Is the book opposed to women or to feminism?
Again, I don't know enough to hazard an opinion. Bakker has had a certain backlash that informs my perspective but it's the subsequent study I've done that inevitable shapes it. I've always appreciated your tactful use of she instead he in referring to indeterminate gender, for instance. But I suspect your book, by association, by content, whichever, will attract the risk of criticism.
Well, there's a strong female character, I think. There's also the celebrity cult leader who doesn't do much in this book, but who I think will have a bigger role in the sequel. As for the female zombies, there's the old lady who knocks Eric off his bike and then there's the young hottie who tempts him sexually. I don't really deal much with sexuality in this book, but maybe that scene objectifies women since that zombie is literally a mindless, sexy body. Oh well, she serves her purpose, which is to make for an awkward scene for Eric and to help sell the fact that he's writing a journal on the occasion of the world's end and so he doesn't expect anyone will read it.
To bullet-point:
- I do think Jenna is a well-rounded female character.
- Excited to hear about the cult because that was interesting and it set-up for a future narrative (that I actually hoped would be part of
God Decays).
- I don't have the book on me but I think it's 4 vs. 2 (female to male zombies) before Eric runs into Jenna and Douglas. The issues I see arisen from the fact of narrative focus on bed-time gear, lingerie, underwear (I think I get the logic that many zombies would have turned in the comfortable, private clothing/lack of the home). And while you might not think you "deal with sexuality" in the novel, I think that the episode with Eric will explicitly draw criticism from that quarter.
Hell, any backlash would be great press for a self-published book, right?
Truth - you prompted me to think more about the innate numbers gained simply by being published rather than self-publishing. I'm not sure if your expectations are low or if sales for self-published authors really amount to low averages.
There will be more sexuality in the sequel, through the celebrity cult and another character. And if you've read my blog you know I'm kind of down on sexuality in general, not just on women. So when I do seriously deal with sex in my fiction, I expect I'll give reasons for more than just feminists to take offense or at least to question certain conventions.
Colour me intrigued. I'll only reading a handful of your blogs so I can't communicate with many mutual connotations. I've considered going back and working through your consolidated pdfs though.
Yeah, Scott Bakker is an eliminative materialist and I'm not. In this book, the climax is pretty dark (although the epilogue is meant to be hopeful), but I'm laying the groundwork for a more uplifting story that will unfold over the series. I don't want to give it away, but I'm dealing with the question of what counts as heroism under those horrible conditions (the apocalypse and the metaphysical truth of nature as God's decaying corpse). There will be heroes who transcend the horrible reality, albeit in a tragically heroic way. But as in painting, you've got to lay down the dark first so the light will show.
Excited. Even after the Eric's climatic experiences I was very surprised by the epilogue. I'm sold on buying the sequel.
I'm glad you like Thaddeus. I'm not finished with him yet. In the sequel, there will indeed be another character who has an odd relationship with the zombies, but I can't say more without giving it away.
Also awesome.
As for another human organization, if I understand your question right I think what I said above answers it: that celebrity death cult will play a larger role. The sequel will also show another part of the world where most of the people haven't yet died.
You got it. Very cool.
Howard Rhodes's reasons are explained a little more in the sequel (at least in the first draft which I'm working on now). I wanted to leave it somewhat to interpretation. You can assume he went mad, but it's more of a religious kind of madness, like Joan of Arc's. He had a genuine religious experience; unfortunately, the truth about God turns out to be a horror from which there's no return, especially for the more egocentric among us. Howard played a sort of practical joke on the human race. He wanted to harmonize us with the music of the spheres, to get us right with God, as the fundamentalists say; again, the irony is that God is undead, so that sort of literalistic godly life turns out to be a nightmare for us (it entails the end of the world by way of mass murder and technoscientific zombification).
I got Howard's metaphor. I thought it was nicely written. Ultimately, I think you've done an excellent rendition of zombies while maintaining your ability to make meaningful philosophic commentary - which is lost in some zombie narratives (I've been exposed to only few staples of the genre).
If you have other questions or comments, please don't hesitate to raise them. What did you think of the boy, Douglas, by the way?
I liked Douglas and I appreciate the realistic growth in his journal. This was one of the minor realisms that I mentioned really enjoying in my previous post - another was the different habitual referrals people adopted in labeling the zombies.
I don't know that any one character kept me reading. I think I related to Jenna the most, simply because I respect a practical disposition. Douglas' naivety is a respite from the darkness of the narrative whole and I also enjoyed his specifically different perspective on the circumstances the character share.
As for caring about Douglas' future - I don't know. By his circumstance in the epilogue, he's bound to grow into a player by association. But his childlike need kind of annoyed me - his existence is seriously at odds with the world of a zombie narrative.