As Meat Loves Salt

[erastes]

I haven't finished it yet, so it's not a review just some thoughts. Pretty damned good. But then I'm not the only person to think THAT and my little opinion doesn't mean much, but yes, I'm impressed. I think I enjoy it more because I've been reading a lot of erotica recently, almost exclusively, and more and more the plot in erotica seems to be no more than a device to get the protagonists naked and fucking in more imaginative ways or with more and more people. It's ok for an occaisional titillation, but I don't really want every homoerotic historical to be this way. This is almost exactly the opposite, in as much that it's "mainstream literature" so the plot is overarching and the sex (although there) is subtle and short.

I admit that I'd like a book that was more equally balanced, I mean why can't a so-called "literary" book have more description of the sexual act in it? It's the sex that's important in this book, particularly at the stage where I am at the moment, Ferris is thinking that Cullen only wants him for his body, so I'd like to see a little more of why he thinks that.

However, it's a very good book, not an "easy" read, but not "heavy going" either, just enough to make me appreciate reading it. The language is perfect for the time, far better than Transgressions. I put off reading this book for a long time, because - as far as I know - this is the only other homoerotic book that deals with the English Civil War - but I'm not intimidated by it, it's a completely different book from Transgressions which I'm happy to report. It's a "romance" after all, and I fear that AMLS is going to end badly.

She does a very good job of managing to made me completely dislike Cullen almost completely from the first and I still haven't warmed to him - it's a clever way of writing, and one I'd like to tackle one day, to see if I can manage it.

I feel very sorry for Cullen, but I think I feel sorrier for Ferris, because I can actually feel his sorrow more - he KNOWS his Bad Angel is bad news but he seems to be addicted to him, for all his controlling ways and jealousy and secrets. But - I do dread the ending.I'd be interested in others' opinions of Cullen.

And I'd like to link to stewardess's very succinct round up and thoughts on the on-going LJ debacle. I didn't doubt for one minute that it was money oriented. I should have bolted when Six Apart took over. We all should. But hey - they were very reassuring, weren't they? But I'd like to reiterate here what I've just said over there - LJ isn't just all about fandom - and I am getting a bit annoyed that fandomers are claiming this as some kind of victory. Hello!? There are other people complaining too, you know!!

Comments

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

There are other people complaining too, you know!!

And with considerably more justification: one was a support group for survivors of bloody incest, who, I think, can freely claim the moral high ground just a tad more than people who get off on the idea of Sirius and Regulus doing it.

No, I'm not saying writers/fans of incestfic should be boiled publicly, either. Just that I wish fandom, notably pornsters, would shut the fuck up (I'm not acronyming it) and go off and write some bloody porn or whatever other things they do when not crowing, or talking claptrap as if it were important, so that I can have something interesting to read on my flist...

Like, even porn, just not some up own arse conceited justification for writing smut in the name of free speech. I liked fandom porn better without its martyr hat. I mean self-righteous porn, that's like fighting for peace. Porn should be disgraceful and unrepentant and louche.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

You can come on my LJ and just just say "beetrootbeetroot" if you use HIS icons....

*sigh*

And yes *giggles*

PORN FOR PEACE! Perhaps we should suggest this to Blair and Bush!!

[semioticwarrior.livejournal.com]

Or one could just masturbate for peace....

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Bwahahaha!!!

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

beetroot...

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

But she doesn't just say, "Beetroot!" with that icon.
she comes on and says, "...louche," in that languid, unrepentant way.
(shivers!)

[logophilos.livejournal.com]

one was a support group for survivors of bloody incest

Not to diminish the stupidity of what LJ did, but I think this particular claim has been debunked. Assiduous efforts to find such suspended communities ended in failure:
http://catrinella.livejournal.com/151812.html

If you know otherwise, then you should let that LJ owner know.

And while a lot of innocent LJs got caught up in this, some truly despicable ones were also cleaned out. This is the resurrection of one, childlove:
http://community.livejournal.com/childlovelives/

Which would like you to believe:
"What I want to Save The Children from most is the Save The Children madness that LiveJournal has caved in to, the kind that has resulted in a blind panic about things that more and more people are standing up to and saying is not only not evil, but is something they have had in their lives. Yes, LiveJournal, many of the people here are people who are not only childlovers, but people who were childloved. These are people who had relationships with an elder when they were a child, and have come out to state that they suffered no ill effects from it. Or even in some cases, children who are talking about their current experiences: by what absurd logic does shutting down their ability to speak Save them? There is absolutely no rational basis for ignoring these testimonies or downplaying their importance."

This is a pedophilic group hanging on the shirttails of fandom indignation and trying to make people think 'childlove' is the same as 'boylove'. Now I wish I could see more fandomers get righteous about *that*.

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

Thanks for putting me right, though I've avoided the sort of posts metafandomed like the plague as the relentless cheerleading is becoming increasingly tedious. It also appears to have shamefully muddied the pond. Frankly, I'd happily see every fandom com (oh, and they can have my lj as a bond, too) go as worthwhile collateral damage to see the sort of thing you quoted excised from the face of the earth.

[logophilos.livejournal.com]

There doesn't seem to be any issue that fandom can't flog to death and consider to be worth hurling themselves against the barricades for. I would just once love to see that energy turned to some real world use - without all the nauseating self-congratulating.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that was a hoax either, but then, what can you believe. I know that an individual who has rape in her interests because she was a rape victim was banned, but who can believe anyone?

*sigh*

[logophilos.livejournal.com]

There's no doubt that individual accounts of survivors etc were suspended - what isn't true is that communities for survivors were affected.

This is all down to LJ's idiotic insistence on the meanings of its own administrative labels. 'Interests' should be be 'Keywords' and hold no greater signficance than any other index. They've come out of this looking like fools. And the worst thing is that the real abusers and groomers are still operating, apparently quite openly.

[darkseaglass.livejournal.com]

I'm curious to hear what you think of the book once you've finished. I bought it a year ago, and was put off by the clunky writing in the first few pages and gave it up. If the story is good, maybe I'll give it another go.

Have you ever read At Swim, Two Boys?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Clunky? I can't say I noticed, it's certainly one of the best of the homoerotic genre I've read.

I really enjoyed it - as I said above it's a real challenge for a writer to deliberately set out to write a book in a first person view of a protagonsist who really has very very little to commend him. I disliked him intensely from about 20 pages on, for reasons that become more and more obvious the more you go on, and I never liked him, although he's very well written in my opinion. The think I discovered, writing first person is that you can't be omniescent and have your protag understand the reactions of all around him, and the author does this very well. Jacob reacts instinctively to everything around him and doesn't get the world at all.

But what I didn't get, still don't get, is WHY he committed his first crime in the book, everything else sort of hangs off that, and I really did'nt see WHY he had done that.

[rwday.livejournal.com]

I disliked him intensely from about 20 pages on, for reasons that become more and more obvious the more you go on, and I never liked him, although he's very well written in my opinion

He may be well written, but I think you've just hit on why I didn't like this book. My heroes, even my anti-heroes, have to have some redeeming qualities. Especially in a first person POV, where you essentially become the protagonist. I suspect I didn't like this book for the same reason I don't like the Thomas Covenant books, which as I recall, you also liked - I can't identify at all with the MC, really loathe him, in fact.

I thought the prose in AMLS was fine, the history was well integrated, etc., but I could NOT get into the story, because for me, the vehicle that gets you into the story, the POV character, didn't appeal. Glad you liked it, though - it had very good reviews, so I knew it had to have something there I just couldn't appreciate.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

am writing a review now, but that's the reason I was impressed with the book, it's not something I would attempt to write, I don't think I COULD write a book where you don't like the protag - Even Edward, for all that he does terribly wrong, I hope to instill pity into the reader. But am doing a review now even if it wont' be terribly structured.

Why he did that

[ann-amalie.livejournal.com]

Because he has to destroy anything that makes him vulnerable, that causes him to feel a human emotion. The boy "challenged" him--contradicted one of Jacob's opinions to his face. Obviously, Jacob was sexually aroused by the boy. That left Jacob vulnerable. So he killed him. Remember the description of preparing the body for burial? "Stuffed his fundament good and tight"? Jacob did in death what he wanted to do in life. But in life that would be healthy, normal, gay sex. And Jacob can't accept that, until he meets Ferris. Then we see how that turns out...

[erastes.livejournal.com]

and yes - ATSB's is "number one" in my books of this genre. I should make a list of my favourites. I have the book, have read it once and haven't had the courage to read it again

[cynbaby.livejournal.com]

As Meat Loves Salt is actualy one of my all time favorite books. I don't remember where I heard about it, but it was one of the books that I stayed up way past my bedtime just to finish it once I got it in my hot little hands.

I think that one of the main reasons I liked it so much was that the characters were not lilly white and perfect.

I have more to babble about this, but the babbling revolves around the end, so I'll have to wait until you're finished with it.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I finished it this morning and am just now writing a review, but I was very very impressed with it.