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jedibuttercup"I suddenly realized that I had never once noticed what he was wearing-- not just tonight, but ever. I just couldn't seem to look away from his face."
--Twilight, p. 169
Okay, now she's lost me. *stifling a giggle* Have you ever read any of those older Harlequin-type novels? The ones where they start out hating each other but quickly shift into mutual obsession, and there are all these nebulous reasons the couple should never be together; and while they may not get around to sex before The End they of course have a Passion For The Ages, and so on? That's what this is; that's why the dissonance between the internal voice and outer actions (straight-up "romance" is the only genre I can think of where the main characters are supposed to be Mary Sues to better enable a reader to fantasize herself in their shoes) and the distinctly unimaginative way the supernatural element is treated. Substitute "vampire" for any unusual ethnicity you care to name, et voila.
I read boxes and boxes of horribly clichéd romances out of my grandmother's closet as a child, most of them from a Harlequin subscription but with a few Regency and Grace Livingston Hill for leavening; and as a direct consequence, I used up my tolerance for such themes before I was old enough to drink. I mean, I knew this was a "supernatural teen romance", but the movie had led me to believe that the "supernatural" part was more than exotic window dressing. It's really, really not. I mean, for what it's turning out to be, it's a well-written example of the genre; but for what it's pretending to be, gag me. Can anyone tell me whether that ever changes? *hopeful look*
I think I'm going to try reading the rest of the book mentally editing out the word "vampire" and replacing it with random other sci-fi races, and see if it makes any real difference. Should at least keep my attention on the text!
~
--Twilight, p. 169
Okay, now she's lost me. *stifling a giggle* Have you ever read any of those older Harlequin-type novels? The ones where they start out hating each other but quickly shift into mutual obsession, and there are all these nebulous reasons the couple should never be together; and while they may not get around to sex before The End they of course have a Passion For The Ages, and so on? That's what this is; that's why the dissonance between the internal voice and outer actions (straight-up "romance" is the only genre I can think of where the main characters are supposed to be Mary Sues to better enable a reader to fantasize herself in their shoes) and the distinctly unimaginative way the supernatural element is treated. Substitute "vampire" for any unusual ethnicity you care to name, et voila.
I read boxes and boxes of horribly clichéd romances out of my grandmother's closet as a child, most of them from a Harlequin subscription but with a few Regency and Grace Livingston Hill for leavening; and as a direct consequence, I used up my tolerance for such themes before I was old enough to drink. I mean, I knew this was a "supernatural teen romance", but the movie had led me to believe that the "supernatural" part was more than exotic window dressing. It's really, really not. I mean, for what it's turning out to be, it's a well-written example of the genre; but for what it's pretending to be, gag me. Can anyone tell me whether that ever changes? *hopeful look*
I think I'm going to try reading the rest of the book mentally editing out the word "vampire" and replacing it with random other sci-fi races, and see if it makes any real difference. Should at least keep my attention on the text!
~
Victoria Holt, from the Dark Ages of romances?
Date: 2008-12-31 11:14 pm (UTC)Re: Victoria Holt, from the Dark Ages of romances?
Date: 2009-01-03 05:52 am (UTC)It kind of seems like, in the older romance novels I've picked up, the author had to make more of an effort to get the characters to the point of sex; these days, it's more of a shocker if the characters want to wait for any reason, rather than falling into bed at the first pretext and substituting mattress-pounding for more constructive means of getting to know one another. *sigh* That's prevalent in other genres as well, of course; but mass-market romance is the worst I've seen.