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Re: Re: Malice
After reading Malice, I thought that perhaps I actually enjoy m/f romance novels, so I read a bunch of samples and downloaded half a dozen books during the past few days.
My first impression is that there continues to be a lot of machine-generated slop on the market. That's not great, obviously. I feel bad for everyone involved.
My second impression is that maybe what I actually enjoy is m/f romance written by gay people. Straight writers seem to be obsessed with marriage and pregnancy to a degree that's difficult for me to understand. I'm not hating on marriage or pregnancy, of course, but still. The idea that it's erotic to have sex for the sole purpose of getting pregnant is alien to me. Even if it's a m/m ABO sort of situation, I'm surprised that the concept of "the physically weaker partner being bred against their will" is completely taken for granted.
Regarding that last point, I understand that fantasy ≠ reality, but it's difficult to read that sort of fantasy against the backdrop of aggressively politicized fertility movements. Idk, I just feel like Shinzo Abe is watching a little too closely.
My third impression is a lot of these writers have a strange understanding of economic class. So you know how, in The Golden Compass, noted Catholic rape apologist Philip Pullman establishes this idea that someone's daemon will settle into the form of a dog because "being a servant" is the most essential part of their soul? In the same way, whether they're set in New York or Scotland or Regency-era London or a postapocalyptic wasteland or an alien spaceship, a lot of romance novels similarly express the idea that someone's economic class is an ingrained part of their being. That feels very weird to me.
I'm not hating on anyone who enjoys these sorts of stories, of course! I understand the appeal of the fantasy. Rather, that sort of thing just isn't for me personally.
I went through several dozen straight m/f romance novels back in 2016-2017 too, and I seem to remember that I eventually quit for the exact same reasons. So I guess what I'm saying is that, while I enjoy m/f romance, it needs to be about wizards or dragons or eldritch monstrosities.
My first impression is that there continues to be a lot of machine-generated slop on the market. That's not great, obviously. I feel bad for everyone involved.
My second impression is that maybe what I actually enjoy is m/f romance written by gay people. Straight writers seem to be obsessed with marriage and pregnancy to a degree that's difficult for me to understand. I'm not hating on marriage or pregnancy, of course, but still. The idea that it's erotic to have sex for the sole purpose of getting pregnant is alien to me. Even if it's a m/m ABO sort of situation, I'm surprised that the concept of "the physically weaker partner being bred against their will" is completely taken for granted.
Regarding that last point, I understand that fantasy ≠ reality, but it's difficult to read that sort of fantasy against the backdrop of aggressively politicized fertility movements. Idk, I just feel like Shinzo Abe is watching a little too closely.
My third impression is a lot of these writers have a strange understanding of economic class. So you know how, in The Golden Compass, noted Catholic rape apologist Philip Pullman establishes this idea that someone's daemon will settle into the form of a dog because "being a servant" is the most essential part of their soul? In the same way, whether they're set in New York or Scotland or Regency-era London or a postapocalyptic wasteland or an alien spaceship, a lot of romance novels similarly express the idea that someone's economic class is an ingrained part of their being. That feels very weird to me.
I'm not hating on anyone who enjoys these sorts of stories, of course! I understand the appeal of the fantasy. Rather, that sort of thing just isn't for me personally.
I went through several dozen straight m/f romance novels back in 2016-2017 too, and I seem to remember that I eventually quit for the exact same reasons. So I guess what I'm saying is that, while I enjoy m/f romance, it needs to be about wizards or dragons or eldritch monstrosities.
no subject
...And then I try m/f romance novels, and they are almost never the thing I want and almost always a point-by-point recreation of tiresome gender stereotypes and patriarchal power dynamics, and then there's marriage and children. Turns out the genre is not built around ships like "strange woman/sad wet rat man" or "two hot conflicted badasses circling each other forever but also it's het." I find this alienating and, also, inconsiderate. And yet every few years I keep trying.
no subject
Yes, exactly! At the very least, the m/f pairing needs paranormal mysteries to solve or royal succession dramas to wage war over.
I understand that there are many subgenres of m/f romance, but it does indeed feel inconsiderate that a reader like myself is considered to be an outlier by the marketing apparatus. There are undoubtedly brilliant literary romance novels hiding in the shadowy corners of Kindle Unlimited, and I will unfortunately never find them, filthy casual that I am.