Response to Claratheawesome's blog post 'Hardball'

This is the link to Clara’s post: http://claratheawesome.blogspot.com/2011/02/hardball-by-sara-paretsky-can-girl-be.html

I looked at a lot of people’s blog posts and this one in particular stood out to me. First off, I really like Clara’s blog because she reads really awesome books and brings up interesting ideas or perspectives about what she is reading. I find that each post is crafted just so making the reader feel like she is just talking to you, she really keeps me entertained and gets my mind going. This post specifically drew me in with its almost poetic language, intricately setting up a scene in my head about her book. I think that this is really important for the author to do because if you have read the book or not, you still become involved in the story. I would want to try out this technique in my writing to enhance my blog posts from now on because I think it would allow me to express my ideas in a more cohesive manner and engage my audience.

The way she weaved little tid bits of the story all throughout the writing was intriguing and it made me want to read the book too.  The classic elements of mystery and detective stories are so well put, and even though I don’t often read that type of fiction I feel that I would enjoy the many levels of social inequity and moral questioning that goes on between crime and scandal.

Oh a deeper level though, this post made me re-evaluate the double standards men and women are put up to today. It’s funny because I was talking about this with some people the other day, and how really although we see ourselves as such progressive thinkers, in many ways we live by the traditional gender rules of the ‘20s. In my mind mystery novels always take place in the roarin’ twenties. It’s interesting that the author chose such a typical style while pairing it with such a new idea, and Clara’s own opinions have made me think that maybe this was done so in order to show that we cannot go forward without looking back at our gender misconceptions and pitfalls. The collision of the old and new is almost and ingenious way of showing both sides of the story, sort of canceling one and other out. Even today still there are not as many female detectives as there are male. The man still prominently dominates the police force, making me wonder; Are we truly even ready for change?

Clara’s post really got me thinking and made me take some of her book’s ideas and bring them into our reality, analyzing the author’s purpose and reading between the lines of what textual examples I have been given.  This post is really great and I can’t wait to hear more about Vic.