Romance Novels

            Yeah, any guys who read this—beware! (It’d be really nice to know who my audience is wink, wink. But I guess the not knowing is kind of nice. I don’t have to worry about writing something uninteresting to you or offending you.) (and guys, you don't really need to beware. I just think that's the first thing that I guy would think when he hears the words "romance novel") I’m going to talk about the dreaded romance novels.

            In my mind, romance novels are somewhere between a woman’s best enemy and her worst friend. They are empowering and totally destructive. I guess it also depends on what kind of romance novel they are too… Mainly my experience with them have been the historical fiction ones (Harlequin Historical, maybe?). I’m definitely no expert on romance novels or feminism or how the romance genre affects women. I just know my experience and what I believe.

            Romance novels give a reflection of truth while spinning total lies at the same time. Let’s look at Twilight. It is not only fantasy that vampires and werewolves exist, but the romance is a boat load of fantasy. Sorry, there’s no high school girl who is ready for that level of attraction. He fricken stalks her and watches her sleep without her knowing it! No, there is no romance in that. They are both obsessed, which does happen in high school. But there is a thick line between obsession and love. There is no “one and only”. There is no “forever and ever”. There is the one you love and there is the lifetime you have to spend with them (Oh, I believe in heaven, but I’m going to be a bit too amazed at the glory of God to care too much about who I married. I’m just going to want to worship forever!).

            Then there is the even more common mistake in romance novels between lust and love. Don’t get me wrong, I love that the two love each other’s bodies. That’s good and important. But when they’re jumping into bed before they know how they and/or the other person feels, that’s not healthy. And more often than not, right after the sex of night together, there’s a fight. Doubts boil over and the characters are starting to have regrets. Hmm, think those were preventable by an honest conversation? There’s always still some secret. Yes, let’s look at get naked and be intimate, but only physically. Emotionally, I’m going to stay fully dressed and aloof. That’s love, right?

            You want to know what’s totally seductive to me? Les Miserables. The Elderly are Made to go out When Convenient. Jean Valjean still has his arm in a sling (the end of the chapter). There is so much love and romance happening there. The first one is when Marius and Cosset finally get to talk because they have been admiring each other from a distance, in love since they first really saw each other. The first thing that comes out of Marius’s mouth? Ramblings. Then they sit in the garden and just talk about everything until “These two hearts poured themselves put to each other, so that at the end of an hour, it was the young man who had the girl’s soul and the girl who had the soul of the young man… When they had finished, when they had told each other everything, she laid her head on his shoulder, and asked him: ‘What is your name?’” I love that. What’s a name when you know everything about him because he told you it all and you shared yourself right back. They don’t know the first thing about romance, but why would they need to?

            The second chapter I mentioned, the last part is their wedding night. I don’t care how good of a love scene is in a bodice ripper novel, just give me some good old fashioned Hugo. I’d rather have angels, light, and joy than undressing and touching. I don’t need to know what happened behind closed doors, I just want to know that it was love and it was pure.