While that is true, in general, women’s art is seen with some disdain regardless of what it is, how well it’s done, or in what cultural/societal conditions it’s made, I’ll save you the feminist rant. For now. You’re welcome.
Complaints about genre romance are generally phrased as “romance is trash,” not “I don’t like romance because I think it’s trash.” I’m told these two different phrasings make a significant difference in reaction to some people, but come on. We all know they’re exactly alike.3
While these complaints prick my soul a little, they’re valid. I’m not even going to get into the male wish-fulfillment fantasies of pulp novels and comic books: spycraft, cowboys, space captains, superheroes, anything sporting a Boris Vallejo cover, and sportsball,4 because a good half5 of what’s classified as6 romance is objectively trash.
Now, I’ve tried to write straight-up smut because that’s where the money is and rent’s gotta get paid. The two people who read it said I’d done it very well, had my usual depth, and was very distinctly my voice. It was, in fact, some of my best work, and there’s some measure of very smart, intellectual erotica out there. But it made me feel oogey, and if my own smut could make me oogey when I was 45 and as horny as a 17-year-old boy, it’s bad. So I tucked that away in my external hard drive, never to be seen again.7
I even tried to write a clean (no sex) reverse harem book, because that’s a popular subsubgenre (“clean” or “wholesome” is its own thing), but the concept made me feel oogey for an entirely different reason.8
De gustibus non est disputandum, sure, but objective truth can be applied to some of it:
- short
- minimal plot
- no characterization
- graphic, unusual sex is its raison d’être
- badly put together because speed is the priority
- many published in a quick timeframe
- may or may not cause problems akin to other addiction problems
- may or may not be used as a replacement for real-life sex
They don’t have to be art. They just have to make money. People who read a lot9 will devour their favorite genres and tropes, and go looking for more like it’s meth. Dinosaur erotica obviously must have a wide audience, but nobody’s ’fessing up to reading them, much less fangirling over them outside niche fora.
Then there’s Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey.
These are hotly debated, denigrated, and defended, but, I would argue, somewhere in the middle of trash and not-trash.
I don’t know what’s special about these books, what sparked such devotion to them. I always say people choose a book for its trope (to be addressed in a later post) first and summary second, but they re-read an author for his/her voice, so I have to presume that other than the trope, something about the way Stephenie Meyer and E.L. James strung the words together spoke to them.
Or maybe it was the sex. I don’t know.
Disclaimer: I have not read any of these books except the first Twilight book, which I thought was an entertaining popcorn read, but didn’t spur me to read the rest.
Not-trash:
- long, saga-like
- some characterization, with plausible motivations
- decent construction
- thought and care put into it, even if the author wasn’t terribly skilled at it
Trash:
- cipher heroine10
- plot is to serve the sex11
- sex isn’t very well written (so I’ve heard)
- caused minor to severe real-world problems akin to other addiction problems
Beyond technical and societal issues, I can’t speak to its non/trashiness because see above de gustibus non est disputandum, or, in more recent parlance, “I know it when I see it.” Even this entire post could be classed as preference, simping, and apologetics, but whatever. I know what I like, and dinosaur erotica is not it.
Although I consider myself a romance author,12 other people don’t.13 However, there are a lot of people find romance contemptuous, are loud about it, and it bothers me that I’ve lumped myself in with the stuff I don’t write, don’t like, and don’t respect.
Long ago, I started telling people I write soap operas, which got the point across (“Yeah, there’s probably sex in it, but it’s a long story with lots of drama.”14), but that stopped working as soon as I said it to a twenty-something valet when he asked what I do, and he said, “What’s a soap opera?” Eh, people don’t respect those, either.
What am I looking for here, though? What is the point of this post?
Hell if I know.
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1. That’s funny and clever.
2. Nicholas Sparks does not write romance. He writes love stories. Genre romance has one defining characteristic: It must have a happily-ever-after (although a happily-for-now will do). It’s arguable that it has another: no infidelity once the main couple is together. Love stories can have an element that genre romance cannot, by definition, have: a sad ending. Infidelity is often a plot point.
3. A family member was very unhappy with my plan to be polite to an individual doing something I didn’t like. He thought that would be wrong because he would know I’m just being polite and therefore, it would be insincere, ungenuine, and performative. Dude. All politeness is performative by definition. Don’t try to split that hair with me. If you agreed with me, you’d be sitting here making catty remarks right along with me.
4. If you think being slavishly devoted to sports teams and claiming that “we” won isn’t different from reading romance novels, you haven’t thought about it long enough.
5. If not 80%. Pareto has a principle for a reason.
6. BISAC codes and shelving.
7. I stopped throwing my work out when I was twenty. I don’t care if I am ashamed of it.
8. No man is attractive if he’s willing to share a woman with another man or seven, no matter how much he hates it and is compelled because the heroine is that Special™ or is cool with it.
9. Genre romance is the number one money-making genre in publishing. In fact, one could argue that it holds up the entirety of publishing. However, the demographic for this is very specific: middle-aged white women who are simply voracious readers and our preferred genre is romance. We were young white women once upon a time, but we’re compelled to read like we’re compelled to breathe. Most of us will read anything if our preferred genre isn’t available.
10. I did defend the placeholder heroine.
11. There was lots of sex in Twilight. If you missed it, you’re blessed.
12. I’ve always said I want to be the Tom Wolfe of romance. Whether I am or ever will be, I don’t know.
13. I have a very large male readership. In the words of one, “Why aren’t you famous?” I don’t know, MikeS. I just really don’t know.
14. My fictional babies don’t age twenty years in a week.