So I've been doing some research into F. Scott Fitzgerald. Some of you may know him as the author of 'The Great Gatsby' and other works. He was a great writer, no doubt, but I can't help but think his personal might have inspired 'Daisy' and other characters in The Great Gatsby.
Basically, he literally described his relationship with his wife, Zelda, as "sexual recklessness." He was known in his circle as an alcoholic already.
Fast forward to their wedding day. Both F. Scott and Zelda were known throughout New York City for getting drunk and getting kicked out of hotels during their marriage. A couple causing chaos everywhere basically. Now, later in their marriage, Zelda began to have an affair with a French pilot. Much to her dismay, F. Scott found out about this affair and Zelda asked for a divorce. F. Scott basically denied her request for a divorce and locked her in a room. Like kidnapping style.
Fast forward and F. Scott continues drinking excessively and begins to have an affair with a prostitute. Zelda somehow finds out about this affair and in a weird attempt to enact revenge on F. Scott, she literally throws herself down a set of stairs almost killing herself.
Fast forward and I guess F. Scott has had enough of Zelda and decides to commit her to a mental hospital in North Carolina. Zelda would overdose on sleeping pills and drugs during this period. F. Scott basically abandoned her and moved to Hollywood where he picked up a gig. During his time in Hollywood, he would start another affair with a newspaper columnist there.
Then F. Scott went to Cuba without Zelda and they would never see each other again.
The most toxic relationship of all-time.
Bear with me as I'm not reddit savvy. But one topic of discussion that I feel like I see a lot ( especially on booktok), is when it comes to books with characters who exhibit problematic behaviors (i.e. they're racist, homophobic, ableist, etc) it's so common to automatically connect those behaviors done by fictional characters to the author. As an example, the book Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell has instances where Eleanor (and another character whose name I can't remember) makes racists comments about Park the other main character who is Korean. Now, not only have readers decided Eleanor racist for making those comments (which I can understand), but now Rainbow Rowell is racist for writing a character who has made a racist comment.
Now, I haven't read anything by Rainbow Rowell in who knows how many years, nor do I know anything about the woman, so by all means she could be racist and I just not know. But this is just one of many examples that I've seen where a character's disagreeable actions are immediately seen as a reflection of the author.
I'm not sure if I've explained myself very well here, but I would love to you know your guys' thoughts on this. Does a character's problematic behavior make the author problematic? At what point are accusations like this accurate? Why are some unable to separate a character's behaviors from the author?
Dr. Zeus
When I read "Alice in wonderland" my aunt made a huge fuss seeing me read it. She read an article accusing Lewis Carroll of being a pedophile, which she felt was reason enough to banish that book from the realm of existence. I had no clue, but that incident stuck with me and I can't see the story the same way as before.
Does it influence you in buying, reading or judging a book if you know that there are certain rumors or scandals around an author or do you simply not care? I'm curious.
In this community, The Expanse has sparked countless interesting conversations, moments of wonder, laughs, opportunities to learn and teach, expressions of creativity, and real friendships. We are so lucky to have gotten to experience this together.
This thread is stickied and allows show spoilers through the Season 6 finale. If you have a thank-you to share with the creators or a story about The Expanse's impact on your life, this is a good place for it.
(If you want to pressure creators about the show ending, this is not a good place for that.)
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In case you missed it:
Community Events: Post-Season Party!
On Saturday, we'll have another big virtual celebration like our premiere party. We'll have special guests, themed rooms, rewatches, cosplay and art, and so much fun discussion with people from around the world. Register on Eventbrite here, I hope to see you there.
Every author has a way of speaking/writing but sometimes I find that when I'm reading and I notice the same idiosyncrasies a few times they become even more noticeable to me and it takes me completely out of the reading. Even if these idiosyncrasies aren't even that common.
I was just reading a new book that uses the phrase "Whether it was [X], or [Y], I will never know" multiple times in just a few pages and I needed to take a break because now it's all I can think about.
Because of the sheer amount of plot holes he makes.
Hi all.
I'm Sarah Jaffe, author of WORK WON'T LOVE YOU BACK and NECESSARY TROUBLE.
Happy to be here to talk about ending wage labor, unions, quitting or not quitting your job, knitting, baking, whatever!
alright, y'all. thanks for having me! I have to call it quits for the night.
Or at the very least, well written female lead characters. I’ve recently gone through all of Martha Wells’ books that I could find on Libby and looking for similar authors. I’ve read most of Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaimans works, most of Naomi Novak and the Night Circus and the Starless Sea. I also love Charlie Jane Anders. Let me know your hidden gems! Bonus points for an author with a large catalogue I can get lost in for a while.
EDIT: So many great recommendations! Thanks all. Currently, I’m primarily renting ebooks through the Libby app because I’m lazy, it’s winter, and I’m broke. It does somewhat limit my selections, but I’m sure as it warms up I’ll move into reading physical books again.
Also, for those asking about genres, I tend to prefer sci-fi, fantasy, and magical realism but can and do read other genres. I’ll admit I’ve probably only ever read a handful of crime/mysteries and very few if any straight historical romance.
I've seen this trend recently where people are insisting that if you don't want criticism on a fic, that you have no right to post it, and all this. And a lot of people seem to believe that fanfiction writers are being unkind to commenters who are just innocent victims or whatever, and...no. Just, no.
Most fanfiction authors pour their heart, soul, and free time into creating fanfiction that you, a stranger, get to consume for free. It's a really entitled and quite frankly TACKY attitude to come up to someone who has essentially given everyone a gift and tell them that the gift they made isn't up to par with your personal standards and suggest they change it so it's good enough for YOU, a random stranger. It's also extremely entitled to come into someone else's space to criticize something they are doing they never asked you about, when you don't even know them.
I've also seen these same readers/commenters who have no issue doing the above behavior get upset when the authors tell them to heck off and then play the victim. You're not the victim. If you walk up to a stranger and tell them their makeup is annoying you and give a list of ways they should change their face art they spent time on to be more appealing to you, they're perfectly warranted in telling you to take a long walk off a short pier, among other things.
"But if you post it on the internet, it's fair game!" Existing around other people does not give those people the excuse to be rude to you or criticize you about harmless things you can just ignore. People existing near you do not deserve mistreatment because they're nearby, even if you think they could be doing whatever they're doing better.
It's also extremely hypocritical to enter a space that clearly wasn't created for you, criticize the people and ideas in that space, and then get mad at them for being rude back to you. "But they were verbally abusive!" You literally picked this fight with this person. Bonus points to the people who see a fic that's literally tagged "don't concrit this" or similar and then do it anyway, then get upset when they're inevitably yelled at. If you purposely violate boundaries..."But what if I don't know?" ASK, AND THEN DO AS THE AUTHOR SAYS. Definitely don't ignore the stated boundaries or ask, receive a no, and then do it anyway. And definitely don't argue with the author about it. Why do you feel the need to argue someone else's boundaries?
I'd also like to point out the ableism that's inherent in t
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"Dearest People of Page. This is Anne’s son Christopher and it breaks my heart to bring you this sad news. Earlier tonight, Anne passed away due to complications resulting from a stroke. She left us almost nineteen years to the day my father, her husband Stan, died. The immensity of our family’s grief cannot be overstated. As my mother, her support for me was unconditional — she taught me to embrace my dreams, reject conformity and challenge the dark voices of fear and self-doubt. As a writer, she taught me to defy genre boundaries and surrender to my obsessive passions. In her final hours, I sat beside her hospital bed in awe of her accomplishments and her courage, awash in memories of a life that took us from the fog laced hills of the San Francisco Bay Area to the magical streets of New Orleans to the twinkling vistas of Southern California. As she kissed Anne goodbye, her younger sister Karen said, "What a ride you took us on, kid." I think we can all agree. Let us take comfort in the shared hope that Anne is now experiencing firsthand the glorious answers to many great spiritual and cosmic questions, the quest for which defined her life and career. Throughout much of her final years, your contributions to this page brought her much joy, along with a profound sense of friendship and community. Anne will be interred in our family's mausoleum at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans in a private ceremony. Next year, a celebration of her life will take place in New Orleans. This event will be open to the public and will invite the participation of her friends, readers and fans who brought her such joy and inspiration throughout her life."
Hello r/AskHistorians, I’m Nancy Reagin, a European historian of gender and popular culture, and my most recent book is Re-living the American Frontier: Western Fandoms, Reenactment, and Historical Hobbyists in Germany and America Since 1900. Related to that, I’ve also edited a series of historical readers’ companions for a variety of fantasy and science fiction series.
Fandoms emerged alongside the rise of pulp fiction and mass commercial entertainments during the late 19th and early twentieth centuries; the word “fandom” was first used in print in 1903. Although fan communities emerged around sports teams, film and music celebrities, and other commercial entertainments, I am most interested in the development of literary fandoms and (sometimes linked to or overlapping) historically-focused fandoms during the 20th century, and their transition to online communities after the 1980s. Early literary fandoms grew around pulp fiction genres, including detective fiction (especially the Sherlock Holmes stories), science fiction, and Westerns. In these groups, fans participated in many ways; parsing and analyzing their “canon”; recreating scenes and artifacts from the stories; publishing essays and stories that reframed and retold the original stories; creating fan art in a wide variety of media. In each case, their communities used new media formats that emerged in later decades, but also altered and adapted in ways that reflected broader social and political changes. In writing my book, I narrowed my focus to the fandoms rooted in one type of genre literature (Westerns), but these communities show many parallels to other literary fandoms.
Re-Living the American Frontier asks: why have the historic and mythic elements of the Old West exerted a global fascination for more than 200 years; how have fans used, understood, and repurposed stories and artifacts set in that historic world; and how did their fandoms alter over time, reflecting political and social change? My book discusses the differences and similarities in how white Americans and Europeans saw the West and Indigenous cultures, and the fan communities that they built around Western stories, particularly those of best-selling German author Karl May and Laura Ingalls Wilder. In both Germany and the U.S., Western historical narratives based on what was seen as the “inevit
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