Reading/Book Pet Peeves

[AfleetAlex]

One of my pet peeves is entirely my problem (most definitely not the author's, especially with historical books) - how women behaved or were treated. I read 'Jane Eyre' in high school, and while I enjoyed it, I was deeply annoyed at how Jane still called him "Mr. Rochester" even when they were in love.  I thought she should be able to call him by his first name at that point. Still bugs me, even though it's the way things were done at the time. 

Plus any heroine (i.e. main character) who is a shrinking violet or completely helpless just annoys me to no end.

[Margo]

One of my pet peeves is entirely my problem (most definitely not the author's, especially with historical books) - how women behaved or were treated. I read 'Jane Eyre' in high school, and while I enjoyed it, I was deeply annoyed at how Jane still called him "Mr. Rochester" even when they were in love.  I thought she should be able to call him by his first name at that point. Still bugs me, even though it's the way things were done at the time. 

Plus any heroine (i.e. main character) who is a shrinking violet or completely helpless just annoys me to no end.

This made me smile, because I get irritated by the opposite, where books are set in a period where people were more formal, and suddenly they are using forenames and being inappropriately [for the period] informal!

[Elfmama]

One of my pet peeves is entirely my problem (most definitely not the author's, especially with historical books) - how women behaved or were treated. I read 'Jane Eyre' in high school, and while I enjoyed it, I was deeply annoyed at how Jane still called him "Mr. Rochester" even when they were in love.  I thought she should be able to call him by his first name at that point. Still bugs me, even though it's the way things were done at the time. 

Plus any heroine (i.e. main character) who is a shrinking violet or completely helpless just annoys me to no end.

Oh, yes.  This particularly annoys me in Robin Hood movies, for some reason.  At the climactic scene where Robin is fighting the Sheriff of Nottingham and/or Guy of Gisbourne, what does Maid Marian do?  Does she pick up whatever is handiest and heave it at the Bad Guy?  Don't be silly!  She stands there and wrings her hands and squeaks "Oh, Robin, look out!"  Even though she's been presented as a perfectly capable young woman up until then.

By contrast, one of my heroines picks up the firepoker and thwacks the villain upside the head with it.   He's been distracted by the other heroine (who is 4 years old) trying to hamstring him.

[Kendo_Bunny]

Oh, yes.  This particularly annoys me in Robin Hood movies, for some reason.  At the climactic scene where Robin is fighting the Sheriff of Nottingham and/or Guy of Gisbourne, what does Maid Marian do?  Does she pick up whatever is handiest and heave it at the Bad Guy?  Don't be silly!  She stands there and wrings her hands and squeaks "Oh, Robin, look out!"  Even though she's been presented as a perfectly capable young woman up until then.

By contrast, one of my heroines picks up the firepoker and thwacks the villain upside the head with it.   He's been distracted by the other heroine (who is 4 years old) trying to hamstring him.

This can backfire though. Not with Maid Marian, who is usually shown as fairly fit in a fight, but with a heroine who obviously knows nothing about battle. In "The Chronicles of the Cheysuli", the heroine who Can Do No Wrong Because She is Just So Perfect runs into the middle of a fight with the intention of helping her husband. She instead distracts her husband (because she has no idea how to fight, and basically ran in flailing her arms and squealing) long enough for the villain to get a garrote around him. Then she picks up a handy chunk of wood and beans the villain, leading to her husband proclaiming her the most brave and helpful woman ever, and me having to pick my eyes off the floor and put them back in.

[Elfmama]

Oh, yes.  This particularly annoys me in Robin Hood movies, for some reason.  At the climactic scene where Robin is fighting the Sheriff of Nottingham and/or Guy of Gisbourne, what does Maid Marian do?  Does she pick up whatever is handiest and heave it at the Bad Guy?  Don't be silly!  She stands there and wrings her hands and squeaks "Oh, Robin, look out!"  Even though she's been presented as a perfectly capable young woman up until then.

By contrast, one of my heroines picks up the firepoker and thwacks the villain upside the head with it.   He's been distracted by the other heroine (who is 4 years old) trying to hamstring him.

This can backfire though. Not with Maid Marian, who is usually shown as fairly fit in a fight, but with a heroine who obviously knows nothing about battle. In "The Chronicles of the Cheysuli", the heroine who Can Do No Wrong Because She is Just So Perfect runs into the middle of a fight with the intention of helping her husband. She instead distracts her husband (because she has no idea how to fight, and basically ran in flailing her arms and squealing) long enough for the villain to get a garrote around him. Then she picks up a handy chunk of wood and beans the villain, leading to her husband proclaiming her the most brave and helpful woman ever, and me having to pick my eyes off the floor and put them back in.

Well, Linnora and Ashla aren't distracting Our Hero, because the Bad Guy has him tied to a chair.  And when Linnora realizes what she's done, she's terrified that he'll be angry because it's the husband's job to fight off the bad guys.

But I can certainly see how flailing and screaming wouldn't particularly help.   

[cabbageweevil]

I may have missed this, and it often occurs in books that are in the first person POV, but the heavy handedness with foreshadowing drives me insane. Or even worse, "If only I'd realized what" x thing meant, killing a future plot point.

I read a bio that kept doing this and it drove me bazoo. We all know it ends badly- the Russian Revolution was involved! Stop telling us in every chapter!

Ogden Nash, long ago, had something apposite to say about this literary vice:

"Personally, I don't care whether an author was educated at night school or day school,
 So long as they don't belong to the H.I.B.K. school --
 A tendency to which too many writers of fiction are prone:
 Namely, the Had I But Known."

[Piratelvr1121]

One of my pet peeves is entirely my problem (most definitely not the author's, especially with historical books) - how women behaved or were treated. I read 'Jane Eyre' in high school, and while I enjoyed it, I was deeply annoyed at how Jane still called him "Mr. Rochester" even when they were in love.  I thought she should be able to call him by his first name at that point. Still bugs me, even though it's the way things were done at the time. 

Plus any heroine (i.e. main character) who is a shrinking violet or completely helpless just annoys me to no end.

Oh, yes.  This particularly annoys me in Robin Hood movies, for some reason.  At the climactic scene where Robin is fighting the Sheriff of Nottingham and/or Guy of Gisbourne, what does Maid Marian do?  Does she pick up whatever is handiest and heave it at the Bad Guy?  Don't be silly!  She stands there and wrings her hands and squeaks "Oh, Robin, look out!"  Even though she's been presented as a perfectly capable young woman up until then.

By contrast, one of my heroines picks up the firepoker and thwacks the villain upside the head with it.   He's been distracted by the other heroine (who is 4 years old) trying to hamstring him.

That is one thing that drives me up the wall about Princess Buttercup in Princess Bride. I love that movie, but I just cannot stand her. 

[lady_disdain]

One of my pet peeves is entirely my problem (most definitely not the author's, especially with historical books) - how women behaved or were treated. I read 'Jane Eyre' in high school, and while I enjoyed it, I was deeply annoyed at how Jane still called him "Mr. Rochester" even when they were in love.  I thought she should be able to call him by his first name at that point. Still bugs me, even though it's the way things were done at the time. 

Plus any heroine (i.e. main character) who is a shrinking violet or completely helpless just annoys me to no end.

Oh, yes.  This particularly annoys me in Robin Hood movies, for some reason.  At the climactic scene where Robin is fighting the Sheriff of Nottingham and/or Guy of Gisbourne, what does Maid Marian do?  Does she pick up whatever is handiest and heave it at the Bad Guy?  Don't be silly!  She stands there and wrings her hands and squeaks "Oh, Robin, look out!"  Even though she's been presented as a perfectly capable young woman up until then.

By contrast, one of my heroines picks up the firepoker and thwacks the villain upside the head with it.   He's been distracted by the other heroine (who is 4 years old) trying to hamstring him.

That is one thing that drives me up the wall about Princess Buttercup in Princess Bride. I love that movie, but I just cannot stand her. 

Well, she is supposed to be the exaggerated version of the trope, so I guess the author was successful.

[Verloona Ti]

One of my pet peeves is entirely my problem (most definitely not the author's, especially with historical books) - how women behaved or were treated. I read 'Jane Eyre' in high school, and while I enjoyed it, I was deeply annoyed at how Jane still called him "Mr. Rochester" even when they were in love.  I thought she should be able to call him by his first name at that point. Still bugs me, even though it's the way things were done at the time. 

Plus any heroine (i.e. main character) who is a shrinking violet or completely helpless just annoys me to no end.

Oh, yes.  This particularly annoys me in Robin Hood movies, for some reason.  At the climactic scene where Robin is fighting the Sheriff of Nottingham and/or Guy of Gisbourne, what does Maid Marian do?  Does she pick up whatever is handiest and heave it at the Bad Guy?  Don't be silly!  She stands there and wrings her hands and squeaks "Oh, Robin, look out!"  Even though she's been presented as a perfectly capable young woman up until then.

Bwahahaha! Reminds me of the Robin Hood television series from the UK. Judy Trott was Maid Marian, in her green clothes  with her long flowing-yet-curly red hair, she made an exquisite MM...But whenever she was supposed to run, she'd bend her arms up at the elbow and sort of shuffle/jog/trot  (trott?) instead of run. This looked absolutely hilarious.

[Kiara]

One of my pet peeves is entirely my problem (most definitely not the author's, especially with historical books) - how women behaved or were treated. I read 'Jane Eyre' in high school, and while I enjoyed it, I was deeply annoyed at how Jane still called him "Mr. Rochester" even when they were in love.  I thought she should be able to call him by his first name at that point. Still bugs me, even though it's the way things were done at the time. 

Plus any heroine (i.e. main character) who is a shrinking violet or completely helpless just annoys me to no end.

Oh, yes.  This particularly annoys me in Robin Hood movies, for some reason.  At the climactic scene where Robin is fighting the Sheriff of Nottingham and/or Guy of Gisbourne, what does Maid Marian do?  Does she pick up whatever is handiest and heave it at the Bad Guy?  Don't be silly!  She stands there and wrings her hands and squeaks "Oh, Robin, look out!"  Even though she's been presented as a perfectly capable young woman up until then.

Slightly off topic, because it's from a movie, but the above is one of the reasons I love the movie Bourne Legacy.  Because in the end, the heroine scientist chick is the one who gets the bad guy, by smacking him over the head and making him crash his motorcycle. 

I also love the fact that she's never really a love interest in the movie.  YAY.  (You can honestly read their relationship either way.)

[Giggity]

I may have missed this, and it often occurs in books that are in the first person POV, but the heavy handedness with foreshadowing drives me insane. Or even worse, "If only I'd realized what" x thing meant, killing a future plot point.

I read a bio that kept doing this and it drove me bazoo. We all know it ends badly- the Russian Revolution was involved! Stop telling us in every chapter!

Ogden Nash, long ago, had something apposite to say about this literary vice:

"Personally, I don't care whether an author was educated at night school or day school,
 So long as they don't belong to the H.I.B.K. school --
 A tendency to which too many writers of fiction are prone:
 Namely, the Had I But Known."

Mel Starr's Hugh de Singleton medieval-mystery series does this hugely. Grrrrrrr.

[cabbageweevil]

I may have missed this, and it often occurs in books that are in the first person POV, but the heavy handedness with foreshadowing drives me insane. Or even worse, "If only I'd realized what" x thing meant, killing a future plot point.

I read a bio that kept doing this and it drove me bazoo. We all know it ends badly- the Russian Revolution was involved! Stop telling us in every chapter!

Ogden Nash, long ago, had something apposite to say about this literary vice:

"Personally, I don't care whether an author was educated at night school or day school,
 So long as they don't belong to the H.I.B.K. school --
 A tendency to which too many writers of fiction are prone:
 Namely, the Had I But Known."

Mel Starr's Hugh de Singleton medieval-mystery series does this hugely. Grrrrrrr.

For my tastes, medieval-mystery series have been totally done to death anyway. Thanks for the tip-off about this one, hitherto unheard-of by me, and definitely to avoid.

[Reika]

Ogden Nash, long ago, had something apposite to say about this literary vice:

"Personally, I don't care whether an author was educated at night school or day school,
 So long as they don't belong to the H.I.B.K. school --
 A tendency to which too many writers of fiction are prone:
 Namely, the Had I But Known."

Snipping the quote tree.

And yes! This is what I had in mind. I've actually stopped reading books I was otherwise enjoying when I got to that phrase of doom. In my experience, and I'm sure there are exceptions, when an author uses that phrase, the quality of the story goes downhill.

[lilfox]

To be fair, I'm only about 60 pages into this book, but this trope is making it very hard to get into:
We are introduced to the hero, who is 200 yrs old but well preserved and urbane.
He meets a 20 yr old who is the spitting image of a former unrequited love so, naturally, beautiful, delicate, and feisty (in order of importance to him).
They spend two days together because... It's a plot point I guess.
Then she changes her mind about a major life altering decision because now she loves him.
After two days, with no showing or even much telling.

Now that is lazy writing.  I can only hope the story is why this book is considered a sci fi classic, cuz it's not character development.

[magicdomino]

To be fair, I'm only about 60 pages into this book, but this trope is making it very hard to get into:
We are introduced to the hero, who is 200 yrs old but well preserved and urbane.
He meets a 20 yr old who is the spitting image of a former unrequited love so, naturally, beautiful, delicate, and feisty (in order of importance to him).
They spend two days together because... It's a plot point I guess.
Then she changes her mind about a major life altering decision because now she loves him.
After two days, with no showing or even much telling.

Now that is lazy writing.  I can only hope the story is why this book is considered a sci fi classic, cuz it's not character development.

Heinlein?  He seemed to have a thing for old men and young women.