tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1334761054277672365.post8490410752042711676..comments2024-03-22T03:19:38.110-04:00Comments on Forever In Hell: Kelley Wants Me to Comment on Sexy Greek Shipping MagnatesPersonalFailurehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03034292023591747601noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1334761054277672365.post-79830702290903098662011-06-11T02:24:20.102-04:002011-06-11T02:24:20.102-04:00Further adventures would violate the female fantas...<i>Further adventures would violate the female fantasy of true, committed, eternal love.</i><br /><br />Exactly. Men don't fantasize about eternal love; they fall in love hoping their partner will dump them after a few months. [eyeroll]<br /><br />But seriously: "eternal love" is such an ingrained idea in our society that monogamy and marriage are the <i>default settings</i> of North American humans. It's <i>assumed</i> that romantic relationships should be monogamous and it's <i>assumed</i> that two adults in a monogamous long-term relationship are headed toward marriage. "Eternal love" is not something women (and only women) fantasize about; it's something most people <i>expect</i> out of life!<br /><br />Having said that...I had the idea (years ago) of doing a series of romance novels with the same female protagonist and a string of different men. I got the idea when I was reminiscing about past relationships and realized that many guys have made grand gestures to win my heart (a la Richard Gere climbing the fire escape in Pretty Woman) and it <i>didn't</i> lead to Happily Ever After. I always took each grand gesture as a definitive sign that <i>this</i> guy was The One (because that's what movies taught me) but it was never the case and I kind of want to commemorate that life lesson while lampooning typical romance tropes.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1334761054277672365.post-45981287060497771872011-06-10T03:44:45.046-04:002011-06-10T03:44:45.046-04:00erm, what i meant above was "Fantasy [especia...erm, what i meant above was "Fantasy [especially Urban Fantasy, but i haven't completely abandoned Epic Fantasy"]denelianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08083149213773118359noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1334761054277672365.post-49294451302499129662011-06-10T03:42:39.381-04:002011-06-10T03:42:39.381-04:00oh, man, even GEDS is stealing my comments!
that...oh, man, even GEDS is stealing my comments!<br /><br /><br />that was all i had - "SURVEYFAIL!"<br /><br /><br /><br />oh: and i don't know about anyone else, but while i do read SOME paranormal "romance" [it's the paranormal part i love - but i have to admit, the smexy times don't hurt :D ] i read mostly OTHER things by women - most especially, Urban Fantasy and Science Fiction.<br /><br /><br />i have YET to read anything within those two broad genres that doesn't have SOME bit of romance [from Laurell K Hamilton's multi-species-almost-homoerotic fuckfests all focused on the SOLE heroine, to Elizabeth Moon's latest in Epic Fantasy with a secondary plot being the KING finding love, it covers the WHOLE SPECTRUM. there isn't a Heinlein book EVER that doesn't have SOME romance - fuck, even JOHN RINGO does it, and does it WELL [except when he's pissing me off with his bad BDSM - but LKH is worse and pisses me off more]] ROMANCE IS PART OF THE HUMAN CONDITON. just because our current poisonous rape-culture society says men "don't like romance" does NOT mean it's true - i REMEMBER seeing Empire Strikes Back in the theater - people CHEERED when Leia kissed Luke, and cheered HARDER when Han said "I know".<br /><br />and i reiterate: SurveyFail!denelianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08083149213773118359noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1334761054277672365.post-91349864756317754112011-06-09T23:54:02.055-04:002011-06-09T23:54:02.055-04:00You know, the first thing that popped into my head...You know, the first thing that popped into my head when I read about the "disturbing look at how Internet search engines reveal much" was, "Oh, dear. The sexist assbuckets found the slash fic."<br /><br />How much do you want to bet that according to these guys, it's perfectly <i>natural</i> for a man to beat off to a fantasy about an unusually flexible young woman who doesn't look like anyone nature's ever produced, but if his wife wants to fantasize about a sexy Greek shipping magnate, she's forming unrealistic expectations about real men and damaging her existing relationship?<br /><br /><i>"Further adventures would violate the female fantasy of true, committed, eternal love."</i><br /><br />Well, no shit the protagonists of one romance novel aren't the focus of any others in the same series. A romance novel is <i>by definition</i> a story about <i>falling</i> in love, not a story about <i>being</i> in love. There are other books you can go to if you want to read about an established couple.<br /><br />No wonder Sarah and Candy started up <a href="smartbitchestrashybooks.com" rel="nofollow">a website</a> to prove these people wrong.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1334761054277672365.post-9389684310506435092011-06-09T23:39:48.173-04:002011-06-09T23:39:48.173-04:00"(pro tip: if you run out of plot, blow some ...<i>"(pro tip: if you run out of plot, blow some shit up. that's what i'll be doing.)"</i><br /><br />HELL YES.<br /><br />And if there's nothing flammable nearby, have someone jump out a window. You've already done this once, but you can never do it too many times. It is impossible to make someone jumping out of a window not be cool, and there is no situation in which it is not applicable. <a href="http://xkcd.com/439/" rel="nofollow">Proof.</a><br /><br />And for bonus points, have someone jump through a window <a href="http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/4p14/" rel="nofollow">whilst on fire</a> (it makes sense in context. Umm. Sort of. Okay, no it doesn't, but it's still awesome).<br /><br />...<br /><br />One day I will write a Romance Novel set in Paris that out of absolutely nowhere turns into a race-against-time to stop terrorists from blowing up the eiffel tower within the last ten pages. (okay, I'm kidding. I couldn't write that. I'd get three pages in before giving up and making aliens invade)Quasarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09398018171200335379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1334761054277672365.post-12440326661125668902011-06-09T14:26:50.461-04:002011-06-09T14:26:50.461-04:00And Fannie gave me a post! She is Teh Awesome.And Fannie gave me a post! She is Teh Awesome.PersonalFailurehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03034292023591747601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1334761054277672365.post-69663086871356998382011-06-09T12:56:48.033-04:002011-06-09T12:56:48.033-04:00I recently saw a book called something like Porn f...I recently saw a book called something like <i>Porn for women</i>, and it was pictures of people doing housework.<br /><br />I can haz seckshual desire 2?Fannie Wolfehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04296502470605119779noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1334761054277672365.post-35670008764469320072011-06-09T12:38:42.088-04:002011-06-09T12:38:42.088-04:00Yeah, I don't understand it either. Romance no...Yeah, I don't understand it either. Romance novel rules have loosened up over the years (to the point where premarital sex absolutely will happen), but they will always end with a man and a woman in a marriage or agreeing to a marriage. <br /><br />Well, there's the Blaze line, but that really is erotica thinly disguised as noterotica. (I don't have a problem with erotica, but you can't sell it at Walmart, so, you know.)<br /><br />What I don't think this guy gets is that of course you don't get a book about the next few decades of dinners, housecleaning, laundry, child raising, home redecorating, grocery shopping and occasional date nights. <br /><br />Because it's boring.<br /><br />The vast majority of anyone's life is really, really boring, and for most people, excitement means "I almost got into a car accident today!"<br /><br />There is a reason vampires and werewolves have been, and continue to be, so popular. Because no one assumes vampires and werewolves spend their time cleaning gutters and washing muffin tins. (Except for Stephanie Meyers.)PersonalFailurehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03034292023591747601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1334761054277672365.post-86650502401728871282011-06-09T11:01:11.676-04:002011-06-09T11:01:11.676-04:00From the Relevant Magazine article:
“Romance nove...From the Relevant Magazine article:<br /><br /><i>“Romance novels rarely have a sequel,” the book concludes. “Once the hero and heroine are joined in love or matrimony, they get their Happily-Ever-After, presumably with a bevy of children and domestic bliss. Further adventures would violate the female fantasy of true, committed, eternal love.”</i><br /><br />Wait, this guy is criticizing romance novels for ending with the woman in a blissful state of "committed, eternal love"?<br /><br />But isn't this what society often tells women they're <i>supposed to want</i>? I mean, even the author of the article promotes "contentment with her spouse" as the ideal a woman should be seeking after. So why criticize a romance novel that upholds that ideal?<br /><br />Or is the key here "contentment"? Should women only be <i>content</i>, not truly <i>fulfilled</i> or <i>satisfied</i>? Is this thinly veiled "what you want shouldn't matter?" Is it even thinly veiled?Jarredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04793668797961461325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1334761054277672365.post-32621497984846996182011-06-09T10:48:02.689-04:002011-06-09T10:48:02.689-04:00This is the first thing that comes up for surveyfa...This is the first thing that comes up for surveyfail: http://fanlore.org/wiki/SurveyFail<br /><br />It is awesome.<br /><br />Essentially, they read some slashy fanfic and extrapolated to evo psych and innate sex differences.<br /><br />Which is sort of like making generalizations about all of human culture after watching a 10 second clip of Max Headroom.<br /><br />(And I write fanfic. Sometimes even sexy fanfic.)PersonalFailurehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03034292023591747601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1334761054277672365.post-10943329084485559342011-06-09T10:24:22.004-04:002011-06-09T10:24:22.004-04:00Aaaaand...I stopped reading with the words Ogi Oga...Aaaaand...I stopped reading with the words Ogi Ogas.<br /><br />Just search Teh Google for "surveyfail." Or <a href="http://fanlore.org/wiki/SurveyFail" rel="nofollow">go here for a collection of links</a>. Basically, his methodology was somewhere between "suspect" and "completely fucking wrong" and his conclusions were, well, massively off due his terribad methodology.<br /><br />The interesting thing about this isn't what Ogi Ogas "learned," but the lesson we can learn about how completely and absolutely we should not trust popular science writing or journalism. Here we have a prime example of journalists perpetuating something that every real scientist/pollster/human being who knows anything about the segment of the population surveyed knows is wrong, says is wrong, and wishes everyone would stop talking about. But now it's becoming some sort of common knowledge, simply because the jackass wrote a goddamn book and people who write goddamn books must be smart.<br /><br />See, also: Michael Behe.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com