Over at Dear Author Sunita's got a post up in which she contests the idea that Kathleen Woodiwiss's The Flame and the Flower gave "birth to the romance genre." The post is, in a way, a follow-up to a post by Jessica at Read React Review but Sunita takes the novel as a case study in how changes in the publishing industry affect which novels reach the book-buying public, and the formats in which we read them. Sunita mentions (but does not quote) Janice Radway's analysis of the changes in the publishing industry at the time of The Flame and the Flower's publication, so I thought I'd include part of it here:
A paperback original, The Flame and the Flower was given all the publicity, advertising, and promotion usually reserved for proven bestsellers. Such originals had been issued continuously in small quantities throughout the early years of mass-market history, but concentration on them was not widespread for the simple reason that it cost more to pay out an advance to an author and to advertise an unknown book than to buy reprint rights to an already moderately successful hardback. Avon, however, under the direction of Peter Meyer, had begun to experiment with originals and different advertising campaigns in the mid-1960s. When Coffey agreed to publish The Flame and the Flower without previous hardcover exposure, she was simply following a practice that had become fairly common within her firm. The house's extraordinary success with Woodiwiss's novel soon caused industry-wide reconsideration of the possibilities of paperback originals as potential bestsellers. (34)Sunita concludes that as far as the content of The Flame and the Flower was concerned, it "didn’t really break new ground, but it put together a winning combination of proven ingredients" and that reminded me of a description in Meljean Brook's In Sheep's Clothing of the difference it makes to have been changed from a human into a werewolf:
"I heal faster now [...] it was harder to fight myself when I wanted something. [...] And I didn’t want to accidentally hurt anyone.”Becoming a werewolf isn't depicted as being an inherently bad thing. Indeed, the truly shocking character in this short story isn't the werewolf; it's a human serial murderer who rapes his victims before strangling them.“But now?”
“I learned to control it better. And the more I let it—the wolf—out, the more control I have when I’m human.”
The transformation from human to werewolf, however, seems to enhance the powers and impulses the individual already possessed. I think one might perhaps be able to say the same about the paranormal romance genre itself. It builds on existing tendencies and plots which existed in the romance genre but makes them more intense: a vampire hero can be much, much older and richer and stronger than a human heroine, demons can be even more tortured and angst-filled than rakes, happily-ever-afters can be exactly that if the protagonists are immortal. And, of course, the frequent animal metaphors, which express the hero's physical power, his undomesticated nature, and his sexuality, can be given physical form in the werewolf.
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- Brook, Meljean. In Sheep's Clothing. [Available free online from Brook's website.]
- Radway, Janice A. Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature. 1984. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1991.
Really interesting comment on the appeal of paranormal romance. I've often thought of them as parallel to historical romance in that they transpose the romance paradigm to another world enabling the suspense of disbelief - but the comments you make here make so much sense. Very thought provoking (as always). Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found the post interesting.
ReplyDeleteI feel I should add that although I was arguing here that paranormal settings can be used to create an enhanced version of the status quo, I do think it can also be a subgenre which, like speculative fiction, offers authors the freedom to imagine alternative social structures. The paranormal elements can also function almost as a metaphor or symbol through which to raise questions about contemporary society. Kathleen Miller, for example, argues that
In Charlaine Harris’s Dead Until Dark, Sookie Stackhouse lives in a society in which vampires have “come out of the coffins.” In other words, they have become legal citizens, as Japanese scientists have developed a synthetic blood that makes it possible for vampires to live in the open without the need to hunt humans for sustenance. Set in the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, the narrative links human prejudice against vampires to the history of slavery, racism, sexism, and homophobia in the American South.
[Admittedly that novel isn't exactly a romance, but the quote was a good example of what I meant by paranormal elements functioning as a metaphor/symbol.]
Hi Laura, I've been traveling and just caught up with this post. The part of Radway you quoted really struck me when I read it (as you probably figured out). It's part of her larger argument that the changes in the 1970s were foreshadowed by the 1960s. My husband the sociologist reminded me, when I was writing the post, that westerns and mysteries were doing paperback originals for decades, as were other genres (which I think you have written about before).
ReplyDeleteI mentioned John Sutherland's book Bestsellers, and I really want to write more about that book and a book he quotes, regarding the role of bestsellers as cultural mirrors and the changing cycle of book sales as a result of the bestseller phenomenon respectively. These studies are focusing on the 1960s and 1970s but we see the same patterns today, such as the importance of first- and second-week sales and the dangers to midlist authors of the model.
I have seen other comments about paranormals replacing alpha-hero-centric romances, but yours makes the most sense to me. Some readers really want their alphas, and since supernatural beings aren't subject to the same PC criticisms, they can have 70s (or earlier) style behavior in 21st century books. I know that's not all you're saying, but it explains in part the attraction of paranormals, especially the ones in which the worldbuilding is, shall we say, not great.
My husband the sociologist reminded me, when I was writing the post, that westerns and mysteries were doing paperback originals for decades, as were other genres (which I think you have written about before).
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if this was what you're thinking of, but Virginia posted three very detailed comments once about romantic fiction bestsellers (and other notable works of romantic fiction) from the very late 1800s right up to the 1970s. The first comment is here. She does mention paperback formats occasionally, in passing.
I had a quick look for more information about paperback originals and came across Bookscans, a website "Graphically illustrating the evolution of Vintage American Paperbacks - 1939 through 1959 (and beyond)" and they have some essays about the development of paperback publishing. At another site I found some more details:
The new history of paperback original publishing began quietly in late 1949 with a brief article in the December 3 issue of Publisher's Weekly, stating that "Beginning in February [1950], original fiction including westerns and mysteries will be published at 25 cents in a pocket-size format by Fawcett Publications." The series, to be called Gold Medal Books, had actually already begun with two "experimental titles," both anthologies of material culled from two Fawcett magazines.
I know Pamela Regis is working on a history of the US romance novel but I don't know if she'll put that in the context of the history of US publishing.
"I have seen other comments about paranormals replacing alpha-hero-centric romances, but yours makes the most sense to me. Some readers really want their alphas, and since supernatural beings aren't subject to the same PC criticisms, they can have 70s (or earlier) style behavior in 21st century books."
ReplyDeleteI've just been re-reading Heather Schell's “The Big Bad Wolf: Masculinity and Genetics in Popular Culture.” Literature and Medicine 26.1 (2007): 109-125 and she made the point earlier than I did. In fact, it may well be that I had picked up the idea from her:
The implications of an alpha male hero are best developed in the supernatural romance, a relatively new and flourishing subgenre of mass-market romance. The heroes of these books have an excuse for their atavistic impulses. Immortal protagonists [...] formed their sense of appropriate gender roles eons ago; similarly, though werewolves may not live forever, their close kinship with wolves has imbued them with instinctive dominance behavior. Still, despite their supernatural abilities, these monster heroes are quite similar to the ideal human alpha male. (119-20)