(no subject)

[erastes]

Ranty McRant Rant.

Cross posted from the Romantic Times Forum.

I have to say that I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw Avon's historical romance submission guidelines . I really wish that I could write heterosexual romance, especially in light of RT's rules, and the fact it's a great market to be in - but when I see this sort of restrictive guideline, I realise WHY I can't.

A man and a woman meet--she's like no other woman's he's ever known. She tantalizes him in ways he never thought possible...and he'll stop at nothing to make her his--forever.

These are love stories set primarily in Great Britain and the United States before 1900

1. this really encourages formulaic fiction. It's roast beef today and roast beef tomorrow and roast beef for ever and ever and ever. The same old diet of plot and denouement that we know exactly what's going to happen before we even open the book.

2. Why only America and England? Again, it's repetitive and I find it astounding the Avon would stipulate this - particularly as they are big in other countries, like Australia for example. Is there no historical stories to be told about France? Spain? Mexico? Canada? A hundred other countries? I can't tell you how refreshing it is to find a love story set in Ancient Machu Picchu rather than yet another story of a crofter's daughter who catches the eye of the local ne'er do well laird...

3. Finally, and most importantly - the whole tone of that guideline is wrong. The woman beguiles and tantalises the man. He is inflamed - he will stop at nothing. He pursues... she flees... he courts.... she resists... he stalks.... she obtains a restraining order.... he breaks into her house....

He will stop at nothing to make her his forever.

Really? Nothing?

It's about time we had an end to this victim/aggressor kind of approach, and about time people stopped encouraging others to think that "stopping at nothing" when it comes to sexual advances is a good thing.

/here endeth the rant. Erastes has stomped out of the building.

Comments

[predatrix.livejournal.com]

When I see guidelines like those I tend to grit my teeth and try to remember that fantasy-rape and fantasy-domination are about stuff that happens in the head.

There's a lot of fiction out there, or in here. Narrative, art, dreams, television. The theatre inside the small round wall of the personal skull. Validating a view of the world ('see! this is acceptable behaviour!') is only one of the purposes of fiction. (Catharsis, comedy/parody and 'safe play' with narratives it would be bloody suicidal to act out in real life are also in there somewhere, and that's only a few examples).

I'm a slash reader. I've been explaining to other fen who 'don't get it' for decades that no, I don't want to tie Hot Guy 1 and Hot Guy 2 to the same bed and see what happens.

I try to remember to extend the same courtesy to women whose fantasies are definitely not my own, and accept that if a woman loves to read about being raped or dominated it says nothing at all about how she acts in daily life. It certainly shouldn't suggest that that is how she should be treated.

Sub-female fantasy makes me feel uncomfortable and I don't go for it, but I don't think it's a reflection of 'real' desire to be treated the way the heroine is treated any more than any other fantasy.

That said, I still don't think much of those guidelines, or the books that follow them. Publishers like these have been resting on the same narrow self-fulfilling prophecies for far too long. They tell us 'we know what sells because we sell it' and create unnecessarily restrictive blueprints like the stuff you quote here.

I'm quietly pleased that online publishing has proved that there is a market for bucking the trend. A small market, probably, but we're out there.

I've even noticed the rise in cross-genre in ordinary dead-tree publishing: 'detective noir with wizards' and 'rom-com with vampires' are much more noticeable subgenres than they used to be.

Let's hope these publishers find themselves hit hard enough in the wallet by a deserting readership that they rejoin the modern age...

courtesy

[dubaiyan.livejournal.com]

Oh, well said!