Ask A Man

[metaphortunate]

May I recommend to you Ask A Man. (A personal favorite, to start with.)

From the description:

Stephen Shaughnessy is a Certified Man who lives in England in 1882. He answers questions on tumblr through the strangest of black magics, which he does not choose to explain here.

But Stephen Shaughnessy first saw the light of day as a helpful guy in the pages of The Suffragette Scandal, by Courtney Milan, currently $3.99 on Amazon Kindle:

It has come to the attention of the editorial staff that our newspaper, with its determination to be "by women, about women, and for women," cannot possibly impress anyone as we lack the imprimatur of a man to validate our thoughts. To that end, we have procured an Actual Man to answer questions. Please address all inquiries to Man, care of Women's Free Press, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire. - F.M.

I know people who scoff at the idea of comfort reading. Which is fine: you don't have to like all the things I like. Though I will note by the way that a number of you have sources of comfort in basically all of your reading that not all of us have. Representation, of course; and the characters who represent you not having mysteriously gone llama. The subtle reinforcement of the social pyramid is a nearly unnoticeable source of comfort to those of us on top! But, you know, that's cool, like I said, you don't have to like romance novels or anything like that, and it's not like Milan is immune to it in her own ways. If you're not into femme stuff, or fluff, peace out now; I want to talk about Courtney Milan, and her books are romance, and fluff, and they are the best fluff ever and if you like this sort of thing you need to read these. NOW.

Here is the key to the joy of Courtney Milan, helpfully summed up in the title of one of her very own novellas:

Remember when I wrote about Georgette Heyer?

Hugo wants Anthea and Anthea wants Hugo, that is a fact. But in the way their conflict is set up - the classic way that courtship is set up - if Hugo is cleverer than Anthea, Hugo and Anthea get each other, and if Anthea is cleverer than Hugo, neither of them gets to be happy. What's Anthea's motivation to be clever, or funny, or effective, or wise, when doing it gets her punished instead of rewarded?

Oh my God, Heyer is funny and fun, but all of her heroines (but Sophy! Go, Sophy) have to accept their proposals in tears, reposing on the manly bosoms of men who have masculinely rescued them and corrected them and sorted out their lives, because God knows the women were making a dog's breakfast of them. Elizabeth is so very Wrong about Darcy and Wickham (Darcy needs to be less of a dickhead, but he's not Wrong about Elizabeth's family being jerks, because: jerks.) Marianne is Wrong about, uh, everything, and needs to nearly die and admit that she is just so goddamn emotional and wrong before "by general consent" she can become the reward of everyone's obligations to Colonel Brandon. Jo is Wrong about wanting to be a boy and a writer and not marry and she needs to stop writing all that awful trash that they put in newspapers! where kids can read it! and marry a much older man (all covered in crumbs, obviously) and start a Boys' School where she can teach Boys and have Boys because Boooooooooys, fuck it.

(In these days of the 50 Shades trailer coming out and everyone falling all over themselves to go on about how awful it is that women just keep throwing their wallets at that crap, I'd like to take a moment to say that I haven't read 50 Shades, but I have read Twilight now, and I saw the movie, and my understanding of the rest of them is that it kind of boils down to this:

Bella: Damn, you are hot.
Edward: You are also hot and fascinating, and I would like to spend eternity hearing about your favorite bands, but I can never be with you because I am too sexy and powerful and dangerous!
Bella: Wow, really? I would like to have a sexy powerful dangerous boyfriend who thinks I am hot and fascinating. Incidentally, I would also like to MYSELF be this sexy powerful dangerous thing.
Edward: No, I can't! It's too dangerous!
Bella: And sexy and powerful?
Edward: Maybe.
Plot: [Occurs.]
Bella: [Gets every single thing she wants.]
Bella: Huh, this is what I used to want, and what I tried to get, and now that I have it…I'm really happy and pleased with my undeath choices. Plus we even have a magical daughter who was sleeping through the night 30 minutes after she was born. Let's make out!
[makeouts] [interrupted by wrestling mountain lions and punching a dude who used to kiss her without permission]

WHY WOULD WOMEN AND GIRLS BE INTO THIS, I CAN'T IMAGINE. DIGRESSION OVER.)

Anyway, Courtney Milan, back to her: it's like a romance novel, with the focus on women, and the comfort reading style, and the sexy parts, but without the bit where the women are doing everything Wrong and the men swoop in and correct them. Instead, the women are doing various other things! Sometimes they are not daring to let themselves be great and they need someone to encourage them to be great. Sometimes they are in a tough situation but they meet someone else who is in a tough situation and they find ways that they can help each other. Sometimes they are in a tough situation but they meet someone who needs help and that gives them an idea for a way in which they can help the other person and also themselves. Sometimes they meet someone who is Wrong and just needs his ass kicked. Sometimes, although in minor parts, they are lesbians. They're pretty cute about it!

And the lady. Always. Wins.

And Milan is seriously just getting better and better. Like she says: don't start with the Carhart series - unless, going back to representation, you would cry with gratitude to read a happy ending romance novel about a good person who happens to be struggling with what looks like bipolar, in which case you want Trial by Desire. But every book she has published is better than the one before. Last year I was raving about The Countess Conspiracy, because Ms. Milan knows what unspeakable desire really lurks in the hearts of women: a powerful, sexy man who is devoted to the dream of getting his beloved her rightful principal investigator status on her published scientific discoveries and then becoming a faculty husband.

But The Suffragette Scandal is even better.

So read it.

If you like that sort of thing.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

Will you marry me?

[metaphortunate]

Alas, I am still getting over bronchitis and I don't even have the energy to be properly married to the person I am already married to! :P

[princessofgeeks]

I'll just have to go on enjoying the metaphor then.

Anyway, thanks for this; wonderful.

[kate_nepveu]

I didn't realize this was out!

[metaphortunate]

My good deed is done!

[sovay]

a powerful, sexy man who is devoted to the dream of getting his beloved her rightful principal investigator status on her published scientific discoveries and then becoming a faculty husband.

Sold.

[phi]

:P That's the one Natalie and I were enthusing about on our panel at Readercon

[sovay]

That's the one Natalie and I were enthusing about on our panel at Readercon

It is slowly being explained to me by the universe that Courtney Milan is about to fix most of the reasons I never read romance as a genre.

[amaebi]

WANT. (pauses to GET, because is sexy and powerful)

I love your summary of the Twilight series, even though I didn't like the movies. Which, interestingly, I saw because my male spouse wanted to see them.

I like Sense and Sensibility a lot better since the Emma Thompson movie led me to read it as a Romance of Two Sisters. Which is also how I now read Pride and Prejudice.

[metaphortunate]

I LOVE the Emma Thompson film. She was too old for the role, but who can give a shit?

[amaebi]

And there is this feature of Jane Austen novels: how could young women in their twenties possibly be as self-possessed as Elizabeth and even Jane Bennet, Emma Woodhouse, Elinor and even Marianne Dashwood?

Catherine Morland seems her own age, and Anne Eliot is not only older, but more or less socially paralyzed. But those others!

[metaphortunate]

Oh, I totally see it. When I was that age, I was equally self-possessed and - to be honest - Wrong about so many goddamn things. :D I mean, they are self-possessed, but they are mistaken about a whole hell of a lot! Which is very like a particular kind of self-confident teenage/early twenties girl that I used to know.

[amaebi]

Mind if I link from my LJ account?

[metaphortunate]

Not at all!

[amaebi]

Thank you!

[gingicat]

I think I must read this book!

[metaphortunate]

It's really fun!

[brooksmoses]

I was particularly amused at the discussion of balance at dinner parties in this "Ask a Man" missive. Suddenly things make so much more sense!

[metaphortunate]

So logical! That is how you know it came from the pen of a Man. ;)

[rmc28]

Hi - a friend linked to this, and I am in complete agreement with you on the joy that is Courtney Milan, and in particular the most recent two books.

I hadn't seen Twilight in quite that light before, thank you for your summary :-)

[metaphortunate]

Hello, fellow Milan fan! :)

[oyceter]

Awww, yay! I burned out a little bit on her by trying to read some of her latest releases when I wasn't in the mood, but I am REALLY looking forward to Talk Sweetly to Me. Mathematical genius POC heroine in a historical romance!!

Thank you for the rec!

[brainwane]

I just read Trade Me and blogged about it and about Milan in general, linking to you. Thank you for bringing Milan to my attention!

Re: Thank you for the rec!

[metaphortunate]

You're more than welcome! I am so looking forward to getting to Trade Me; I am really not into contemporary romance, but for Milan I will give anything a shot.