Cold Days. Oh my word.

[grenegome]

Just finished reading the latest Dresden Files book, and my post-read flail is below the cut. I strongly recommend going in unspoiled, so look away now if you haven’t finished.

Well, that was a book that pummeled the reader into submission with an avalanche of revelations and momentous events, wasn’t it? I feel like I was going OH SHIT, or wait what does that mean? is it what I think it means?, every other page.

MOLLY. Winter Lady. Harry is her Knight. How will that work? The dynamic, it fascinates me.

...is Vadderung Santa? Harry got in a fist fight with Santa! (Binz, I was thinking of you and giggling all through the introduction scene in chapter 5. bless his cotton fanboy socks) HARRY GOT IN A FIST FIGHT WITH VADDERUNG? (who was pulling his punches, but still, awesome) Harry led the hunt. He straight up abducted the entire Wild Hunt, who were entirely willing to be abducted but-- Oh Harry, never change.

...Kringle and Erlking (Herne! That makes sense!) and Eldest Gruff are totally the relatives that sneak away from family gatherings to go to the pub. No, of course he doesn’t join you on the hunt guys, he’s a goat.

I very much enjoyed Harry having a murderous butler, so I’m sad he was nemisised.

I am sad that my favourite Winter Bike fanon got Butchered by the fact the Winter mantle seems to make Harry, uh, rapey. Geez Butcher, you’re so subtle. There’s a continual refrain in the books that power can corrupt, that corruption is slow and insidious but while we have a lot of characters saying this, it gets played out on page as Harry being I MUST NOT FALL PREY TO MY RAVENING LUST MONSTER. Which... what? Ok, narrative short cut, Harry’s characterisation is already wired for that but bah, I thought we were in for something different post Changes. Fascinated by Murphy calling out Harry’s tendency to compartmentalise himself though, particularly his dick/libido.

Is Mac a retired angel? Did not expect.

Look at Harry’s grown up opinion on the Council and how institutions can be corrupt, or commit evil through established inertia, but still be made up of good individuals who are worth dealing with! Kind of wanted to give him a hug there.

Butters! <3 Murphy taking Bob back! I’m pretty sure he likes Harry best though, loyalties aside.

Harry did an impressive amount of property damage in a day. Hi Chicago, did you miss me?

Fic You Should Write So I Don’t Have To

Harry’s knightly duties to Mother Winter. Basically, he gets sent round once a month to do household chores, Mother Winter style. Making things dustier. Damping down the fire. Smearing the windows. He’s terribly polite the whole time.

The next time Harry bumps into the Erlking. Is Herne still carrying a grudge, or does a night of good hunting make amends? Does Harry work out a non lethal way of making up for the insult of binding him?

The next time Harry bumps into Vadderung... no, wait, the next time Harry bumps into Marcone and tells him his security contractor is possibly Santa. So many coal jokes.

Mab and Harry working for one another's mutual benefit, and being terrifyingly effective when they aren't infighting.

Mab, Molly, Lea and Harry. Family bonding. Pictionary?

Comments

[luciazephyr]

Okay, I just got to chapter 31, and can we talk about the utter pointlessness of the Titania-Harry conversation? Like, I'm liveblogging it here but I am still not over how fucking stupid that was.

Yeah, it totally makes sense in character for Harry but... I think this book for me so far has been pretty much "in universe, this makes sense, but out of universe this is really shitty writing." And god, I want to like it? I do. But while it's got some awesome myth arc stuff and I really like that because that's my jam, the rest of it is just so awful.

Also, JB's shorthand for Harry losing control being that he thinks about raping Sarissa and Lily, and get possessive of Molly-- um, I never want to be alone with Butcher ever, holy shit

TW (discussions of treatment of rape in the DF)

[grenegome]

I think Butcher has a very clear awareness that rape is evil, and an unfortunate tendency to use its spectre as a blunt emotional cudgel when he has no real clue on the impact it will have on a significant portion of his audience. Also a very creepy tendency to focus on the beauty of potential victims as the trigger (bad word use, can't think of a better one) for a drive to rape, which is a very alien mindframe to me, partly due to growing up in the feminist dialogue around rape. (Because it's about violence, not about sex.) It's unexamined, unchallenged, rape culture nonsense, but I doubt Butcher has ever engaged with the issue the same way we do, he's speaking a different language and has no idea what he's saying to us. I just, uh, translate a lot.

THAT CONVERSATION MADE NO SENSE. Ok, saying 'it doesn't matter to me how or who people fuck if they aren't hurting anyone' is kind of commendable when you start from a point where everyone is equal - has the same right to marry, start families, remain employed, not get harassed in the street, etc but is just really bizarre to shrug the issue off and claim your indifference isn't because everyone deserves to be able to persue these things (even if they can't, Harry, without the support of the society of which you are a part), but to frame it as not being good enough to judge them. Harry, you are a smart boy sometimes, I know you're capable of a more vigarous thought process than this, follow it through to its conclusion. And then to pivot it around anyway to FREEDOM IS AWESOME. It was just... clumsy. There are cleaner ways of making this point that have nothing to do with Harry's Manifesto About Gay People.

Re: TW (discussions of treatment of rape in the DF)

[luciazephyr]

Yeah, the implication is very strong that Butcher falls under the category of 'people who think men are constantly tempted to rape but fight the impulse'. Ugh. I'm like... so of two minds on this book, and I'm only started chapter 31. 8(

Srsly, word. Butcher bent over backwards to put that aside in and then did fucking nothing with it. FFS don't waste my time, Butcher, it's not like I don't already have to do a lot of work to make Harry a likeable character.

I should hopefully finish the book today. I have a lot of strong thoughts about how the Winter Court is being handled, but I gotta wait until the end to write that up.

Re: TW (discussions of treatment of rape in the DF)

[grenegome]

In one way, I kind of admire the acknowledgement that rape can be a behaviour, and not necessarily... an identity? So people can fall into mental traps of not labelling what they do as rape (she was asking for it/she was drunk/she said yes before) and a lot of people who come across as decent human beings in other ways are capable of those thought processes, and people totally definitely should be checking their assumptions/actions/behaviours, because that shit is evil. But that's more what I want to be reading rather than what is actually on the page.

I'm kind of hoping the GRRRRRAPEMONSTER is the effect of 'the parasite' rather than the mantle, because I would prefer it to be a malevolent agent hitting Harry's weak spots rather than the distillation of what it means to be Winter's agent. Or, hell, gross bits of Lloyd Slate's psyche that got stuck to the mantle, and that Harry can excorcise. *clings to made up fanon*

Erm. Sorry. This is a lot of My Thoughts on Rape. Go forth, read! *shoos*