The Wheel of Time, Cannibal Holocaust, and Expectations
I've been reading the first book in the Wheel of Time series lately--not entirely by choice, I happen to own the first three books (I don't know how--gift, maybe?) and my random number generator landed on it, and even though I don't really like fantasy and am not really extremely psyched about it, I'm not hating it as much as I thought I would. I thought that I'd be dragging my way through it, violently hating every page, violently hating the writing and the stupid clogged-up sentences.
But it's like... it's fine? It's pretty much the same as every other fantasy series. And maybe this is just the perspective of someone who doesn't like fantasy, but to me, these books are no worse and no better than, say, a Brandon Sanderson book. I know Sanderson gets a lot of love (which I don't really agree with--sure, Mistborn was fun, I guess), and Robert Jordan gets a lot of hate, but they are exactly the same. My expectation going in was that I was going to hate this series with every fiber of my being and it's like... it's fine.
Maybe this is because I went in full-on expecting it to be the worst trash I've ever read. It's kind of a reason why I'm a little bit leery to watch Cannibal Holocaust. Not because I think I'll hate it, because I think I'll love it. Because I'm a little too excited to watch it. Cannibal movies are the kind of movies that really get me freaked out, and yes, I do know that this movie was really unethically filmed (animal deaths, really low regard for the actors, particularly the Native actors but like, all of them) (though then again, it was the seventies--not excusing it, just saying that a lot of movies, especially horror movies, in the seventies were not very ethically filmed), but it just looks like something I'm going to really love.
This is also maybe why YA contemporary has kind of snuck up on becoming one of my favorite genres. I keep expecting to hate the books, and then I just don't when I eventually read them and it's just like. Huh. Okay. So my expectations can get skewed sometimes. And I've got like, four hundred pages left of The Eye of the World, so I'm hoping that I can get that finished within the next week or so. Because even though it's not as bad as I was expecting, it is not great. Bad, one might say. Just not the worst thing that's ever been written.
That still goes to The Last Christian by David Gregory.
But it's like... it's fine? It's pretty much the same as every other fantasy series. And maybe this is just the perspective of someone who doesn't like fantasy, but to me, these books are no worse and no better than, say, a Brandon Sanderson book. I know Sanderson gets a lot of love (which I don't really agree with--sure, Mistborn was fun, I guess), and Robert Jordan gets a lot of hate, but they are exactly the same. My expectation going in was that I was going to hate this series with every fiber of my being and it's like... it's fine.
Maybe this is because I went in full-on expecting it to be the worst trash I've ever read. It's kind of a reason why I'm a little bit leery to watch Cannibal Holocaust. Not because I think I'll hate it, because I think I'll love it. Because I'm a little too excited to watch it. Cannibal movies are the kind of movies that really get me freaked out, and yes, I do know that this movie was really unethically filmed (animal deaths, really low regard for the actors, particularly the Native actors but like, all of them) (though then again, it was the seventies--not excusing it, just saying that a lot of movies, especially horror movies, in the seventies were not very ethically filmed), but it just looks like something I'm going to really love.
This is also maybe why YA contemporary has kind of snuck up on becoming one of my favorite genres. I keep expecting to hate the books, and then I just don't when I eventually read them and it's just like. Huh. Okay. So my expectations can get skewed sometimes. And I've got like, four hundred pages left of The Eye of the World, so I'm hoping that I can get that finished within the next week or so. Because even though it's not as bad as I was expecting, it is not great. Bad, one might say. Just not the worst thing that's ever been written.
That still goes to The Last Christian by David Gregory.
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