I’ve made absolutely no attempt to hide my extreme ffangirliness when it comes to the work of Jasper Fforde. I’d read the dude’s grocery list if he decided to stop writing ffiction (I wonder how long I can keep this up?), and I’ve been pushing everyone I know to read him since I ffirst discovered his work. I haven’t done an inbox purge in quite a while, and the oldest email I could ffind was from a ffriend of mine in March of ’11 that read:
So I popped in to Forbidden Planet today. What has two thumbs and a signed copy of The Eyre Affair? THIS GUY!
Because I pressured him into it of course. At that point, I’d been pressuring him about it FFOREVER and he finally caved. Because that’s the way I roll. I don’t know how to just mildly suggest something. I will bug the shit out of you until you give in because you just want me to shut the ffuck up about it, already.
You know who’s (mostly) immune to my pressuring? Heather D. I’m pretty sure I’ve been bugging the crap out of her about reading Fforde for as long as we’ve known each other, and she only just gave in in December.
While it makes me happy that she ffinally gave in (and LOVED HIM), it makes me a little sad that my powers don’t work on everyone. She must be a Toydarian.
Sorry, guys, I had some wine in the tub, so the RAMBLING is also in effect.
[looks ffor the point she knows she had somewhere]
Oh! Right.
So, I re-read The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book (the ffirst two books in the Thursday Next series) during the move/Time of No Internet (yes, it deserves to be a Proper Noun), and Heather L AND Heather D both read the ffirst book at approximately the same time. This was a ffirst read ffor both of them.
I ffeel the need to digress a moment and tell you all that I ffirmly realize that Fforde may not be everyone’s cuppa. I mean, just because I love something, doesn’t mean that everyone else will (even if I know I’m right). Keeping that in mind, I read, while beset by worries that one or both Heathers would decide I was ffull of it and think I had no idea what I was talking about.
Luckily, this did not turn out to be the case. They both loved it. THEY BOTH LOVED IT.
Now, the two Heathers don’t necessarily always have a lot in common as ffar as books go, so this means that I chose something as one of my All Time Ffavourites that might just appeal to more than a small group of people, yes?
So I thought.
And, like most masochists do, I went looking ffor the people that would dare to disagree with me.
Most of the one star reviews ffor The Eyre Affair made some sense. If literary puns and alternate universes (with time travel! and blackjack! and hookers!) aren’t really your thing, you probably won’t enjoy these books at all. But if you still have the sense of humour of a child, and make the occasional That’s What She Said joke, and are ffairly well read, then you just might enjoy these for what they are.
BUT THEN!
I ffound a review saying that the book was “horribly written” and “a bit hot mess [sic]” and saying that the author “did not do his research.”
This left me scratching my head.
The reason for said head scratching was that…I mean, if you actually read the book (and if you’ve actually read any of the books referenced), you’ll see that Fforde is just as big a literary ffanboi as any of us. His research has been done, and it was done so that he could purposely tweak OUR past to ffit the past of the world he created.
Does that make sense?
Maybe it doesn’t now, because (as I said) I had some wine in the tub. What I’m saying is that Fforde knows his shit (Schitt, hee), and BECAUSE he does, he’s so successful at turning it all on its head.
So seeing someone say that there needed to be more research made me (quite ffrankly) a little ragey.
BUT I KEPT MYSELF UNDER CONTROL.
No, really.
I totally did.
I saw in her comments that people had tried to explain that this was an AU, and she brushed them off, so I thought “Well, hell. Maybe she just doesn’t know what an AU is?” and tried to expand on that ffor her.
But she tried to take it back and say that it was just about the writing. The horrible writing.
I DON’T KNOW WHY I TRY TO REASON WITH PEOPLE ANYMORE.
I think I’m just going to start being a megatroll and leave it at that.
[deep breath]
