mhalachai | (Reply)

From:

cissasghost.livejournal.com

. hrm .. I think we've probably had this conversation already. :)

The religious cop-out, I think, really tops my list. I am not Christian, but I once was, and I remember the rules. Anita is supposed to be devoutly Christian - flaring crosses and all that. Now there are lots of little nitpicky details of modern sexual morality that are not clearly defined in the Bible and could be easily argued, but I'm pretty damned sure that having multiple lovers and being married to none of them, is pretty much a no-no.

Now, is this a moral problem for me, personally, as a reader of the books? Not really, within the established context of everybody being okay with it, consenting, concerned with each other's feelings, etc., etc. It works, great.

But "it works, great" as a life philosophy sort of precludes sincere devotion to a faith with fairly set and fairly strict teachings about these things, so I'm kinda sick of hearing Anita think and say it. It bugs me. Is it necessarily unrealistic? No, lots of people tend to obey the rules they like, whatever their faith may be. But LKH seems to be portraying any moral qualms Anita has, as remnants of a puritanical upbringing, and of no actual validity.

And that's . . . a cop-out, as already stated. She's made choices, and I'm not saying that they were wrong choices, but there's this saying about eating cake and having it too .. and LKH seems to want to let her character do that, and that strikes me as either sloppy character development or a big old Acme anvil of an agenda on the author's part. Or a little of both.

.. and I'd like to see more plot, less porn, really. Or at least, some plot that isn't resolved by way of porn. Sex is grand, sex is powerful, but there are other things of import in anyone's life, in any relationship more than 24 hours in duration. I'd really, one of these times, like to see Anita work some problem out with one of her guys by . . having a conversation, or having a screaming fight, or both, just so long as they do it with clothes on.