#romance novel critical

[sudamaniparva]

i love how it's clearly white people, specifically white women who write about arranged marriages turning into romantic love.

idiots, romantic love is the waste product of an arranged marriage.

[oddthesungod]

Windswept 🍃

[cardentist]

"I think you guys don't like good writing you just like Fanfic Tropes"

yeah well I think you guys use fanfic as a stand in for shallow low stakes writing and immature/inexperienced writers because it's an easy short hand to make fun of people, even though it ultimately hurts the point you're making.

blindly using the idea of Tropes as a stand in for not being able to write dark or interesting or complex characters and stories is just so baseline ridiculous. not every fanfic trope is a coffee shop au and not every published novel is from stephen king.

the entire point of fanfic "tropes" is to make it Easier to find the kind of story you're looking for, if you can't find dark or high stakes fanfic that is literally a skill issue

[andypantsx3]

urgh i was listening to a podcast where they alluded to some published romance authors dunking on other authors for writing "gratuitous" and "less tasteful" smut and it reminded me of the time i also accidentally implied something like that on here while i was talking about the less descriptive vanilla shit i write and i want to build a time machine and go back and break my own fingers before i could type that reeee

[undead-knick-knack]

With his slutty open shirt and steed, Dorian would be right at home on the cover of a romance novel 😂

[divorceblogger]

‘lowbrow literature’ has always been a thing and railing against it will not make people publish it any less

[elumish]

I think it's important to remember that a critique of a thing is not inherently a critique of either the people who like the thing or the people who create it, either individually or in aggregate.

[mermaidsirennikita]

I'm gonna need people to stop blaming BookTok for the election because of one dumbass outlier's frankly insane comparison of Donald Trump to "morally gray" dark romance heroes (because I'm gonna be honest, anyone seriously comparing any presidential candidate to a romance novel character is just... operating on a very specific level)

and start looking at the rightward swing of Gen Z, the same generation that has a puritanical fascination with censorship and fear of the depiction of sex

(and let's be honest, probably a fear of sex in general)

[sherlockholmeshound]

whenever ppl try to come up with some version of 'romance and love isn't forbidden by the jedi, on this one novel-'

i'm just...

[cheaperimint]

not only did george orwell invented the dystopian genre, he also invented the malewife/girlboss archetype in 1949

[spark-circuit]

me at my bookstore job to the 27th young adult straight edgy fantasy romance to come in this month

[castleofravens]

can shannon write ya and adult books about the keeper adults please i want a fintante or finspera make out scene, gay people, literally anyone being able to say fuck because i think most of them deserve it, a deep dive into the vacker intergenerational trauma, grady beating up cassius, baby/little kid versions of the keeper crew, BACKSTORY AND WORLDBUILDING, whatever queer slightly toxic fucked up little thing like all the ancients we’re introduced to have going on, a confirmation that alden and della and quinlin and livvy are actually dating each other’s respective spouses, and at least one romance novel centering fintan and dimitar

like what if one short novella for each (major) adult (guys this won’t happen and i think for her own health physical mental and emotional shannon needs to take a break but a girl can dream)

[oddthesungod]

I, like many others, am not immune to long haired Fjord with his tits out, thank you Travis sir 🙏

[gilmores-glorious-blog]

THE GALE AND THE RAVEN OHHH MY GOD

[danmeichael]

What's the line between analysing canon text and personal interpretation of the narrative?

jesus this is a really good question.

i think the short answer is there isn't one that universally holds true. for me it comes down, partially, to intent and methodology.

looong post ahead

i'd classify critical analysis as inspecting authorial intent (this is what i think the author was trying to say, this is what the author ended up saying whether they wanted to or not, this is what the author ended up saying despite it seeming like they wanted to say something else) or mechanical analysis of the story (why does (or doesn't) this facet of the story work? what makes it feel so well-executed?) and personal interpretation tends to be a lot more... soft-science, what it *feels* like rather than what you have evidence for.

the sticking point is that it's impossible to truly analyze anything in a vacuum. your personal opinions will always influence your outcome, and will also influence what you believe to be critical analysis vs. personal interpretation.

the clearest example for me is madk. i analyze the canon text to be using cannibalism as an allegory for queerness, but my personal interpretation of the narrative is that the protagonist (in addition to some other characters) is transgender.

i can outline very clearly scenes that make it clear that that cannibalism-as-queerness is the intended subtextual reading (the general theme of being othered for desires you can't help, which people internally criminalize you for despite the fact that you don't actually want to harm anyone. the scene where the character's father berates him for dying in such a debauched, disgraceful manner in a way that bleeds over into outright homophobia) so i think that's pretty clearly analysis.

but someone who isn't queer or friends with queer people might not draw that analysis, and might take the same information and analyze it as something entirely different. that's still critically analyzing the text. there is no singular correct result you can end up at that defines something as critical analysis rather than personal interpretation.

and on the other end of the spectrum: why do i think the transgender allegory is personal interpretation rather than critical analysis?

i've already stated that i think the series is about queerness, the story has themes of body modification and altering one's self to become what you really are, there are even characters in the story who don't fit neatly into cis standards of gender and who play a pretty prominent role in the story. what does it say about me that this is where i draw the line of intended interpretation? what does it say i'm assuming about the author? why do i think this interpretation is different? maybe you can critically analyze that, or maybe come up with a personal interpretation.

your question was so interesting to me and i wanted to give you a good answer, so i asked fish to give his input and we both kind of independently came to similar conclusions. i think he's more concise than me, and brings up a good stuff about the practical differences vs. me focusing more on the personal differences.

Kinda rambley but: So the real answer is that there is no clear dividing line; even when trying to be objective, we can only view a text through our own lens, and will inherently color any interpretation with our own biases. However, I think the biggest distinction between these two is the amount and kind of evidence. For textual analysis, you must bring evidence from the text. For a personal interpretation, your own feelings/ how you relate to the text can be enough. A textual interpretation would be "Shen Yuan is a gamer", supported by multiple quotes of the novel where he references video games. A personal interpretation would be "Shen Yuan is a gamer", supported by the fact that he reminds you of someone in your real life who is one. I think the most critical difference between the two is that while everyone's personal interpretation is valid, it is not evidence in discussions with other people about the text. Different people will relate to the same character differently and come away with contradictory personal interpretations, but the text itself is universal. Analyzing canon aims to highlight universally experienceable elements of the source material, while personal interpretations creates a more intimate relationship between one person and the text.

and before i go, i want to emphasize something very important:

personal interpretation is not less important or less valuable than critical analysis.

it's just another form of analysis that brings things to the table that sometimes can't be found in just a critical analysis. it's good. keep bringing your personal interpretation to the table.

just know it's personal interpretation, so you aren't bringing a scalpel (personal interpretation) to the cooking class (discourse about the canon text)

[undead-knick-knack]

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