Olivia Waite - Latest Comments

Re: From Bennets to Billionaires: Some Thoughts on Writing Money in Romance

la.donna.pietra — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 22:34:43 -0000

Yeah, GwtW is much more a female bildungsroman than it is a romance, but the presence of Rhett Butler shouldn't be discounted for the latter. (My grandmother certainly thought it was a romance.) And yeah, Scarlett is a pain in the butt, but there's something appealing about her bullheadedness and aggressive behavior while still acting very feminine. She's a warts-and-all female character that doesn't show up very often in fiction.

Re: conspicuousness: I wonder if that's because the luxury is so obviously a middle-class fantasy of what the lives of the rich and famous are like. Not that I necessarily have a clue about what people with real money live like, but I'm pretty sure they don't drink only white wine, all the time, with everything. At least Austen and Bronte knew what serious money meant for people in their world.

The voice in BtY is... weird. The whole book is such a naked (ha!) and calculated attempt to not only cash in on FSoG but also do it better, for some value of "better" that mostly translates to "complete sentences that don't include trussed-chicken sexual imagery," and the biphobia on display is *staggering*. I actually found it to be a more unpleasant reading experience than FSoG, and that's saying something. It's interesting in a vaguely intellectual sense, but only that.

Re: From Bennets to Billionaires: Some Thoughts on Writing Money in Romance

O_Waite — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 20:00:48 -0000

Ooh, Scarlett O'Hara is totally a mold-breaker in this! Though that's also a text where we can have long arguments about whether or not it's a romance. I find Scarlett really frustrating and childish in a lot of ways, but I have to give her points for chutzpah. And yes, the No Money Worries fantasy is a compelling one -- but I find that when the consumption is too conspicuous, I feel more distant from the characters and what they're feeling. I want the luxury to mean something -- but it never seems to, in things like 50.

Also, thanks for reading Bared to You so I don't have to. Everything I read about that book's plot and themes tells me it's not for me, though I find the voice very attractive.

Re: From Bennets to Billionaires: Some Thoughts on Writing Money in Romance

la.donna.pietra — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 18:21:40 -0000

Scarlett O'Hara is just fine with having piles of money, and when she doesn't, her single-minded goal is to get back to that state, regardless of absolutely everything else including the well-being of everyone around her. (See also: lots and lots of thinly veiled comparisons with Belle Watkins, etc.) Some of V.C. Andrews' characters have similar attitudes, but they tend to be the villains, not the heroines.

I suspect that a big part of the modern trope is not so much that Thinking About Money is Bad, but that Thinking About Money is Exhausting and What I Do All Day, So Can I Please Have Some Fantasy Material About Flying Over That Big Traffic Jam in a Helicopter and Not Having to Cook When I Get Home? That's the real thread from P&P (technically, from Pamela even earlier) in all of these novels: money fixes just about everything. Not quite everything (hi, Mr. Collins!), but close enough to be awfully appealing.

(Eva's money in Bared to You is particularly problematic for this trope, because it stems from a rather complicated source relating to the broader themes of the series. I did not like BtY in the slightest and don't recommend it.)

Re: From Bennets to Billionaires: Some Thoughts on Writing Money in Romance

O_Waite — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 20:36:53 -0000

I tend not to think of Lady Chatterley as a romance, frankly. But there is a line of the genre that follows that pattern, you're right -- but then, isn't that part of the 'rich girl gives up privileged status for love of a lower-class man' trope I mention above?

Re: From Bennets to Billionaires: Some Thoughts on Writing Money in Romance

Natalie L. — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 20:36:44 -0000

I don't, either. It's rattling around in my head with a couple of other ideas I have about historicals--I'm hoping they'll coalesce into something coherent. We'll see!

Re: From Bennets to Billionaires: Some Thoughts on Writing Money in Romance

Natalie L. — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 20:36:01 -0000

I can't say that I blame you there--she really is a brilliant writer (she reminds me of Bujold in many ways).

Re: From Bennets to Billionaires: Some Thoughts on Writing Money in Romance

O_Waite — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 20:34:29 -0000

And I agree, the 'putting on privilege' theory is hugely persuasive. I don't have a coherent batch of thoughts on that one yet.

Re: From Bennets to Billionaires: Some Thoughts on Writing Money in Romance

O_Waite — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 20:33:19 -0000

Thanks, Natalie! This book is waiting for me in my queue -- Courtney Milan is one of my favorites, and I space her books out like vintage wines.

Re: From Bennets to Billionaires: Some Thoughts on Writing Money in Romance

Natalie L. — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 19:51:31 -0000

Jane, the heroine in Courtney Milan's The Heiress Effect, is wealthy and throws her money around--because it's the only leverage she really has. Someone on Twitter said that romance is, for many readers, a way to put on privilege--I wonder it that plays into the heroine typically not caring about money or coming from a genteelly poor background. I've been thinking about that idea--putting on privilege--ever since I read it. It's a fascinating concept.

Re: From Bennets to Billionaires: Some Thoughts on Writing Money in Romance

Ros — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 19:38:24 -0000

Think you have missed Lady Chatterley's Lover and its derivatives.

Re: My Favorite Subgenre: Fire And Hemlock

Anya — Fri, 02 Aug 2013 06:22:00 -0000

He's 14 years older. It was indirectly mentioned.

Re: How Many Does It Take?

Susie — Fri, 05 Jul 2013 20:48:31 -0000

Thanks for this. It's comforting (in a weird way) to know that other women have had experiences like this. There was an incident I went through several years ago that has never sat right with me, but because it wasn't rape in the strictest sense, I feel like an ass talking about it. I mean, I wasn't raped, so it couldn't have been that bad, right? Wrong. That attitude is due to years of living in a misogynist world rife with rape culture. Every time a woman speaks up about how this sort of shit is NOT ok - even when it's not rape - we're one voice closer to eliminating rape culture. I'm still not brave enough to share my story on the interwebs, so kudos to you. Big, serious kudos.

Re: How Many Does It Take?

mendel lee — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 14:15:29 -0000

bravo.

Re: Steampunk Costumes: An Etsy Roundup

topsy — Fri, 21 Jun 2013 07:58:08 -0000

A corset is a beautiful. Its your creation?

Re: In Defense Of Slave Leia

Will Bishop — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 23:53:19 -0000

Hm, I've never heard that interpretation before, but I like it. I always figured that Leia going in to rescue Han was Plan A, and Luke going in to rescue both of them was Plan B in case Plan A went awry (Luke's attempt *had* to have been planned in advance, of course, or else Artoo wouldn't have smuggled in Luke's lightsaber). I'll have to watch the movie again with your fun to have an excuse to re-watch the original trilogy, haha!

Are there any indications that you know of (in the movie, or in outside materials like novelizations, radio dramas, screenplay notes, etc.) which support your interpretation as the "official" one? I'm just wondering if I missed some vital clues, or if it's the sort of thing that can be validly interpreted either way (since when it comes to fiction, it doesn't always make sense to say that only *one* version is what "actually" happened since the whole thing never "actually" happened at all – that's my mythology geek side speaking, where creatively re-interpreting a story is an important part of engaging with it, and in some contexts is *more* important than passing it down exactly as one had received).

Re: Bad Poetry Week: Call US Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, Tell Her Her Job Is Safe

sarah — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 02:19:32 -0000

LOL! It's still better than Amanda's.

Re: Bad Poetry Week with Olivia Waite!

sarah — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 02:13:15 -0000

Gah. So hideous for so many reasons.

Re: For Curious Eyeballs: An Excerpt from Color Me Bad

Susie — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 17:57:23 -0000

I can't wait to read the whole thing!

Re: In Defense Of Slave Leia

Shoe Skogen — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 16:16:17 -0000

Thank you, thank you, thank you for this article! I have a hard time really getting my thoughts, but this summed them up perfectly. :)

Re: Let Us Now Praise Benedict Cumberbatch

Nita Puspita — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 03:03:38 -0000

Hi! I do believe that this year is benedict's years. there are a bunch of his project along this year and with sherlock filming season 3 i can be more excited everyday! and as you said let the world now praise benedict! hehehe

Re: ‘As if money was a substitute for fair play’: feminist subtext in The Governess Affair

j9moope — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:18:57 -0000

Stellar analysis and spot on in my opinion. I felt the same way about the novella and I agree with CD that her other books are feminist-ly satisfying too.

Re: In Defense Of Slave Leia

O_Waite — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 23:58:03 -0000

Thank you! This is still one of the pieces that people tend to land on -- and Leia is still a pretty interesting character to debate. I'm glad to contribute to the conversation.

Re: In Defense Of Slave Leia

VeggieZombieX — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:45:41 -0000

I posted a snippet of this article on Tumblr, almost a year ago. Since Disney announced Episode VII there has been a flurry of activity that caused this snippet to be "noted" over 3,000 times! Just thought you would like to know. http://veggiezombiex.tumblr...

Re: ‘As if money was a substitute for fair play’: feminist subtext in The Governess Affair

CD — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 02:31:41 -0000

Well, if you liked that, you should read basically everything else that Courtney Milan has written, because they're all feminist fairytales and therefore awesome.

Re: Cover Reveal for Color Me Bad!

Geoff — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:19:05 -0000

Congratulations! My mind is already envisioning a sequel based on an erotic re-imagining of Pygmalion. The title? Another Bad Creation.