Subject: re: Maybe, but...
Author:
Posted on: 2009-10-17 09:59:00 UTC

Romance novels are formulaic because that is what the reader wants. If the authors tried to be different they would not sell (at least not to publishers of romance novels; those set the standards or formula).

And I very much doubt they set feminism back to the 1800s. No romance novel will achieve that women have to give up the vote. I think that whoever wrote that essay was very much overstating the cultural impact romance novels have. (Would like an author's name and essay title if you have it. So I can see for myself).

I once read a book (too many pages to be called an essay) by a feminist who reads romance novels in which she tries to find out why she reads these. Which I think is a good indicator that romance novels don't squelch feminism; feminists have their guilty pleasures too. That people like to read about something doesn't mean they like to live it. (Foute fantasieën by Marjan Slob; I don't think there's an English translation)

As for the fanfiction authors taking romance novels as their examples: as long as they keep the canon characters in character I have no beef with them. Probably wouldn't finish reading their story though.

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