Unpopular Demand

[xifeng]

If I regularly posted, say, every Sunday, running commentary (not necessarily positive) on some or another historical novel (I'm aiming for bargain-basement stuff, here, not your Dorothy Dunnett or Sharon Kay Penman or anything like that), and called it the Sunday Send-Up, how many of you would evince even minimal interest in reading it?

Part of this is, admittedly, the fact that I feel the need to compulsively flap my lips about something on a regular basis, and Thousand-Ships.net is dead and the Slash Cotillion gravy train has stopped running since I've recced about everything I'm going to rec off there; also, the amount of classical mythology fanfic out there is finite. Also, I realize that of course this would only be funny to anyone who had actually read the book, and arguably it would only be funny to me.

Projected titles, at present, include
+ Shogun (James Clavell); this novel is the Moby-Dick to my Captain Ahab)
+ The Revolutionist (Robert Littell) except I just got done with this one in June and I don't know that I really want to read it again so soon)
+ The Emperor series (Conn Iggulden), which I understand are CHOCK-FULL of errors, omissions, and other inaccuracies that will make my classically-trained blood boil)
+ Born With the Century (William Kinsolving), assuming we didn't get rid of our copy; don't even ask
+ Though I prefer to send up straight historical novels rather than historical romances, the oeuvre of Cassie Edwards remains under consideration.

This should last me for the next couple of aeons, at least. But if you've read anything stupendously bad (or, at best, mediocre) and want to recommend it for a hatchet job, feel free to post suggestions.

(Actually, I think a community for this kind of thing might be in order. Pimpin'.)

Comments

[tara]

It'd depend a lot on how you do it. I'm not a fan of historical fiction, but I'm a fan of you being silly, so we'll see *g*

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

In other words, you're a fan of me torturing myself with crap, in public *g*

[tara]

But of course!

[dethorats]

Well I am always up for running commentary about how things have gone wrong. Don't read a lot of historical fiction myself but hey, maybe it'll be inspiring?!

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

The idea that I would ever be inspiring causes lulz. However, thanks for the vote of confidence. XD

[ocarina.livejournal.com]

I would never, ever turn down Shogun snark.

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

Hurrah!

And, you know, there really isn't enough Shogun snark. The Internets appear to be strangely lacking. It's only fair for me to do my bit. ;D

[duokinneas.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I love historical fiction, and people who can rip it apart and cite real historical knowledge as a basis to do so - that is to say, you - are just right for the reviewing job. I say "yay!" to this.

Also, Shogun != love. So, so much hatred... My mom's friend recommended it to me when she saw I was reading a book called The Samurai's Tale (I was twelve or thirteen at the time), and I kept thinking, "That'd never happen!" I can't remember liking a single character in it, which says something. I never read it again, which says the same something.

Also also, communities = love. ^_^

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

*pets her yaying seahorse* Huzzah! An ukelette returns from darkest Oregon!

I was about 9 the first time I read Shogun, or tried to (I got all the way through the first volume), and remember very little of this first experience, other than that there was quite a bit I didn't understand. (Namely, the persecution of Christians. Why would anyone want to persecute Catholics? We're bitchin'!) I was a bit of an enfant terrible.

The second time I tried to read Shogun, I was about 20 or 21 (I believe the former, since I spent most of my stint as a Wal-Bot pretending to be a samurai. Now you know where Yukichi comes from). At that point, I had discovered Yoshikawa Eiji, so I just groaned and said, "Fuck this, I'm gonna go read me some Blade of the Immortal."

At least in the mini-series, you got to see nekkid Shimada Yoko. WIN.

If I make a community for it, and at this point, I have almost decided I shall, I will let you know about it, loudly and with pointing and jumping up and down. ^_^

[duokinneas.livejournal.com]

Yup! Except that it was beautiful there, and it's dreadful here.

Mm, when I first read Shogun, I couldn't stand Christian evangelism -"I Was a Childhood Agnostic Wonder" - even in a historical context, so I was like, "Get them, get them, the culture-rapists!" Now I'm much, much more tolerant. Thank God! (Only mine is still not the Christian concept of God.)

True. My dad let me watch it after I started the book, forgetting that scene. He regretted it after he was very embarrassed to be watching it with me; the historical commentary we'd had going just died and dried up, right there.

Thanks! I'm excited about this, and I have a question: would it be just you reviewing, or do you have other history geek friends who might be willing to do the same? The more, the merrier! Plus, different perspectives are shiny.

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

Real life always seems so much drearier after one comes back from a vacation. I don't think I'd want to live in Florida (for one thing, I love my fucking state), but Indiana seemed a bit lackluster for the next week.

As an adult, I understand that the Church was often used, or allowed itself to be used, as a front for colonization purposes in the not!West. As a child, because my family was all I knew and my family was Catholic, I was shocked and appalled. (I was to be more shocked and appalled when I lived in Texas and realized that evangelicals took themselves seriously. At that point, I was a militant atheist and I found religion in general shocking and appalling.)

I remember watching some of the miniseries, but I didn't realize there was nekkid Shimada Yoko until I was an adult. Now I feel cheated.

At this point, it would just be me; I haven't ruled out the possibility of guest reviews later on, but it's not something I'd be actively looking to do. We're talking about me; I never trust anyone fully, and, in fact, make it a point not to do so.