Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 41
March 19, 2012
The Gorgeousness of Cat (in The Windflower)
I recently wrote about classic romance novel The Windflower by Laura London for Heroes & Heartbreakers. In that post, I didn't have a chance to talk about one of the most notable secondary characters, Cat, whose surname we eventually learn is (probably) Cathcart – it isn't clear whether he uses it or not.
After I'd finished reading the book, at least five people told me Cat was their favorite character in the book, and they'd wished there had been a sequel featuring him. My thought on t...
March 18, 2012
"Antwerp," Ford Madox Hueffer
Antwerp
I
Gloom!
An October like November;
August a hundred thousand hours,
And all September,
A hundred thousand, dragging sunlit days,
And half October like a thousand years …
And doom!
That then was Antwerp …
In the name of God,
How could they do it?
Those souls that usually dived
Into the dirty caverns of mines;
Who usually hived
In whitened hovels; under ragged poplars;
Who dragged muddy shovels, over the grassy mud,
Lumbering to work over the greasy sods …
Those men there, with the appearance of c...
March 16, 2012
"'Ello, I wish to register a complaint." – Vintage Erotica Cover
This cover proves that the Paranormal Romance subgenre started earlier than we thought it did. Behold the Parrot Shifter.
March 14, 2012
Sime-Gen and Slashiness
My previous post on House of Zeor (1974) by Jacqueline Lichtenberg is about .
If you will recall, in my last post I noted that though the author of House of Zeor explicitly excluded sexuality from the vampiric feeding relationship between Sime and Gen, her descriptive language for the act of feeding was often reminiscient of that used in contemporaneous romance novels. In this post, I want to look at how vigorously she avoided hints of male/male sexuality in...
March 12, 2012
Sime-Gen and Romance Novels
A shorthand description of the Sime-Gen series is "Science Fictional Vampires," but the stories are far from being that simple. The Simes, human mutants with tentacles housed in their arms, can only live through drawing life force from the Gens, who have the appearance of normal humans but are also mutants. The series explores, very deeply, a range of issues raised by one portion of humanity requiring another portion of humanity as food, the strengths and weaknesses of both sides, and...
March 11, 2012
"The Jewish Conscript," Florence Kiper Frank
The Jewish Conscript
There are nearly a quarter of a million Jews in the Czar's army alone. –Newspaper clipping.
They have dressed me up in a soldier's dress,
With a rifle in my hand,
And have sent me bravely forth to shoot
My own in a foreign land.
Oh, many shall die for the fields of their homes,
And many in conquest wild;
But I shall die for the fatherland
That murdered my little child.
How many hundreds of years ago–
The nations wax and cease!–
Did the God of our fathers...
March 9, 2012
That vine is worrying….
Please feel free to supply your own captions in the comments.
…I have been wondering if that vine has a name. And if it likes walks on the beach.
If you missed it earlier this week, I have a new post over at Heroes & Heartbreakers, about Rosina Harrison's memoir Rose: My Life in Service to Lady Astor.
March 8, 2012
A few mystery novel previews
I've had a few more previews of new mystery novels up at The Criminal Element recently.
Fresh Meat: The Traitor in the Tunnel by Y.S. Lee – a young adult spy novel featuring a female spy.
Fresh Meat: Nine for the Devil by Mary Reed and Eric Mayer – this one is set during the reign of Emperor Justinian, and features a eunuch detective.
Chomp by Carl Hiaasen – another Young Adult mystery, riotously quirky and hilariously funny.
March 7, 2012
More on Holding the Line by Harold Baldwin
This is a continuation of my comments from this post.
Because I read Holding the Line on my e-reader, I was able to easily copy quotes that I found interesting. I reproduce them here for my own reference and, hopefully, your enjoyment.
Here's a bit about the equipment assigned to each infantryman: Hanging from the belt is the entrenching tool and handle; it is shaped like a tiny grub hoe. One would be apt to be amused at the idea of digging a hole with a toy like that, but under shell...
March 5, 2012
Holding the Line by Harold Baldwin – WWI Challenge
My next book for The WWI Challenge is Holding the Line by Harold Baldwin. It's a memoir that was published in February 1918, when most memoirs I have looked at seem to have been written and published in the years after the war was over, in the 1920s and even the 1930s. That's Baldwin over to the left.
I soon discovered this memoir had been intended as a recruiting tool; Baldwin was an Englishman living in Canada, working to enlist more Canadians and to enlist Americans to fight...
