[LMB] trashy books for guys - what's the difference?

[Michael R N Dolbear]

> From: alayne at twobikes.ottawa.on.ca
> Date: 02 February 2008 04:11
> 
> On Fri, 1 Feb 2008, Lois McMaster Bujold wrote:
> > The Executioner series 
> > would be closer to the trope tangle I have in mind, gun porn certainly.
 

> The following applies to non-SF only:
> the defining characteristic of men's trashy adventures is that they
define 
> and explain the gadgets. In Great Detail. In fact, so much that they slow

> up the plot. Guns, airplanes, cars, whatever: you know them to the last 
> detail before the author's finished.

This is a common current trope (hence "gun porn") but hasn't always been
the case and may decline in the future. The obvious comparison is with
"shopping" in chick-lit or romance.

Alistair MacLean mostly didn't go into detail for example (and when he did
in later books was often wrong). Nevil Shute had appropriate detail, eg he
did not explain "Very Pistol" in detail.

Little Egret