margridarnauds:pyrose-the-flame:howelljenkins:howelljenkins:this is what i mean when i say no one...

margridarnauds:

pyrose-the-flame:

howelljenkins:

howelljenkins:

this is what i mean when i say no one is reading books in a meaningful way anymore

HUH?

I mean,, whatever? I’m glad these people are enjoying themselves, I’m not going to judge someone else for their motivations for reading,, everyone has their own tastes, I highly doubt “people who focus primarily on the romance in books” is like,,, a new group

There’s….a literal genre. Around romances in books. Conveniently called “Romance.” It’s been around for a while, about…since the time of the ancient Greeks or so? I can tell you that some of the most popular stories in medieval Irish literature were what we would today called “romances”, because shockingly people in the past LOVED love stories as much as we do now. To the point where “Tochmarc”, or “Wooing” tales, where a hero woos a heroine, are one of the largest genres of texts that we have. People in Ireland literally could not get enough of romances, to the point where we have evidence of it. They told and retold these stories so much that they’ve survived into the modern day, where a LOT of Irish stories didn’t. Lancelot and Guinevere? Added because the French thought the Arthurian tales needed a little bit of sexing up. Tristan and Iseult? Potentially having their origin in Breton tales that existed in the early medieval period? Are they less “deep”, or does that just apply if the text was produced in the last fifty years, or do you have to focus on something else besides just the love story, even if the love story is the focus of it? Do you have to pretend you don’t REALLY enjoy them, because, otherwise, you might be accused of being a frivolous fangirl who only cares about romance? 

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying romances, there’s nothing more or less meaningful about them, they can be done in a good way, they can be done in a bad way, they’re a part of how people communicate and work with one another. Not the only part, not even the most important, not something that everyone experiences or wants to experience, but one part of the human experience, as a whole, something that people have been thinking about for literally thousands of years.  I don’t really see what the fuss is about, except maybe that a group of predominately women are having a good time and being honest about what they want to read, maximizing their time efficiently as opposed to slogging through books that they ultimately won’t like. You aren’t better than them, you just have different priorities. 

Also, a romantic subplot is literally part of many genres, including thrillers (aka Bond-type books & movies). The problem isn’t the romance; it’s the bad heteronormative, disempowering writing, I suspect. That’s why my thriller’s romantic subplot is gay af. Lol.