tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post1009385833040749428..comments2024-03-26T01:10:13.720+00:00Comments on Teach Me Tonight: Translating IASPR 2010E. M. Selingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426524354823232002noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-87447534827290289402010-10-12T20:36:56.960+01:002010-10-12T20:36:56.960+01:00"I was making fun of the fact I'm the onl..."<i>I was making fun of the fact I'm the only thicko in a crowd of brainy people. Yup, I will keep my day job as the comedian thing clearly isn't working.</i>"<br /><br />Well, the joke's bound to fall a little bit flat since you're not a thicko. Or maybe I have a sense of humour deficit and the joke is that you're a brainy person pretending to be a thicko? Now my brain can't cope with the many possibilities that line of interpretation opens up. It's like trying to work out if someone could be a convincing triple or quadruple agent. And do such people even exist or have I just been confused into inventing them? ;-)Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-63592765301573778082010-10-12T12:11:07.355+01:002010-10-12T12:11:07.355+01:00Yes, I'm usually McVane. I was making fun of t...Yes, I'm usually McVane. I was making fun of the fact I'm the only thicko in a crowd of brainy people. Yup, I will keep my day job as the comedian thing clearly isn't working.Maili (aka failed comedian)noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-10565607727491547312010-09-30T18:34:08.870+01:002010-09-30T18:34:08.870+01:00I'm pleased you enjoyed it, Maili. But why are...I'm pleased you enjoyed it, Maili. But why are you calling yourself "Thicko"? Are you not usually "McVane"? Or is there more than one Maili who's interested in romances?Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-77306007904958251642010-09-29T19:13:28.473+01:002010-09-29T19:13:28.473+01:00What a fantastic post. I really enjoyed reading th...What a fantastic post. I really enjoyed reading this. Thank you, Laura and Agnès. <br /><br />Also, Pamela Regis's "the four horsewomen of the apocalypse"? Absolutely bloody fantastic. For that, she scored big time in my book.Maili (aka Thicko)noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-84104099646078790722010-09-21T09:29:04.705+01:002010-09-21T09:29:04.705+01:00Glad to have been of help, Cora! In the UK we stil...Glad to have been of help, Cora! In the UK we still have some romances published in magazine format as <i>My Weekly</i> "Pocket Novels." You can see some of the covers <a href="http://www.fenellajmiller.co.uk/#/my-weekly-pocket-novels/4533248480" rel="nofollow">here</a> (some by Fenella Miller) and <a href="http://www.sallyquilford.co.uk/page8.htm" rel="nofollow">here</a> (some by Sally Quilford).Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-71892364192552060182010-09-19T05:49:17.750+01:002010-09-19T05:49:17.750+01:00Thanks for the link. I attended the conference and...Thanks for the link. I attended the conference and chatted with Agnes and Severine, but I hadn't seen the webzine yet.Cora Buhlerthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03868233120931184399noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-35405002799695922962010-09-15T11:00:54.764+01:002010-09-15T11:00:54.764+01:00The work going on in this genre is fantastic. I am...<i>The work going on in this genre is fantastic. I am constantly impressed.</i><br /><br />You have done <a href="http://jprstudies.org/2010/08/there-are-six-bodies-in-this-relationship-an-anthropological-approach-to-the-romance-genre-by-laura-vivanco-and-kyra-kramer/" rel="nofollow">some work in it yourself</a>, Kyra! And although the last line of the conference report doesn't specifically mention anthropologists, I'm sure you would be welcomed by IASPR:<br /><br />"<i>Others also noted the need not to be limited to a literary approach to the topic, but rather to invite researchers from other disciplines, such as sociology or psychology</i>"<br /><br />The international study of popular romance is very interdisciplinary.Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-75167341939674921282010-09-14T16:14:40.816+01:002010-09-14T16:14:40.816+01:00The work going on in this genre is fantastic. I am...The work going on in this genre is fantastic. I am constantly impressed. I think I am developing "field envy".Kyra Kramernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-7304800843477809632010-09-14T11:11:37.318+01:002010-09-14T11:11:37.318+01:00Your "personal interpretation" is a real...Your "personal interpretation" is a really, really good illustration of the fact that "the things you bring to the table when reading the words in a book can result in totally different interpretations of the same thing by two/many different people."<br /><br />I suspect that those who see the repetition as a negative indicator are probably more likely to consider all romances to be basically the same, which then leads to the romance-as-addictive-substance metaphor. And that metaphor's also associated with the idea of ideological conditioning, perhaps by way of <a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm" rel="nofollow">Marx's phrase about religion being "the opium of the people"</a>:<br /><br /><i>Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.<br /><br />The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.</i><br /><br />I've come across the chain of ideas linking romance, formula, repetition, addiction and ideology in a fair number of the secondary texts I've read, and I have the impression that a significant number of critics of the genre do think that romantic love is an "illusion" which impedes the progress towards "real happiness."<br /><br />As you say, though, there are other ways of thinking about the repetition, and about the underlying ideology of the genre.Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-3237742377931048562010-09-14T08:20:46.690+01:002010-09-14T08:20:46.690+01:00Thank you for posting - and translating this, Laur...Thank you for posting - and translating this, Laura. There's a lot of interst here. I have to admit to wondering just why Lynne Pearce says that we 'annihilate' our heroes in the same breath that she says we don't insist enough on women's liberation. Liberation is the freedom for every woman to be who she wants to be/love who she wants to/live as she wants to and I would have thought that this was one thing that romances declare openly - and something the heroes (and heroines actually) need to learn through the story - so being changed by their experiences in the way she believes they are not.<br /><br /><br />But I was particularly intrigued by this comment:<br />>>She also focused on whether the readers' need to read declarations of love over and over again suggests that ultimately such fictions are unsatisfying.<br /><br /><br />It just shows that they way you read something, the things you bring to the table when reading the words in a book can result in totally different interpretations of the same thing by two/many different people.<br /><br />My personal interpretation of this would be that that 'I love you' moment has such a potent delight in it for many women that - like an orgasm in sex - it makes them want to repeat it over and over again. I've never thought of the fact that people have sex - and hopefully orgasms - over and over - as evidence of the fact that the experience was ultimately unsatisfying.Kate Walkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17277223651288830541noreply@blogger.com