The great book cull of 2019
Feb. 27th, 2019 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamarillowAs I've mentioned a lot on twitter, I've been weeding my book collection lately. I've gotten rid of the easy decisions mostly, so now I'm re-reading a lot of books in order to decide if they spark joy etc.
It's been a weird experience re-reading the trilogy by Jayne Ann Castle (AKA Jayne Ann Krentz) https://jayneannkrentz.com/book_series/st-helens/ (which, I gotta say, my copies have closeups of the title flowers, Amaryllis, Zinnia, Orchid, and not half naked dudes posing dramatically)
Only the first book summary on the website even mentions that they're set off world, on a planet which lost contact with earth... naturally they developed psychic powers on this new world, and also there's ancient alien artifacts etc. I had problems with the worldbuilding when I originally read them, not because of the offworld colony, or the alien artifacts, or the psychic powers, par for the course in a psy-fi romance!
But because when they lost contact with earth the colonists "had deliberately set out to promote a strong family structure. Their historical and psychological research had convinced them that only a society founded on the firm support of rock-solid families could meet the challenges that lay ahead. The institution of marriage was regarded as a permanent commitment."
Everyone just went yeah okay, sounds fine, let us rearrange our whole society according to our unified decision, without debate or dissent. The way people do. Sounds legit.
Anyway, now I look at the worldbuilding, and while I still have problems with that bit ; this is a dystopia.
Everyone wants to marry and raise children (of course). Divorce is very difficult and stigmatised, some pre-marital sleeping around is okay, but children born outside of marriage have a very hard time.
And the family basis of a stable society is very much a nuclear family, no variations on that, not even a mention of extended family living together. And the only poly mention is not good ; a threesome who is lying about their attachment.
And I don't think I saw much mention of PoC in my re-read. No other languages. The only religions were cults, and in the background. No people who didn't want to marry, or didn't want to have children. No people who thought this needed reform.
And only cis male and cis female people, and only orientated gay or straight. Some points for having gay and straight marriage being equally socially valid. But still ; dystopia.
It's been a weird experience re-reading the trilogy by Jayne Ann Castle (AKA Jayne Ann Krentz) https://jayneannkrentz.com/book_series/st-helens/ (which, I gotta say, my copies have closeups of the title flowers, Amaryllis, Zinnia, Orchid, and not half naked dudes posing dramatically)
Only the first book summary on the website even mentions that they're set off world, on a planet which lost contact with earth... naturally they developed psychic powers on this new world, and also there's ancient alien artifacts etc. I had problems with the worldbuilding when I originally read them, not because of the offworld colony, or the alien artifacts, or the psychic powers, par for the course in a psy-fi romance!
But because when they lost contact with earth the colonists "had deliberately set out to promote a strong family structure. Their historical and psychological research had convinced them that only a society founded on the firm support of rock-solid families could meet the challenges that lay ahead. The institution of marriage was regarded as a permanent commitment."
Everyone just went yeah okay, sounds fine, let us rearrange our whole society according to our unified decision, without debate or dissent. The way people do. Sounds legit.
Anyway, now I look at the worldbuilding, and while I still have problems with that bit ; this is a dystopia.
Everyone wants to marry and raise children (of course). Divorce is very difficult and stigmatised, some pre-marital sleeping around is okay, but children born outside of marriage have a very hard time.
And the family basis of a stable society is very much a nuclear family, no variations on that, not even a mention of extended family living together. And the only poly mention is not good ; a threesome who is lying about their attachment.
And I don't think I saw much mention of PoC in my re-read. No other languages. The only religions were cults, and in the background. No people who didn't want to marry, or didn't want to have children. No people who thought this needed reform.
And only cis male and cis female people, and only orientated gay or straight. Some points for having gay and straight marriage being equally socially valid. But still ; dystopia.
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Date: 2019-02-27 10:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-27 06:08 pm (UTC)