Day 181: Blameless

Blameless by Gail Carriger. ISBN: 9780316074155.

I think Carriger posits an excellent question to her character Madame Lefoux when she is asked whether or not she is seeking immortality (as a werewolf of vampire).  I won't tell you the answer, but Lefoux, being herself, gives a very reasonable answer.

Before you make up your mind about it, here are some facts you must know about being turned in Carriger's universe:

1. It is not always successful.
2. Successful transition relies on the presence of excess soul, of which there is no means of measuring.
3. Women very rarely make a successful transition.
4. A successful transition means you must sustain yourself on either blood or raw meat.
5. A successful transition usually involves losing artistic talents or creative abilities.
6. A successful werewolf transition involves very, very painful transformations than never get less painful.
7. A successful transition means that you will be beholden to either a vampire hive or a werewolf pack, at least until you are strong (read: old) enough to break off on your own, and then you will be looked upon with suspicion by everyone.

With all of these facts stacked up against it, there's almost no point in becoming immortal.  I suppose number 7 wouldn't be all that much different, as in Victorian times I would be bound by the patriarchal family structure anyway and becoming immortal may be a means of escaping it, even if only for another hierarchical form.  I think possibly the biggest concern would be the loss of artistic talents and abilities.

My brain is actually one of my favorite places to visit.  I would be loath to lose that in favor of prolonging my life.  I may not be incredibly smart, but I am clever, and I keep myself well entertained.  In fact, my brain is so inventive that sometimes it throws somewhat random images and word pairings together in a way that delights me to no end.  Most of them I would not dare to speak out loud or share, except apparently with my fiance as most of them come to me when I'm settling down for the night, but other times they lead to some turn of phrase or thought that I truly enjoy exploring and connecting in ways that might not occur to other people.

I know that my blog is not very big right now, that my audience is fairly small compared to some, but I would like to think that it is enjoyed enough by the people who do read it that they would come to miss the "soul" of my blog if it were to go missing.

An excellent and mostly spoiler free review can be found at this ain't livin'.  The blog author does an excellent job of summarizing the flavor of the book without going into boiled down summary (I am not a fan of summaries).

Day 180: Blameless

Blameless by Gail Carriger. ISBN: 9780316074155.

Before I get started on the actual topic here, I just want to say I love the covers on these.  This is not my favorite, but I dig the black and white backgrounds with subtle supernatural elements with (one supposes) Alexia in the foreground.

I think the reason I love these books so much is that Alexia and Connall annoy the ever-loving crap out of each other.  To me, this is a realistic and healthy relationship.  Mostly because it resembles my own on so many levels.  Just the other night I was assisting my fiance with editing his guest posts for my upcoming Banned Book Week, uh, postings.  I was attempting to communicate with him, while he was busy A) being purposefully dense B) honestly not getting it C) being a bad listener D) being on a completely different wavelength than me on that particular moment when we normally finish each other's sentences and read each other's minds (usually about food; we are fatkids).

We even take more or less the same roles as the Lord and Lady Maccon.  I tend to be the more pragmatic one, able to socialize with a large range of people almost solely based on my manners, but with occasional blunders due to a habit of being a bit more blunt than is normally considered "polite".  Danny, on the other hand, tends to be a bit more emotional (publicly), relies mostly on a group of friends who share commonalities, and socializes according to the already established "pack protocol" rather than a broader, more acceptable set of behaviors.  This is not to say his behaviors are unacceptable or rude, but being part of the nerd culture sometimes involves "odd" customs and an even odder set of knowledge and conversational topics.

Strangely, I think these things actually make us closer to each other.*  If I didn't get absolutely irritated with him on occasion, we would lead terribly boring lives.  If we were both so agreeable that we gave way on every little thing that annoyed us, we wouldn't be happy with each other..  We aren't exactly happy with each other now, but the occasional victory or defeat is somehow more rewarding than watching my lover cave in every time I make a demand for him to change his behavior or the way he dresses or OMG stop exhaling breath into the phone every 10 minutes like you're some kind of telephonic whale beast.**

And on some level I even enjoy the bickering and raising our voices to each other out of frustration over stupid things.***  It makes it easier to have those really difficult discussions and not get upset about it just because the other person is yelling and oh shit, we've never had a fight before.  Instead, when we are actually fighting about something that actually matters, we are able to sit down and listen to what the other person is saying and to address those concerns and come to a solution.  We don't always necessarily do it without hurting each other first, we don't necessarily do it within 24 hours, and we aren't always 100 percent mature adults in our resolutions, but we also aren't afraid to call each other assholes when it's merited (and sometimes when it's not).****  At the very least it prompts us to fix minor problems before they become big huge hairy werewolf-sized problems.

An excellent and mostly spoiler free review can be found at this ain't livin'.  The blog author does an excellent job of summarizing the flavor of the book without going into boiled down summary (I am not a fan of summaries).

*Deeble. <3  (These are responses Danny left during the editing process, thought I would share.)
**No. >:-[ 
***I'm glad one of us does.
****Which is all the time.