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Mark Reads
Jul. 20th, 2012 08:06 am* Edited because Kindle was having a godawful hissyfit this morning. Yes, Kindle-autocorrect, rape is a word. I meant to type it. Not "drapes" or "raps" and OMG, Kindle can you not let me just post what I want and give me the ability to edit the final line? *sheesh*.
Anyway, though I have a more comprehensive post on related matters that I was working on last night (that wasn't finished and thus I haven't posted), this thought struck me when reading my friend's list this morning.
I haven't gone to the Mark Reads kerfuffle first hand (because I've long found his flailing all caps reviews to be ridiculous) but, y'all I'm convinced he's mostly performance art.
Not only did he let slip in an old Twilight review that he knows about Seeing Red, but, while he may be having kittens over Smashed. (Smashed? Really? The one where Buffy unambiguously initiates sex? That is what started his rape wig out? Someone have a defibrillator on hand for when the really controversial stuff happens later in the season. He's going to become like Fred Samford in Samford and Son's "Ester, I'm coming home! This time I mean it!"
Although I'm willing to bet on two things right now:
1) He'll see no shadow of consent issues in Gone. They never do. (I'm not particularly big on discussing it myself. But if someone is going to be high pitch 'concerned' with any hint of consent issues, then at least be consistent about it.)
2) He'll consider the alley beating in Dead Things to be justified and he won't consider that stance to have a hint of hyprocisy as blaming the beaten for being beaten to a bloody pulp and left there is arguably 'victim blaming'. (cue up the 'It was a metaphor!' rationale)
I've seen where the battle lines were drawn in Season 6 before, and I'm willing to bet Mark Reads is unoriginal in where he falls between them.
Anyway, the thing that struck me in the descriptions of his current flail is... contrast his hissing kittens over Smashed (Smashed? Really?) with his A Song of Ice and Fire reviews from when he was reading the book. A very large part of Danny and Drogo's marriage is a series of rapes. It's part of why I hated Drogo in the books. (Hated him!) Sure, the first sex scene worked overtime to make their first time overtly consensual (the show on the other hand allowed it to be as problematic as it would be), but Dany's next chapter? Her pain and humiliation? The awfulness of it all? It was everywhere. And Dany freaking fell in love with Drogo! Five books later he's still the unparalleled great love of ther life (and two-thirds of fandom fell for the barbarian too. And no one grouses about "Drogo is Dany's great love" except as to note that Dany sometimes has horrible taste in men. (Actually it may be me pointing out that Dany has horrible taste in men.) Anyway...
The Dothraki were a roving rape horde, y'all! (I hated them)
Was Mark Reads having vocal OTT freak-outs over it, squashing opposing opinion with name-calling? Did he seethe over Dany&Drogo's 'epic love story'? (Quote marks intentional. It was only epic in Dany's head. On paper it was... yeesh).
*crickets*
Also, Dany was pretty oblivious when Mirri Maz Durr cursed her after Mirri pointed out that when Danny 'rescued' her, Mirri had already been raped multiple times by Dany's beloved Dothraki tribe.
When reading the book and posting about it, I don't remember Mark having flaily freak-outs filled with Drogo hate. (Nor was there one when Tyrion eggs on a sex slave who was visibly disgusted by him. And that generated a freakout by some on a book thread on TWOP. {Explanation: Tyrion was in a 'dark place.' His host sends him a sex slave. Tyrion is well aware of the fact that the girl, being a slave, has no ability to say 'no.' He knows this and was sending her away. Then she made her disgust with his appearance open and he does a "Hold up! I think you should be waiting in my bed for me after dinner"... and the book never follows up on that scene so we're left to interpret for ourselves whether he ever slept with the slave. Given the context of that time, there's an argument for 'of course he did'. On the other hand, Tyrion has shown he has little taste for sleeping with those who are open with their contempt.... then again he was in a very dark place. So, again, it's all open to interpretation. Everything except the fact that the sex slave has no ability to say no when speaking to a nobleman who she has been told by her owner to 'service'. And... Mark Reads had no all-cap hissyfit over the scene. I'm just sayin').
So honestly? Mark's freakout is just another version of his flaily, all cap, exclamation-point-riddled style. It's a hyperbolic bid for attention.
And partly crap.
He isn't and has never been internally consistent. This isn't new.
And if Mark offends you, stop going to his site. He cares far more about his site hit statistics than he does about anyone's opinion.
Just sayin'
Anyway, though I have a more comprehensive post on related matters that I was working on last night (that wasn't finished and thus I haven't posted), this thought struck me when reading my friend's list this morning.
I haven't gone to the Mark Reads kerfuffle first hand (because I've long found his flailing all caps reviews to be ridiculous) but, y'all I'm convinced he's mostly performance art.
Not only did he let slip in an old Twilight review that he knows about Seeing Red, but, while he may be having kittens over Smashed. (Smashed? Really? The one where Buffy unambiguously initiates sex? That is what started his rape wig out? Someone have a defibrillator on hand for when the really controversial stuff happens later in the season. He's going to become like Fred Samford in Samford and Son's "Ester, I'm coming home! This time I mean it!"
Although I'm willing to bet on two things right now:
1) He'll see no shadow of consent issues in Gone. They never do. (I'm not particularly big on discussing it myself. But if someone is going to be high pitch 'concerned' with any hint of consent issues, then at least be consistent about it.)
2) He'll consider the alley beating in Dead Things to be justified and he won't consider that stance to have a hint of hyprocisy as blaming the beaten for being beaten to a bloody pulp and left there is arguably 'victim blaming'. (cue up the 'It was a metaphor!' rationale)
I've seen where the battle lines were drawn in Season 6 before, and I'm willing to bet Mark Reads is unoriginal in where he falls between them.
Anyway, the thing that struck me in the descriptions of his current flail is... contrast his hissing kittens over Smashed (Smashed? Really?) with his A Song of Ice and Fire reviews from when he was reading the book. A very large part of Danny and Drogo's marriage is a series of rapes. It's part of why I hated Drogo in the books. (Hated him!) Sure, the first sex scene worked overtime to make their first time overtly consensual (the show on the other hand allowed it to be as problematic as it would be), but Dany's next chapter? Her pain and humiliation? The awfulness of it all? It was everywhere. And Dany freaking fell in love with Drogo! Five books later he's still the unparalleled great love of ther life (and two-thirds of fandom fell for the barbarian too. And no one grouses about "Drogo is Dany's great love" except as to note that Dany sometimes has horrible taste in men. (Actually it may be me pointing out that Dany has horrible taste in men.) Anyway...
The Dothraki were a roving rape horde, y'all! (I hated them)
Was Mark Reads having vocal OTT freak-outs over it, squashing opposing opinion with name-calling? Did he seethe over Dany&Drogo's 'epic love story'? (Quote marks intentional. It was only epic in Dany's head. On paper it was... yeesh).
*crickets*
Also, Dany was pretty oblivious when Mirri Maz Durr cursed her after Mirri pointed out that when Danny 'rescued' her, Mirri had already been raped multiple times by Dany's beloved Dothraki tribe.
When reading the book and posting about it, I don't remember Mark having flaily freak-outs filled with Drogo hate. (Nor was there one when Tyrion eggs on a sex slave who was visibly disgusted by him. And that generated a freakout by some on a book thread on TWOP. {Explanation: Tyrion was in a 'dark place.' His host sends him a sex slave. Tyrion is well aware of the fact that the girl, being a slave, has no ability to say 'no.' He knows this and was sending her away. Then she made her disgust with his appearance open and he does a "Hold up! I think you should be waiting in my bed for me after dinner"... and the book never follows up on that scene so we're left to interpret for ourselves whether he ever slept with the slave. Given the context of that time, there's an argument for 'of course he did'. On the other hand, Tyrion has shown he has little taste for sleeping with those who are open with their contempt.... then again he was in a very dark place. So, again, it's all open to interpretation. Everything except the fact that the sex slave has no ability to say no when speaking to a nobleman who she has been told by her owner to 'service'. And... Mark Reads had no all-cap hissyfit over the scene. I'm just sayin').
So honestly? Mark's freakout is just another version of his flaily, all cap, exclamation-point-riddled style. It's a hyperbolic bid for attention.
And partly crap.
He isn't and has never been internally consistent. This isn't new.
And if Mark offends you, stop going to his site. He cares far more about his site hit statistics than he does about anyone's opinion.
Just sayin'
