The Fans Who Read About Tattooed Girls
Better late than never! Here’s the beginning of the official ‘Millennium-Fans All-Over-The-World-Have-Their-Say’-page – about the Trilogy! I will endeavour to gather all sorts of reviews – positive and negative - that I think could be worth reading for other fans. I’ll clip some of the best bits and link back to your site. We’ll start right of with this with Trai’s three totally terriffic talks about Tattoo, Fire and Hornet. Enjoy!
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Trai says:
“I’ll start by saying that this is not an easy read. In a way, it is– it is absolutely compelling and I firmly believe that this is the best, most absorbing book I’ve read in at least a few years. But emotionally and as a girl, it’s very difficult to swallow.
“This book very much concerns violence against women and the violence is most definitely brutal. I had one of the most intense reactions I’ve ever had to a book during the most disturbing scene, a brutal rape. I was shaking and felt like crying.
“I literally felt like I couldn’t breathe. In a way, it was so completely satisfying to see Salander’s absolutely merciless attitude towards men who abuse women. I luckily have never been the target of sexual violence, but I do know what bullying was like.
“Salander is almost a stand-in for any woman who has ever felt victimized in any way, and this was why I empathized with her. Maybe that was why I reacted so strongly to the scene. I have never felt so utterly revolted by a character as I have with the men in this book. I have to give Larsson credit for writing a horrifying yet incredibly captivating story.”
Read the full review on: Tutor Girl Reads The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
- and check out Trai’s cool Salander-fan site as well: F…yeah! Kalle and Sally!
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Chris’ comments on the comments: Thanks for sharing your review with us, Trai. I must say that your angle is so blindingly obvious that I’m surprised I haven’t really read other reviews from women who talk about their feelings of identification with Lis, as she gets raped. I am almost inclined to think that is because most women would rather identify with Lisbeth’s strong side; but in doing so we – both men and women – may gloss over that one of the most compelling things about Lisbeth’s character is her dual nature – she is both the victim and the avenger. Obviously most of us would rather be the one dishing out the pain to ‘evil-doers’ (come on, admit it everyone 
) than the other way around. But Lisbeth Salander as a character wouldn’t really work if there wasn’t this very strong realistic side to her situation that almost makes us shy away, because we are reminded just how many Men Who Hate Women are still out there – and that we go about our business everyday, most of us I guess, not really doing anything about it.
Categories: Books, From the Fans, Reviews
4 Comments » (Including One Discussion Thread)
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June 26th, 2010 at 9:44 PM
I think the point about Salandar is that she is not a “victim”. She is a woman who has experience all sorts of terrible things in her life but she decides that these experiences are not going to define her. She does not want to be a child who is abused or a woman who is raped, or a person whose civil liberties have been violated. She never once sees herself like this. One of the real problems for her at the end of the third book is that by winning she partially loses the freedom she had. She can be a full citizen, but she has to trade a little of her anonymity and freedom.
Mary
September 25th, 2010 at 11:38 PM
I thought that was portrayed in the film ‘Hornets Nest’ quite brilliantly in the short the scene where Lisbeth gets out of the laywers car and looks a little lost when she stands still and zips up her jacket and looks around as if she wasn’t sure what to do now.
September 25th, 2010 at 11:39 PM
I thought that was portrayed in the film ‘Hornets Nest’ quite brilliantly in the short scene where Lisbeth gets out of the laywers car and looks a little lost when she stands still and zips up her jacket and looks around as if she wasn’t sure what to do now.
September 27th, 2010 at 9:06 PM
Wow Mary, good insight. I felt some of these things about Lisbeth, but hadn’t quite teased out your conclusions. Thanks for that.