Buffy S8, Carpe Diem, Courtney Crumrin and the League of Extraordinary Gentleman

[samvara]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Issue 11 and 12 by Joss Whedon. New bad guys, Buffy's love life in chaos, dating Xander style and vampires who melt into fog. Still happy.

Carpe Diem by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Space Opera. Light hearted and dramatic with action, adventure and angst all wrapped up in some of the most enjoyable characters I've hit for a long time. Miri and Val Con are in hiding, Shan and Priscilla are rightfully worried and trying to track them down - as are Val con's ex-employers, the intergalactic mafia and some giant turtles.

Courtney Crumrin & The Night Things, Courtney Crumrin & The Coven of Mystics and Courtney Crumrin In The Twilight Kingdom written and illustrated by Ted Naifeh. I read these when I shared a house with ascetic_hedony and recently got my own copies. Dark, beautiful stories about little Courtney who doesn't get on well with the rich kids from school but does scarily well with the things that go bump in the night. Rating them up with Neil Gaimen's Coraline and some of the creepier Roald Dahls. The illustrations are magical.

The League of Extraordinary Gentleman - Volume Two: 2 by Alan Moore. I read these way before the movie came out and have finally picked up V2 and ordered V1. Much more entertaining than the movie and a lot darker. 

Comments

[angriest.livejournal.com]

Was one of those Buffy issues the one with (SPOILER SPOILER ETC) Buffy having sex with another woman? Because I'm really interested in people's responses to that.

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

Yes! It's funny, how it's written is very in character, it lays out how blurry that line between straight and gay can be and how you can take it one step at a time.

It's funny and kinda sweet and I love that in Issue 11 Buffy is all - I know you're in love with me but I'm not gay and while it's flattering, it's not good for you - plus everyone I LOVE DIES HORRIBLY OR LOSES AN EYE" which is classic Buffy and her tortured relationships.

I like the segue via Xander's atrocious dating abilities and then in Issue 12 she's all "Wow" followed by "didn't just turn gay all of a sudden" except she's quite obviously not writing it off. The dialogue is very funny and then we don't know what would have happened next what with the sheer number of people bursting in babbling about wolves and panthers.

[angriest.livejournal.com]

See, I'm interested in it, having read the sequence in question but not the context, because superficially speaking if there was a list you wrote for "male writer pens lesbian sex for a heterosexual male gaze", you could tick every box with that scene.

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

It didn't trigger that reaction for me, it felt quite natural. Not to be offering material for your fantasies :p but it looked a lot like parts of my sex life without quite so much of the Willow style babbling. Oh hell, I admit to the babbling too.

[angriest.livejournal.com]

For me it was the whole:

(a) heterosexual male writer, tick.
(b) heterosexual female protagonist, so when she has sex with a woman, male readers can safely fantasise knowing she's really be happy to have sex with them if they met her and she was real, tick.
(c) exotic non-Caucasian partner, tick.

And so on and so forth.

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

I pay all of that!

How would you have wanted that sequence portrayed?

[angriest.livejournal.com]

This is the thing: I'm not sure, and I respect Whedon's writing a lot, which is why I think it's just one of those things where the execution pressed a lot of buttons.

It's all going to depend on how he deals with it in later scenes/issues I suppose.

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

I went back, reread and showed it to maharetr.

It doesn't show any actual sex - is this a rating thingy? It shows two girls under a sheet talking about their relationship (or lack of) and has a reasonable number of head shots. A lot of the body shots are lacking in details and not particularly erotic. It then goes into a slapstick sequence.

I still pay all the points you've raised but it didn't hit me as sleazy or weird, it felt real.

I've had drunk men stagger up to me and my girl and offer us $ for sex (participation optional) so I feel I'm not entirely oblivious to the creepy vibe men often give off in the presence of lesbianism.

[rdmasters.livejournal.com]

Yay for reading Koval books!

These are some of my favourite reads at the moment. Note - READS. They are fun, easy to read, and do not require you to analyse them to death. They are what they are, are totally unashamedly space opera/romance, and just rock.

They are not deep social or scientific explorations, they are not dark visions of cyberpunk futures, or grand sweeping military adventures, or even thinly disguised rants for or against certain countries' sociopoliticmilitary policies.

They are fun, with fun characters, and a clever and creative world.

Lee and Miller rock.

(Anyone else want the soap-box now?)

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

Made for the win! They're light, adorable and a real romp.

I read my first 50 pages on cupidsbow's floor, bought my own copy of Partners in Necessity and got ariaflame to loan me all hers until I could buy my own.