Jan 28 2008
Guardian Can’t Stop Writing About Romance
Is it the anniversary of Mills&Boon, the publishing juggernaught that is Mills&Boon or the impending holiday that is all above “love” (gag gag)? Whatever the reason, Guardian can’t stop writing about Mills &Boons books. Another article about the publishing house that sells a book every 6.6 seconds in the UK addresses, a bit, the idea of the books’ “retrogressive plots” (I love that term btw) and the snobbery toward the genre.
Via The Guardian.
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Jan 28, 2008 @ 13:08:27
Not a bad article, but it’s interesting that to set up this bit they had to quote a writer circa 1970: “Stories in which male dominance remains the norm stand accused of setting back women’s emancipation, our hard-won rights to a partner instead of a ruler. They are considered outdated, no longer representing what women of today really want, but none the less encouraging such desires to linger.”
People who don’t read Romance so easily misconstrue many of the “masterful and stern” alpha heroes with a male character who can’t become a partner by the end of the book. I know I’m singing to the choir here, but often the hero’s character arc is to move from a ruler to a partner attitude. Admittedly, I read mostly single title, but I imagine this has to be true for category as well.
Jan 28, 2008 @ 13:31:25
Strictly speaking, I don’t think this was published in the Guardian. If you look closely, you’ll see it says that it was published in the Observer. They do have a joint website, though, which is why it wasn’t so easy to tell if you were reading the online rather than the print version.