I Solemnly Swear I Am Up to No Good

Today's LJ Writer's Block says it's JK Rowling's birthday and then asks, "Which of her seven Harry Potter novels do you think is the most satisfying read?"

For me there's really no question: Prisoner of Azkaban. Of course, it could be that I need to re-read Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix. It may also be that PoA isn't the most satisfying and is simply my favorite of the seven.

Why? Because it's the first time in the series that everything starts to take on a larger scope. There was already a lot to the world of Harry Potter, but with PoA it felt like the whole thing opened up that much more. You've got the introduction of Remus (who will always be one of my favorite HP characters, though he may have lost some points near the end) and Sirius, the Marauder's Map (and with that Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs), Dementors, the Patronus. There's intrigue and betrayal and history.

I love it because it made the world more real, embroidering it with consequence.

I remember getting near the end of it when it was published and just having this feeling that it was going to be my favorite. Because suddenly Harry wasn't just this boy who had lost his parents and was special and had evil to fight. He was this boy who had all of that, but he was also part of something much bigger and much darker than the sort of episodic idea of the first two books.

Not that they're completely episodic and not that I mean to take anything away from them, but events in the first two have less weight (save for Tom Riddle's diary), I think, by the end of the series than what happens in book three and onward.

Waiting for Prince Charming, or I Miss Literary Discussion Apparently

The latest Entertainment Weekly is about vampires. It includes a list of the "20 Greatest Vampires of All Time" which makes me want to cry a little because Edward Cullen is number four. That is sad.

Lestat is number one. I don't really have an opinion on that, except that I thought Interview With the Vampire was kind of dull. Maybe I need to re-read it. Maybe it was just Louis that I was bored by.

Anyway, what I found interesting were the small Q&A bits with authors who write stories featuring vampires. And I particularly agreed with Laurell K. Hamilton's response when asked, "What are your thoughts on the Twilight phenomenon?"

"Stephanie Meyer has come and she's taken the genre that I sort of pioneered. Her original audiences was 11- and 12-year-olds, so she - very rightly - sanitized the genre. She took out a lot of the sex and violence, especially for the first book. My readership is both male and female, but Twilight is very much a girls' book. I ask people, Why has this really captured you? What I heard from all ages is that it was very romantic that he was willing to wait for her and that there was no sex. They like the idea that [Bella] was like the fairy princess and [Edward] is the handsome prince that rides in and saves her. The fact that women are so attracted to that idea - that they want to wait for Prince Charming rather than taking control of their own life - I find that frightening."

What she said.

Twilight was a guilty pleasure book for me and I enjoyed it, but I have not read the final two books and I don't really plan to because I know what happens and the characters drive me crazy. Plus, the writing makes me want to shoot myself in the face.

But what bugs me the most about the books is that they're just carrying on that idea of Prince Charming. Where the Prince Charming is emotionally abusive. Which is NOT OKAY.

It's not the idea of Prince Charming in general that ticks me off. It's the idea that the girl waits for Prince Charming to enter (and save her) and then her life starts. In the past couple of years, Sleeping Beauty has become my least favorite fairy tale for exactly this reason. I mean, Aurora's not even a heroine, is she? What does she do? She goes and does the one thing she's not supposed to and then falls into a coma and the rest of the kingdom follows after. And then a prince comes and wakes her with a kiss (or other things in some versions) and they get married and there's a happy ending.

All she did was prick her finger, sleep, and wait for some guy to come in and wake her up, making her life "complete."

And, okay, symbolic of sexual awakening. Sure. But it's still that idea that in order for a woman to fully come into her own, she has to have a man. Load of hooey.

Seriously, though, how is she a heroine? Is she somehow brave because she faced the one thing that could harm her? I want to understand how other people view it. Because to me she's just a empty vessel waiting for other people - the fairies, the prince - to fill her.

I apologize if it's anyone's favorite fairy tale. Maybe if I found source material and read more versions I'd get something else out of it.

I didn't know this post was going here when I started it.