Yeah I don’t like a happy ending because we’ve reached the end. “The Women” was a less happy book, PTSD out the wazoo, but feels like it has that same “look at the past, how sad it was, how far we’ve come” philosophy behind it
You specifically might like “Stag Dance” bc the other short stories I didn’t mention are gothic. An apocalypse. A Vegas conference gone horrifically wrong. “The chaser” feels like “fatal attraction” at a New England boarding school.
This is so interesting! I haven’t read either but am quite familiar with the plot of Lessons (and watched the tv show before it got too precious for me) - I felt something very similar with Vaishnavi Patel’s Kaikeyi: it was a 21st century western feminist lens being forced onto ancient India in ways that were incredibly jarring. I couldn’t get behind it.
It’s good to see another example in the wild! The western feminist lens from the 21st century makes me think of the “girlbossification” of older narratives (nyt coined it with “the great” and “six”) but it feels almost unaware unlike those examples which feel deliberately campy in putting a contemporary spin on a previous century
Yes those are great examples. I think when the creator is aware of it it’s one thing - then it just comes down to personal taste - but when a writer/creator is using a specific lens that they assume to be universal it can be very frustrating!
Um LOVE. I don’t particularly plan to read either but upmarket fiction like lessons has not been my friend in the last few years. Too hokey maybe?
Yeah I don’t like a happy ending because we’ve reached the end. “The Women” was a less happy book, PTSD out the wazoo, but feels like it has that same “look at the past, how sad it was, how far we’ve come” philosophy behind it
You specifically might like “Stag Dance” bc the other short stories I didn’t mention are gothic. An apocalypse. A Vegas conference gone horrifically wrong. “The chaser” feels like “fatal attraction” at a New England boarding school.
I can get behind that!
This is so interesting! I haven’t read either but am quite familiar with the plot of Lessons (and watched the tv show before it got too precious for me) - I felt something very similar with Vaishnavi Patel’s Kaikeyi: it was a 21st century western feminist lens being forced onto ancient India in ways that were incredibly jarring. I couldn’t get behind it.
It’s good to see another example in the wild! The western feminist lens from the 21st century makes me think of the “girlbossification” of older narratives (nyt coined it with “the great” and “six”) but it feels almost unaware unlike those examples which feel deliberately campy in putting a contemporary spin on a previous century
Yes those are great examples. I think when the creator is aware of it it’s one thing - then it just comes down to personal taste - but when a writer/creator is using a specific lens that they assume to be universal it can be very frustrating!