I totally agree that Romance deals with deep issues, and can hold as much value as any other type of fiction. But also! It doesn’t have to tackle deep issues to be as valuable. And what people mean by deep issues often overlooks depth provided by Romance in many areas that literary fiction ignores. - ThreadSky

charlottestein.bsky.social • 15 days ago

I totally agree that Romance deals with deep issues, and can hold as much value as any other type of fiction. But also! It doesn’t have to tackle deep issues to be as valuable. And what people mean by deep issues often overlooks depth provided by Romance in many areas that literary fiction ignores.

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forensicguy.bsky.social•15 days ago

We loathe Trump. Do whatever is needed to help yourself and half of the U tied States.

shipperxphile.bsky.social•15 days ago

Because happiness is coded as frivolous. Not coincidentally, so are things which are marketed to women or for women. If it’s a fifty year old man lusting inappropriately for a teenager, that’s ‘deep’

charlottestein.bsky.social•15 days ago

Nailed it. Happiness, fun, sweetness, even goodness…all labelled as unserious, frivolous, meaningless, boring, cliched.

broskrynn.bsky.social•15 days ago

Very true, it's why I try to dabble a bit in my romance fiction such as with Prince of Flames; the male drive and female needs are carefully balanced. It's tricky writing in this way.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/92824/prince-of-flames/chapter/1778389/chapter-i-a-kingdom-of-sand

susiesm.bsky.social•15 days ago

I read a lot of romance fiction. They are my comfort books. Let’s not overthink it.

charlottestein.bsky.social•15 days ago

Literary fiction will often make no bones about going deep into the pure emotional life of a white man, with no commentary on anything broader, particularly. No insight into the world and its structures, etc. No sense of anything beyond white men.

But most romances will.

charlottestein.bsky.social•15 days ago

Many, many Romances will give you the inner emotional lives of women, non-binary people, trans people. White and BIPOC. Queer and not. Primarily, their perspectives of love and romance and sex. How often do you see litfic doing so?

But that’s never seen as a lack.

azasloth.bsky.social•15 days ago

I was talking to a friend about T. Kingfisher's romances, and I said 'It's just so fucking nutritious!' - by which I meant that it had food for thought, it valued viewpoints outside the mainstream, and it made me feel better for having read it, not only happier - though wouldn't that be enough?

charlottestein.bsky.social•15 days ago

It’s not that Romance is perfect, far from it. But it certainly doesn’t lack depth, it doesn’t lack a feeding of the soul in some way, and in many ways that litfic rarely bothers with.

charlottestein.bsky.social•15 days ago

All of this has almost entirely been forgotten, by many. And in part because the literary establishment made in roads on social media. They pushed back against what was perceived to be an obsession with social justice agendas, and it worked.

charlottestein.bsky.social•15 days ago

It worked so well that not only did people start abandoning any kind of commentary that involved social justice on any level, they also began to see litfic and litbros as the persecuted ones. The classics and litfic as hounded, as everything Quality being devalued. And so now here we are.

charlottestein.bsky.social•15 days ago

Having to relitigate this all over again. Having to explain all this, once again. But timidly now, because being fierce about it feels “outdated” and “cringe”. Because so many of are own joined in devaluing Romance.

mistressofnone.bsky.social•15 days ago

I’ve thought about this a lot as a recovered litfic reader. While reading romance during lockdown, I realized that Byatt’s Possession was one of my favourite novels because it has a HEA.
I’ve learned way more about the world and myself from so-called genre fiction. Especially romance.

velocitydaemon.bsky.social•15 days ago

It is one of my favourite novels ever since I read it at 18 and you have nailed why I hold it in such high regard. Thank you for that.

charlottestein.bsky.social•15 days ago

I had almost the same journey. My fave genres were horror and litfic. Gradually I realised what I was longing for and missing within them was romance, or even just passionate love. It was rare and still is rare to find romance within them. The reason Never Let Me Go was my fave book for years.

sonomalass.bsky.social•15 days ago

I spent years reading fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, mysteries and lit fic, not realizing that the deciding factor for me was the HEA.

charlottestein.bsky.social•15 days ago

Same! I was desperate for love stories that ended well.

sonomalass.bsky.social•15 days ago

I spent years thinking of romance as the Harlequin Presents I used to borrow by the sackful from my aunt as a teen. I was nearly 50 before I discovered the real breadth and depth of the genre.

charlottestein.bsky.social•15 days ago

I just love the way Romance does that. How it can unfurl before you, once you start exploring and embracing.

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