3 ms·

am i alone as a pretty literate person (my kindle is my constant companion) in having never heard of her? i don't mean to badmouth her - no doubt it is me missi

• cess11 2y ago
  Romance novels tend to not be considered real literature by 'serious' critics and promotion is mainly directed to women and girls directly. Maybe you don't read the right magazines, get profiled as being a woman by ad networks, things like that. Could also be that your social circles don't read romances for some reason or other. It's an underrated genre though, some romance novels are a lot of fun. For a long time women writing novels about being a woman (in the Occident) have been perceived as dangerous, revolutionary, socially corrosive. Once the feminist movements got representation in politics it has mutated more into a general disregard, it's not real literature, it's not sophisticated, it's not worthy a distinguished white male's attention, things like that. But the publishers know that there is a huge amount of money to be made so they catch some of these writers and make them successes through 'side channels'. Something similar goes for e.g. Clive Barker. Prolific, very good writer, but few know more than the first Hellraiser movie and perhaps the remake. I think one important reason for this is that he clearly writes from a gay perspective and sometimes shows a rather open interest for BDSM and other things that flip gender hierarchies.
  • zabzonk 2y ago
    surely all of jane austen's novels can be considered to be romance? and i love them. also nancy mitford's. and i have read quite a few of barkers books (and liked some) but i don't see what being gay has to do with anything.
    • cess11 2y ago
      Sure. There's a good chance you'd enjoy Hoover's books. There are gay themes in some of them.