*lightbulb*
Feb. 25th, 2007 12:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksI probably ought to save this for tomorrow, as an SBD post. Who knows if I'll have anything smart to say then; I'm bound to have something bitchy to say, though, probably along the lines of Dammit, more snow and ice.
Yesterday I read Keishon's post about Grey's Anatomy, which made me think about why I watch...because Meredith Grey gets on my last nerve and if ever there was a main character I wanted to see die on screen, she was it last week. Why do I watch? Christina Yang. Sandra Oh is an amazing actress, and Yang must be a joy for her to play, I think.
I picked up Innocent in Death, planning at long last (a week! a whole week in my possession and still unread!) to read it, but I was too tired. Sometimes the strangest things occur to me as I'm drifting off to sleep, the thoughts of the day just all blurring together. And what blurred together last night but Dr. Christina Yang and Lieutenant Eve Dallas. No, not entangled as in F/F action. Pick your prurient minds up out of the gutter. Entwined as in characters.
Could Eve Dallas be considered a roll model or prototype for Christina Yang? Dallas has been around long enough, I think. I have no idea how Shonda Rhimes created her characters, so just travel along with me on my flight of fantasy.
Now, on the surface, the two have nothing in common. Cop/doctor. Romance(ish) novel/TV series. 2006/2058. NYC/Seattle. State raised & educated, squeaking by/uber-educated from Beverly Hills. But they do, they really do. They are both abrasive, dedicated, ambitious, driven women. They are both isolated socially by choice and habit. Their fathers (and their deaths) have influenced their lives tremendously, although in utterly different ways. They are negotiating their ways through romantic relationships that are alien to them in their intensity and startling to them in their importance, with men who are as ambitious and driven as they are. And those men happen to be the nurturers in their relationships (which totally thrills me). The women are learning to navigate friendships, too. In many ways, Meredith seems to be both the Peabody and Mavis to Christina's Eve. They are uncomfortable with displays of affection; they are not particularly tolerant of what perceive to be weakness among their colleagues. Both of them can be quite bitchy -- unabashedly, unapologetically so. And they aren't going to remake themselves to be nicer or make people like them. They'll bend or compromise for the people they have let into their inner circle though.
I think if they were real people, rather than characters on the page and screen, they would not be the most comfortable people to be around or to have as friends. But I like them both.
I'd like to get to know more fictional women like them. Anyone have any book or TV recommendations along those lines? [Please not L&O: SVU -- that Olivia chick drives me crazy.]
Of course, I could be full of sh!t, and these could just be delusional ramblings wrought by a late night glass of wine before falling into bed.
Yesterday I read Keishon's post about Grey's Anatomy, which made me think about why I watch...because Meredith Grey gets on my last nerve and if ever there was a main character I wanted to see die on screen, she was it last week. Why do I watch? Christina Yang. Sandra Oh is an amazing actress, and Yang must be a joy for her to play, I think.
I picked up Innocent in Death, planning at long last (a week! a whole week in my possession and still unread!) to read it, but I was too tired. Sometimes the strangest things occur to me as I'm drifting off to sleep, the thoughts of the day just all blurring together. And what blurred together last night but Dr. Christina Yang and Lieutenant Eve Dallas. No, not entangled as in F/F action. Pick your prurient minds up out of the gutter. Entwined as in characters.
Could Eve Dallas be considered a roll model or prototype for Christina Yang? Dallas has been around long enough, I think. I have no idea how Shonda Rhimes created her characters, so just travel along with me on my flight of fantasy.
Now, on the surface, the two have nothing in common. Cop/doctor. Romance(ish) novel/TV series. 2006/2058. NYC/Seattle. State raised & educated, squeaking by/uber-educated from Beverly Hills. But they do, they really do. They are both abrasive, dedicated, ambitious, driven women. They are both isolated socially by choice and habit. Their fathers (and their deaths) have influenced their lives tremendously, although in utterly different ways. They are negotiating their ways through romantic relationships that are alien to them in their intensity and startling to them in their importance, with men who are as ambitious and driven as they are. And those men happen to be the nurturers in their relationships (which totally thrills me). The women are learning to navigate friendships, too. In many ways, Meredith seems to be both the Peabody and Mavis to Christina's Eve. They are uncomfortable with displays of affection; they are not particularly tolerant of what perceive to be weakness among their colleagues. Both of them can be quite bitchy -- unabashedly, unapologetically so. And they aren't going to remake themselves to be nicer or make people like them. They'll bend or compromise for the people they have let into their inner circle though.
I think if they were real people, rather than characters on the page and screen, they would not be the most comfortable people to be around or to have as friends. But I like them both.
I'd like to get to know more fictional women like them. Anyone have any book or TV recommendations along those lines? [Please not L&O: SVU -- that Olivia chick drives me crazy.]
Of course, I could be full of sh!t, and these could just be delusional ramblings wrought by a late night glass of wine before falling into bed.
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no subject
Date: 2007-02-25 06:12 pm (UTC)Alexandra in Lynn Viehl's If Angels Burn--she pops up quite often through the later books as well.
Elizabeth Bear's Jenny Casey--start with Hammered. This one's iffy, but a good read anyway, if you like SF.
Vicki Pettersson's The Scent of Shadows--out soon.
Marianne De Pierres's Nylon Angel, but only if you do cyberpunk.
Zoe Sharp's Charlie Fox (yes, a female). Start with Killer Instinct.
I'm basing it on Eve Dallas because I don't watch TV.
Thanks!
Date: 2007-02-25 06:25 pm (UTC)I have the first Dante Valentine book TBR, but haven't felt the urge to pick it up. Every so often, I pick up a copy of the second book at the bookstore, but I won't let myself buy it unless/until I read the first and like it.
I have not read any of Lynn Viehl's romance novels. I've read her scifi written as SL Viehl and thought that she wrote adventure and suspense well, but the books lacked in the relationship and character arena, so I haven't in any rush to try her romance books, which I would *think* need to be more character and relationship driven.
I think I've read one Bear book, but none of the others. I'll add them to my library list!
Cheers,
~jmc
Re: Thanks!
Date: 2007-02-26 12:50 pm (UTC)The second Danny book's better than the first.
I understand that. If you do see the books she wrote as Jessica Hall or Gena Hale, you should pick them up anyway. They read as romances, no doubt about it. I personally wouldn't consider the Darkyn books a romance series, despite each couple having a HEA.
Have you read Sarah Monette? Keishon loves her work. If you have, this post (http://truepenny.livejournal.com/495454.html) on Monette's blog might interest you.
Re: Thanks!
Date: 2007-02-26 01:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-25 06:24 pm (UTC)I agree with you about Christina Yang and Eve Dallas, JMC, and I wonder who really invented the "type" -- Kinsey Millhone came before Eve Dallas, didn't she? How about Christine Cagney? I think where these various justice seeking women are revolutionary is in the fact that they aren't portrayed as villains or victims. It used to be that only Batman could be a driven and tortured loner, but now we have Eve Dallas and Christina Yang and their foremothers and colleagues. Interesting how both Yang and Dallas have also gone the domestic route. In Eve and Roarke's case, it's kind of funny to see him as the girl/wife in the relationship quite often, but I'm not sure GA is going that direction with the Yang/Burke pairing.
Robin
no subject
Date: 2007-02-25 06:37 pm (UTC)On the domestic route for Yang/Burke, I agree that Burke doesn't seem to be cast as nurturing or domestic as Roarke is, although I do love the early episodes in which he was the one to save Thanksgiving and to push for a commitment of some kind. Plus, he brought her coffee :D. I simply see him as the more domesticated of that pair.
I finally watched the last episode online. I didn't scream at the TV, but I certainly wished the episode had been shorter and ended differently. Only in TV-land would someone have been that far gone but come back without paralysis or brain damage. Meh. Is it too early in the show's lifespan to say that I think it has jumped the shark?
no subject
Date: 2007-02-25 09:17 pm (UTC)As for Burke and Christina, good catch on the Thanksgiving episode; I'd forgotten about that, especially with the way Burke has handled his hand injury. With all the trouble Washington has had in real-life, I wonder what his fate will be on the show? And now that Christina is opening up, will he be more macho or will he still be emotionally cultivating the relationship? I'm sort of ambivalent about Christina's softening, because while I do agree it rounds out her character, it bothers me that hard-boiled women characters have to be "softened up" after a while -- as if they can't be sympathetic unless we know for sure they're "real women" (whatever that means). I'm one of those readers, for example, who thinks that Eve has actually been softened up a little quickly over the past 5 or so ID books, especially when you think of how few years she's been around Peabody, Roarke, et al.
Robin
no subject
Date: 2007-02-27 09:43 am (UTC)I don't mind so much an emotional "softening up" of the heroine on the personal side of her life, but I resent when the heroine loses her edge or is softened professionally. For example, Christina learning to deal with the give and take of a relationship -- cool. If she were to decide she didn't want to pursue cardiothoracic surgery because it would infringe on that relationship -- not cool.
I hadn't noticed a particular progression for Eve over the past few ID books. I am just finishing up my first read through of Innocent and a couple of things jump out at me. I'm not sure if they are the result of said softening on the personal side or a result of the storyline. A lot more emotional sharing with people other than Roarke going on, which is out of the ordinary. Of course, the people she talks to are the usual: Peabody, Mavis, Mira.