The Smart Bitches were e-mailing each other about women of leisure as they’re depicted in historical romances, and somehow we got sidetracked into talking about romance novel villains instead. Go figure.
Candy: I read The Lady’s Tutor a few years ago, and I didn’t like it too much. The thing that bothered me the most was the villain. Oh, so not only is he bisexual and emotionally abusive, but he’s a CHILD-MOLESTER as well? Feh. Just once I’d like to encounter a hetero child-molester in a book, ANY book, since in the real world the vast majority of pedophiles are straight. Using homos and bisexuals as villains--and EVIL EVIL EVIL ROASTING BABIES ALIVE AFTER MOLESTING THEM villains at that--is one of my biggest pet peeves in fiction of any sort.
Sarah: Speaking of cliché villains, you know what else I hate? I hate when an author can’t come up with a good bit of characterization to define how bad the villain is using multi-dimensional scenes or actions. No, the author just says, Hey! I know! This man is BAD. He is E.VIL. So I will make him… cruel to animals! What a cop out. Not only do I find it horribly upsetting but it’s such a weak ass wussy way to make someone evil. I mean, dang. What happens if someone is gay, an incestuous pedophile, AND cruel to the horses? Why, he’s satan! ARGH! God that makes me nuts.
The villain for Duke of Sin is also half Jewish. His ancestors are Bohemian Jews who emigrated two generations before. I am still not sure why it is relevant. Perhaps he is also gay, an incestuous pedophile, and mean to the horses, on top of being Jewish. Then he’d be more than Satan. He’d be über-Satan. Satanalicious! The Duke of Satan! GAH!
Candy: No, if a villain was all of the above he wouldn’t be the Duke of Satan, he’d be part of the secret cabal in charge of the World Bank, the stock markets and the mass media! Those goddamn faggot Jews are ruining our shit yet again! The only way he could be worse was if he somehow managed to be both Jewish AND atheist.
Sarah: Don’t forget Hollywood. We control that, too. Last I heard, anyway. Tom Cruise still won’t return my calls so I don’t know for sure.
Candy: Hahaha. And man, don’t get me started on Tom. You know, he’d make an excellent villain. Too good looking, member of a weird cult, generally beloved, yet something about him gives me the jibblies.... Bleck. Anyway, romance novels tend to have really sloppy villains. Popular fiction in general isn’t all that great when it comes to creating convincing villains with realistic motivations, but most romance novel villains are just downright ridiculous. They’re often psychotic, when most of the bad people in the world aren’t psycho per se, they’re simply greedy, callous and/or selfish in certain ways, and to a certain extent they’re blind to how much harm is caused by their actions. I believe in the banality of evil, which is a term Hannah Arendt came up with to explain how so many people accepted--even embraced--the atrocities committed during the Holocaust. People who commit evil acts often sincerely believe they’re acting on the best interests of their families and their community. But romance novel villains? More often than not they’re just batshit insane, boy. Think of all the pointless romance novel tragedy that could’ve been averted if only the villains had access to Haldol or Thorazine!
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TracyS - that must have been the blizzard in 1990? It was the only time I remember school being closed (I was in college at the time) for snow in years...Our school closed more often if it got too cold…
The book has a US publisher now. Beaufort Books has also bought (optioned? what’s the right word?) the sequel.
I thought that kid was queefing, but it was a boy, right?
queefing?? What’s queefing?? At least one of those little leaguers was a girl.
Unfortunately, that’s not very much snow for MN!
Um, I think that…
The Meltzer video is funny, clever and classy! It’s hard to believe that the book is bad, given his skill in handling criticism.
Of course the computer ate my first post which was so much more eloquent than this one will be, but here it goes.
I LOVE how Meyers handled this entire situation. Her chapters were leaked. Her readers/fans forwarded/read/perpetuated…
