Remember that he is the masshole1 who compared including women and minorities in an anthology of science fiction stories to finding lettuce in reams of copy paper.
In other words, he is not to be taken seriously at all, ever. His ignorance stands as a monument to his vast privilege wanking which stands as a monument to… something. So of course he doesn’t understand Who Fears Death. It’s not like he tried. It’s all just lettuce and potatoes to him.
Footnotes
- that’s mass asshole to you all playing at home [⇧]
This isn’t someone’s vocabulary homework? Honestly, that was all I could think when I read it. Plus, “What WRONG with being Luke Skywalker?”
Such a hero, unembarrassed to reveal so publiclt his limitless ignorance about the book and everything in it.
As ithiliana ordered, “Bite the sun, Paul ….” Not that he’d get that reference though.
Love, C.
When he opens his mouth, he removes all doubt, doesn’t he?
Did he really just compare pretty much anything that smacks of female interpersonal dynamics (absent men!) to Betty and Veronica?
The review was awful and confused before that, but that… broke my brain.
yeah, I posted that on someone’s journal yesterday. They were all wtf is thim review? and I was like lolhim
I got extremely cranky about two paragraphs of that review in particular – one where he descends into complete patronisation not only of Nnedi’s book but also of YA in general and sneers at the portrayal of the hero’s frivolous young female friend.
The second was where he raged about the idea of Nnedi’s (black, female) protagonist being ‘the One’ just like a whole lot of other (white, male) pop culture heroes and suggested we were all bored with our heroes “having the same face”. Completely without irony!
Like you, I did remember back to the lettuce argument and calmly turned my back on the review. Really not an important person at all.
I also love how he describes the book as SF/F interstitial in one paragraph, then complains that there’s not enough science fiction in another, which makes him sound simultaneously stupid and confused. Then how he tries to make interstitialism sound like miscegenation, complete with disgusting weasel-words for “mulatto”, since he’s not (quite) dumb enough to use that one — instead he uses “hybrid” and “mestizo” and so on. I would rant at him, if I weren’t so busy throwing up in my mouth.
I love that in his quibble about how the book is structured he says “it’s more about prelude than climax”. Is he complaining about too much foreplay? Maybe the narrative structure is perfect for a book that focuses on women’s concerns. I can’t wait to read it.
My copy has been sitting in a stack waiting to be read once I find some time. I read the review to about the second paragraph before I got bored; it’s such a pompous review.
I’ve not read Who Fears Death yet, as my library system’s not finished processing its copies, but I don’t have to have read it to know that that is the most incoherent review I’ve read in ages. I LIKED THIS BOOK EXCEPT FOR THE PARTS I HATED THAT ARE BAD.
Obviously, he doesn’t get it (e.g. using dominant tropes is sort of the point, to subvert them), indeed.
I stopped respecting his opinions when I read that terrible, disgusting, offensive story of his in the Sex in the System anthology.
Thanks for the clarifying footnote; around here, that term is used most often by folks from neighboring states to describe us.
(Also, I didn’t even realize that B&N had in-house columnists. Not sure what they gain from it, to be honest.)
We wouldn’t have to if you were better drivers.
I still think that a salad-printer would be an awesome innovation, and would allow me to make meelions and meelions of dollars advertising things to you while you eat.
I don’t know how I would print on frisee, however.