I was reading the Dear Author site and one of the Janes posted an editorial on how the romance genre trivializes certain serious issues.
What does everyone think about this? I personally like the idea that romances don’t tackle the hard questions. I like being able to escape into a world where everything is happy and bunnies and whatnot. If I wanted something to be serious and real, then I would go pick up a nonfiction novel. In my own opinion, we get enough reality through the nightly news.
Plus, adding more serious content to the romance genre just to lose the trivialization mentality would be a disservice to the genre. I can maybe see adding a little, but if you make a book surround that issue, then you’re loosing the happy sunshine feeling the books are all about. There is always a rainbow at the other end, the hero gets the girl, the villain is captured or killed….that’s not the case with the serious issues. A condition may get better, but will it ever go away?
Hi J,
I posted on the Yahoo Groups board too, but wanted to drop word here too.
I love romances. Romantic comedies, romantic suspense, paranormals…even cowboy romances (sometimes even a “native American” romp as well, of course I hide those covers behind my SQL book when reading them so I look smarter.)
That said, I also hate romances. I hate how plot lines are re-used, I hate how characters come off as cardboard, I hate how silly they get with bulging muscles and throbbing euphemisms littered throughout the pages to make them scintillating to stereotyped bon-bon gobblers.
We readers are BETTER than that. We deserve better too. That’s why reviewers act as a sounding board for so-so books, good books, fun romps, hot sizzlers, fizzlers, and the rare literary “romance novel” find.
Keep up the good work!
(She_wulf)