Comments on: The Romance Apologia Scale

By: Racy Romance Reviews » Blog Archive » Academic’s Apologia Scale

Racy Romance Reviews » Blog Archive » Academic’s Apologia Scale — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:24:17 +0000

[...] everyone, I laughed my ass off when I read Jane’s Romance Apologia Scale over at Dear Author. It’s one of the best posts of [...]

By: Stumbling Over Chaos :: And we’ll keep on linking ’til they take our linkiness away

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:03:55 +0000

[...] the very amusing Romance Apologia Scale on the Dear Author blog that I mentioned last week? Yesterday, Dear Author had an excellent (albeit [...]

By: Jessica Freely

Jessica Freely — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:34:40 +0000

LOL. Thanks for this. Very amusing and highly useful.

By: CJ

CJ — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 16:34:34 +0000

We could stick a “fuck off” on an e-book reader, but I’ve noticed since buying my sony, people don’t know I’m reading romances, so I get approached from an entirely different standpoint. They are more curious about the reader than what I’m reading. If they get to the point of asking what I read, then they start with the romance bashing (I could lie, but I refuse to be ashamed of my dirty girl books). I’ve never told anyone to fuck off, but I have gotten snide and snarky. I usually get accused of reading it just for the sex. My normal response is “well, I could go into a lengthy explaination about the personal dynamics of the main characters, the conflicts they must overcome during the course of the story, and how the sexual situations help the characters grow closer, but really, I’m just a whore… for a happy ending.”

Fuck off would save so much time.

And now I’m going to start stealing the Gladys Kravitz line. Cause I’m shameless like that.

By: Stevie

Stevie — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:19:28 +0000

Please accept my felicitations upon a truly superb contribution to social anthropolgy, but what about e-book readers?

Maybe we could just stick ‘Fuck Off’ on the kindle…

By: Ann Somerville

Ann Somerville — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 23:38:47 +0000

Hey, LL – how about you go forth and procreate?

@Meljean:
I wonder what a Regency ‘fuck off’ would sound like?

“Sir
I do not deserve the honour you wish to bestow upon me.

Would that you did also.

EB”

By: Meljean

Meljean — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 22:40:10 +0000

I daresay that Elizabeth Bennett’s response to Darcy’s first proposal was essentially, “Fuck off.”

And she’s a witty girl, that Lizzie. Uses a few too many words to get to her point, but still witty.

By: Jane

Jane — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:43:20 +0000

@LL: That presumes I had wit in the first place upon which romance novels could take a toll.

By: LL

LL — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:38:13 +0000

Really? “Fuck off” qualifies as a “good comeback”? Hmmmmm…. Methinks all that romance novel reading is taking a toll on your wit.

By: cecilia

cecilia — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:37:44 +0000

@Mike Cane: How do you get "AntiChrist of Romance" out of "confronted me with incredulity"?

By: Mike Cane

Mike Cane — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:23:58 +0000

Oh, so now I’m the AntiChrist of Romance and/or women authors, huh?

And if not that, at least the inspiration for Choice 4, which I use plenty myself!

By: Rosie

Rosie — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:18:22 +0000

It’s not like you need an additional comment on this topic, but I just had to tell you how much I enjoyed this post and the comments.

All I have to add is, “Been there, done that, definitely moving on.”

By: theo

theo — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:00:42 +0000

@ Kimber An

I too home schooled for a long time and both my girls have very definite opinions on things now. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we don’t, but it doesn’t make one of us wrong or right.

It is amazing though how DD1 gets marked on her essays that are required by the profs as opinions on subjects. I have to roll my eyes at the comments the profs make. And one’s nectar is another’s poison depending on whether she shares a like opinion.

Stupid. Really stupid.

By: Diane V

Diane V — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:56:46 +0000

I have on occasion asked people putting in their 2-cents about my book choice while in line at Borders “are you by any chance related to Gladys Kravitz?” And have had the other people in line cracking up when I explain that “she’s the nosy neighbor from Bewitched” when the person asks “WHO?” My friends will hit me and my mother walks away when I do this, because they are dying from embarrassment (note: I frequently ask people parking in handicapped spaces w/o a handicapped plate or sticker. “Is it mental?” “What?” “Your handicap — is it mental?”)

So, if I thought I could get away with saying “Fuck Off” in public I would.

By: Heather

Heather — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:51:16 +0000

Jessica, I’m thrilled to read this:

I’m happy to say that when I was a teen embarrassed to ask the librarian where I’d find some more of those Kathleen Woodiwiss type books, please, she looked me in the eye and said, Never apologize for your reading tastes.

I believe that was a librarian’s way of telling me that I could tell people to fuck off :)

I’m thankful for librarians.

As a library student, I took a class with a “famous” librarian who has written popular books telling people what to read. While her verbal message was “never apologize for what you read,” the entire subtext of her class was “some genres are more worthy of being read than others and try to recommend these to your patrons.”

In class, I was part of a very vocal minority who argued the case for reading romance to a sea of lit-tra-cha reading classmates. On the quiz, I think our responses would be #3s, but my tone (my friends told me later), was quite obviously #4.

By: Jessa Slade

Jessa Slade — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:21:04 +0000

Yay, Jennifer the Librarian with the ‘romance reader’ button! I hope my future readers find you like I found the librarian who took me straight to Whitney, My Love.

By: Kimber An

Kimber An — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:31:28 +0000

“It drives me bananas when a teacher asks for an opinion and then, because they don’t simply agree with it, fail the student on the opinion. And it happens. Way more often than people are willing to admit. So perhaps if the teacher wants everyone to agree with him/her, they shouldn’t ask for an opinion in the first place and find another way to get feedback on how much the student is learning.”

Rejoice, Theo! And be exceedingly glad! It’s the teens with opinions in History, Literature, and Science who grow up to rule the world.

P.S. This is one of the big reasons we educate our children at home.

By: Acal

Acal — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:18:06 +0000

I got Serious Sally or is that Sam? I’m male. And I honestly don’t give a crap what people think about what I read. I just don’t read the books with the graphic covers in a public space because it kind of makes people uncomfortable

I just finished writing my first Erotica/Romance novel and I hope it does well :D

By: Kristie(J)

Kristie(J) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:55:31 +0000

LOL – I’m on the latter side of Explanatory mode, heading towards Successful Escape. But that’s good ’cause only a few short years ago I was deep into severe Apologia.
While a few short years ago, I wouldn’t read romance in public, I progressed to reading it, but if someone asked me what I was reading, I’d stuff the book in my purse and say ‘oh, nothing much’. Just the other day someone asked me what I was reading and I proudly marked my place and passed the book over to her so she could see what it was and read the blurb herself.

By: Stumbling Over Chaos :: Laughing at myself

Stumbling Over Chaos :: Laughing at myself — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 10:03:45 +0000

[...] you read romances, you can find out where you fall on the Romance Apologia Scale. Hee hee – this is my favorite question from it: “Is that a naked man on the cover of your [...]