Our beloved Inara is crazy busy at the moment and since I can't arrange a holiday in the Maldeves with a dozen gorgeous semi naked men to do her bidding, I am covering here instead.Romance then, like all areas of writing has some bad, some excellent and many reasonable writers. It gets a hard time though, over all the genres it seems to draw endless criticism for bad writing, cliches, rubbish characters etc.
So today I open it up to all my wonderful Ravenous Wednesday folks and the passers by, grab a drink, pull up a cushion, mix your own cocktails as I lack Inara's mad skils with a shaker and ice and tell me:
Why does romance get such a hard time?
Why are it's critics wrong?
What are the best and worst experiences you have had of reading or writing romance?
30 comments:
Funny, but I was touching on this topic on my blog, too, after coming back from Readercon. It's like the Twilight bashing. Admittedly, they're not "good" books or movies, but a whole hell of a lot of crap books and movies get made with little more reaction than a shrug. The combination of the success + the audience base of teen girls makes it an easy target.
Hard SF makes fun of soft SF; SF makes fun of F; F denigrates H and everybody makes fun of romance.
This summer, half the people in London seemed to be reading One Day which could easily be classed as a romance. But because it's marketed as mainstream and pop, men don't mind being seen reading it.
There are few men as sophisticated and self-confident as oh, let's say, our Jack. Men who aren't put off by popular assumptions about the "worthlessness" of romance novels.
I can remember when science fiction and fantasy were regarded as "worthless". Romance is simply another form of literature in which the reader can escape from the doldrums of daily life and (perhaps) learn some rather profound lessons about human relationships.
The biggest lesson is that women are beings in their own right, not just someone else's property or plaything. They have feelings. They can hurt. While this ought to be self evident, sadly it isn't.
Until we understand that man doees not equal "master" and the woman does not equal "slave" it won't be.
I don't know if I'm expressing myself well here or not but these are a few thoughts which your questions have started up.
Kate, thank you for the compliment. (Don't know how "sophisticated" I am. This is just what I've learned from my own married life--and from observing the train wrecks which some of my relatives marriages became; all through the husbands perception that women were to be conquered rather than esteemed.
And to the ever lovely Adele, I trust this will never happen to you. Bad cess to anyone who tries anyway. LOL.
Well said, Jack! It's amazing how much people love romance when it's not emblazoned on the spine of the book. Casablanca anyone? How many movies and books that have phenomenal success don't have romance as a major part of the story?
And Inara crawls in and collapses on the floor... CHAMPAGNE!!! she cries in a feeble voice... I need some time to think about the questions (good questions, Adele!) and then will give my most thoughtful answers. :-) And thank you, Adele, for taking pity on me and covering this!
I'll go post on FB!
Romance is one of those dirty little secrets. How can it continue to be one of the best-selling genres and still get "bashed" so much? My grandmother taught high school "classical" English for 30+ years, and now only reads romance novels. She enjoys escaping into the world of romance.
The novels don't leave a reader crying in despair because life is so "unfair." I'd rather get lost in story that's full of hope and love, and hopefully some steamy sex.
Hard SF makes fun of soft SF, which makes fun of hard SF.
Hard SF and soft SF make fun of space opera, which makes fun of soft SF.
SF longs to be marketed as futuristic "mainstream" thriller.
Thrillers make fun of SF and F.
SF makes fun of F.
High F makes fun of low F, which makes fun of high F.
Urban fantasy makes fun of F.
F longs to be marketed as urban fantasy or "mainstream" Harry Potterish fantasy.
F makes fun of H, which makes fun of H.
H longs to be marketed as "mainstream" King-Koontz-etc H.
Splatterpunk H makes fun of psycho H, which makes fun of splatterpunk H.
Splatterpunk H longs to be a teenage movie.
Mystery makes fun of SFFH.
What am I missing? Ah yes, romance!
SFFH factions make fun of romance.
Other SFFH factions secretly read and write romance.
Romance wants to be marketed as sexy.
Sexy wants to be marketed as romance.
And I know that I'm probably STILL missing 50% of 'em!
I need some rum. A lot of rum.
Kate - yeah I as Twilight, I do think when something that poor becomes the benchmark for a genre it deserves a good kick.
My feeling is that the benchmark for Romance is changing. People are no longer simply expecting or accepting the identikit romances that Mills & Boon produced endlessly for so long. I for one want characters I can enjoy, a story even if it's not always a full blown plot and where there is a plot I want it to hang together properly.
I think the readership is being more demaninding and books like Chastity Flame and Ripping the Bodice should be the new benchmark for romance.
Mentioning ones I know well but there are lots of other good romance writers and I want to see that pushed to the fore so the dross which in fairness is plentiful and visible in this genre get sunk to the bottom.
Luckily, Lana, the rum is plentiful. Your post made me snork, which means I needed more champagne to clear my throat.
Louisa, I agree. I'd rather have a satisfying ending than one full of angst, although I do love me my horror et al. I love the mixing of genres and really do like romance mixed in. As long as the quality of the writing is good, I don't care WHAT the genre is...
As for worst experience, I am just really tired of the whole 'this is porn, not erotic romance!' bashing going on when there is an obvious happy ending and relationship between two people in the books.
And Jack - Never, I kick too hard to be taken for granted. And I have a sword now. ;p
I think as more author write romances that engage their readers, critics will stop lumping the whole genre with cranked-out formula fiction - or at least, I hope!
As far as the worst/best, Dana stumbled on a absolutely wonderfuly awful line in a paranormal romance- if I remember it right, it was:
"He filled my softness with his hardness, cramingly"
I think CRAMINGLY would be an awesome title for a collection of bad erotica...
-Kilt
Kilt - Cramingly? bwahahahahhahahhahahahahhaa
*falls off sofa*
excellent.
Does anyone remember Tom Lehrers 'National Brotherhood Week' song? Someone with more talent than me could do a genre fic version. :)
Hear that loud and clear Dana. There's a big difference between, say, Forever Amber and Deep Throat.
(Okay the last is a rather badly filmed movie but my point is still valid.)Romance explores the searching heart while pornography exploits the cheap thrill. Plus most of the P relationships are really about bondage rather than a free expression of love.
Get Dana and Dave to teach you how to use that sword to the best effect Adele. You'll be even deadlier. ;-) (You might even become the Lorena Bobbit of swashbucklers.)
So. As I understand it, if you're writing ANYthing, you can make fun of EVERYthing else. I think therein lies the problem: this mentality that what I’m writing is the best and your drivel isn’t worth the recycled paper it’s smeared across.
Romance gets a hard time because I think our culture (Western that is) can't talk about sex in anything not resembling a high school locker room and most readers assume that romance is all about the sex. Remember what assuming does? Yeah.
Critics are wrong because people who criticize to the extent romance gets criticized either haven't read any or don't understand that what they're reading is true to life and therefore needs to be understood on a very different level than other fiction.
It’s more true to life because even though I’ve never lived in 1882 Philadelphia, I have no magickal powers, and I’ve never met a hot English Lord who wanted to jump my bones (though I wouldn’t be opposed!) I can relate to the interpersonal problems these characters face. Duty verses passion, living where you always have with those you love or moving across the world for the one man you need, and protecting those you love.
I admit to reading horrible romances where I thought man, this got published? And then I tried to write one and when I read it over, (what I managed to finish) I could see how hard a sustainable plot was and now you know what those stories aren't finished. :)
The only romance books my brother will even discuss are mine, and yet one of his favorite trilogies is Star Wars. What's that (the original of course) without Han and Leia's romance?
That said, I’m having a new cake-Butterfinger chocolate cake, and yet somehow still think a G&T will go nicely. No worries, Inara, I’m a pro at mixing these. You enjoy your champagne and I’ll go repost your link. :)
Sorry, my comment posted twice.
Jack, I have no intention of cutting any body parts of anyone, the epee is for stabbing, not slicing. ;p
Isabel, yup, and well, yup. You deserve a more considered response but i'm tired.
I often find myself being apologetic about writing erotic romance, which it a more difficult place to be in than most would think: I want people to take me seriously as a writer, but I also want to write numerous genres, including erotic romance. With that said....
I think those of us who write mixed genre romance and erotic romance will be the ones to undo the mold. The more people are able to identify the elements our works share with other quality works, the more respect we will gain for our art.
Well, Adele, you can still skewer.
Isabel you hit the mark dead center. I hadn't considered that all the enmity toward any form of romance might come from "locker room boys" who have apparently "grown up" but still are sexually disfunctional. (Which is to say that they have no idea of how to maintain a meaningful relationship.)
Just keep writing what you write best Lisa. Most of the "classics" were panned at the time of their original release. And Stephan King didn't exactly score with the serious reader either at first. (He picked that horrid horror genre to mine for gold.)
Go for the stars lady.
skewering is fun Jack. I love stabbing class. :)
Ah, crammingly... I forget what book that came from, which is probably just as well. I just know I read it and couldn't stop giggling for hours...
Crammingly I sneak back here to see what's happening and find an explosion of delight (oh, wait -- that's a different novel).
Why this taboo about not just sex (which is so clearly the result of capitalism + puritanism = frustrated shoppers spending a lot) but about love? Every body wants it, but to talk about it seems to invoke a kind of primal fear.
Everyone wants to be too cool to admit to wanting to be loved -- but we all do.
[Hee, word verifcation: trewooti!]
Crammingly I add to KAL's comments to say that there's a lot of dreck out there -- Sturgeon's law, so true, so true -- and it's never the province of any particular genre. It's when agents and publishers decide to flood a market that they buy an awful lot of dreck to fill the shelves and capitalise on the trend until they kill it through crap books (e.g. the horror boom of the late 80s).
Cramming the golden goose, I guess.
The only way to find love is to love, which means giving the loved one all of yourself. Nothing held in reserve, nothing hidden. This is a scary proposition for most of us. But it's the only way. It's called commitment. And I'm sorry most of us don't understand that yet.
Yep: "Ninety per cent of everything is crap." Sad how much crap actually sells. (Sigh..)
It is interesting to see the different ways people perceive "love," as well as the attitudes perpetuated by media and other sources that had a lot of pull on the mainstream.
It's nice that we can support one another in our efforts to prove the value on our genres.
Every dreamer deserves support. And who best to turn to but other dreamers? Keep up the quest. No dream is impossible---just some are more difficult to realize than others.
You'll achieve yours. Believe that.
What a wonderful sentiment, Jack. Thank you.
Ditto that. ;-)
Post a Comment