I did manage to stop myself today on the panel on “beast men” from blurting out my characterisation of the differences between urban fantasy and paranormal romance. Our moderator focused on the open-endedness of the urban fantasy narrative and the centrality of the romantic relationship(s) to the paranormal. My definition was a little different. For me, urban fantasy is what SF people feel they can make fun of, while paranormal romance is what urban fantasy people can make fun of.
Okay, a little harsh, I suppose, but there are such hierarchies of genre. People who really ought to stick together to support all their marginalised genres, instead devolve into in-fighting. The powerless turn on each other and that’s how the powerful stay in control.
But enough of politics.
Okay, just one more bit of gender politics. A lot of people on Twitter were forwarding along a quote from Stephen King this week. Apparently he said,
Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend.
Now, I’m no fan of Meyer’s stories or the films which my brother has forced me to watch, but the very gendered slam wrapped up in King’s quote really grates on me. Setting aside the fact that that’s not what it’s all about (or that there are troubling things in what it is about), there’s a lot to object to in this comment. The denigration of romance as “girly stuff” ignores the fact that most people obsess a great deal of the time over relationships, but somehow only women talk about it or, more germane for us, write and read about it.
Before publishing became controlled by the question of “where will this be shelved?” romance elements were not quite so denigrated in this way. The fact that everyone feels safe sneering at romance shows how that has changed. In the same way that mainstream lit people don’t like to think of SF classics as really SF (or people like Margaret Atwood insist they don’t write SF), other genre folk feel safe in scoffing at what they think romance is. I did make a point of saying that folks should check out the submission guidelines to see where romance is now – it’s not all Barbara Cartland. There’s a much wider range of genres within romance (as we all know) that explore a wide variety of adventures and relationships.
It’s nothing to be scared of—or shouldn’t be.
Yay!. You tell them! I have to tell you that recently when I was pitching my newest full length novel to agents, I called it a paranormal adventure romance. Apparently I was overheard because the term has caught on. I am also aware of authors in England that were saying their works were hybrids between paranormal romance and urban fantasy.
People always fear what they don’t understand. It’s easy to make fun of stuff rather than to really look into it.
Just a seed for thought. I used to write sword and sorcery. I read urban fantasy in addition to several genres. I really can’t tell the difference between sword and sorcery and urban fantasy. Tough female heroine, may be sexy, carries the whole adventure and learns to be greater and sometimes get the gold or the villain. Sometimes there’s magic. Sometimes they have paranormal creatures. Sometimes there’s love, and sometimes there’s sex. The only difference may be in placing it in a created medieval age. Not that much difference really.
As for girly romance–All I have to say about that is anyone not reading urban fantasy, paranormal romance, paranormal adventure romance, or a hybrid of any of the above, is missing out on great stories. Heroines are sexy, brave, willing to learn, and give as good as they get. The story lines area powerful, heartbreaking, riveting, frightening, and thrilling. It’s a brave new world, people, and the stories that will tell all have been placed on the romance shelf–because the word for what they are has not been invented yet.
By: Susan Hanniford Crowley on July 17, 2011
at 12:36 am
Yep, totally agree — which is why I was so glad to see so many panels touching on the blurring of genres and traditional (publisher or bookstore imposed) divisions between genres. I think the ebook trade has helped immensely by showing those overlaps through tagging. Readers aren’t interested as much in defining genre distinctions as they are in finding GOOD BOOKS.
By: cmkempe on July 17, 2011
at 10:53 am
[...] got into a discussion with a friend at Readercon this weekend about writing and the voices in your head — or rather, the voices in my head, [...]
By: Madness « Kit Marlowe on July 18, 2011
at 6:18 pm
Good fiction works as a mythology – something that metaphorically touches something deep and inspiring within us. Harry Potter certainly accomplishes that. Twilight does not, and that’s all King was saying. It’s not a debate between male-oriented fiction and romantic fiction targeted to females. You can write for females without painting a picture of helpless, weak women succumbing to strong supernatural males. Unfortunately I think Meyers’ religion informs her fiction, and her religion is very male-dominated. And besides that, it’s just a shallow piece of work.
By: Dane Collins on October 2, 2011
at 12:21 pm