really a guy* and thus it would be self depreciating humor in feigning ignorance about the subject.

*Without getting into issues of gender versus biological sex as I don't even know how Mana identifies anyway.

[brsis.livejournal.com]

Where the 'lolita' in 'lolita fashion' came from is really fuzzy, even in Japan. It just complicates matters that, in Japan, it's the same word for a preoccupation with under-age girls and/or pornography of such, and the two usages kick off at around the same time eg. the early 70's. The two usages have less to do with each other than you'd think, but possibly more than the lolita fashion enthusiasts would like. Still, forty years of divergence and all that.

Also, I read Lolita and... hmmm, I won't say I 'enjoyed' it, but it was a satisfying read, I found it very interesting, and I'd read it again. It certainly wasn't what I was expecting. In fact, I always meant to test out the Lolita-as-political-allegory thing...