but cranky in a good way?
Oct. 22nd, 2011 04:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wisdomeagleOh, Fr. Greeley, why?
I don't think I've posted here about Veronica Black's Sister Joan's mysteries. They're about a crime-solving nun, and I love them the way you'd imagine I'd love ~crime-solving nun omg!~ On the other hand, she manages to hit in almost every book some incredible... massive fail about something that's deeply important to me. Like the (skip) sexually abused little girl who is INNATELY EVIL. Or the cross-gen lesbian pairing that contains a stalker and a passive-agressive closet case. I love the books and it's deeply enjoyable for me to read them but I always go in with the knowledge that I'll be facepalming mightily.
Okay, I knew Fr. Greeley was like that on certain issues. I know that every single book has the same (het, of course) romance, and that when he attempts female points of view they're always in second person and/or present tense because us ladies are just more ~immediate~ and relational like that. I know that I could barely get through The Bishop in the Old Neighborhood because of the racial awfulness. (All the CoC are stereotypes, but it's totally okay because they're just pretending and it's all in good fun and Fr. Greeley doesn't really think that all [insert ethnic group here] are like that and he does the same thing with the Irish/Irish-American characters so it's okay, right? Um yeah no.) But I keep reading. Because I love Blackie Ryan and I love these books but damn.
So The Bishop at the Lake has two pieces of ridiculousness:
1. He's stopped using female pronouns for the Divine. WHAT. The female pronouns for the Divine were the reason I started reading these books. I really don't know what to make of this, but I can imagine all sorts of terrible reasons for the shift. :(
2. THE BIPOLAR WOMAN DID IT.
Really? No, really? I was uncomfy with the portrayal of the woman with bipolar for most of the book but was reassuring myself that she clearly couldn't be the villain because she was so obviously the villain in Mystery Novel Conventional Ways that, again in keeping with the Conventions, it couldn't be her.
Except all the rules fly out the window when it comes to crazy people, I guess. :( Because we just can't help ourselves.
So yeah. The punchline of course isn't "I will stop reading these books," but rather, "I will keep reading these books and being offended."
I don't think I've posted here about Veronica Black's Sister Joan's mysteries. They're about a crime-solving nun, and I love them the way you'd imagine I'd love ~crime-solving nun omg!~ On the other hand, she manages to hit in almost every book some incredible... massive fail about something that's deeply important to me. Like the (skip) sexually abused little girl who is INNATELY EVIL. Or the cross-gen lesbian pairing that contains a stalker and a passive-agressive closet case. I love the books and it's deeply enjoyable for me to read them but I always go in with the knowledge that I'll be facepalming mightily.
Okay, I knew Fr. Greeley was like that on certain issues. I know that every single book has the same (het, of course) romance, and that when he attempts female points of view they're always in second person and/or present tense because us ladies are just more ~immediate~ and relational like that. I know that I could barely get through The Bishop in the Old Neighborhood because of the racial awfulness. (All the CoC are stereotypes, but it's totally okay because they're just pretending and it's all in good fun and Fr. Greeley doesn't really think that all [insert ethnic group here] are like that and he does the same thing with the Irish/Irish-American characters so it's okay, right? Um yeah no.) But I keep reading. Because I love Blackie Ryan and I love these books but damn.
So The Bishop at the Lake has two pieces of ridiculousness:
1. He's stopped using female pronouns for the Divine. WHAT. The female pronouns for the Divine were the reason I started reading these books. I really don't know what to make of this, but I can imagine all sorts of terrible reasons for the shift. :(
2. THE BIPOLAR WOMAN DID IT.
Really? No, really? I was uncomfy with the portrayal of the woman with bipolar for most of the book but was reassuring myself that she clearly couldn't be the villain because she was so obviously the villain in Mystery Novel Conventional Ways that, again in keeping with the Conventions, it couldn't be her.
Except all the rules fly out the window when it comes to crazy people, I guess. :( Because we just can't help ourselves.
So yeah. The punchline of course isn't "I will stop reading these books," but rather, "I will keep reading these books and being offended."
(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-23 05:28 am (UTC)Welcome to my nightmare. I just can't quite a series I'm hooked on, no matter how bad it gets.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-23 05:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-23 07:01 am (UTC)Well, that sucks. D: I've only read two Fr Greeley books (The Bishop and the West Wing, and The Bishop and the Beggar Girl of St Germain), but I liked that too. Personally, I find that if I use male pronouns for the Divine, it flips all the "you do not belong" switches, and, worse, the "God is a psychopath who sets his people up for petty revenge games all through both Testaments by deliberately hardening their hearts so it's their fault when they do what he planned for them to do, and then he gets to punish them" switches.
I'm very new to this using a Christian framework at all (I'm not officially a Christian, I'm just edging nearer) and it's a very delicate balance.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-23 02:21 pm (UTC), I find that if I use male pronouns for the Divine, it flips all the "you do not belong" switches,
Yeah, me too. :(
(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-23 07:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-23 08:48 pm (UTC)