love how the bermuda triangle book's blurb says: "Things are happening in the Bermuda Triangle even as you are reading these words." Like the author was hoping to blow somebody's mind with the fact that the world doesn't stand still while you read. "Things are happening at the McDonald's two blocks away even as you're reading this comment."
How does Charles Berlitz' life story sound like such an interesting domestic thriller novel but then his books seem like an unhinged reddit thread. I'd rather read his Wikipedia article or biography ngl 😂
Yes!! Someone who says it out loud: 'Strong Female Characters' is the worst and least constructive term ever. Dear me, I thought the day would never come when I'd hear someone say that on YT.
as an Indigenous person, TJ Klune could’ve literally lied 😂 “i was inspired by Leela’s story in Futurama” there! there’s been so many legit orphan stories. maybe he tried to seem more worldly but it came across as insensitive and, frankly, dumb
I don't know who said it, but I always remember an old man on a documentary that said "I hated everything about _Casino Royale._ I hated the grotesque violence, I hated the disgusting s*xuality, but what I hated above alll else was the snobbery. Because *it wasn't even the snobbery of a real elititst, but rather what a dull con-artist would do to try to convince others that he's sophisticated."*
I totally agree with you (and that Goodreads reviewer) about Chloe Gong publishing so many books in such a short time being emblematic of the problems in the publishing industry. I also would say part of the problem is the audience too - they don't know how to wait for books to be published anymore and want constant content. Any time there's a wait for a new book in the series, people start panicking and bringing up George R R Martin and it's like guys... he's an outlier and shouldn't be counted. It should be normal to expect more than a year wait for the next book.
Agreed! While I don't agree with the claim that TikTok is turning publishing into fast fashion, I think there's merit in exploring and critiquing why people say that. It goes back to the audiences, who are mostly new readers that have grown up with other forms of media that do pump out content at a faster rate than books, who then expect for publishing to be the same.
I'm so glad you point out issues related to capitalism/consummerism/economic crisis constantly throughout your videos. Extremely relevant discussion as always. ❤
The thing about The House in the Cerulean Sea for me is that he doesn't claim to represent the indigenous residential schools so I don't really see the issue, it's not a rewriting. It's just something that inspired him. + by citing this in his interview he shed light on the sixties scoop (wich i had never heard of - maybe bcs I'm french). So he wrote a beautiful story about acceptance and the need for love wich I think is amazing to read for YA. I fail to see how he profits off of this history because he chose not to write a story about it. Like you said, the orphanages in the book are not like the real-life residential schools, the kids are not abducted. And like for once we have a story that says the system is bad and not just an individual villain. Maybe I'm missing something, please tell me if so.
@olgadonskaia I've seen you say it a couple times, but what do you mean "psychologically incorrect"? Like, what exactly did Klune get wrong? Do you have examples?
@@changelingreader14 well, firstly, orphans wouldn’t trust a person from a system (my adopted children recognise social workers and are scared of them). Secondly, the protagonist who never cared about the results of his reports suddenly getting all sympathetic. And finally, the phoenix guy would never be able to provide care for those traumatised children being traumatised himself. Though I can believe the part where he falls for any man who appears on the island:)
@@olgadonskaia They didn't really trust him at first, but they also had abilities that he didn't, so it makes sense that they weren't terrified of him the way that some kids fear random social workers in the real world. Why would you be terrified of someone who you could technically kill if you really wanted to?
@@explicitlyme7497 of course you can try to make sense of anything but building characters is the author’s job, which he fails to do properly. He just uses the orphan trope as a cliche. I think he does more harm than good with his book
In Australia we have a similar thing to Canada's The Sixties Scoop. Here it's called The Stolen Generation (which wasn't just one generation - it was multiple). Aboriginal children being stolen from their parents, their community, their county, and being thrust into white christian religious missions and into white family's homes. It was a time of actual genocide, and cultural genocide, their lands stolen, their language diluted. As a white australian, no way in hell would that ever be my story to tell, especially not inserting myself as the hero of the story when that's exactly what the governments and churches were doing with their rotten deluded hero/saviour complex, marching in and deciding they were saving the souls of beautiful children who already had a living culture that is older than any other on the planet. The trauma and grief and cyclical impact of these actions continues today.
same indian boarding schools here in the U.S., but he didn't write about that or try to put a happy spin on it, he was inspired by it to write a different kind of story. even though i didn't enjoy the book i have no problem with being inspired by anything at all, authors are going have to pass on talking or writing about their process for fear of the trendy moral outrage generation. all i care about any artist is if the art is to my liking.
@@tinagarcia3571 It is perfectly valid when you say that you personally do not care what inspires an author's work - completely fair. But I think that calling it a problem of the "trendy moral outrage generation" is very dismissive for a discourse the author inserted himself into. Fair enough if you do not have a problem with it but other people do. Because here is the thing: the author could have read that Wikipedia article, written his novel, which, as Emma points out, draws no connection whatsoever to the traumatic part of Canadian history that inspired it, and enjoyed the success of his book. However, by saying publicly that his novel was inspired by this part of history that he himself says he has no place in writing about places his novel into the wider discourse of that history. And within that discourse, unfortunately, his novel perpetuates the white savior narrative that is at the heart of this traumatic period of history. So, really, the problem is less with the book itself than with the author's thought process that as long as he makes it a fantasy book his narrative decisions do not have to critically engage with the source of inspiration AND YET he can at the same time cash in on a deeply traumatic past as his inspiration to... what? Give his novel depth? Increase sales? Gain reputation as a 'deep author'? Pointing out this discrepancy and communicating that we as a society of readers are not okay with this is an important contribution to the wider discourse about telling stories about or inspired by indigenous peoples.
@@angeliqueazul8670 But he didn't tell a story about indigenous people, if he had you might have a small point. I am dismissive of this trendy moral outrage.
@@tinagarcia3571 No, he did not directly tell a story about indigenous people. However, he created a story that parallels real life events and that he himself admitted was inspired by traumatic experiences of indigenous people. So, while the book does not talk about indigenous people directly, the author has effectively made this a fictional story about them through giving additional context to the story in interviews - and as such it is part of the discourse of indigenous stories and it is valid for people to criticize it as such.
emmie i agreed with every take of yours BUT the tj klune review. i hope you took a stretch before you took that big of a leap. why are you as a white person dictating what people can and can't write about REAL historical events that have happened to indigenous people? in fact, i'm so surprised people didn't know about these residential schools. the fact that it's not common knowledge for even tj klune to have known, yet alone a whole new generation of children who are taught on the colonizer's perspective, is scary! in fact, i think it brings more light to a situation for a child to pick up this book, read it, and be able to come to terms with accepting everyone and loving all rather than being brainwashed into not knowing about this event at all. i, myself, am indigenous and find nothing wrong with the concept or idea as a whole. just a very disappointing take coming from someone who also doesn't come from the culture or race.
Tbh ive only read norwegian wood and it was super disappointing, i just couldn't get over the writing of women and girls, it made me super uncomfy I get that murakami is super popular and im open to trying his other works but this one was really disappointing.
Well now I'm scared...I heard so much of Murakami that I picked up "Desire" when I came across it on a second hand site. I think it's a short story collection. Now I worry what awaits me when I do decide to read it 🫠
I recommend A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliot, a Indigenous Canadian author that talks about just this, the generational trauma of anti-Indian boarding schools and the white men that are elevated in the book industry to take on the telling of these sensitive Indigenous stories for aesthetic or savior purposes. Powerful read, one of my faves.
I can remember reading The House in the Cerulean Sea because it was everywhere in queer online spaces, but I came away from it feeling very...hollow. Hearing all this come out later on has made me realise what that hollowness was - he was using a backdrop of pretty intense structural racism and bigotry towards children as a pastel cute backdrop for a romance. There was very little in the book actually about the children as people, about their feelings towards what had happened in their lives, but they were they whole reason the MC was even associated with his love interest. He was a representative of a police state monitoring and controlling their lives, but that doesn't matter as long as teach him the meaning of family or some bullshit. They were just props, reduced to caricatures that the MC could 'learn to love past their differences' so he could get in good with their guardian
Linus Baker also goes through such a big transformation. He goes through a process where he goes from the corporate factor of his job to living among the children and understanding what his job really does. It is a wonderful look on the child protection services/the foster system and how the corporation of it takes away the humanity of the children stuck in it. It is a beautiful critic of the system while also highlighting a different perspective on what a family can look like.
Hi Emma! About T.J Klune, I've read his other works too, and I can assure you the guy just loves writing heart warming fantasies. His intention with this book hasn't been to have a conversation about indigenous people. He didn't try to be their savior because he wrote the story for other reasons and with completely fictional characters! As you said yourself, this book was inspired by that article, but it became something completely irrelevant to the actual history. How is he a problematic writer when his book is not targeted towards the indigenous community? How is he offending them or making their experience seem unremarkable if we can't find any trace of them in the story?
He just shouldn’t have said anything about it! When I read the book, I had no idea he was thinking about the 60’s scoop, it just seemed like a cute romance with a backdrop of ‘fantasy racism vs. the power of love’. Cheesy but still nice. If anything I thought the magical kids seemed more like an allegory for disability, in that they look, talk, and think differently and some people just didn’t bother to learn how to interact with them. Klune should have just left it at that and not claimed that it was supposed to be an allegory for a very specific time in history that it didn’t represent at all.
@@emmanarotzky6565 but he never claimed it was supposed to be an allegory! He literally just said he encountered the article, drew some inspiration from it and decided to do his own thing. I agree that even bringing up the sixties scoop as his inspiration was a bad idea because then it opens him up to all this disingenuous criticism, but he's clearly a clumsy sort of guy and he put his foot in his mouth in this case and people are acting as if he wrote the book to whitewash cultural genocide.
@@BlueCoolOla I shouldn't have bothered writing my long comment lol because you said it just right! I'll add that by citing this scoop, TJ Klune made some people want to educate themselves about it! I had never heard of it before.
I cannot believe i waisted my time reading the tj klune book.. as an Indigenous, a daughter of a woman that survived the residential school, i am truly appalled by this.. i cannot believe the audacity.. he didn’t even question his decision to write a cutesy book taking inspiration from such a horrible thing.. children died, children got sa’d, i’ve heard so much horrible things that happened in these schools, priests impregnating young girls and burning the babies alive!!! Horrible, never buying his books again.
I love the house in the cerulean sea, it was and is so meaningful to me. It has it flaws, like any other book or story, but I will forever hold dear and near to my heart.
Wow! I was expecting solely a rant, but your take on the publishing industry and the slowly creeping issues infesting it was a true eye-opener! P.S.: It's a lice... it's a louse... What it is, is a lousy plot device! 😂
I have to admit I don’t quite agree with your take on Klune - though I do understand the thought process behind it. I think Klune never actually says “this story is an allegory for indigenous suffering” but rather “this historical tragedy inspired the framework of this book.” I haven’t read the book so I can’t actually say how explicit it is. But if you only realize the inspiration for the book from an interview because the plot is so disconnected from any historical reality, is it really appropriation? I say this as a poc who has definitely read appropriative literature and who generally dislikes the idea of white people fictionalizing a tragedy that they perpetuated/have no connection to. If the story was a historical fiction about the Sixties Scoop then I could see the idea that Klune is taking up air. But if the story is really so disconnected from its origin that you can’t tell, I don’t really think you could claim that. How many people read this and never realized the connection? Their view of systemic violence perpetuated against indigenous people is then not at all affected by this book. Idk. I just don’t love the idea of policing inspiration to this extent. But again, I do see how the conclusion is drawn.
I think the problem is you can tell- the kids are taken from their homes to live in this school/boarding house and they face discrimination from larger society for being inhuman. The main government agency thing is trying to enforce the schools and have the kids reject their magical heritage and teach them to act civilized. They also quote the “see something say something” rhetoric. It’s so blatant I didn’t know about it when I picked it up and I pretty quickly realized when I was reading. What makes it worse too is that the children are literally not even human- one is a blob monster and one is the literal antichrist. There obviously isn’t any conversation on colonialism or anything like that, and the solution in the end is to advocate for the boarding school to *stay open* with magical leadership. He basically repackaged and watered down genocide into a one dimensional lighthearted fantasy. I also don’t think that it’s inherently a problem for an author to take a real life tragedy and fictionalize it or tell it in a way suitable for younger audiences, but in this case his approach completely undermines and minimizes what reformation schooling actually was- and as a white man from Oregon it wasn’t his story to tell in the first place.
But didn’t he explicitly word it as ‘inspiration’, if he hadn’t, then it would be a different story. The subject matter is horrifying to say the least. And how come his takeaway inspiration was…social workers are saviours?
But the thing is the history he used is riddled with violence against indigenous people. The only people who have a right to use said history and turn it into a lighthearted fantasy are the children who lived it, not the people who are far removed from it. Otherwise that's profiting off of a painful history that's still affecting people till this day.
@@rizzobeloved I understand your perspective, but there's a line between directly using a story and drawing inspiration from it. In the case of Klune's work, he incorporated the concept of 'children seen as different being taken away' without specifically portraying indigenous children or anyhow exploring their narrative.
Hey! The book she recommended at the end is called "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline and it is truly an amazing book. If you are interested, please do give it a go! c:
I guess I’m a fool because I still don’t get the outrage at The House in the Cerulean Sea, and its author. 🤷🏻♀️ I’m pretty sure that nobody who read the book made the connection between the story and the Sixties Scoop until the author mentioned it. It literally has nothing in it to suggest anything to do with the indigenous community. If it did and was written with indigenous characters, I could understand people being upset, but it’s not as if taking fantastical children and setting them in an orphanage/camp/school, away from their families, is even an original idea. Other writers have done that in X-Men, The Darkest Minds, The Umbrella Academy, just to name a few. In most of these types of stories, it’s openly acknowledged to be a terrible thing. Tons of books out there are inspired by awful things that happened in history, as we draw on experiences, past and present, to create stories that make us feel something, and question our complicity, which is exactly what’s done in THitCS, with Linus. I don’t see how Linus’s journey in discovering his complicity, and correcting it, is bad or harmful? 😓
I wonder about this too. I disliked the book for other reasons but I’m not mad that the author used knowledge of a real event as a springboard for a story that ended up being about something else.
I respect Emma and other white people who feel icky about it, but I kinda feel like this is just another case of white people getting offended on the behalf of poc 😅
@@aleenakhan6230 that's how I feel about it too. White liberals and performative virtue signalling is just a match made in heaven lol. Would love to see them put their money where there mouth is instead of trying to say the "right" set of words for a change.
Thank you for that comment! It's sad that one thing taken out of context is still after all those years completely misunderstood and that people are so easy to jump onto a cancel culture band wagon. I expected better from this chanel...
@@aleenakhan6230 Especially since the actual story warrants its own criticism. It’s about a white male government employee who works to enforce the status quo of oppression and only changes for the better when the status quo started affecting him and taking away what he wanted. It’s not like he goes back to undo the harm he’d previously done. But we’re supposed to be mad about loose historical interpretation?
I learned that long ago 😂 I read "House in the Cerulean Sea" because of the crazy high ratings and I just had the most "meh" time even before learning of the author's statements and understanding the super icky background.
The Klune take is wild. This is how inspiration works. You read or see something, it moves you, you add it to other things that move you, you make something new. Sometimes, dare I say often, the thing that inspires an artist is history. And The House in the Cerulean Sea is so different from reality I can’t fathom anyone looking at it and crying appropriation.
i think its more so the odd response from klune himself, but reading it, it is a very big stretch to say stuff like appropriation and "social worker saving the day" and rewriting indigenous history. If we apply this thinking and perspective to every fantasy novel, then Mistborn would be completely bashed (slavery).
It was definitely socially inept of him to admit where he took his inspiration from. He clearly just read one wiki article and decided he liked this "idea". Better to keep that to himself unless he's gonna write something that's more than just a fluffy fantasy romance
@@oliverxhmll I don’t think it’s ‘socially inept’ to reveal your original inspiration. Then again, I’m actually socially inept myself, so what do I know. You humans play dümb social games that are impossible to entirely figure out. LOL. I don’t know the context of the quote, but I’m guessing it’s probably what’s he’s said when directly asked about his inspiration. If that’s the case and it was genuinely his inspiration, then what else is he supposed to say? Is he supposed to lie and make up something just to make you feel better? Because that’s silly IMO.
@@bluecannibaleyes I can see where you’re coming from that he was honest about where his idea came from and he shouldn’t have to lie. But it’s also very normal that it raises eyebrows when he takes a real part of history when children were taken from their family and basically tormented and even lost their lives in these institutions, and with it he declares that he wrote a story about monster kids (if i understand correctly) and some man finding his path in life or what. There’s nothing wrong with ideas being sparked out of real events, but the parallels just seem disrespectful to me and like there’s complete apathy towards the source material, as from what i understand Emma says none of the real issues of it are explored or referenced in the novel. I haven’t read it myself as it’s definitely not my type of book, but just wanted to say that I see where you are coming from but I also understand Emma’s criticism
I literally just read These Violent Delights and at first I was so confused by your description of the plot??? Then I realized there are two books of the same name - the one I read was by Micah Nemerever, a completely different story (and a really intriguing one at that)
I regret reading Killing Commendatore by Murakami. I loved his books when I was younger and somehow managed to ignore the red flags in his other works but omg Killing Commendatore… The main character keeps thinking about HIS DEAD, 13 YEAR OLD SISTER’S BREASTS like wtf. I’ll never pick up a Murakami book again
His portrayal of women in his books is always a thorn in my side. Either he has never grown up, or he hasn't had any actual relations with a woman as an adult.
I liked Killing Commendatore but I know what you mean. What’s worse in KC is the 13 year old girl talking to the middle aged main character about the size of her breasts. Can you imagine this ever happening in the real world? Okay this isn’t the real world it’s Murakami world but you have to wonder about an old male writer conjuring up this scene out of his imagination.
@@circleofleaves2676 I totally agree but I didn’t see that as a teenager. Maybe I don’t regret reading this book after all, since it was my “wake up call”
I think it’s pretty interesting how Kline turned a tragic history into a story of acceptance. Also, it sheds light on what happened. I think it’s a silly concept that someone can’t write about a history they didn’t share. If they write with respect, I don’t think it’s an issue.
"... running on Windows like negative four" 😂 I love your sense of humour. I read "I'll have what she's having", a book on how Nora Ephron saved the romantic comedy. I would have appreciated more on Nora's actual work writing and directing and less on the actors in the movies, less gossip, less on budgets, etc.
You unlocked a childhood memory with the 39 clues book 😮 never read them but I remember seeing them all the time. I used to love the Magic Treehouse books when I was a kid, and Dolphin Diaries
I haven't read the book but there's an argument to be made that Klune took inspiration from real life history and then fictionalized in a fantasy; that's not offensive in itself and in fact it's less offensive than if you would write about real world history with no regards for victims like in true crime books. I don't know how that equates to him taking the voice from indigenous writers. How is he stopping them from writing their own stories?
Yeah, it just seems like she’s trying to tell writers what they are and aren’t allowed to write and/or be inspired by, which seems really stifling to creativity.
I wanted to love These Violent Delights because it sounded amazing but I gave up about halfway through in part because of the reasons you mentioned and also because the writing made me cringe so hard. I just couldn’t do it.
Casino Royale was great. thanks for the suggestion. Books are usually written for their times especially works of fiction. Can't wait for book reviews in 40 years for the wonderful woke books written today.
The 39 Clues is my special interest and has been for a very very long time and when I realized it was Rick Riordan's Maze of Bones that you were talking about, I lost my mind a little bit :D
This take about The House of the Cerulean is a bit icky, that one commenter saying it’s another case of white people feeling offended for POC was actually crazy. The thought that one cannot write about stuff like this (stories that were inspired by inhumane history) is kinda scary and limiting. I guess this is why cancel culture is thriving. I hate that we now live in such a hyperaware (and sensitive) society that we need to be scared to do so many things for fear of getting called out and cancelled. Anyways, I’ve always enjoyed your content, but I’m feeling so tired of all this what I feel is pretty performative … Cant finish anymore. Just tired.
Your comments about These Violent Delights reminded me so much about my experience with Babel by RF Kuang lmao. A lot of "telling, not showing". I regret that one hehe
From a viewer’s point of view, I agreed with you on having a natural flow - meaning the inclusion of some ummm, errrr, and a moment for your thinking process, instead of a heavily edited video every other 10 seconds or so just to take out the so-called imperfection. The latter always puts me off continuing watching videos from that creator. Thanks for continuing making bookish videos for us.
I’m really glad that you’ve mentioned TJ Klune. I’ve heard so many great things about this from other booktubers and most of them just love the book. Some of them know that there is a controversy but they just love the book. Thank you so much for saying these words.
I hated TVD by Chloe Gong but loved These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever. Its obsession, dark, and not meant to be romanticized at all (aka not a dark romance). TW for 1970s homophobia, and violence Edit; I should also say that I have a special dislike for Gong because she admitted she sees her books as college papers. She ignores suggested edits, submits the book to her editor, and refuses to reread her work. So ya even after given her a second try, I refuse to read her work
All literature is a "performance"; an act of creative empathy. The notion that you cannot write about something you didn't personally experience is bonkers and would wipe out much great literature. Whether it's good or bad work is a different question. Your description makes it sound like if the author did not state what his inspiration was then nobody would make the connection.
This is such a bad faith read on what Emmie was saying. You can write whatever you want, nobody can stop you, TJ klune did and the book is wildly successful. People can critique whatever they want. Criticising a white man taking a narrative from a mass trauma and attempted genocide/assimilation of First Nations people and using it as a backdrop to for the main character’s self discovery is something worth being aware of. The trope of a person of colour existing in a story primarily to help the white protagonist realise important things and find themselves is not new but is problematic. The author’s proxy for the Indigenous people were literally monsters. The system he based the story off of is represented in a way that absolves the social workers and masters of the “schools” that held Indigenous children of their actions which actively harmed those communities. I hope you can understand why these are harmful. This is a very nuanced conversation and you are shutting it down with no real reason why except that maybe it makes you uncomfortable or you just think uncritically.
@@iris-vu8wk I’m not shutting down anything. Not sure what that even means. But If you were not aware of what she mentioned you wouldn’t have a problem with that book. If your starting point is extra-textual then you are not engaging in literary criticism but analyzing personal motives. This is the sort of thing English majors used to be taught not to do. I’m sure Emmie knows about New Criticism and the Intentional Fallacy. I’m not even saying this guy was right or wrong to use these events this way. That’s a personal judgement call. I’m saying it should have no bearing on whether the work is any good.
@@Tolstoy111 the author’s life, inspiration and politics can actually be a really important part of criticism and readings of text. Intentional fallacy occurs with “assumed intent”, it doesn’t apply here as we know that Klune was inspired by residential schools as he said it. Closed reading can be a great tool but it is not the only way to analyse a text. It is frequently important to look at the lives of writers as often it impacts novels, poetry, etc. Reading books like The Picture of Dorian Gray for example, knowing that Oscar Wilde is a gay man provides many more readings of the novel and adds further scope for analysis. It makes the aesthetic of the book make sense within the context of dandies, and his (unfortunate) opinions on Jewish people and people of colour come through in the book and we can understand why they got their and how they function within the novel. And honestly I don’t know what you mean, generalising that english majors are all taught to singularly look at a text and not pull context from elsewhere, that was not my experience in english university courses, nor is it now as an art writer.
@@iris-vu8wk Intentional Fallacy is using authorial intent as a thought terminating argument for a given interpretation. A work doesn't necessarily correlate to that. Sometimes it can "mean" the opposite of what an author intended. The "meaning" of Hamlet comes from the text of Hamlet, not from what Shakespeare may or may not have intended. It doesn't matter what he intended. Regardless of what one knows about an author, if it cannot be supported with textual evidence then it's only important to biographers. My B.A. and M.A. is in English. If I turned in a paper making claims about a given work with no evidence from that work but only biographical data/authorial interviews from the author, the paper would get an F.
If you want to try another classic spy novel, do give John le Carre's The Spy Who Came In From the Cold. My Dad was a huge fan of Le Carre's work and this one is supposed to be one of the best.
The Berlitz reference is to the famous Berlitz language schools which have been around since the 19th century. Charles Berlitz is the grandson of the founder of the company but that is the only connection. Ian Fleming was already dead by the time Charles's books were being published. I would guess Fleming had never heard of him.
THANK YOU! I agree 1000% about Juliette in These Violent Delights. You can make a strong female character and not make them a complete monster. The scene with her and the waitress really rubbed me the wrong way.
The funny thing is I just took a break from writing an essay on conspiracy theories to watch some youtube videos, and you just happened to upload this lol Edit: Holyyy, I'm aware of the 60s Scoop but had no idea that TJ Klune's book was based off of it. Thank you for bringing it up!
The TJ Klune problem got me thinking: Why is that, nobody mantions the YA distopian novels based on the communist oppression? Half of Europe (and even the Far East at the moment) lived that sh*t through. Millions suffered and died during that time period. Not western world's history or trauma, yet dozens of novels and books are coming out every year based on it, and nobody bets an eye. Nobody says it's problematic.
Love the Bond novels. Granted, they are not the best written books ever, but they are so entertaining. I have the entire collection of the original Fleming Bond novels.
Potential antidote to the Bermuda Triangle book: "The Bermuda Triangle Mystery - Solved" by Larry Kusche (Prometheus Books, 1995). It goes through a long list of purported Bermuda Triangle incidents, and shows that none of them need a supernatural explanation (and that there's no evidence some of them even happened, or that if they did happen, they happened well outside the relevant area), especially when you look at the broader context of each one, not just the bits people writing Bermuda Triangle books bother to mention.
the book i regret reading the most is 'a little life'. i went into it from recs by people i followed online and truly lost my faith in human connection for a minute there. please read reviews if you're thinking of reading that horrendous thing
I don’t know for sure, but I’m fairly certain that I cited Berlitz’s work in a paper about the Bermuda Triangle in 5th grade. Unfortunate, if so. This was before the internet so my options were limited.
Lewis Carroll is another very problematic author, something I had no idea about until my friend was reading a book based on him by a relative - definitely wild considering Alice in Wonderland is still such a popular story
I loved this video! A recent reading regret I have is Outlawed by Anna North. Too many "progressive" topics were shoehorned into the story without a clear focus on the message. Then, in trying to send that progressive message, the author comes full circle back to racism, homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny. It was wild!
I'm sorry but the take about the cerulean sea is far fetched and ridiculous. He was very clear that it's not meant to be about those events and when you read it, you know it's not. The story revolves around themes of acceptance and addresses the horrible site of adoption systems. He may have been inspired by the 60’s scoop during his research but his story takes place in a completely different world. His story is NOT based on that event, and he said so himself. IT’s literally just about a story of kids being mistreated and demonised who deserve love. There are truly problematic authors out there, but he isn’t one of them. Maybe think a bit more next time you want to demonise an author, who does great work, especially for the lgbtq community. And to call it a performance of someone else's trauma is just a wrong take. I think this video is more of a performance of cancelling an author ( who btw does great representation of gay characters ) because you saw a twitter threat. 👉🏻 Unsubscribed
truly amazing video, Emma. about your recommendation, did you mean The Marrow Thieves? when you said the dream thieves, which I’ve read, I felt lost like wait I don’t remember that stuff in there hahaha
I regret reading "The Fault in Our Stars”. Characters don’t feel real; they don’t come across as humans but mouthpieces for John Green to drone on about philosophy.
i was thinking of reading these violent delights since i love R&J and the title is my favourite quote of the play, but after hearing that the book is super poorly executed id have to find a different R&J retelling that i would actually enjoy 😓
I really regret reading The Girls from Corona del Mar. A book usually never makes me physically angry but oh boy... It was described as this great story about friendship between two women but it was the most twisted thing I have ever read?! With friends like these, you truly don't need enemies...I've read it years ago at this point but still feel so mad at it.
Even before finding out about the residential school inspiration I thought The House in the Cerulean Sea was oversimplifying complex social issues with a trite "love conquers all" message that seemed ill fitting for a supposedly adult book that was trying to make analogies to real-life discrimination. I original thought those references were just more generally to issues in orphanages, racism/ homophobia, etc and it annoyed me even then. I understand its supposed to be sweet and feel-good but it just seems irresponsible.
yeah this is something this younger generation does that i don't do or get. love you emmie , we will have to agree to disagree. i'd lose my mind if i had to know every authors short comings.
Hm I think there are some people in my younger generation that require the authors/artists they enjoy be morally perfect but that doesn't really some to be Emmie's approach with this video. Most of these books were stories that she genuinely didn't enjoy the content of, and if the authors shortcomings were mentioned (such as fabricating evidence in the name of pushing a lucrative conspiracy theory or having a very misogynist view of women) it was largely because their shortcomings make the writing actively worse and unenjoyable. This wasn't the case with each book mentioned, but a vast majority of them.
@@bluecannibaleyes Neither do I. But emmie even talked about in the video that she reads classics that has values and beliefs that are from that time period.. She's not selectively reading, you're still allowed to give criticism, and you're also allowed to like or dislike them.
Haha they do say never to meet your heroes.. Yet it's not a bad thing that these things come to light sometimes. One of the books in my tbr is Ender's Game and knowing the author started to loudly say hateful things about the things that he used to portray in his books so beautifully is pretty saddening
@@Bread_bread01 idk much about the author of Ender’s Game but from the few vague criticisms I’ve heard, it’s making me want to bump him up higher on my TBR. LOL
Everyone always want to fault the author when they do something problematic, which is how it should be but also the publishers are at fault too. I wish publishing would care more about what they put out but no its always about money. Also the book I regret reading is Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage because that entire book is ridiculous.
i see a lot of people arguing about whether authors are "allowed" to write about issues they could never fully understand because they haven't personally experiences but i don't think that's the point. authors are obviously free to write anything, and tacking important issues can even be a way to help raise the voices of people who might not have the same opportunities to be heard; but the moment you decide to do that you're also opening your work to criticism where it falls short. personally a book i regret reading is at the wolf's table by rosella postorino. it's about a woman who was one of hitler's food tasters during ww2. i liked the premise, but i feel like the most interesting aspects were unexplored in favor of a tasteless romance plot between the protagonist and an SS soldier, which i hated. this isnt to say you cannot write controversial or taboo relationship, but it all depends on the payoff, and in this case the image of him that came off was "he wasn't that bad he actually tried to help how he could the jewish woman they were deporting" which is just insane. it felt completely ahistorical. but what really tipped me over the edge of full regret was learning that the author was inspired to write this novel by the real story of margot wölk, and this is what the book is sold as, it's literally written on the book cover. and i just think it's beyond disrespectful to use the memory of a real woman to sell your work as a historical novel when it's so detached from history and a good portion is dedicated to that shameful "forbidden" romance
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is problematic to me because of its graphic nature in detailing child abuse in Afghanistan. I read the book in middle school, and a large chunk of the story I could hardly stomach. I understand the importance of the book, but it would be a better fit for college students, as middle schoolers are not mature enough to fully grasp the weight behind what was published.
In my experience the book is very much so marketed toward older audiences. Just because it talks about children doesn't mean it is meant for children to read. Maybe it was different for you but I have never seen it recommended to middle school students, so the book isn't problematic. The problem is anybody who thinks it is okay for a middle schooler to read it if they are not mature enough to do so.
I’m Khaled Hosseinis biggest fan but his books are meant for older audiences however we live in a world where that abuse and those atrocities are still happening to children in the Middle East so it is an eye opener and a reality check
How is referring to abuse that occurs to children in literature problematic? Khaled Hosseini doesn't trivialize the abuse at all. He doesn't brush it under the carpet either. His books are known for simultaneously showing the beautiful and the wretched aspects of human beings. He doesn't shy away from depicting the very real violence in a society ravaged by colonialism and tribalism nor does he minimize the beauty and generosity that exists amidst the horrors. I feel that so many people on social media love using the word 'problematic' to refer to anything that either makes them uncomfortable or isn't to their taste. Portrayals of violence are not problematic at all as long as the violence isn't glorified or justified. Khaled Hosseini's books are masterpieces and it's not that his depiction of reality is 'problematic' but that it's taught to kids too young to deal with it in American schools. Most people in the world don't read his books in schools so the American education system is problematic.
I remember when the Bermuda Triangle was a sort of thing. Horrifying that that trash sold 20,000,000 copies. Meanwhile my 45 year old mom died in a two engine private plane crash flying form Nassau to Port Lauderdale. But that was probably because the pilot was drunk or something. I read a few of those Bond things 60 years ago when THEY were a very big thing. They stated kid Steve as a life long reader. Meanwhile I can't believe they still make movies with that character, I never watch them. CIA military complex crap.
![[TH] VALORANT Champions Seoul - Lower Bracket Final - LEV vs TH](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/fyYkI80GG4o/mqdefault.jpg)
love how the bermuda triangle book's blurb says: "Things are happening in the Bermuda Triangle even as you are reading these words." Like the author was hoping to blow somebody's mind with the fact that the world doesn't stand still while you read.
"Things are happening at the McDonald's two blocks away even as you're reading this comment."
Thank you, @johanleee. This literally made me laugh out loud. Well done.
How does Charles Berlitz' life story sound like such an interesting domestic thriller novel but then his books seem like an unhinged reddit thread. I'd rather read his Wikipedia article or biography ngl 😂
Yes!! Someone who says it out loud: 'Strong Female Characters' is the worst and least constructive term ever. Dear me, I thought the day would never come when I'd hear someone say that on YT.
Same!!
as an Indigenous person, TJ Klune could’ve literally lied 😂 “i was inspired by Leela’s story in Futurama” there! there’s been so many legit orphan stories. maybe he tried to seem more worldly but it came across as insensitive and, frankly, dumb
I don't know who said it, but I always remember an old man on a documentary that said "I hated everything about _Casino Royale._ I hated the grotesque violence, I hated the disgusting s*xuality, but what I hated above alll else was the snobbery. Because *it wasn't even the snobbery of a real elititst, but rather what a dull con-artist would do to try to convince others that he's sophisticated."*
I totally agree with you (and that Goodreads reviewer) about Chloe Gong publishing so many books in such a short time being emblematic of the problems in the publishing industry. I also would say part of the problem is the audience too - they don't know how to wait for books to be published anymore and want constant content. Any time there's a wait for a new book in the series, people start panicking and bringing up George R R Martin and it's like guys... he's an outlier and shouldn't be counted. It should be normal to expect more than a year wait for the next book.
Agreed! While I don't agree with the claim that TikTok is turning publishing into fast fashion, I think there's merit in exploring and critiquing why people say that. It goes back to the audiences, who are mostly new readers that have grown up with other forms of media that do pump out content at a faster rate than books, who then expect for publishing to be the same.
I'm so glad you point out issues related to capitalism/consummerism/economic crisis constantly throughout your videos. Extremely relevant discussion as always. ❤
The thing about The House in the Cerulean Sea for me is that he doesn't claim to represent the indigenous residential schools so I don't really see the issue, it's not a rewriting. It's just something that inspired him. + by citing this in his interview he shed light on the sixties scoop (wich i had never heard of - maybe bcs I'm french). So he wrote a beautiful story about acceptance and the need for love wich I think is amazing to read for YA. I fail to see how he profits off of this history because he chose not to write a story about it. Like you said, the orphanages in the book are not like the real-life residential schools, the kids are not abducted. And like for once we have a story that says the system is bad and not just an individual villain. Maybe I'm missing something, please tell me if so.
“Charles… let it go” lol this man sounds like me any time I discover a new favourite book😂
I'm glad that you mentioned the TJ Klune thing. So many people either don't know about it, or brush it off way too easily because they loved the book.
I don’t know how anyone could love this book. It is manipulative, terribly written and psychologically incorrect
@olgadonskaia I've seen you say it a couple times, but what do you mean "psychologically incorrect"? Like, what exactly did Klune get wrong? Do you have examples?
@@changelingreader14 well, firstly, orphans wouldn’t trust a person from a system (my adopted children recognise social workers and are scared of them). Secondly, the protagonist who never cared about the results of his reports suddenly getting all sympathetic. And finally, the phoenix guy would never be able to provide care for those traumatised children being traumatised himself. Though I can believe the part where he falls for any man who appears on the island:)
@@olgadonskaia They didn't really trust him at first, but they also had abilities that he didn't, so it makes sense that they weren't terrified of him the way that some kids fear random social workers in the real world. Why would you be terrified of someone who you could technically kill if you really wanted to?
@@explicitlyme7497 of course you can try to make sense of anything but building characters is the author’s job, which he fails to do properly. He just uses the orphan trope as a cliche. I think he does more harm than good with his book
In Australia we have a similar thing to Canada's The Sixties Scoop. Here it's called The Stolen Generation (which wasn't just one generation - it was multiple). Aboriginal children being stolen from their parents, their community, their county, and being thrust into white christian religious missions and into white family's homes. It was a time of actual genocide, and cultural genocide, their lands stolen, their language diluted. As a white australian, no way in hell would that ever be my story to tell, especially not inserting myself as the hero of the story when that's exactly what the governments and churches were doing with their rotten deluded hero/saviour complex, marching in and deciding they were saving the souls of beautiful children who already had a living culture that is older than any other on the planet. The trauma and grief and cyclical impact of these actions continues today.
same indian boarding schools here in the U.S., but he didn't write about that or try to put a happy spin on it, he was inspired by it to write a different kind of story. even though i didn't enjoy the book i have no problem with being inspired by anything at all, authors are going have to pass on talking or writing about their process for fear of the trendy moral outrage generation. all i care about any artist is if the art is to my liking.
More white children were removed than aboriginal children. Blatant race baiting.
@@tinagarcia3571 It is perfectly valid when you say that you personally do not care what inspires an author's work - completely fair. But I think that calling it a problem of the "trendy moral outrage generation" is very dismissive for a discourse the author inserted himself into. Fair enough if you do not have a problem with it but other people do. Because here is the thing: the author could have read that Wikipedia article, written his novel, which, as Emma points out, draws no connection whatsoever to the traumatic part of Canadian history that inspired it, and enjoyed the success of his book. However, by saying publicly that his novel was inspired by this part of history that he himself says he has no place in writing about places his novel into the wider discourse of that history. And within that discourse, unfortunately, his novel perpetuates the white savior narrative that is at the heart of this traumatic period of history. So, really, the problem is less with the book itself than with the author's thought process that as long as he makes it a fantasy book his narrative decisions do not have to critically engage with the source of inspiration AND YET he can at the same time cash in on a deeply traumatic past as his inspiration to... what? Give his novel depth? Increase sales? Gain reputation as a 'deep author'? Pointing out this discrepancy and communicating that we as a society of readers are not okay with this is an important contribution to the wider discourse about telling stories about or inspired by indigenous peoples.
@@angeliqueazul8670 But he didn't tell a story about indigenous people, if he had you might have a small point. I am dismissive of this trendy moral outrage.
@@tinagarcia3571 No, he did not directly tell a story about indigenous people. However, he created a story that parallels real life events and that he himself admitted was inspired by traumatic experiences of indigenous people. So, while the book does not talk about indigenous people directly, the author has effectively made this a fictional story about them through giving additional context to the story in interviews - and as such it is part of the discourse of indigenous stories and it is valid for people to criticize it as such.
emmie i agreed with every take of yours BUT the tj klune review. i hope you took a stretch before you took that big of a leap. why are you as a white person dictating what people can and can't write about REAL historical events that have happened to indigenous people? in fact, i'm so surprised people didn't know about these residential schools. the fact that it's not common knowledge for even tj klune to have known, yet alone a whole new generation of children who are taught on the colonizer's perspective, is scary! in fact, i think it brings more light to a situation for a child to pick up this book, read it, and be able to come to terms with accepting everyone and loving all rather than being brainwashed into not knowing about this event at all. i, myself, am indigenous and find nothing wrong with the concept or idea as a whole. just a very disappointing take coming from someone who also doesn't come from the culture or race.
What are your thoughts on Murakami describing young girls the way he does? It's very creepy. Just an opinion.
Tbh ive only read norwegian wood and it was super disappointing, i just couldn't get over the writing of women and girls, it made me super uncomfy
I get that murakami is super popular and im open to trying his other works but this one was really disappointing.
Well now I'm scared...I heard so much of Murakami that I picked up "Desire" when I came across it on a second hand site. I think it's a short story collection. Now I worry what awaits me when I do decide to read it 🫠
I remember she did mention it in her old videos reading Murakami.
I recommend A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliot, a Indigenous Canadian author that talks about just this, the generational trauma of anti-Indian boarding schools and the white men that are elevated in the book industry to take on the telling of these sensitive Indigenous stories for aesthetic or savior purposes. Powerful read, one of my faves.
Thank you for making this video! I enjoyed hearing you talk about books you love, but also the ones your think are questionable
Finally someone else who didn’t enjoy these violent delights, i couldn't even finish it, i dnfd it halfway through i think?
I only finished it because my book club didn't so I gave the tldr of the ending lol
I DNF'ed it one chapter in 😅
I also DNF'd it.
I can remember reading The House in the Cerulean Sea because it was everywhere in queer online spaces, but I came away from it feeling very...hollow. Hearing all this come out later on has made me realise what that hollowness was - he was using a backdrop of pretty intense structural racism and bigotry towards children as a pastel cute backdrop for a romance. There was very little in the book actually about the children as people, about their feelings towards what had happened in their lives, but they were they whole reason the MC was even associated with his love interest. He was a representative of a police state monitoring and controlling their lives, but that doesn't matter as long as teach him the meaning of family or some bullshit. They were just props, reduced to caricatures that the MC could 'learn to love past their differences' so he could get in good with their guardian
On the other hand I thought it was a story about acceptance of extremely strange children and found family.
I disagree. I think the children all had their own issues and were given so much humanity. They had dreams, fears, struggles, expectations, etc.
Linus Baker also goes through such a big transformation. He goes through a process where he goes from the corporate factor of his job to living among the children and understanding what his job really does. It is a wonderful look on the child protection services/the foster system and how the corporation of it takes away the humanity of the children stuck in it. It is a beautiful critic of the system while also highlighting a different perspective on what a family can look like.
THANK YOU i’m so tired of feeling crazy for not liking these violent delights
Hi Emma!
About T.J Klune, I've read his other works too, and I can assure you the guy just loves writing heart warming fantasies. His intention with this book hasn't been to have a conversation about indigenous people. He didn't try to be their savior because he wrote the story for other reasons and with completely fictional characters! As you said yourself, this book was inspired by that article, but it became something completely irrelevant to the actual history.
How is he a problematic writer when his book is not targeted towards the indigenous community? How is he offending them or making their experience seem unremarkable if we can't find any trace of them in the story?
He just shouldn’t have said anything about it! When I read the book, I had no idea he was thinking about the 60’s scoop, it just seemed like a cute romance with a backdrop of ‘fantasy racism vs. the power of love’. Cheesy but still nice. If anything I thought the magical kids seemed more like an allegory for disability, in that they look, talk, and think differently and some people just didn’t bother to learn how to interact with them. Klune should have just left it at that and not claimed that it was supposed to be an allegory for a very specific time in history that it didn’t represent at all.
@@emmanarotzky6565 but he never claimed it was supposed to be an allegory! He literally just said he encountered the article, drew some inspiration from it and decided to do his own thing. I agree that even bringing up the sixties scoop as his inspiration was a bad idea because then it opens him up to all this disingenuous criticism, but he's clearly a clumsy sort of guy and he put his foot in his mouth in this case and people are acting as if he wrote the book to whitewash cultural genocide.
@@BlueCoolOla I shouldn't have bothered writing my long comment lol because you said it just right! I'll add that by citing this scoop, TJ Klune made some people want to educate themselves about it! I had never heard of it before.
Yess,i agree...he was 40 btw-not 27 as Emma said!
I cannot believe i waisted my time reading the tj klune book.. as an Indigenous, a daughter of a woman that survived the residential school, i am truly appalled by this.. i cannot believe the audacity.. he didn’t even question his decision to write a cutesy book taking inspiration from such a horrible thing.. children died, children got sa’d, i’ve heard so much horrible things that happened in these schools, priests impregnating young girls and burning the babies alive!!! Horrible, never buying his books again.
I love the house in the cerulean sea, it was and is so meaningful to me. It has it flaws, like any other book or story, but I will forever hold dear and near to my heart.
Wow! I was expecting solely a rant, but your take on the publishing industry and the slowly creeping issues infesting it was a true eye-opener!
P.S.: It's a lice... it's a louse... What it is, is a lousy plot device! 😂
I have to admit I don’t quite agree with your take on Klune - though I do understand the thought process behind it. I think Klune never actually says “this story is an allegory for indigenous suffering” but rather “this historical tragedy inspired the framework of this book.” I haven’t read the book so I can’t actually say how explicit it is. But if you only realize the inspiration for the book from an interview because the plot is so disconnected from any historical reality, is it really appropriation?
I say this as a poc who has definitely read appropriative literature and who generally dislikes the idea of white people fictionalizing a tragedy that they perpetuated/have no connection to. If the story was a historical fiction about the Sixties Scoop then I could see the idea that Klune is taking up air. But if the story is really so disconnected from its origin that you can’t tell, I don’t really think you could claim that. How many people read this and never realized the connection? Their view of systemic violence perpetuated against indigenous people is then not at all affected by this book. Idk. I just don’t love the idea of policing inspiration to this extent. But again, I do see how the conclusion is drawn.
I think the problem is you can tell- the kids are taken from their homes to live in this school/boarding house and they face discrimination from larger society for being inhuman. The main government agency thing is trying to enforce the schools and have the kids reject their magical heritage and teach them to act civilized. They also quote the “see something say something” rhetoric. It’s so blatant I didn’t know about it when I picked it up and I pretty quickly realized when I was reading. What makes it worse too is that the children are literally not even human- one is a blob monster and one is the literal antichrist. There obviously isn’t any conversation on colonialism or anything like that, and the solution in the end is to advocate for the boarding school to *stay open* with magical leadership.
He basically repackaged and watered down genocide into a one dimensional lighthearted fantasy. I also don’t think that it’s inherently a problem for an author to take a real life tragedy and fictionalize it or tell it in a way suitable for younger audiences, but in this case his approach completely undermines and minimizes what reformation schooling actually was- and as a white man from Oregon it wasn’t his story to tell in the first place.
But didn’t he explicitly word it as ‘inspiration’, if he hadn’t, then it would be a different story. The subject matter is horrifying to say the least. And how come his takeaway inspiration was…social workers are saviours?
Having read the book, I agree with your point. I fell like Klune's biggest mistake was to tell what inspired him, not to actually write this book.
But the thing is the history he used is riddled with violence against indigenous people. The only people who have a right to use said history and turn it into a lighthearted fantasy are the children who lived it, not the people who are far removed from it. Otherwise that's profiting off of a painful history that's still affecting people till this day.
@@rizzobeloved I understand your perspective, but there's a line between directly using a story and drawing inspiration from it. In the case of Klune's work, he incorporated the concept of 'children seen as different being taken away' without specifically portraying indigenous children or anyhow exploring their narrative.
Hey! The book she recommended at the end is called "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline and it is truly an amazing book. If you are interested, please do give it a go! c:
I guess I’m a fool because I still don’t get the outrage at The House in the Cerulean Sea, and its author. 🤷🏻♀️
I’m pretty sure that nobody who read the book made the connection between the story and the Sixties Scoop until the author mentioned it. It literally has nothing in it to suggest anything to do with the indigenous community. If it did and was written with indigenous characters, I could understand people being upset, but it’s not as if taking fantastical children and setting them in an orphanage/camp/school, away from their families, is even an original idea. Other writers have done that in X-Men, The Darkest Minds, The Umbrella Academy, just to name a few. In most of these types of stories, it’s openly acknowledged to be a terrible thing.
Tons of books out there are inspired by awful things that happened in history, as we draw on experiences, past and present, to create stories that make us feel something, and question our complicity, which is exactly what’s done in THitCS, with Linus. I don’t see how Linus’s journey in discovering his complicity, and correcting it, is bad or
harmful? 😓
I wonder about this too. I disliked the book for other reasons but I’m not mad that the author used knowledge of a real event as a springboard for a story that ended up being about something else.
I respect Emma and other white people who feel icky about it, but I kinda feel like this is just another case of white people getting offended on the behalf of poc 😅
@@aleenakhan6230 that's how I feel about it too. White liberals and performative virtue signalling is just a match made in heaven lol. Would love to see them put their money where there mouth is instead of trying to say the "right" set of words for a change.
Thank you for that comment! It's sad that one thing taken out of context is still after all those years completely misunderstood and that people are so easy to jump onto a cancel culture band wagon. I expected better from this chanel...
@@aleenakhan6230 Especially since the actual story warrants its own criticism. It’s about a white male government employee who works to enforce the status quo of oppression and only changes for the better when the status quo started affecting him and taking away what he wanted. It’s not like he goes back to undo the harm he’d previously done.
But we’re supposed to be mad about loose historical interpretation?
31:40 This was hilarious to me and I kept rewatching this section. I'm now questioning if I even know how to pronounce "orphanages" correctly.
Goodreads ratings are so garbage 😂
I learned that long ago 😂 I read "House in the Cerulean Sea" because of the crazy high ratings and I just had the most "meh" time even before learning of the author's statements and understanding the super icky background.
12:16 yeah there’s definitely a difference between ignorance and hatred, bro sounds like a sex offender😭
Spies are not generally nice people.
The Klune take is wild. This is how inspiration works. You read or see something, it moves you, you add it to other things that move you, you make something new. Sometimes, dare I say often, the thing that inspires an artist is history. And The House in the Cerulean Sea is so different from reality I can’t fathom anyone looking at it and crying appropriation.
i think its more so the odd response from klune himself, but reading it, it is a very big stretch to say stuff like appropriation and "social worker saving the day" and rewriting indigenous history. If we apply this thinking and perspective to every fantasy novel, then Mistborn would be completely bashed (slavery).
It was definitely socially inept of him to admit where he took his inspiration from. He clearly just read one wiki article and decided he liked this "idea". Better to keep that to himself unless he's gonna write something that's more than just a fluffy fantasy romance
@@oliverxhmll I don’t think it’s ‘socially inept’ to reveal your original inspiration. Then again, I’m actually socially inept myself, so what do I know. You humans play dümb social games that are impossible to entirely figure out. LOL. I don’t know the context of the quote, but I’m guessing it’s probably what’s he’s said when directly asked about his inspiration. If that’s the case and it was genuinely his inspiration, then what else is he supposed to say? Is he supposed to lie and make up something just to make you feel better? Because that’s silly IMO.
@@oliverxhmllYep he seemed to make a blunder here.
@@bluecannibaleyes I can see where you’re coming from that he was honest about where his idea came from and he shouldn’t have to lie. But it’s also very normal that it raises eyebrows when he takes a real part of history when children were taken from their family and basically tormented and even lost their lives in these institutions, and with it he declares that he wrote a story about monster kids (if i understand correctly) and some man finding his path in life or what. There’s nothing wrong with ideas being sparked out of real events, but the parallels just seem disrespectful to me and like there’s complete apathy towards the source material, as from what i understand Emma says none of the real issues of it are explored or referenced in the novel. I haven’t read it myself as it’s definitely not my type of book, but just wanted to say that I see where you are coming from but I also understand Emma’s criticism
I literally just read These Violent Delights and at first I was so confused by your description of the plot??? Then I realized there are two books of the same name - the one I read was by Micah Nemerever, a completely different story (and a really intriguing one at that)
I regret reading Killing Commendatore by Murakami. I loved his books when I was younger and somehow managed to ignore the red flags in his other works but omg Killing Commendatore… The main character keeps thinking about HIS DEAD, 13 YEAR OLD SISTER’S BREASTS like wtf. I’ll never pick up a Murakami book again
Are you being sarcastic?
His portrayal of women in his books is always a thorn in my side. Either he has never grown up, or he hasn't had any actual relations with a woman as an adult.
I liked Killing Commendatore but I know what you mean. What’s worse in KC is the 13 year old girl talking to the middle aged main character about the size of her breasts. Can you imagine this ever happening in the real world? Okay this isn’t the real world it’s Murakami world but you have to wonder about an old male writer conjuring up this scene out of his imagination.
@@circleofleaves2676 or maybe he writes it that way, because people like that actually exist in various stages of life
@@circleofleaves2676 I totally agree but I didn’t see that as a teenager. Maybe I don’t regret reading this book after all, since it was my “wake up call”
Glad you mentioned such thoughtful issues/topics. Also still contemplating reading these violent delights though
I think it’s pretty interesting how Kline turned a tragic history into a story of acceptance. Also, it sheds light on what happened.
I think it’s a silly concept that someone can’t write about a history they didn’t share. If they write with respect, I don’t think it’s an issue.
"... running on Windows like negative four" 😂 I love your sense of humour.
I read "I'll have what she's having", a book on how Nora Ephron saved the romantic comedy. I would have appreciated more on Nora's actual work writing and directing and less on the actors in the movies, less gossip, less on budgets, etc.
You unlocked a childhood memory with the 39 clues book 😮 never read them but I remember seeing them all the time. I used to love the Magic Treehouse books when I was a kid, and Dolphin Diaries
I haven't read the book but there's an argument to be made that Klune took inspiration from real life history and then fictionalized in a fantasy; that's not offensive in itself and in fact it's less offensive than if you would write about real world history with no regards for victims like in true crime books.
I don't know how that equates to him taking the voice from indigenous writers. How is he stopping them from writing their own stories?
Exactly! I don't see the evil everyone's talking about...
Yeah, it just seems like she’s trying to tell writers what they are and aren’t allowed to write and/or be inspired by, which seems really stifling to creativity.
The book is just bad. Full stop. I didn't know the entire story when I read and it still felt so icky.
but "bad" is subjective..... most prople don't find it bad..... besides, her critic of it isn't because it's bad.....
I wanted to love These Violent Delights because it sounded amazing but I gave up about halfway through in part because of the reasons you mentioned and also because the writing made me cringe so hard. I just couldn’t do it.
Casino Royale was great. thanks for the suggestion. Books are usually written for their times especially works of fiction. Can't wait for book reviews in 40 years for the wonderful woke books written today.
The 39 Clues is my special interest and has been for a very very long time and when I realized it was Rick Riordan's Maze of Bones that you were talking about, I lost my mind a little bit :D
This take about The House of the Cerulean is a bit icky, that one commenter saying it’s another case of white people feeling offended for POC was actually crazy. The thought that one cannot write about stuff like this (stories that were inspired by inhumane history) is kinda scary and limiting. I guess this is why cancel culture is thriving. I hate that we now live in such a hyperaware (and sensitive) society that we need to be scared to do so many things for fear of getting called out and cancelled.
Anyways, I’ve always enjoyed your content, but I’m feeling so tired of all this what I feel is pretty performative …
Cant finish anymore. Just tired.
Your comments about These Violent Delights reminded me so much about my experience with Babel by RF Kuang lmao. A lot of "telling, not showing". I regret that one hehe
From a viewer’s point of view, I agreed with you on having a natural flow - meaning the inclusion of some ummm, errrr, and a moment for your thinking process, instead of a heavily edited video every other 10 seconds or so just to take out the so-called imperfection. The latter always puts me off continuing watching videos from that creator. Thanks for continuing making bookish videos for us.
I’m really glad that you’ve mentioned TJ Klune. I’ve heard so many great things about this from other booktubers and most of them just love the book. Some of them know that there is a controversy but they just love the book. Thank you so much for saying these words.
I hated TVD by Chloe Gong but loved These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever. Its obsession, dark, and not meant to be romanticized at all (aka not a dark romance). TW for 1970s homophobia, and violence
Edit; I should also say that I have a special dislike for Gong because she admitted she sees her books as college papers. She ignores suggested edits, submits the book to her editor, and refuses to reread her work. So ya even after given her a second try, I refuse to read her work
All literature is a "performance"; an act of creative empathy. The notion that you cannot write about something you didn't personally experience is bonkers and would wipe out much great literature. Whether it's good or bad work is a different question. Your description makes it sound like if the author did not state what his inspiration was then nobody would make the connection.
This is such a bad faith read on what Emmie was saying. You can write whatever you want, nobody can stop you, TJ klune did and the book is wildly successful.
People can critique whatever they want. Criticising a white man taking a narrative from a mass trauma and attempted genocide/assimilation of First Nations people and using it as a backdrop to for the main character’s self discovery is something worth being aware of. The trope of a person of colour existing in a story primarily to help the white protagonist realise important things and find themselves is not new but is problematic.
The author’s proxy for the Indigenous people were literally monsters. The system he based the story off of is represented in a way that absolves the social workers and masters of the “schools” that held Indigenous children of their actions which actively harmed those communities. I hope you can understand why these are harmful.
This is a very nuanced conversation and you are shutting it down with no real reason why except that maybe it makes you uncomfortable or you just think uncritically.
@@iris-vu8wk I’m not shutting down anything. Not sure what that even means. But If you were not aware of what she mentioned you wouldn’t have a problem with that book. If your starting point is extra-textual then you are not engaging in literary criticism but analyzing personal motives. This is the sort of thing English majors used to be taught not to do. I’m sure Emmie knows about New Criticism and the Intentional Fallacy. I’m not even saying this guy was right or wrong to use these events this way. That’s a personal judgement call. I’m saying it should have no bearing on whether the work is any good.
@@Tolstoy111 the author’s life, inspiration and politics can actually be a really important part of criticism and readings of text. Intentional fallacy occurs with “assumed intent”, it doesn’t apply here as we know that Klune was inspired by residential schools as he said it.
Closed reading can be a great tool but it is not the only way to analyse a text. It is frequently important to look at the lives of writers as often it impacts novels, poetry, etc. Reading books like The Picture of Dorian Gray for example, knowing that Oscar Wilde is a gay man provides many more readings of the novel and adds further scope for analysis. It makes the aesthetic of the book make sense within the context of dandies, and his (unfortunate) opinions on Jewish people and people of colour come through in the book and we can understand why they got their and how they function within the novel.
And honestly I don’t know what you mean, generalising that english majors are all taught to singularly look at a text and not pull context from elsewhere, that was not my experience in english university courses, nor is it now as an art writer.
I find it strange that this post has 24 thumbs-up currently. Conspiracy alert!
@@iris-vu8wk
Intentional Fallacy is using authorial intent as a thought terminating argument for a given interpretation. A work doesn't necessarily correlate to that. Sometimes it can "mean" the opposite of what an author intended. The "meaning" of Hamlet comes from the text of Hamlet, not from what Shakespeare may or may not have intended. It doesn't matter what he intended. Regardless of what one knows about an author, if it cannot be supported with textual evidence then it's only important to biographers. My B.A. and M.A. is in English. If I turned in a paper making claims about a given work with no evidence from that work but only biographical data/authorial interviews from the author, the paper would get an F.
If you want to try another classic spy novel, do give John le Carre's The Spy Who Came In From the Cold. My Dad was a huge fan of Le Carre's work and this one is supposed to be one of the best.
Robert Ludlum was my go-to spy novelist back in the day, think The Bourne Identity,The Bourne Ultimatum etc. I couldn't get enough of them.
“This is catastrophic, I’m going to have to face this one day.” My thoughts on quicksand as a child. Weirdly, it has never been an issue in my life.
Loved this video, Emma! Yes please, more reading regrets and criticism towards low quality content
The Berlitz reference is to the famous Berlitz language schools which have been around since the 19th century. Charles Berlitz is the grandson of the founder of the company but that is the only connection. Ian Fleming was already dead by the time Charles's books were being published. I would guess Fleming had never heard of him.
I have flown to Puerto Rico twice and I'm still here. We didn't even have any turbulence.
To be fair, Charles did co-write one book about The Roswell Crash (the first book about it) and there is no real mention of Atlantis in there. 😂
THANK YOU! I agree 1000% about Juliette in These Violent Delights. You can make a strong female character and not make them a complete monster. The scene with her and the waitress really rubbed me the wrong way.
The funny thing is I just took a break from writing an essay on conspiracy theories to watch some youtube videos, and you just happened to upload this lol
Edit:
Holyyy, I'm aware of the 60s Scoop but had no idea that TJ Klune's book was based off of it. Thank you for bringing it up!
The TJ Klune problem got me thinking:
Why is that, nobody mantions the YA distopian novels based on the communist oppression?
Half of Europe (and even the Far East at the moment) lived that sh*t through. Millions suffered and died during that time period.
Not western world's history or trauma, yet dozens of novels and books are coming out every year based on it, and nobody bets an eye. Nobody says it's problematic.
Love the Bond novels. Granted, they are not the best written books ever, but they are so entertaining. I have the entire collection of the original Fleming Bond novels.
stop I was OBSESSED with the 39 clues books when I was a kid omg
The these violent delights slander is so beautiful haha
you have glitter on your face and this is so relatable. 😂 love your videos so much. please do not ever stop.
I'm so glad I dnf'd these violent delights now.
Oh my god, this video is so intriguing. You should keep doing this!
You’re one of the only people I trust on TH-cam/TikTok to talk about books.
Potential antidote to the Bermuda Triangle book: "The Bermuda Triangle Mystery - Solved" by Larry Kusche (Prometheus Books, 1995). It goes through a long list of purported Bermuda Triangle incidents, and shows that none of them need a supernatural explanation (and that there's no evidence some of them even happened, or that if they did happen, they happened well outside the relevant area), especially when you look at the broader context of each one, not just the bits people writing Bermuda Triangle books bother to mention.
I agree with everything you said about these violent delights. I thought I was the only one who hated everything about it
the book i regret reading the most is 'a little life'. i went into it from recs by people i followed online and truly lost my faith in human connection for a minute there. please read reviews if you're thinking of reading that horrendous thing
the 39 clues 😂I’m dying
omg the 39 clues… taking me back fr
I don’t know for sure, but I’m fairly certain that I cited Berlitz’s work in a paper about the Bermuda Triangle in 5th grade. Unfortunate, if so. This was before the internet so my options were limited.
Lewis Carroll is another very problematic author, something I had no idea about until my friend was reading a book based on him by a relative - definitely wild considering Alice in Wonderland is still such a popular story
omg the 39 clues thing, that just reawakened a repressed memory 😭
I loved this video! A recent reading regret I have is Outlawed by Anna North. Too many "progressive" topics were shoehorned into the story without a clear focus on the message. Then, in trying to send that progressive message, the author comes full circle back to racism, homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny. It was wild!
I still love 39 clues knowing I won't enjoy them now because I borrowed the books from a friend back then😂😂
I'm sorry but the take about the cerulean sea is far fetched and ridiculous. He was very clear that it's not meant to be about those events and when you read it, you know it's not. The story revolves around themes of acceptance and addresses the horrible site of adoption systems. He may have been inspired by the 60’s scoop during his research but his story takes place in a completely different world. His story is NOT based on that event, and he said so himself. IT’s literally just about a story of kids being mistreated and demonised who deserve love. There are truly problematic authors out there, but he isn’t one of them. Maybe think a bit more next time you want to demonise an author, who does great work, especially for the lgbtq community. And to call it a performance of someone else's trauma is just a wrong take. I think this video is more of a performance of cancelling an author ( who btw does great representation of gay characters ) because you saw a twitter threat. 👉🏻 Unsubscribed
wdc abt g4 y ppl she's right
For a minute there I thought you were going to talk about "These Violent Delights" by Micah Nemerever. Same title, but much better book!
Oh god, when you said These Violent Delights I started rubbing my hands. I hated that book and I hate the fact that I spent money on that book 😐
truly amazing video, Emma. about your recommendation, did you mean The Marrow Thieves? when you said the dream thieves, which I’ve read, I felt lost like wait I don’t remember that stuff in there hahaha
"Charles let it go 😂"
I regret reading "The Fault in Our Stars”. Characters don’t feel real; they don’t come across as humans but mouthpieces for John Green to drone on about philosophy.
i was thinking of reading these violent delights since i love R&J and the title is my favourite quote of the play, but after hearing that the book is super poorly executed id have to find a different R&J retelling that i would actually enjoy 😓
I really regret reading The Girls from Corona del Mar. A book usually never makes me physically angry but oh boy...
It was described as this great story about friendship between two women but it was the most twisted thing I have ever read?! With friends like these, you truly don't need enemies...I've read it years ago at this point but still feel so mad at it.
Aaaaa rly love it when u use that mic in your videos 😔💗
Crazy or not those Bermuda triangle theories are pretty cool
i agree with you like 95% of the time but these violent delights and the entire secret shanghai series will always hold a special place in my heart
Thank you for mentioning the issue of TJ Klune's book I had no clue !
Even before finding out about the residential school inspiration I thought The House in the Cerulean Sea was oversimplifying complex social issues with a trite "love conquers all" message that seemed ill fitting for a supposedly adult book that was trying to make analogies to real-life discrimination. I original thought those references were just more generally to issues in orphanages, racism/ homophobia, etc and it annoyed me even then. I understand its supposed to be sweet and feel-good but it just seems irresponsible.
This was a great episode because it ended my mini crush
yeah this is something this younger generation does that i don't do or get. love you emmie , we will have to agree to disagree. i'd lose my mind if i had to know every authors short comings.
Hm I think there are some people in my younger generation that require the authors/artists they enjoy be morally perfect but that doesn't really some to be Emmie's approach with this video.
Most of these books were stories that she genuinely didn't enjoy the content of, and if the authors shortcomings were mentioned (such as fabricating evidence in the name of pushing a lucrative conspiracy theory or having a very misogynist view of women) it was largely because their shortcomings make the writing actively worse and unenjoyable. This wasn't the case with each book mentioned, but a vast majority of them.
I can’t imagine having the luxury of only reading authors I morally and/or p01itically agree with. If I did that, I’d never read anything.
@@bluecannibaleyes Neither do I. But emmie even talked about in the video that she reads classics that has values and beliefs that are from that time period.. She's not selectively reading, you're still allowed to give criticism, and you're also allowed to like or dislike them.
Haha they do say never to meet your heroes.. Yet it's not a bad thing that these things come to light sometimes. One of the books in my tbr is Ender's Game and knowing the author started to loudly say hateful things about the things that he used to portray in his books so beautifully is pretty saddening
@@Bread_bread01 idk much about the author of Ender’s Game but from the few vague criticisms I’ve heard, it’s making me want to bump him up higher on my TBR. LOL
Everyone always want to fault the author when they do something problematic, which is how it should be but also the publishers are at fault too. I wish publishing would care more about what they put out but no its always about money.
Also the book I regret reading is Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage because that entire book is ridiculous.
That first book reminded me of the theories on the Why Files channel ❤
The visuals that popped in my mind while Emma was describing the plague in Violent Delights. No, just no!! 😢😢
Oh I loved Casino Royale! I thought it was a fun spy novel with some interesting moral commentary!
i see a lot of people arguing about whether authors are "allowed" to write about issues they could never fully understand because they haven't personally experiences but i don't think that's the point. authors are obviously free to write anything, and tacking important issues can even be a way to help raise the voices of people who might not have the same opportunities to be heard; but the moment you decide to do that you're also opening your work to criticism where it falls short. personally a book i regret reading is at the wolf's table by rosella postorino. it's about a woman who was one of hitler's food tasters during ww2. i liked the premise, but i feel like the most interesting aspects were unexplored in favor of a tasteless romance plot between the protagonist and an SS soldier, which i hated. this isnt to say you cannot write controversial or taboo relationship, but it all depends on the payoff, and in this case the image of him that came off was "he wasn't that bad he actually tried to help how he could the jewish woman they were deporting" which is just insane. it felt completely ahistorical. but what really tipped me over the edge of full regret was learning that the author was inspired to write this novel by the real story of margot wölk, and this is what the book is sold as, it's literally written on the book cover. and i just think it's beyond disrespectful to use the memory of a real woman to sell your work as a historical novel when it's so detached from history and a good portion is dedicated to that shameful "forbidden" romance
AAAAHHH!!! I used to LOVE 39 Clues!
oh my god. oh my god. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. WHAT⁉️⁉️
I completely forgot about the maze of bones books, completely obsessed as a kid ! thank god I didn’t know about the card packs 😅
Me, who read literally the whole series(es) of 39 Clues and absolutely loved them🤣
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is problematic to me because of its graphic nature in detailing child abuse in Afghanistan. I read the book in middle school, and a large chunk of the story I could hardly stomach. I understand the importance of the book, but it would be a better fit for college students, as middle schoolers are not mature enough to fully grasp the weight behind what was published.
In my experience the book is very much so marketed toward older audiences. Just because it talks about children doesn't mean it is meant for children to read. Maybe it was different for you but I have never seen it recommended to middle school students, so the book isn't problematic. The problem is anybody who thinks it is okay for a middle schooler to read it if they are not mature enough to do so.
Definitely not a book for a very young audience.
I’m Khaled Hosseinis biggest fan but his books are meant for older audiences however we live in a world where that abuse and those atrocities are still happening to children in the Middle East so it is an eye opener and a reality check
How is referring to abuse that occurs to children in literature problematic? Khaled Hosseini doesn't trivialize the abuse at all. He doesn't brush it under the carpet either. His books are known for simultaneously showing the beautiful and the wretched aspects of human beings. He doesn't shy away from depicting the very real violence in a society ravaged by colonialism and tribalism nor does he minimize the beauty and generosity that exists amidst the horrors. I feel that so many people on social media love using the word 'problematic' to refer to anything that either makes them uncomfortable or isn't to their taste. Portrayals of violence are not problematic at all as long as the violence isn't glorified or justified. Khaled Hosseini's books are masterpieces and it's not that his depiction of reality is 'problematic' but that it's taught to kids too young to deal with it in American schools. Most people in the world don't read his books in schools so the American education system is problematic.
It’s an adult novel. It’s not meant for children
I remember when the Bermuda Triangle was a sort of thing.
Horrifying that that trash sold 20,000,000 copies.
Meanwhile my 45 year old mom died in a two engine private plane crash flying form Nassau to Port Lauderdale. But that was probably because the pilot was drunk or something.
I read a few of those Bond things 60 years ago when THEY were a very big thing. They stated kid Steve as a life long reader.
Meanwhile I can't believe they still make movies with that character, I never watch them.
CIA military complex crap.
14:51 I DIDNT EVEN KNOW THIS EXISTED💀
Yay!
It’s Emmie ASMR!
Truly you should read books out loud for a living!
❤ your work!