Eyes the size of the moo-hoo-hoon

[dragonfly66]

Skiing was canceled, which is sad, but I have mixed feelings--while I want the cold weather so I can ski, I also really like that the spring looks like it's coming early this year; I was miserable during the winter last year. Also, in Latin we had to sight translate the Aeneid--Blake, I love you baby, but why you gotta be this way

Comments

Re: your entry title

[dragonfly66]

the recent hobo olsen twins movement, you mean?

[vodou_doll]

I don't know if the Brontes can seriously count as romance novelists. I mean, they certainly have what have become the traditional signatures of romance novels (brooding men, abused heroines, dark manors, etc) but they are actually read as serious novels with deeper themes and unhappy endings.

They are traditionally considered Gothic novels (btw one of my favorite genres of novel ever is Southern Gothic but this is neither here nor there) not romance novels. Whatever. Maybe I am just super tired right now and over thinking this.

My mom and I used to read this series of romance novels about this woman who goes back in time somehow to Medival Scotland and falls in love with and marries this guy (even though she is alreay married in modern times) that she knows will die in the battle of Caldoun. Comence the angst.

My favorite Danille Steele fact is that her son is the lead singer for a local hardcore punk band that I like.

[dragonfly66]

At the time, I think the novels were considered romances, although the definition of a "romance" has changed a lot since then--for the worse, I think. Today, when I think of a 'romance novel' I think of the long row of paperbacks at Borders which invariably feature a shirtless bodybuilder on the cover. I certainly don't think that all of the Brontë books are romances (though I think that some certainly are); I was more trying to indicate a period of time when a lot of romance novels that I quite like were written.

Also, Mr. Steele, way to go : ) My favorite Judith McNaught (the author of aforementioned Whitney, My Love) fact is that she *named her children* after the couple in this book--first of all, wow, fucked up; second of all, there is a child out there who has to deal with being named Clayton.

[vodou_doll]

I get what you are saying Re: the Bronte thing.

The son of Danielle Steele changed his last name so others wouldn't know about his mom but, of course, people found out anyway...

Poor Clayton. That is almost (but not quite) as bad as naming your kid Gaylord or something.

[dragonfly66]

is he in the Cal area, or San Jose..? Also, if you call your kid Gaylor I feel like it's ironic, but with Clayton I feel like you have to, like, really *live* with it. Regardless, I feel that naming your children after characters who have (very, very badly written--hello, bandom standards have changed me) sex is child abuse.

[robotmonkey88]

The woman who wrote that book is seriously anti-feminism, like, Ann Coulter anti-feminism. I remember you reading an excerpt of this to me last year, and how the heroine feels that she deserved to be raped. Great stuff.

[dragonfly66]

yeah, I remember that--I started out reading it to you because I thought it was funny, and then we got to that part and I was like....what? This book is just supposed to be bad, not, like, creepy pro-rape : (

[theladyrose]

Err, and certain kinds of fanfiction don't fall under the romance category? More like a lot of fanfic? At least you don't have to pay/suffer the indignity of having the librarian laugh at you check out the book(s).

[dragonfly66]

oh, AHAHAH I REMEMBER THIS. Most romances are, basically, fanfiction-level writing that somehow got *published*. Except that there are some good pieces of fanfiction out there, and decidedly few good romance novels. Come to think of it, one of the problems is that modern-day romance novels are *just* about romance. The reason that the romance novels of the Gothic period are good is that they're about much more than that, and incorporate far more issues than 'shall we have sex and get married etc'. I had to reread Jane Eyre recently for a class, and thought about how, despite the fact that it features a really fantastic romance between the two main characters, you would never think of it as a Romance, because there's a lot more going on.

[theladyrose]

I really didn't mean to sound like I was ragging on fanfic because some of the best damn writers I know are fanfic authors. I have to agree with you about romance novels (or at least my perception of them - the closest I've come is Victoria Holt, and her works are more adventure in exotic settings with a touch of innocent romance, seriously nothing beyond a kiss or two); there are so many stories that myopically focus on romantic relationships as the be-all and end-all to life. To a certain degree you could say that F. Scott Fitzgerald's a romance writer, but the quality of his writing is just mindboggingly gorgeous and he has that whole zeitgeist of the 20's thing going for him, too.

[shakeitdown]

honey, honey;

i was writing sex by age 13.

well, not really. but you know what i mean. i made my BARBIES do itttttt.

[dragonfly66]

you were a BARBIE ABUSER. And then you graduated to writing Death In Venice slash. Sex on the beach, baby, that's where it's at.