Book Thoughts: Other Boleyn Girl
Jan. 7th, 2008 10:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orangerfulOkay, The Other Boleyn Girl is a nasty book. I don't mean nasty like "ew gross" but like claws and fangs. I gave up reading it and I'm now listening to it in the car. At first, I wasn't sure if I would like listening to it, but the narrator's voice works for me. She has this airy tone, I can picture naive Mary doing her duty. And she adds a bit of bass to her voice when she does Anne, making her every word feel calculated.
Anne scares me. I felt so bad for her when the things with the Other Henry went south. It was her first real human moment where I thought maybe she could do something that wasn't totally motivated by her ambition. But that whole thing ended badly (I mean, when mom says she'd rather see you dead...not good times.)
What I find fascinating is the whole "virgin" debate. To me, the big thing with Henry VIII was how many times he was divorced blah blah blah. They taught it in school like it was this HUGE deal. But if this book is at all based in fact, then the Cardinal could re-grant "ladies" their virginity. Or they could claim that their wedding was never consumated. That was so sad when Carey came to Mary and said that her parents were planning to say that they had never had sex. Her mother says "oh she's so young she could say she didn't even know what was happening."
Ugh, politics at it's worst! But I like that they are not stupid. Far from it, they are playing EVERYONE.
Clearly, the script for the movie will be different. I need to watch the trailer again to see if I pick up on anything. Anne isn't even going after King Henry yet. Though I felt a moment, when Mary was looking at her baby and saying how much she loved her and Anne sort of had this moment where...you could sort of feel it...her calculating the cost to herself and her friendship (or whatever you want to call it) with her sister versus the upward mobility of bedding and having the kings baby...
The movie could be good, if done right. I hope it's good. I'm still going to see it. Everyone in it is just so damn pretty.
Okay, time for delicious home made chocolate ice cream, with a cookie on top!
Anne scares me. I felt so bad for her when the things with the Other Henry went south. It was her first real human moment where I thought maybe she could do something that wasn't totally motivated by her ambition. But that whole thing ended badly (I mean, when mom says she'd rather see you dead...not good times.)
What I find fascinating is the whole "virgin" debate. To me, the big thing with Henry VIII was how many times he was divorced blah blah blah. They taught it in school like it was this HUGE deal. But if this book is at all based in fact, then the Cardinal could re-grant "ladies" their virginity. Or they could claim that their wedding was never consumated. That was so sad when Carey came to Mary and said that her parents were planning to say that they had never had sex. Her mother says "oh she's so young she could say she didn't even know what was happening."
Ugh, politics at it's worst! But I like that they are not stupid. Far from it, they are playing EVERYONE.
Clearly, the script for the movie will be different. I need to watch the trailer again to see if I pick up on anything. Anne isn't even going after King Henry yet. Though I felt a moment, when Mary was looking at her baby and saying how much she loved her and Anne sort of had this moment where...you could sort of feel it...her calculating the cost to herself and her friendship (or whatever you want to call it) with her sister versus the upward mobility of bedding and having the kings baby...
The movie could be good, if done right. I hope it's good. I'm still going to see it. Everyone in it is just so damn pretty.
Okay, time for delicious home made chocolate ice cream, with a cookie on top!
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Date: 2008-01-08 05:06 am (UTC)