Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

“I will point at you and laugh. LOUDLY.”

Oh my god, yes. Why isn’t someone out there asking why teenage boys of 15 need to see yet another Not-Another-Scary-Road-Trip-with-Pie movie? All. The. Same. Comics? I’m thinking there’s a whole superhero common thread running through that genre.

Maybe what pisses everyone off is the happily-ever-after in romance. Maybe those folks should lighten up.

I think you’re on to something about how the HEA freaks some people out. Goes back to the realism thing, I think. I also think a big part of it’s how we are in many ways brought up to view sex as a more destructive and dangerous force than physical violence. Have you read the recent AAR interview with MaryJanice Davidson? LLB and Davidson will allow their kids to watch R-rated violence, but not R-rated sex. And this is not uncommon--far from it. It’s THE prevalent attitude in America, and frankly, in a lot of societies. Back in Malaysia, they censored any and all kissing scenes, even tastefully done, not-at-all-slobbery scenes from critically-acclaimed movies like A Room with a View. But violent movies like Killer Croc 2 are aired in their blood-splattered, mind-numbing entirety. (They never aired Killer Croc 1 as far as I know, so it must’ve failed the Malaysian Film Board’s stringent specifications for quality cinema, SNERK!)

So yeah, blah blah blah Calvinist preoccupation of the body as being inherently corrupt and evil leads to celebration of its destruction while reviling the perfectly normal, even beautiful functions for which it’s designed and how this preoccupation informs American attitudes towards the body, etc. etc. ad nauseam.

And related to this attitude is, I think, the notion that sentimentality and love are NOT COOL, but big guns wielded by big dicks are. Love is so gooshy. Dammit, how can we maintain our hip and ironic facade in the face of something as gag-inducing as TRUE LURVE?

There’s that, too—I think it’s seen as all ice cream and puppy dogs and rainbows and oh-gag-me-now stuff.

You’re right—big guys with big guns is much “cooler,” even if the outcome their is always the same. World saved, girl laid, and guy’s phallic compensation is smokin’ hot. And, you know, huge.

Every genre has a trope. Like you said, even the classics aren’t exactly all surprise twist endings.

Now that I’m thinking about it, though, my hackles are definitely up there, too. Is it just easier to pick on girls? Is there a rule that says any book that, at its core, is just about luuurve (instead of important stuff like dead bodies, superheros, or completely unrealistic spies) is...well, dumb? Or is that we just let it bother us? I’ve made fun of my husband a million times for wanting to watch another big!explosion! movie, but the thing is...he doesn’t care.

I hate the idea that we’re just being sensitive. Sheesh. Now I want to blow something up.

It’s probably a combination of both. On one hand, a lot of the subjects that are considered to be in the “feminine” realm like love, family, community, finding happiness and acceptance, etc. are often denigrated or accorded less importance than topics like:

- the Almighty Struggle Of Good Vs. Evil (conducted with your choice of phallic weaponry like swords, guns, missiles, bows-and-arrows, or Samwise Gamgee if you’re Frodo Baggins)

- Man’s Search For Meaning in the Wilderness (whether physical or metaphysical)

- The Importance of Massively Tragic Endings for Relatively Minor Transgressions, which were the bread-and-butter for many of the great novelists in the mid-to-late 19th centuries (ref. Hardy, Thomas and Flaubert, Gustave).

And on the other hand, we gals also tend to get a bit touchy about certain things. Part of it’s due to societal double-standards. For example, men who are accused of liking t&a for the sake of t&a often get to chuckle and brush it off; women who are accused of enjoying romance novels partly for the sex ARE SCARLET FUCKING WHORES AND PORNMONGERERS. But part of it’s also how we tend to be a bit more sensitive about how we’re portrayed and how we’re just more concerned about feelings, period. Whether it’s upbringing or genetics or a combination of both (my bet’s on the last option) we just tend to care a bit more about this kind of shit.

Okay, I am having technology problems today (Captcha and I rarely get along, so here’s a second try!). Probably I should just give up, but nooo, I will not be beat by the machine. Yes, Candy, this is my shamefaced way of saying I accidentally deleted your comment over at my place...new interface for the backend of the blog.

Just joshin’ on the giving the endings away thing—I got what you meant! There’s nothing wrong with formula (or as I like to call it, structure) in writing. If it works for haiku, it works for other types of writing. All writers fall into a rhythm, O’Connor was no exception. And that woman could write.

This topic is popping up in various places around the ‘sphere this week. I’m trying to pull all the elements together into a coherent response (or, as we call them at Booksquare, a lengthy rant).