I’ve recently found myself in the position of having to “defend”, if you will, the romance genre. Granted, I brought it upon myself by asking why so many people feel the need to denigrate this particular genre when many have never even read one. Or if they have, they’ve read maybe one or two of the older historical romances or category romances from our mother’s era.
I’ve never seen the disdain that’s directed at romance directed at other genres such as mystery, sci-fi/fantasy or westerns. Why romance?
Only a few people were willing to give me a straight answer. One said she thought it was because the perception of romance is that it’s nothing but the old “heaving bosoms and throbbing members” that were prevalent in the dialog of the historicals of years gone by. Another said her husband regards romances as “trash” simply because they give women the false perception that real life should be like a romance novel.
Thankfully, for the most part those euphemisms that used to be de rigeur,(and made me cringe) are now a thing of the past.
As far as giving women a false impression of real life, well, then perhaps one could argue that you shouldn’t read fairy tales to children because they would start believing there really are monsters hiding under the bed.
Maybe people shouldn’t read sci-fi. We wouldn’t want these poor misguided souls to think that an alien might really come bursting out of someone’s chest.
At the very least, I believe it’s horribly insulting to romance readers, who for the most part, are female. It gives the impression that, as women, we don’t have much going on upstairs.
At one point in this conversation all readers of genre fiction were roundly criticized by someone who felt that anyone who reads popular fiction is doing so because they are in need of a security blanket and are afraid to read anything else.
This person went on to confess they never read anything that is considered “popular”. That’s rather sad to me because they are severely limiting themselves. They’re missing out on many excellent books and some outstanding writing.
I can’t imagine going my whole life never having read “Shauna” by Kathleen Woodiwiss, “The Moonspinners”, by Mary Stuart or “The Once and Future King” by T.H. White.
So, with that said, what books have you read that stand out in your mind to this day as being some of the best you’ve ever read? Why?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I think reading is like yarn - there should be something for everyone. And if your taste doesn't coincide with mine, no problem (although I do think that kids should be given better stuff to read that those books we found at the library last night.) I can't say that I've ever read romance novels, but I don't know that there is a real reason behind that. I do remember being very fond of a famous female historical fiction writer one summer and read every book of her's that I could find, and perhaps that writing could be classed with romance novels on some level as well. (Help me out here, I cannot remember her name but she's well known.) Not as "weighty" as most fiction/non-fiction I usually read, they have nonetheless stayed with me, and I still enjoy historical fiction to this day. My taste in general runs to fiction of the kind found printed as trade paperbacks, but I like some non-fiction as well. The non-fiction that I've liked best recently is "Salt: A History" because it encompassed so many genres - history, food, myth, science, and so much more.
Hmmm I have to say that the book that most affected me was ... Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox....
I read this book when I was having a rough time in my life.... it put many things into the right perspective.
I will forever be thankful that he wrote this book.
There are quite a few books that stand out for me. However, my favourite memory is my deputy head reading The Hobbit to us in the first year of secondary school.
She was a scarey woman, but she read that book in such a way that it had us enthralled!
I've always loved reading, but she managed to increase that love!
I haven't really read much in the way of "Romance" (hi, I'm te one who mentioned "throbbing members" - LOL!) but I think that most novels,whatever the genre, actually contain at least a little romance - there's always a relationship in there somewhere & often there are a few very poignant moments within the relationship - that's romance within other genres.
One of my favourite book this year so far has been Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. It's partly historical fiction, partly contemporary, & I was just thinking, there's a fair element of romance in there too - there's a great big back story of the relationships involved & it really helped make the novel the great book is it.
I'll be reconsidering romance & may well try a few of the books you suggested. Apart from The Once & Future King - I did try it a while back & just couldn't get inot it at all - LOL!
AH! HA! After much sluthing on Amazon, I finally figured it out - Taylor Caldwell! It had to be late 1960's, early 1970's. I was working downtown and there was a little sundry store that carried paperback books. They would put stacks of books with the covers ripped off out for sale at ten cents each and I bought everything they had. I think I got every book Taylor Caldwell had written by that time, as well as a few other long-forgotten by me authors of similar fiction. I loved them and have very fond memories of all the great reads. Whew, that's a load off my mind!
Post a Comment