Which would put me off. So there's obviously some role that knowledge of genre conventions is playing here as well.
True, and given that the author is calling the protagonist "the woman" and other clues, I'd probably be quick to drop the book if it turned out that my worst suspicions were confirmed. But on a prose level, leaving aside larger context, the second paragraph at least keeps me at the table long enough to be disgusted. The first has me walking away immediately.
That kind of opening is fine in a movie, but "scenic openings" almost never work in a book, and the setting has to be very striking and non-generic for them to work.
Oh yeah. I remember trying to read Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan and never making it past the description of rain on windows on the first page, and being vaguely pissed that a scene that featured the (future) Queen Elizabeth I in the Tower of London (a damned interesting situation) was bogged down by describing the goddamn weather when invoking the very name "Tower of London" would have been suitable to set the scene for those who have any familiarity with British royal history. Of course now I've got other reasons I have no interest in that book - but yeah.
Also, people with long hair who don't pull it back while riding/fighting/whatever trip my yeah-right-o-meter. Presumably the woman likes spitting hair out of her mouth and wiping it out of her eyes every time it's windy.
Yeah, this! Thank you! I see this on TV as well, where a person who regularly engages in intense physical activity will leave their long hair down and I have the same thoughts. *eyeroll*. I mean, I can't even drive safely with the windows down if my long hair isn't tied back because I don't like to eat Hair Salad on the road. I can't really imagine trying to fight or ride a horse.
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Date: 2011-01-18 01:13 am (UTC)True, and given that the author is calling the protagonist "the woman" and other clues, I'd probably be quick to drop the book if it turned out that my worst suspicions were confirmed. But on a prose level, leaving aside larger context, the second paragraph at least keeps me at the table long enough to be disgusted. The first has me walking away immediately.
That kind of opening is fine in a movie, but "scenic openings" almost never work in a book, and the setting has to be very striking and non-generic for them to work.
Oh yeah. I remember trying to read Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan and never making it past the description of rain on windows on the first page, and being vaguely pissed that a scene that featured the (future) Queen Elizabeth I in the Tower of London (a damned interesting situation) was bogged down by describing the goddamn weather when invoking the very name "Tower of London" would have been suitable to set the scene for those who have any familiarity with British royal history. Of course now I've got other reasons I have no interest in that book - but yeah.
Also, people with long hair who don't pull it back while riding/fighting/whatever trip my yeah-right-o-meter. Presumably the woman likes spitting hair out of her mouth and wiping it out of her eyes every time it's windy.
Yeah, this! Thank you! I see this on TV as well, where a person who regularly engages in intense physical activity will leave their long hair down and I have the same thoughts. *eyeroll*. I mean, I can't even drive safely with the windows down if my long hair isn't tied back because I don't like to eat Hair Salad on the road. I can't really imagine trying to fight or ride a horse.