burningcarousel:

POP FEMINIST PERBLOG: to maybe make it better, All the books I have given 2 stars on Goodreads, which is the lowest I have rated any book…

rgr-pop:

burningcarousel:

Out of curiosity, why did you dislike Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys? (Not like I blame you, though. It was my least favorite of the series, to be honest.)

it sucked, it was really racist (even among FLB books which are wholly pretty racist), it was really really racist, kind of boring, and it didn’t even make me cry like Missing Angel Juan could

yeah the more I think of it I think it’s one of the dumbest books I’ve ever read all of

That’s a fair assessment of the books, especially the fact that it was boring. I adored Missing Angel Juan, no questions asked. Aside from the fact that her name is Cherokee, what about this book was racist? 

I mean, I’m gonna end this as quickly as possible, but that’s a pretty cavalier “aside from” you got right there. I’m just gonna link to Debbie Reese’s pieces on FLB’s books.

First, for background, on Weetzie Bat and the origins of Cherokee Bat:

When the baby is born, Weetzie, Dirt, and Duck decide to name the baby “Cherokee.” There’s no explanation for why they choose Cherokee. All we know is that they considered these names: Sweet, Fifi, Duckling, Hamachi, Teddi, and Lambie.

At the end of the chapter, My Secret Agent Lover Man comes back. He gazes at Cherokee and asks who her father is. Weetzie says that she’s got high cheekbones like Dirk, and blonde hair like Duck, but that her eyes and lips are like his.

Ah, yes. high cheekbones like Dirk. Remember—he’s the guy with the Mohawk.

The last line in the chapter is:

Cherokee looked like a three-dad baby, like a peach, like a tiny moccasin, like a girl love-warrior who would grow up to wear feathers and run swift and silent through the L.A. canyons.

(Weetzie Bat, for the handful of my readers who haven’t read it, is the first in the Dangerous Angels sequence, Cherokee Bat being the third.)

(Quick sidebar nods to the ~~unanimous championing of this “queer text” and its liberatory history)

Here is Reese’s look at Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys. I think everyone who reads FLB needs to look at those things, but I am really honestly pretty suspect of anyone who has read Cherokee Bat and has questions about “how” it’s racist, and I suspect anyone that needs convincing about it isn’t going to be convinced.

burningcarousel:

transartorialism:

rgr-pop:

Laurie Halse Anderson, Catalyst
Russel Banks, The Rule of the Bone
Francesca Lia Block, Echo
Francesca Lia Block, Violet and Claire
Francesca Lia Block, Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys
Francesca Lia Block, Primavera
Francesca Lia Block, Nymph
Judy…

Out of curiosity, why did you dislike Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys? (Not like I blame you, though. It was my least favorite of the series, to be honest.)

it sucked, it was really racist (even among FLB books which are wholly pretty racist), it was really really racist, kind of boring, and it didn’t even make me cry like Missing Angel Juan could

yeah the more I think of it I think it’s one of the dumbest books I’ve ever read all of

transartorialism:

rgr-pop:

Laurie Halse Anderson, Catalyst
Russel Banks, The Rule of the Bone
Francesca Lia Block, Echo
Francesca Lia Block, Violet and Claire
Francesca Lia Block, Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys
Francesca Lia Block, Primavera
Francesca Lia Block, Nymph
Judy Blume, Tiger Eyes
Judy Blume, Smart Women
Stephen King, The Dark Half
Stephen King, Gerald’s Game
Stephen King, Rose Madder

i read catalyst over and over as a teenager for some reason, i know now why it deserves two stars

#adultsreadingteenlit

I really feel like I have to apologize for that, it’s just that I rated a bunch of stuff at once by author so I just rated it in comparison to Speak and Wintergirls and by that measure it doesn’t perform but it’s still like, an okay uneventful not awful kinda ya book. Speak and Wintergirls though!!

Cherokee Bat and Rose Madder are really bad books though

I spend a lot of time thinking about how Judy Blume is significant to feminists for reasons of identification, including and especially Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Feminists saw themselves as subjects in this shit. I consumed so much Judy Blume growing up (and continue to!), but it was never any different for me than Jackie Suzanne (or Jackie Collins) was for the rest of America: a culty fetishistic eating of the rich, gazing how the other half one percent lives. I was definitely influenced by the pubescent dick encounters of Forever but I was mostly into the weird stupid ways that rich ladies in the seventies were. Katherine Danziger was such an other to me.

I think VC Andrews is better at it, but Summer Sisters is my #1 jam, still.

Sorry, I just thought Tiger Eyes was kind of boring, and if you wanted to tell me it’s because I don’t understand what it means to love a dad, you wouldn’t really be wrong.

Laurie Halse Anderson, Catalyst
Russel Banks, The Rule of the Bone
Francesca Lia Block, Echo
Francesca Lia Block, Violet and Claire
Francesca Lia Block, Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys
Francesca Lia Block, Primavera
Francesca Lia Block, Nymph
Judy Blume, Tiger Eyes
Judy Blume, Smart Women
Stephen King, The Dark Half
Stephen King, Gerald’s Game
Stephen King, Rose Madder

Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Sherman Alexie, Ten Little Indians
Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak
VC Andrews, Flowers in the Attic
VC Andrews, My Sweet Audrina
Francesca Lia Block, Girl Goddess #9
Francesca Lia Block, The Rose and the Beast
Francesca Lia Block, Weetzie Bat (feel kinda sorry about this one)
Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire
Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay
Louise Erdrich, The Round House
JD Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
JD Salinger, Franny and Zooey
Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body

genabi:

Game of Thrones 310 Ramsay Bolton

I’m told that Ramsay (in the books) is supposed to be ugly and gross-looking but I’m 100% okay with this looksist transformation because, um, cutie