SRD+Girls=Running and screaming?

[Mega Fauna Blitzkrieg]

Someone posted a link about 2 girls reading LFB, and it seems to be some sort of satire or other comedy based thing, which seems about right to me?

Do girls ever read this series? (My friend has a crush on you, do you like him? YesO NoO MaybeO yay im back in highschool?) it just seems like rape is too close to home for them, and either they won't get past that part, or they will get past it in some creepy damaged way...?

Anyways I loaned my girlfriend a stack of books and I fear it accidentally included LFB, and that is totally the reason I got dumped, because I am 100% perfect in every way aside from that, Right?

Anyways, I could see a female getting past LFB, but getting through the first Gap book?

So, is there much of a following of his writings among females, or is this something we hide under the loose floorboard, under the rug, along with the dwarf clown gangbang porn?

[sindatur]

I imagine that females are probably more likely to not get past the rape in TCoTC (To say nothing of the prevalence of abuse in The Gap). But, around these parts, we seem to have a pretty even balance in population of active posters I see.

BTW, welcome to the site, 25 posts in 3 days is very promising, keep posting away.

[Savor Dam]

MFB...first a general comment. Tonight's threads from you seem a little different in tone from what you've posted before. Maybe it's just Friday night?

Now, to your point here. We have quite a few dedicated Watchers who are female. Notice that anyone who identified themselves as female in their profile has an eh-brand logo under their avatar, just as mine has a graveler logo. I will let you discover for yourself what the ranyhyn logo is and how it is obtained...unless Menolly (tireless Watch concierce that she is) can't resist being helpful and telling you.

Without outing specific names, one of our female members is a pre-reader for SRD's books. Another used to be, but no longer does so.

Cameraman Jenn is one of the main forces behind Fantasy Bedtime Hour, which is the two women reading LFB in bed. It's a hoot, yes, but if you get all the way through it, your will find there is more to it than just light satire.

Lucimay led the dissections of the first volume of the Gap series. Effaeldm is now leading dissections of the second volume.

Frostheart is a prolific artist, producing both images and stories based on the Chronicles. For the last Elohimfest, lorin published a book of Chronicles artwork from many Watch member artists.

No discussion of female Watchers can go without mentioning Furls Fire. To learn more about this Light of the Watch, click on the flame icon in my signature. Have tissue not far from hand...

I could go on, but I think it is clear that women are an active and vital portion of SRD's fanbase.

[Orlion]

I'm not sure we should treat female readers any differently from male readers. Or rather, readers should not be split into these two groups because we start thinking such things like "oh, women who read LFB must have a hard time with the one rape scene and would never want to go on" while in the real world, George R R Martin's series which has many, many rape and uncomfortable scenes is on the bestseller lists for months.

Different readers have different tastes. I do not know anyone on this forum that has read The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkrutz with as much glee as I (ok, I do not know anybody else who has read it ). That goes for William Blake, Ford Maddox Ford, and John Crowley. At the same time, you'll find that I do not much care for books a lot of Watchers like (Hunger Games leaps to my mind).

All this, even though we happen to like a specific series of books! Individuals have individual tastes. Besides, I've always found women handle that scene generally better than men do... in fact, the person who introduced it to me was not only female, not only my seminary teacher, she also apparently felt like she did not have to warn me about the scene.

[Menolly]

Now, to your point here. We have quite a few dedicated Watchers who are female. Notice that anyone who identified themselves as female in their profile has an eh-brand logo under their avatar, just as mine has a graveler logo. I will let you discover for yourself what the ranyhyn logo is and how it is obtained...unless Menolly (tireless Watch concierce that she is) can't resist being helpful and telling you.

moi?

Hopeful Riders: Grand Re-Opening!

One of my absolute favorite threads on the Watch, although the original Hopeful Riders thread is what first grabbed me.

Cameraman Jenn is one of the main forces behind Fantasy Bedtime Hour, which is the two women reading LFB in bed. It's a hoot, yes, but if you get all the way through it, your will find there is more to it than just light satire.

ayeup. You really should watch Fantasy Bedtime Hour. It has SRD's endorsement.

Fantasy Bedtime Hour

No discussion of female Watchers can go without mentioning Furls Fire. To learn more about this Light of the Watch, click on the flame icon in my signature. Have tissue not far from hand...

*soft smile*

Furls has many fantastic posts on the Watch, her dissections ranked highly among them. But to truly learn about her, start by learning about her brother in Stephen's thread...

[Mega Fauna Blitzkrieg]

Neat! Despite how it may have come across I was legitimately asking.

I don't know anyone, male or female, who has read either the Covenant or Gap series, even with recommendations from moi.

To be honest, I usually do warn people about the part with Lena and the...entire first book of the Gap series. In re-reading LFB this week (it's possible I never actually re-read that one, just moved on to 2 and 3 during re-reads) I must say i've completely changed my tune.

The poor Lena scene isn't something I view as...something you have to just grin and bare to continue on, it's actually one of the most brilliant scenes ever.

Lena is such a giant cliche (which is funny because I think in 1977 that cliche didn't exist yet?) the pretty, youthful, perky, kind, small town girl who craves life beyond farming, wants to become a lord? Especially paired with the jaded, detached, bitter, slightly older male? Throw a dart at a pile of books and you can find this set-up.

Then just when you are sure that Covenant and Lena are going to have such wonderful adventures, where she helps him reconnect to the world, and he helps her grow and fulfill her dreams...bam rape.

It's a pretty epic suckerpunch. Not to mention all the other insignificant perks, like how it sort of sets the tone for the whole series, and becomes a huge part of the plot, etc etc, details.

[Mega Fauna Blitzkrieg]

On a sadder note, some people have Ranhyn and lords and all sorts of other crazy symbols, I appear to have a crucified ill-earth stone victim!

I should probably look up what all these crazy things mean.

[Menolly]

On a sadder note, some people have Ranhyn and lords and all sorts of other crazy symbols, I appear to have a crucified ill-earth stone victim!

I should probably look up what all these crazy things mean.

Well, the Hopeful Riders threads I posted above explain the Ranyhyn icons.

You will also see White Gold Dollars, HP, and Tokens listed under one's avatar. You earn those by posting or creating a thread in various forums. In turn, those can be used to purchase the user items displayed next to posts. The user items are available in the Watch store, which is accessible in the tool bar at the top of every Watch page.

[Mega Fauna Blitzkrieg]

One's crucified ill-earth stone victim also appears to get less crucified and more redderer as one gains coolness points?

[Shaun das Schaf]

I think both the Watch population and the general population is too diverse for a 'girls' like this, 'boys' like this approach, but I wanted to be honest about being one of those 'girls' who did actually struggle with The Gap because of the sexual abuse (not the sexual abuse per se, so much as the portrayal of a victim of sexual abuse.) It did turn me off and I did put the book down. I've said before I didn't get far enough to fairly judge it and that I was much younger then; the series is on my bookshelf waiting for another attempt. Also others have told me the characterisation is supported by the story but I still struggled with it and I do struggle with some of SRD's writing. But I think that's more about subjectivity in general than being a girl!

Anyway Blitzy, there's many females here who are passionate fans of both The Gap series and TCoTC.

P.S Sorry you got dumped.

[Frostheart Grueburn]

Thanks SD.
I might add that I was a huge fan of GRRM before stumbling across the Chrons (or Gap, which got really good towards the end). Don't see a massive difference there. These days I enjoy Erikson/Esslemont, and Karsa Orlong soon became one of my favorite characters due to his bitter journey of self-discovery. Just saying.

On a related topic, in Nordic metal concerts 50% of the audience are women (even some seniors). And not merely referring to Nightwish, The 69 Eyes, or the like, but stuff like this:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdEf4XJMhB4
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMbFu457jGs
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS9M1niqiY8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7b5KThOwI8
. . . could go on with this list forever. Well, one can hear some screaming in such events.

Dumping someone over classic fantasy literature is kinda...shallow.

[Shaun das Schaf]

I loved Karsa Orlong too. So it's not necessarily acts that I have a problem with but the attitude to them, particularly when it comes to believably portraying the voice and actions of victims.

But I really have to try the Gap again so that I'm not judging from a couple of chapters.

Oh and Frosty, I think MFB was joking a little with the dumping being due to his (maybe) lending of The Chronicles to his now-ex.

[Frostheart Grueburn]

Well, let's just say that Angus must rethink his "values" quite a deal... Granted, the first book or so felt a bit like bad porn, which is why I didn't rate it very high, but hooboy how the plot surged up the ladder around tome #3...
Perhaps the fact that Iolanthe (another she) enjoyed the series a great deal may help you slog past the most uncomfortable bits.


However, all in all, one cannot really pigeonhole the preferments of "boys" and "girls" (aka Twilight + Justin Bieber + pink + twittery talk about 50 shades of red nailpolish = girls | computers + cars + World of Warcraft + guns = boys). I mean, at one end, we have the brony movement consisting mainly of 20-something men, and then the likes of Masha Scream from Arkona, who does her own growls (and maybe Awa from Lordi)... I like both Disney cartoons and black metal.

[Mega Fauna Blitzkrieg]

I would have to re-read it but from what I recall the space rape series did seem to have a pretty male outlook on it. Which pretty much ranges from chivalric disgust to creepy interest.

Even the Morn POV chapters seemed maley from what I recall.

I had a theory for years, that SRD uses the first book of each series to try and scare off anyone without a strong enough stomach to continue. I changed entirely how I think about Lena's rape recently, but as for the space rape saga, I kinda have to stand by it.

Has anyone here seen the french movie Irreversible? There is an extremely graphic and painful (to watch) scene where a gay sociopath anally rapes this girl in a subway tunnel, which goes on for ages, 5 to 15 minutes. That's kinda how I recall the first gap book, like we get the point after 2 or 3 minutes of the rape, a whole book of just that and it sounds more like something on literotica.com.

P.S. being dumped over LFB was a slight exaggeration. I am not sure I gave it to her, I fear that I might have, but even if I did she probably is still working through the pile of sentimental and somewhat childish romance novels I gave her, Xanth books and Howl's moving castle, etc. More of a general statement on my wariness to recommend that series to the fairer sex, which I now know is baseless.

[Iolanthe]

I first read LFB about 30 years ago when I was in my early 30s. As far as I can remember I had no trouble with the rape scene. It is a book, fiction, not something that actually happened! Having now read all the TC books that scene becomes harder to read because of all the baggage that comes with it. The first time round there is no hindsight to get in the way.

As for the Gap, I read these for the first time last year, having been encouraged to do so by people on this forum. They were the first sci-fi books I had ever read, and very different from my usual reading material. I stuck to it and read, but did not enjoy, the first book and then began to appreciate the rest of the series. I would never had read these books if it were not for the encouragement of certain forum members, and the fact that SRD had written them.

I am a girl, by the way (or perhaps I should say I am female and was a girl once).

[Mega Fauna Blitzkrieg]

The rape of Lena is definitely um...well I was going to say "not a big deal" but it is, in just about every way. But, it's not that hard to get past for sure.

I sometimes worry about myself that I made it through the first book of the Gap so easily. But everyone I have tried to push it on has needed much support and cajoling for sure. None have finished the series either most get through half of book 1 and change their phone#.

I would like to know why the first book is so, unpleasant? Maybe we should ask him! The best I can think of is that it is a filtering process for readers, which would be insane, or he very desperately wants to provoke that kind of visceral reaction in the reader, but he succeeds in that pretty early on I would think, and towards the end he is just beating a dead horse, or well, raping a dead horse I suppose.

[sgt.null]

girls have cooties.

Thomas Covenant is a twit.

Hile Troy is the man.

[Hobbes]

girls have cooties.

So Calvin keeps telling me...but I have never found it to be a reason to shun them. Some of them can be pretty nice!