It all looks better in the morning

[petronia]

After a decent night's sleep it returns to being Just A Book, and the reader returns to mentally relating said book to the 18th-century Gothic novel tradition - Matthew Gregory Lewis and such - I mean, like I said on AMLA the other time indignation and/or passing third-party judgment is a great part of the expected readerly response to certain shoujo/BL-manga excesses, witness the way Mirage went from "Why are you so stupid?" to "Why are you such a reprobate lacking in human decency?" I've always figured that was what you were supposed to feel when reading The Monk (or Don Juan say), the fascinated horror of oh-no-how-low-can-he-possibly-go followed by a round of applause as Hell maws at the end and said reprobate's soul is torn to pieces by demons (come to think of it Mirage contains a lot of that sort of thing - insert placeholder for clever commentary re esoteric Buddhism versus the superheated Roman Catholicism of such exotic locales as Spain/Portugal - exotic that is to both Nobunaga's Japan and Lewis's England), moral order restored to the universe. Except it didn't really work on me because uhhh Yuki Kaori and all. Jaded palate. ^^; But in the eighteenth century it must have worked a charm.

I've also got this long thing relating the moral-victory-guilt-resentment-victimization-ploy complex in Mirage to the post-WWII Japanese psyche (there's a lot of WWII-related hauntings in Book 10, is what triggered it). But uh, let's just pretend I wrote it all down and move on. XD

Aki: looks better HOW?
Aki: kagetora apologized?
Sabina:Oh, I read the afterword.
Sabina:And I realised what the point of all that was.
Aki: which was that? kagetora deserves what's coming to him?
Sabina:By my calculations all this should've been published in December-January or so.
Sabina:Two words for you:
Sabina:pity chocolates.
Aki: ...................
Aki: what?
Aki: she set up all that misery
Sabina:*is convinced*
Aki: so people would send her chocolates? so naoe would eat chocolate?
Sabina:Not only chocolate.
Sabina:Apparently a lot of people sent in, you know those little mini bottles of booze?
Sabina:The ones that are about good for two shots per bottle?
Aki: yes.
Aki: ....what.
Aki: people are sending her ALCOHOL
Aki: to what, make her feel better? write faster?
Sabina:Come on.
Sabina:You can't tell me you didn't want to buy Naoe a drink after that. XD
Aki: NAOE, yes.
Aki: THE PERSON WHO'S PUPPETEERING THE WHOLE DAMN SHOW, NO.
Sabina:Well, it's a Japanese reader thing, yanno. XD
Sabina:I mean they'd send chocolates anyway.
Sabina:In one of the earlier books Kuwabara was like,
Sabina:Uhhh as long as you people are sending these in, Naoe likes the liqueur bonbon ones. >_>

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<_<>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

After a decent night's sleep it returns to being Just A Book, and the reader returns to mentally relating said book to the 18th-century Gothic novel tradition - Matthew Gregory Lewis and such - I mean, like I said on AMLA the other time indignation and/or passing third-party judgment is a great part of the expected readerly response to certain shoujo/BL-manga excesses, witness the way Mirage went from "Why are you so stupid?" to "Why are you such a reprobate lacking in human decency?" I've always figured that was what you were supposed to feel when reading <i>The Monk</i> (or <i>Don Juan</i> say), the fascinated horror of oh-no-how-low-can-he-possibly-go followed by a round of applause as Hell maws at the end and said reprobate's soul is torn to pieces by demons (come to think of it Mirage contains a lot of that sort of thing - insert placeholder for clever commentary re esoteric Buddhism versus the superheated Roman Catholicism of such exotic locales as Spain/Portugal - exotic that is to both Nobunaga's Japan and Lewis's England), moral order restored to the universe. Except it didn't really work on me because uhhh Yuki Kaori and all. Jaded palate. ^^; But in the eighteenth century it must have worked a charm.

I've also got this long thing relating the moral-victory-guilt-resentment-victimization-ploy complex in Mirage to the post-WWII Japanese psyche (there's a lot of WWII-related hauntings in Book 10, is what triggered it). But uh, let's just pretend I wrote it all down and move on. XD

<lj-cut text="Choco Love">Aki: looks better HOW?
Aki: kagetora apologized?
Sabina:Oh, I read the afterword.
Sabina:And I realised what the point of all that was.
Aki: which was that? kagetora deserves what's coming to him?
Sabina:By my calculations all this should've been published in December-January or so.
Sabina:Two words for you:
Sabina:pity chocolates.
Aki: ...................
Aki: what?
Aki: she set up all that misery
Sabina:*is convinced*
Aki: so people would send her chocolates? so naoe would eat chocolate?
Sabina:Not only chocolate.
Sabina:Apparently a lot of people sent in, you know those little mini bottles of booze?
Sabina:The ones that are about good for two shots per bottle?
Aki: yes.
Aki: ....what.
Aki: people are sending her ALCOHOL
Aki: to what, make her feel better? write faster?
Sabina:Come on.
Sabina:You can't tell me you didn't want to buy Naoe a drink after that. XD
Aki: NAOE, yes.
Aki: THE PERSON WHO'S PUPPETEERING THE WHOLE DAMN SHOW, NO.
Sabina:Well, it's a Japanese reader thing, yanno. XD
Sabina:I mean they'd send chocolates anyway.
Sabina:In one of the earlier books Kuwabara was like,
Sabina:Uhhh as long as you people are sending these in, Naoe likes the liqueur bonbon ones. >_> <_<
Aki: XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
Sabina:So this time she was like, Wow uh,
Sabina:LOTS of liqueur bonbons
Sabina:actually lots of liquor in general
Sabina:for which I um I mean Naoe thanks you,
Sabina:(apparently he got like four times as much chocolate as anyone else)
Sabina:also thanks to whoever it was who sent underwear for Takaya YOU FREAK,
Sabina:and Kousaka appreciates the Testimo lipstick set he really does.
Aki: .................
Aki: ok
Aki: does this tell you anything
Aki: about the MoB readership
Sabina:It does, doesn't it?
Aki: and their collective associative tendencies?
Sabina:Like I said, book 5.5 or so got rid of all the sane people.
Aki: *regrets not jumping ship*
Sabina:XDXD
Sabina:*ties Aki to mast*
Aki: *WHERE'S MY WAX FOR THE EARS?*</lj-cut>

Comments

[lazulisong.livejournal.com]

....I WANT TO BE A JAPANESE NOVELIST WHEN I GROW UP OMG.

She did? Seriously? >D Man, I'm glad I don't read Mirage, then.

[mirichan.livejournal.com]

Forget the question but...

Does Aki really exist?

Because you two? You crack me up and makes the pain of even knowing how much of a bastard Kagetora can be to Naoe quite entertaining still... :)

And I would NOT send her chocolates OR alcool... not after what she put the boys through and how she ended things for Naoe (wahhhhhh!).

[absenceofmind.livejournal.com]

psst--'tis i, aki. i do exist, a fact which i am coming to perenially regret, as sabina tows me EVER DEEPER into the never-ending GREEK TRAGEDY that is MoB. actually, i think by now kagetora's probably outdone the classics...i'm sure not even sophocles could've thought these lines up. -_- they probably didn't even invent that level of sarcasm and denial until the 18th century.

[mirichan.livejournal.com]

But you 2 are so great ^_^

I hope you'll continue being "dragged" into that Japaneek tragedy for our happiness...

[summertea.livejournal.com]

What is this crack, and where can I find it? I WILL PULL AKI INTO IF I GET INTO IT. 8D

[absenceofmind.livejournal.com]

MY GODS NO YIN NEVER IF YOU LOVE ME. i'm sort of doomed already, but i'm hoping that beijing will give me a chance to escape this emotional bondage.

FEED ME LEAD CRACK. THAT IS YOUR ONLY JOB, WENCH. (ooh and um of course subrosa. XD i really need to get back to leaving fback on that, hmm.)

[summertea.livejournal.com]

UM. You will have a period of time before you get prodded by me! I promise! Because I don't really have the time yet to get into MoB. =O

However.

FEB 1, YOU ARE GETTING SHOVED LEAD CRACK BY ME. I HAVE SO MUCH W-INDS. AND LEAD JUNK I HAVE ACQUIRED. :OOOOOOOOOOOO

[sesame-seed.livejournal.com]

Yin, I don't think you want it.

Trust me. It may be the most important decision you ever make in your life.

*points to sabina as proof*

(And YIN, you don't have to do anything for me! You've already done so much? Would only pile on the guilt if you did any more! My love for you already spreads to the far reaches of the earth, you know. <3333333)

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Wow, so I haven't been a bad fangirl and getting it totally wrong? Of course the deploration is sort of subtextually hypocritical (sort of like "hathos," (the state of the enjoyable hatred of something), or Train Wreck Syndrome), as in the "woobification" theory where one really enjoys watching people behaving badly and monstrously, and then at some point one eventually gives up and starts openly reading things for the villainy.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I don't suppose you have. XD Thing is, though, not all that many series affect me this way: I'm not a hathos type by and large, nor am I a moral deploration type, nor am I a woobifier. I think the reader is invited to identify with Chiaki-the-spectator in all this - "Fine, don't take my advice, I'll just wait out the disaster so I can tell you 'I told you so'."

It definitely is subtexually hypocritical but that's what fiction is for, etc. XD

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Heh, I don't tend to have the energy for quality hathos; I can rarely watch a show because it's bad, there's not enough time for that. And I have trouble watching shows where I actively dislike the main character unless I'm supposed to think they're an ass.

Ah, that sort of spectator is definitely buying refreshments for the train crash. (In some ways, what, this sort of fiction is the gen equivalent of certain sorts of "how can you like that?!?!!" pr0n?)

[pere-chan.livejournal.com]

It sounded to me in the previous post like reading Mary Renault, where you know (or think you might know) the terrible outcome, yet when it does transpire you still weep tears of shock and grief. But Mary Renault never MILKED HER AUDIENCE FOR SOMEONE ELSE'S CONSOLATION CHOCOLATES. Omg that is SO WRONG.

*loses faith in humanity*

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I don't really think it was all a ploy to get free chocolates in the mail, but in my current black-coffee humour I feel it would be funny if it was. XD For that matter, in my current humour I feel it would be funny if Renault had done it.

"Bagoas like honey nougat. The ones with pistachios and candied fruit in."

says the person who totally overdosed on nougat while reading The Persian Boy

[sesame-seed.livejournal.com]

Have you gotten around to reading The Charioteer yet? *pokes*

[petronia.livejournal.com]

No, not yet. More depressing ghei at the moment, by gum? XD I'd rather take the dive and finish reading Love Mode.

[sesame-seed.livejournal.com]

It's not depressing! Compared to MoB, it's a happily-ever-after fairytale? >_> <_< Would I lie to you? (Also, finished IniD 4th stage a few hours ago. I love this show, even though I want to chew them out for just cutting away from Keisuke's races except in the case of that competition with the 'Darling~' girl -- not that that race wasn't plenty entertaining -- and even though the facial features are still unpleasantly proportioned. Kudos to the author for making me root FOR the Project D team against all outsiders, no matter how sympathetic and well-fleshed, though. Konomi should learn a bit, if he intends to take Seigaku through to the end with an uninterrupted winning streak. Ryosuke needs new clothes. I HAVE READ DECENT CFIC. *is happy* *stops spamming*)

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Wait, you're questioning whether Seigaku will have an uninterrupted winning streak? 0_o

BTW, congrats on finding non-sucky Cfic. XD

[pere-chan.livejournal.com]

Ooh, what would Hephaestion like, do you think? *totally serious*