Friday, July 06, 2007

Book Slut

Yep, that'd be me.

I have my hands on Mary Janice Davidson's latest, Undead and Uneasy. This particular segment has me in stitches:

[Tina] "Until I return, do not answer the door. You will not try to contact anyone who has gone missing. You will not answer the phone unless the caller ID tells you it is me." Her subservient tone was long gone; this was a general thinking fast and issuing orders. "Your Majesty, you you understand me"

[Betsy] "Uh, sure. Simmer."

"I will simmer, " she hissed [note from AJ: Betsy points out that Tina is an Elizabethan Lady, who simply Does Not Curse, slightly before this], "when I get a few heads on sticks. And the devil pity the rat fuck who gets in my way."

"Yeesh."

"Heads. On. Sticks."

"I got it the first time."

On that happy note, she hung up.


Again, snerk.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's some nice bedtime reading. Have you checked into "The Bloody Countess" known Elizabeth (aka Erzsebet) Bathory?

*PA runs to grab book she has on shelf*

Now, I am sure there are probably others out there than the one I have but it is based upon all sorts of translations of this and that...historical documentation that supposedly is/was extremely rare to obtain--it was published in 1996.

Now you and fellow commenters, brace yourself. This may not be palatable for you. In fact, it really may freak you the hell out or scare the bejeezus out of you (but hopefully not scare you of PA or colour your opinion of her..)

The Hungarian, aristocratic Bathory family were an absolute nightmare of inbreeding. That might explain some things? They were around in the 1500s or so(?) and it says she wrote her wills in 1610 so she was late century.

Oh dear. She was nasty. Here is a blurb from the back of the book:

"...Erzsebet Bathory bore the psychotic aberrations of centuries of intermarriage. From adolescence she indulged in sadistic lesbian fantasies where only the spilling of a woman's blood could satisfy her urges. By middle age, she had progressed to a mirror-fixated state of pathological necro-sadism involving witchcraft, torture, blood-drinking, cannibalism and inevitable wholesale slaughter..."

Nice, huh?

She's been compared to Gilles de Rais and Vlad The Impaler (that's where I was kind of going with the "heads on sticks" reference...)

She elicited help from her servants too and there is a true history of all of this blood business but the rest--woo!

The book doesn't just deal with the craziness of what she did, there's history to it, her getting caught and some about her trial and eventually her death--I just sort of skimmed it as I haven't read it in years.

HA!

And no, I'm not a total freak...I have many types of books in my collection but when I saw this one and the fact that it was really a piece of history I just couldn't resist it.

Amanda said...

PA, wow, goodness gracious!

I guess the "Heads. On. Sticks." line does bring about some vivid imagery... and apparently sparked a recollection.

Agreed, The Bloody Countess seems a bit nasty... eeek!

Anonymous said...

I'm only responding to this because a) I see you online right now (green dot) and b) I was curious what your response might be. Yes, rather disturbing, perhaps but a lot of history is or can be? People just get a bit squeamish when it comes to sexual crimes and that is understandable.

This just happens to be a little bit more revealing. Again, many "evil deeds" have been committed throughout time an documented. It just seems rare that a woman did it?

Amanda said...

I have a green dot? Oh yeah! Mail! Duh... check your inbox btw, LOL.

And you're right, much of history is disturbing, perhaps moreso when it involves something that relates to us individually (as in this woman was a woman).

I'll never get the whole thing of people who get off on watching others die. That's just... well, beyond odd. That crosses the line between "quirkily alternative" into the "back away, slowly, then run screaming like hell" school of behavior.

And I guess it does seem more rare that a woman did it. I have to wonder if it's because women just aren't as much that way (fewer serial killers are women, etc), or if it's more because the evil deeds of women went much less reported in the past due to a more constrained place in society. Or maybe there just wasn't as much opportunity due to the same.

I tend to think those things went less reported, or took place out of the public eye (child abuse, and that could go to the level of killing since kids were pretty much property at that time). But that's the cynic in me. It could be a combination of all factors, to varying degrees.

The Rainbow Zebra said...

Heh, I think I'm a bigger book slut than you ;) (I'm SO using that coupon on Friday).

And you have to stop posting such juicy tidbits of books LOL. Not only does it make my Amazon wishlist larger, but there is just *no more room* on next year's Reading List (yes I already have at least 25 lined up for 2008).