sometimes I read things that are not fanfic...

[ratcreature]

Like just now I am reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, because I had seen it recced a lot. But... so far (I'm only on page 344 of its slightly over 1000 pages) I'm kind of underwhelmed.

It hasn't really hooked me, a sure sign for that being that I read it mostly on public transport, whereas if I'm really engaged with a book I usually bother to take it out of my bag and continue reading it at home rather than leaving it. I still don't like any of the characters. I realize that that's probably intentional, but while the book is kind of interesting with its worldbuilding I'm starting to ask myself whether I really want to spend several hundreds of pages more with characters I dislike. Also, I find the whole excessive footnote thing kind of jarring. If it was just brief footnotes it would be different maybe, but some are four full pages long.

Comments

[thete1.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm with you. I actually couldn't even finish it. My theory: it hit a *lot* of people's intellectual kinks *hard*, so that the lack of what I'll call "generally accessible emo" wasn't as noticeable for them as it is for those of us who have *different* intellectual kinks.

[ratcreature]

Huh. What exactly do you think those kinks are?

And even so, I don't think these kinks are handled well. I mean, for example Byatt's Possession is one of my favorite books, even though I'm not interested at all in Victorian literature, but it still sucked me in completely, though I suspect that it was even better for readers into Victorian poets.

[thete1.livejournal.com]

Going by the people I *know* who I also know liked the book -- well, footnotes in and of themselves are *totally* a kink for people. Like, hugely so.

Also, unlikeable characters across-the-board. (Yeah, I dunno, either.) Beyond that... I waited too long after having seen the book recced to the skies to (try to) read it myself. It is a puzzlement.

[ratcreature]

Also, unlikeable characters across-the-board.

o.O
That is far more alien to me than a footnote kink...

I can see a certain writing skill in it, because I think it is quite hard to achieve that, when most readers' inclination is to want to sympathize and identify with characters (and I have identified with characters who "objectively" were total assholes or worse in fiction because of that), but... I don't see the attraction.

[thete1.livejournal.com]

*points down to elynross, too* -- I *do* remember at least one or two people on my f-list saying something about how they *liked* the way the magical and mundane were played.

Actually, now that I think about it, I think a few of those people were also/had also been very into popslash fandom, which brought the "magical realism" *hardcore*. I tend to be wary of that genre even when it *does* have a fair amount of "generally accessible emo," because... yeah. Not for a Te. (Unless it also involves JC and/or Joey and/or Chris having sex. I'm there for that.)