As I mentioned a while back, I was invited to be a regular columnist over at Romancing the Blog (which was incredibly flattering :D ) and my first column went up this morning. A bit earlier than I was expecting -- I set it for 6am as per instructions and just assumed that'd be Eastern time, but whatever. :) It's up here if you want to read it; it's about jealousy in romance novels.
Oh, and the butterfly in my icon over at RtB is a pic I took at a butterfly farm on St. Martin. I have no clue what species it is, but it's very pretty and I'm delighted that it came out, since my camera skills are rudimentary at best. :)
Angie
10 comments:
Should generate lots of discussion.
Bernita -- seems to be. :)
BTW, I just responded to a bunch of comments and I think you and I are actually in agreement, but are defining some terms differently.
Angie
I enjoyed your column. Not having read a lot of romance I don't particularly remember this trope in romantic fiction. It seems to me that both men and women are more likely to be jealous at a younger age, and that it probably is a lot of insecurity.
Charles -- thanks. :) It's unfortunately (IMO) pretty common. In fact, one of the major erotic romance publishers says in their writers' guidelines that heroes must be dominant, aggressive and possessive; it's a house requirement. :/
I agree that jealousy comes from insecurity, and that younger people are more likely to be insecure about both themselves and their relationships. But there are plenty of people who seem to think that jealousy is a requirement of being in love -- that if you're not jealous of your lover, then you can't possibly really love them. That's a literally medieval notion, and I find it to be a particularly poisonous meme to have circulating around the population in this day and age.
The discussion's been really good, though -- interesting and very civil, which I guess makes it a success, even if I haven't succeeded in convincing everyone to agree with me. [heavy, theatrical sigh]
;)
Angie
Yes, I think we are.
Awesome! I'm going to go check it out!
Ello -- thanks, and thanks for commenting over there too. :D
Angie
I'm headed to RtB now.
....Just to say I appreciated the way you drew out the 'figure and ground' tension in your previous post.
Helpful to remember that as with art, the background can be sketched in to leave the reader to supply the rest, while drawing the eye to the main points of interest.
Thanks
Travis -- thanks, I hope you enjoyed it. :)
Julie -- exactly. [nod] Any decent writer could probably come up with a story where there's a reason for the figures and the background to draw the eye equally, but in general it's useful to bring some things to the foreground and let others fade to the back.
Angie
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