I always thought reading a romance had great potential. I was sixteen, barely out of my Tinkle, Archies comics mode and it took quite sometime to actually like a full length novel. The first time i picked up a copy of a novel was the Mills n boons borrowed from a friend (n she liked my Archie comics). So I started my journey as an avid reader of romance, wanting to sink in all the romance I could because for my the idea of a perfect man still lay invisible and the perfect woman was obviously nowhere to be seen (after all where do you actually find a stunning beauty with little money who attracts rich guys like bees to honey?)
I later tried the Sydney Sheldon phase but after two fat novels i decided i was not cut out for the cynical side of the world. So after Susan Napier, Betty Neels, Carol Mortimer, Penny Jorden, Sandra Brown, Jude Deveraux, Judith McNaught...and I am still trying to remember all those names, it seemed like my collection just increased. One thing I loved about a romance...there was always the happy ending. Although one concept I rarely understood is the concept of loving a guy who was like ten times your senior. Maybe the the fascination of being with an older guy always makes its turn in their novels. Personally I cannot find the similarity between my characters having a huge age difference. I can take a ten year gap but more than that is just unacceptable. Diana Palmer always used this as a conflict in her novels. And more so a fair concept of the forbidden fruit. (Again I am back to thinking about conflicting themes for my next novel).
Perhaps the sweet hot romances where a hero just put you on a stand and worships you is a deliberative scene. Where as a reader we wish for things unpredicted but its the idea of the predictable that gives you a safe feeling...you know that the hero and the heroine will end up together, no matter how much of the differences they have. And in a world where everything seems so difficult, so chaotic where less than five percent of people even like you, it is better to live in a world of imagine for the next two//three hours. Reading a romance's good...almost good enough to tuck into your bed after a long day and end your day with a good ol' romance novel...
I later tried the Sydney Sheldon phase but after two fat novels i decided i was not cut out for the cynical side of the world. So after Susan Napier, Betty Neels, Carol Mortimer, Penny Jorden, Sandra Brown, Jude Deveraux, Judith McNaught...and I am still trying to remember all those names, it seemed like my collection just increased. One thing I loved about a romance...there was always the happy ending. Although one concept I rarely understood is the concept of loving a guy who was like ten times your senior. Maybe the the fascination of being with an older guy always makes its turn in their novels. Personally I cannot find the similarity between my characters having a huge age difference. I can take a ten year gap but more than that is just unacceptable. Diana Palmer always used this as a conflict in her novels. And more so a fair concept of the forbidden fruit. (Again I am back to thinking about conflicting themes for my next novel).
Perhaps the sweet hot romances where a hero just put you on a stand and worships you is a deliberative scene. Where as a reader we wish for things unpredicted but its the idea of the predictable that gives you a safe feeling...you know that the hero and the heroine will end up together, no matter how much of the differences they have. And in a world where everything seems so difficult, so chaotic where less than five percent of people even like you, it is better to live in a world of imagine for the next two//three hours. Reading a romance's good...almost good enough to tuck into your bed after a long day and end your day with a good ol' romance novel...
Hmmm..interesting to know of your journey to know romance..However..what is your definition of romance? How is it different from love? Did you explore it? Is romance limited to having some hot interaction between two opposite sex players? Isn't that a bit shallow? Romance gives you may be comfortable feelings..what is that a reality? How much romance do we feel in our day-to-day life? Isn't love a long lasting feeling that endure good and bad times in one's life. Romance may be a very small part of love as it deals a lot with external characteristics like looks; face, hair, nose, lips and figure etc, whereas, love is a feeling beyond it. I don't know but I could not resist without sharing my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI know what you are trying to say love- A romance beyond love. But then why do v read a romance novel? its because we need that safe feeling, to know that after all the difficulties n endurance of the protagonists, everything does have a happy ending and in this materialistic world, we do find the ONE for us despite all the imperfections. Perhaps the word LOVE cannot be defined in a novel of 50000 words...its a feeling to be felt, rather experienced.
ReplyDeleteI love your comments, makes me happy to know that you care about what i write...do keep writing...