naivete

Me Before You

Posted on September 28, 2016

Novel Ideas makes its return after too long away. This episode is about Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, a story about a quirky quirkster and a sad sack in a wheelchair. In this one we discuss ableism, depression, class, and assisted suicide, subjects which may cause you to feel icky. We also talk about our obscure theories (this book is secretly an eff you to rich people, this book is an anti-athlete author tract), what constitutes “a thing” (the internet, disabled people, therapy), why career counselors probably shouldn’t push you towards stripping, and that brief moment where Ben gets super judge-y.

The music bump is “The Queen Bee” by Sammy Nestico as performed by the Count Basie band.

107 – Me Before You – Feels Kinda Icky

Our recommendation: Reads easily enough, but you’ll feel icky if you think too hard about it.

Ben: 5/10 on the initial read, 3/10 by the time Gabs and I were done talking about it.

Gabs: 3/10 after we talked about it.

Holy crap, one of us did some research for this episode! Here are a couple of links that Gabs referenced:

Video:

http://youtu.be/Z9bkWJtm-mU

Articles:

http://cdrnys.org/blog/advocacy/hollywood-lies-i-prefer-my-disabled-girlfriend-alive/

http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.ca/2016/05/boycott-me-before-you-disability-death.html?m=1

This entry was posted in Episodes and tagged ableism, annoying tropes, anti-athlete author tract, assisted suicide, Ben gets judge-y, bestseller?, buying a girl, class, depression, disabled people exist, discrimination litmus test, entitlement, failed self-promotion, free spirit, hate reading?, holy crap research, icky-ness, immaturity, Jojo Moyes, Me Before You, naivete, obligatory marriage, person first language, questionable narration change, rape backstory, rich guy motivations, rom-com bad relationship checklist, romance, single mom, spoiler alert, stripping and tourism based economy, the internet is a thing, therapy is a thing, underrepresentation, WHAT IS HAPPENING.

Girl in the Road

Posted on October 8, 2015

Novel Ideas is back for another month of sibling book-related antics. This time with The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne. We chose this book as part of our ongoing campaign to read more fiction about and/or by non-white, non-male authors. In this episode we discuss women in science fiction, elements of good world building, travel narratives, and feminism. We also talk about partially digested (probably not) snakes, how not to share your Golden Meaning, give advice on whether to murder (hint: no), and strange personal belief systems.

The music bump is “The Road” by Tenacious D.

98 – Girl in the Road – Classic Cotagonists

Our rating:

A different spin on the travel narrative with an ending full of “wat.”

Ben: 7/10. Not knowing what was going on for at least half of the story did not prevent me from enjoying it.

Gabs: 7/10. Points for the concept, but deductions for the confusion.

This entry was posted in Episodes and tagged brown women, cotagonists, feminism, Girl in the Road, Golden Meaning, kreen, live episode, Monica Byrne, murder, naivete, nanotech, near future, obvious edit points, personal goddess, sex and violence, snakes, travel narrative, undefined sexuality, underage sex, weird spirituality, women in science fiction, world building.