4 ms·
Well, it's pretty trashy. The fact that the books are well-documented doesn't make up for the lack of writing ability (also, I think every book has the same sex
by mercurial 11y ago
Well, it's pretty trashy. The fact that the books are well-documented doesn't make up for the lack of writing ability (also, I think every book has the same sex scenes, more or less). They're part of a genre called "roman de gare" ("train station books"): pulp books only fit for reading in the train (and presumably discarding once read).
- reacweb 11y agoThere is no lack of writing ability. The writing ability has almost no correlation with the genre. SAS is not badly written. Even in the worst collections (like http://www.harlequin.fr/collections http://www.harlequin.fr/collections), you can find books that have been written by students who became famous authors.
- andreasvc 11y agoThen what does set them apart from novels with better reputations, if not style? I don't think it can be just the topic, and I don't believe it's just some arbitrary value that society assigns to what is high vs. low brow.
- lmm 11y agoIt is arbitrary. Compare e.g. treatment of Jane Austen (or heck, Shakespeare) at the time and today. Academic literature forms a clique (I mean this descriptively rather than pejoratively). The critics and the writers all know each other, are largely the same people.
- mercurial 11y agoWell, compare Le Carré's writing and De Villiers. Or if you want to compare two right-wing French writers, take Vladimir Volkoff and De Villiers. Volkoff forgot more about writing than De Villiers ever knew.
- andreasvc 11y agoBut the general public is not looking to academic scholars to figure out what they should approve of. Critics generally don't care to review Harlequin or SAS novels and the people that read them definitely don't need their opinions. I don't follow what argument you're making nor why it makes the matter arbitrary.
- mercurial 11y agoWe'll have to agree to disagree, I find De Villiers' writing bland at best, and very repetitive. That said, yes, you probably find some decent writers within the genre.
- meatysnapper 11y agoRe sex scenes, have you ever seen a French movie. If not, I have news for you. Other countries find coitus for non-procreational purposes to not be a bad thing!
- mercurial 11y agoI've seen a number of French movies (being French myself), but what does have to do with anything? There is a difference between complaining about the presence of a sex scene and deploring the repetitiveness and bad writing.