tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post115489112856027579..comments2024-03-26T01:10:13.720+00:00Comments on Teach Me Tonight: The Romance Reader as ConnoisseurE. M. Selingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426524354823232002noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-1155164620762620262006-08-10T00:03:00.000+01:002006-08-10T00:03:00.000+01:00When talking about the branding done by Harlequin/...When talking about the branding done by Harlequin/M&B, it's important to note that despite all the branding, today there's a much bigger emphasis on the author than a few decades ago (just think of the recent "Queens of Romance" anthologies!) This clearly shows that readers of category romance, too, choose their books by author.<BR/><BR/>Moreover, there have been a number of novels which break the pattern of the line, e.g. Lucy Gordon's THE PREGNANCY BOND, in which the hero is very insecure and suffers from depression -- definitely not the typical alpha man!Sandra Schwabhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15496019392789508611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-1155163686074715982006-08-09T23:48:00.000+01:002006-08-09T23:48:00.000+01:00Many of us live in our dreams, for our dreams or p...<I>Many of us live in our dreams, for our dreams or perhaps just around our dreams. Women have dreamed of being swept away by princes and tycoons since the Industrial Age gave them time to read. Why should Feminism stop them now? : )</I><BR/><BR/>And yet romance is <I>not</I> reality, and usually is not taken as reality by the readers (well, there are always a few exceptions...). Thus, romance usually does not reflect readers' or writers' real-life ideals of masculinity. Why, if this were true this would mean that everybody who reads fantasy is a royalist at heart.Sandra Schwabhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15496019392789508611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-1154998019649156642006-08-08T01:46:00.000+01:002006-08-08T01:46:00.000+01:00Well, I felt a little guilty for sneering a bit at...Well, I felt a little guilty for sneering a bit at the Mills & Boon line before forcing myself to realize that there are people out there that enjoy reading "The Richest, Most Handsome Bachelor in the World and the Nanny." Who am I to judge? It's like hearing about all the poor women of the Amazon who spend a relative fortune on cosmetics from MaryKay. One might roll one's eyes in dismay, but as one compañera said to my socialist boss in Chile before the coup: "Don't take away our dreams, Señor." <BR/><BR/>As Rose says in <I>Titanic</I>, "A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets." Many of us live in our dreams, for our dreams or perhaps just around our dreams. Women have dreamed of being swept away by princes and tycoons since the Industrial Age gave them time to read. Why should Feminism stop them now? : )<BR/><BR/>Re: Catharsis<BR/>I don't mind a good cry every now and then, but I also enjoy a witty, humorous story. Like Milton, I enjoy seeing passions well imitated and feeling them myself.<BR/><BR/><I>I think, if people want to, they can read books they don't much like. We all have to do at least a little of that at school.</I><BR/><BR/>I suppose that's why I didn't go to grad school, though I love the university. But I meant that I don't think I could set myself up as a Connoisseur of Romances (though I could dream of myself as the Romance Book Critic of the New York Times) because, unlike a regular fiction critic, I could see myself getting hundreds of angry letters from fans of a book I hated. Romance fiction, I think, is so personal to the reader that gravitas and advanced degrees just won't cut it. But I could slog through a slew of horrid romances in the pursuit of Romance Scholarship, if called upon. Even reading The Worst Romance Ever Written could not be as bad as, say, spending two hours in Iraq.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-1154985327341218792006-08-07T22:15:00.000+01:002006-08-07T22:15:00.000+01:00Oh dear. There's no need for you to recant - you m...Oh dear. There's no need for you to recant - you made some good points, I just felt that a bit of nuancing/comparison might be helpful. Maybe you feel you were being a bit inconsistent, criticising others for things you do yourself, but most of us are inconsistent, from time to time. It's usually easier to see the mote in someone else's eye than the beam in one's own. Point is, there still <I>is</I> that mote in the other person's eye. I find your comments useful, because they help me clarify my own thinking.<BR/><BR/><I>I am a sentimentalist, and certainly don't want to be crying my eyes out for every love affair that goes tragically wrong.</I><BR/><BR/>When I think about it, I think some people get some comfort out of reading about other people's tragedy. It's the old idea of catharsis:<BR/><BR/><I>John Milton interpreted catharsis in this way in his preface to <B>Samson Agonistes</B> (1671). Tragedy has the power, according to Milton, “by raising pity and fear, or terror, to purge the mind of those and such like passions, that is, to temper and reduce them to just measure with a kind of delight, stirred up by reading or seeing those passions well imitated.”</I><BR/>(from the <A HREF="http://etext.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-36" REL="nofollow">Dictionary of the History of Ideas</A>)<BR/><BR/>Then there are perhaps cynical people who find some comfort in reading books by equally cynical people, because they can feel that they're not alone in their cynicism.<BR/><BR/>And so on - different people find 'comfort' in different things. And sometimes the comfort is accompanied by other emotions, such as fear, pity etc.<BR/><BR/><I>we can all only be connoisseurs of our own tastes</I><BR/><BR/>I don't agree. I think, if people want to, they can read books they don't much like. We all have to do at least a little of that at school. And in doing so, we can come to appreciate the expertise of the writer, even if it's not a style/type of story that we personally enjoy. Similarly an art historian, for example, might not particularly like baroque art, but they'd nonetheless probably have studied it, be able to appreciate the skill in the artists' techniques, know the major artists who worked in that period, and be aware of their influence on later artists.<BR/><BR/>Whether we all want to subject ourselves to authors we don't enjoy, as part of our leisure reading, is a different matter.Laura Vivancohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00906661869372622821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30203557.post-1154983271294465922006-08-07T21:41:00.000+01:002006-08-07T21:41:00.000+01:00Laura, you are right and I don't know what I was t...Laura, you are right and I don't know what I was thinking to have been complaining about the conventionality of these novels and their appeal to our need for safety and security, because I am just as complicit, myself. Many's the time I have been reading the trials and tribulations of a couple's journey to happiness and thinking, "Oh, this is bad. Very bad!" but in the back of my mind, I know the conflict will resolve itself and everything will be fine. Because while I'm not a Romantic's romantic, I am a sentimentalist, and certainly don't want to be crying my eyes out for every love affair that goes tragically wrong.<BR/><BR/>I liked what you said about connoisseurs of romance, but really we can all only be connoisseurs of our own tastes. For instance, I can say that Julia Quinn can be a very good writer ("When He Was Wicked") but her work is spotty and her early work is... (What is a word I can use for "terrible" even while acknowledging that writing must be very hard work and it must have seemed like a good plot at the time, if only it hadn't become ridiculous?) The word doesn't matter anyway, because a reviewer of one of these particular titles ("How to Marry a Marquis") gave it an A-. So, what do any of us know except what we like? <BR/><BR/>I try to always read something good by sticking to authors I like and reading recommendations from other romance readers. It doesn't always work, and sometimes I reprimand myself for being too stubborn to try new authors, like Jennifer Crusie. <BR/><BR/>Much as I would like romance novels to be more "serious" and to be taken seriously, I can't speak for everyone and I am sure they would not thank me for doing so.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com