~book~ Hemingway's Girl

Hemingway's Girl by Erika Robuck
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I feel like I should start by saying that I am not a huge fan of Hemingway. It's really as simple as I don't completely dig his writing style and that little fact that I'm a woman. I am also impossibly drawn to reading about great authors that I don't love in historical fiction. I'm not really sure why that is, but I always have been.

This book is set from the late winter to summer of 1935 in Key West. Told from the perspective of Mariella, a struggling young girl supporting her grieving mother and two young sisters. They're father has recently passed away and it's left to Mariella to keep a roof over their head and money for a doctor for the youngest girl. She meets Hemingway and a veteran around the same time and much of story revolves around her conflicting attraction and feelings for the two men.

The crux of a book like this is the relationships and character. Without a grasp of these two things, the story will just fall apart as another romantic piece of trite bs. Robuck has an amazing grasp of the both. Mariella is that "strong woman" in historical fiction that generally makes me want to throw things at the wall, but in this case she is realistically strong. She's not just strong and highly moral in an immoral world. She is strongly attracted to a married man. She sneaks around with a vet behind her mother's back. She is raw and real and struggles with her faith.

Hemingway is really a supporting character here used to highlight the balance of physical attraction and morality. The battle of what one should want and what one does want. If it feels obvious how things are going, it frequently doesn't go that way. The best relationship in this novel is not between Mariella and any man, but between her mother and her. It's a difficult relationship that perfectly sums up the mother/teenage daughter dynamic.

Simply put, this book is well worth a read.

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The Girl in Geekdom

This is a conversation that I kind of started on my facebook page, but really there are so many aspects to the "adventure" of being female in any geek or fandom that I really need to get more of it out of my system. Anyone who knows me well will probably know about half of this rant, but for those that don't I should forewarn that I am a bit of raving feminist.

So, warning being said, here's the deal: Being a geek girl is freaking hard. I actually used to delude myself that it would get easier as I got into my 30's, but it turns out, not so much. So, for the sake of argument, here are some of the frequent points I heard made against female geeks.

1. You don't know who the Chief Engineer was on The Next Generation before Geordi was.

Or whatever random bit of trivia about your fandom that you feel should be "necessary information" for the girl standing there saying she's loves it.

Fact: I have no idea the answer to this question and I'm actually watching the first season of TNG as I type this. It was said in the episode we watched last night, but in all honesty I don't remember what it was.

Fact: I have been to multiple Star Trek conventions since the age of 15 (read: before conventions of all kinds were cool-ish). Which if you have any idea how awkward I was at the age of 15, you'd know how much that did not in the slightest help my social stature. I have watched every reincarnation of Star Trek known to man. Read quite a few of the comics back before I kids and subsequently money for comics. I collected all the action figures and to this day am sad that I have no idea what happened to all my Star Trek MicroMachines that got lost in some move or another. My text message tone is Tribbles. My next tattoo is the symbol for the Klingon Empire. So on and so forth.

Fact: All of that last paragraph is irrelevant, because I am clearly not a fan, because I don't remember the name of that one relatively minor character. Even though if I were male, it wouldn't even be brought up as a question in the first place. If it somehow was, a man wouldn't have to defend himself by explaining any of that last paragraph, because it's a pretty obscure fact. And if for some reason he did defend himself with all that, it would be enough. But not me, because I don't have a dick.

Part of you is sitting there saying that's ridiculous and no one would actually say that, but the fact is, they would and they do. I haven't run into this particular question, but I've run into others when discussing in forums.

In case your curiosity was piqued the answer is actually that there were several: MacDougal, Argyle, Logan and Lynch. Google is my friend.

2. She can't really be a geek, because she's hot.

Not one I particularly have ever run into personally, because I'm pretty enough but forever hopelessly awkward. It's endearing to the right people and that's all that matters to me. However, there are girls that are genuinely drop dead gorgeous who are into things that make them by definition geeky. Ask that guy (and some of the less hot geek girls) over there though, and clearly she's not geeky, because she looks good.

Gotta love horribly outdated stereotypes, don't you? Which is exactly what this is. You can't be beautiful/good looking and smart. You can't be hot and love science fiction or comic books. Clearly, by being hot, all you can care about is the Notebook and Cosmo magazine.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

This also goes for any girl who has a sense of how to put herself together and be fashionable/care about how she looks. Which I have more experience with. Just because I know and care about fashion, does not immediately mean I'm claiming to love nerdy things for the sake of a fad. I just happen to like the self expression of how I put myself together.

3. You like the Notebook and read Cosmo magazine? Clearly, you're not a nerd.

Newsflash: People are multifaceted beings, with many different interests that span across many different areas of pop culture, film, literature, so on and so forth. It's called being open to things and not limiting yourself, because something doesn't fit in the box you've made for yourself.

I could list everything I love that isn't "nerdy", but you'd be reading this already somewhat long, ranty blog for that much longer, so I won't. I'll just say that I actually think the Notebook is a 4 out of 5 star movie. (Not to hate on anyone who reads Cosmo, but that one is outside my likes. I literally feel dumber every time I happen to read anything in it.) Funny thing though, I can like the Notebook and the Avengers at the same time. I can like crappy reality shows and Firefly At The Same Time. I can like mc chris and Lady Gaga AT THE SAME TIME. See what I'm getting at there? It's true of anything and anybody.

4. You don't like Star Wars. Nerd card revoked.

Confession: I really don't like Star Wars. I spent many of my formative years growing up just north of Lucas Ranch, surrounded by rabid fan kids who thought that Star Wars was literally a way of life. I get that people can be that into something and I don't judge, but it really turned me completely off from the whole franchise. I'm not struck with an immediate need to vomit when it comes on screen, but it's not something I'm ever going to choose to watch. Ever. I'd probably rather watch Glitter with Mariah Carey than Star Wars.

So, side one of the coin, clearly I am not at all nerdy, because I don't like what is one of nerdom's biggest fandoms. Despite all the other traditionally nerdy things I love. Obviously.

Side two of the coin, I am not that nerdy, because I like some things Star Wars related and have even gone from eye rolling to lukewarm on most things Star Wars (having a 9 year old that loves it and surrounds you with it all the time will do that to you). Clearly, I'm only becoming lukewarm on it to fit in with all the other nerds, which means that I obviously fake all the other things I like.

I'd really like someone to explain how I win that one when those are the two sides of the coin.

5. You're not smart enough to be a nerd.

This may actually be my favorite, since I have known quite a few D&D boys who were (in all honesty) dumber than rocks in all possible ways. They however play rpg's four days a week, so their nerdiness is not questioned.

I happen to not be at all mathematically or scientifically inclined. I'm pretty bad with technology. I know enough to not break my laptop on a daily basis, but that's about it really. That's just not how my brain works. I'm at heart an artist and writer and don't do well with things that have hard and fast rules all the time.

You guessed it though, this has called my ability to call myself a nerd into question.

"How can you be a nerd and not know how to fix a computer?"

Dude, really? Those same RPGers probably have no idea either.

"That's different though."

Not really, bro, but whatever makes you feel better at night.

In closing:

I'm not saying all males are like this or would think anything like this. To the contrary, I would even say that most of them wouldn't. Sometimes it just feels like the ones that do say these things are more vocal and start representing the culture. It makes me ashamed that from the outside, the open minded males and girls like myself are lumped in with them.

The biggest problem is that it shuts down communication between people who love the same things. At the end of the day, all any fandom wants is to find other fans to discuss the things they love with. When you nitpick all the reasons that someone can't be in your club and discussion, you are limiting that discussion and limiting on more voice that may have brought something new to the table. As much as you think you're hurting me and protecting your "culture", all you're doing is hurting it.

And that's all for this rant. Peace out and good night.