James Champagne wrote:
I do apoligize for this. Let me say that up front. Now then, onto my
rant.
WHERE IS ALL THE ROMANCE??? Romance has been a vastly ignored genre in
fanfics.
No it hasn't. I can recall plenty of stories about Akane and Ranma
looking up at the stars from the roof, watching sunrises, building sand
castles, sitting together in the middle of power outages, or just
looking into each other's eyes. And while the lovey-dovey Sailor Moon
fics are few on this list, there are plenty of them on the dedicated
Sailor Moon lists.
Well, hmm. Coast on over to "A Sailor Moon Romance" and you'll find
plenty. I think you're basically right, but there are probably reasons
why there isn't as much "romance" on the FFML as you can find elsewhere.
My cheap pop psych insights:
(1) Most of the authors here--I'm guessing--don't read much in, and
therefore don't model their writing much on, the established "romance"
genre of mainstream fiction. Most of us have read Pratchett (as was
recently pointed out)--fewer of us read Cartland and Coulter.
Actually I don't think Coulter would qualify by this fellow's standard,
since he's talking WAFF.
(2) Most fics posted on the ML are Ranma fics. Evangelion seems to be a
distant second. The kind of romance I think you're talking about just
may not be as appropriate to the kinds of stories that these series
generate. (Of course, that's a HUGE oversimplification, and I know it--
just trying to get a ball rolling here.) Sailor Moon does seem to
generate a lot more of this kind of romance--only not on the FFML.
Maison Ikkuko has even less representation on the list, but it may not
be what you mean...
And most authors have done stories in which people fell in love and
dated and eventually married. Lots of stories like that. Especially
Ranma and
OMG because they are love stories. Well, the case of any Takahashi
work....
But still they are not...ROMANTIC. They don't positivly radiate the
passion
and ..and..i don't know.. what ever it is that makes a romance a
romance.
Something that you know is love, and can feel it in the soul.
I know what you mean. The kind of thing that makes me want to run amok
with an axe.
(still on 2) Well, here's the problem: what KIND of romance are we
talking about? There IS, I think, a gentler, quieter kind of romance,
which doesn't get quite so passionate or "soul-felt"--why? Because it's
about human weaknesses, as well as grand passions. It's a kind of
romance in which we can't take the characters absolutely seriously,
because they so often stumble in the expression of what they feel. The
romance is tempered with irony. (Rumiko Takahashi, take a bow.) I think
many of us feel more comfortable with this kind of romance--maybe
because this is the way most of us experience love. Personally. I like
grand romance, but I see a lot more of myself in romantic comedy.
What he seems to be asking for, are more fics that are not merely
romantic, but exceptional. How many action stories have you up and
pacing the floor with excitement after you read them? How many dark
stories leave you deeply disturbed after reading them? How many
comedies actually have you laughing out loud when reading them?
(3) There are also probably cultural reasons why we (authors in general)
and gender reasons why "we" (male authors particularly) shy away from
the more stereotypical kind of romance writing. (Yes, another huge
over-simplification, but I'm on a little safer ground here. One of the
topics of my [eventual] dissertation is going to be how the idea of
"romance" gets treated differently by a male Victorian novelist, writing
about a male character, and why. It's a Mars/Venus thing...)
Romance
doesn't have to be sappy, just..there.
sorry once again for this. and please refute me. i want to be wrong.
True. But the more ironic, less passionate kind of romance is romance
nonetheless. It's "just there", too.
Sorry for the rant. But continuing this thread may at least give me a
reason to get working on that Maison Ikkoku series idea I have
mouldering away in my computer...