The 1st Amendment Covers Romance As Well
There's an interesting discussion going on at Alison Kent's Blog and Romancing the Blog about whether romance authors should be a) reading romance and b) critiquing the romance genre in a public forum. I spent a few years 'off' romance as well, mainly because my reading time is rare. There are some authors that I'll always make time for. Nora Roberts' trilogies never disappoint me. It's like a Hershey's chocolate bar. You know what you're getting and it always hits the right spot. I read a few of Karen Marie Moning's books and enjoyed them. But, over all, I didn't read much.
Lately I've been rethinking my philosophy of not reading what I write as arrogance. I love Alison's books, in many ways, she inspired what I write for Harlequin as well, but I'm not sure that reading a romance for analysis isn't as effective as say, reading McKee's book for craft. Why not? Can't a book be used as a tool for learning? What works, what doesn't. Reading taste is subjective, but I firmly believe that good writing, and good stories, and yes, good romance, is not subjective. It can be learned, it can be studied, it can be taught.
I believe Alison's entitled to speak her mind, although I had a debate with my husband the other night about whether or not the Harvard Pres should step down for his comments about women not being genetically wired for math and science. My DH defended him (the rat), saying that professors should have absolute freedom of speech, but I felt like the Pres was always going to be perceived as representing Harvard, even if he was speaking his own opinion. The tag-line, "President of Harvard University" always appeared next to his remarks. So, perhaps people see Alison as representing the romance genre, and thus, the fuss. I don't know.
I'm a huge advocate of free speech, I think the unadulterated expression of ideas is a right that should be cherished and protected, and yet, if I look at my opinions in the earlier paragraph, I can't wonder if I'm being hypocritical. There are a lot of places to weigh in on this discussion, and if you want to comment here, feel free.
I just needed to express MY opinion. :)
Lately I've been rethinking my philosophy of not reading what I write as arrogance. I love Alison's books, in many ways, she inspired what I write for Harlequin as well, but I'm not sure that reading a romance for analysis isn't as effective as say, reading McKee's book for craft. Why not? Can't a book be used as a tool for learning? What works, what doesn't. Reading taste is subjective, but I firmly believe that good writing, and good stories, and yes, good romance, is not subjective. It can be learned, it can be studied, it can be taught.
I believe Alison's entitled to speak her mind, although I had a debate with my husband the other night about whether or not the Harvard Pres should step down for his comments about women not being genetically wired for math and science. My DH defended him (the rat), saying that professors should have absolute freedom of speech, but I felt like the Pres was always going to be perceived as representing Harvard, even if he was speaking his own opinion. The tag-line, "President of Harvard University" always appeared next to his remarks. So, perhaps people see Alison as representing the romance genre, and thus, the fuss. I don't know.
I'm a huge advocate of free speech, I think the unadulterated expression of ideas is a right that should be cherished and protected, and yet, if I look at my opinions in the earlier paragraph, I can't wonder if I'm being hypocritical. There are a lot of places to weigh in on this discussion, and if you want to comment here, feel free.
I just needed to express MY opinion. :)
posted by Kathleen at 9:37 AM
2 Comments:
Because it assumes that I can only learn from a craft book, and that I couldn't learn anything by reading someone else's work. After doing analysis on movies, I see how much you can learn from analyzing books as well. Another McKeeism. :)
Agree with you on the enjoying. And you're on for the trade. I'll email you with my snail mail address and you mail me yours :)
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