Once again, the debate about what constitutes a
Romance rages across social media. Of course, I have an opinion. I have an
opinion about everything. Even things I know nothing about. Like American
politics. After all, I have watched Dave, The American President and Wag the
Dog numerous times. I also saw All the Presidents Men in the cinemas back when
it was first out. I get to have an opinion.
Anyway…subject in hand. Romance. Genre Romance in
particular.
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| Not a Romance under present guidelines...but back when it was written...maybe a small r romance. |
Once upon a time, a long time ago, in a galaxy far,
far away…you get the drift. A romance was any novel that wasn’t true. It was a made-up
story. It was purely coincidental that Jane Austen wrote romance in the form of
what is known these days as what I shall call capital R romance.
Early last century, Mills and Boon published romances.
They might have been about a dog in the wilderness and written by a man. But
they were considered romances because some author sat in his garret and “romanced”
about a dog in the wilderness.
Somewhere between the Great War and the Great War Part
II…it’s all about semantics…women became a force in reading. Not that we didn’t
always read, once we were allowed to learn to do it, but women also developed
buying power and they wanted to read romantic stories about love that didn’t
necessarily end up in tragedy. Because any woman daring to “love” in literature
almost invariably came to a bad end.
It was also in this era that genre started to really
become a thing. We had the Golden Age Mystery writers like Christie, Allingham,
Sayers, Wentworth, Marsh. A very stylised distinct type of mystery. Not new but
suddenly everywhere and available everywhere. Serialised in magazines, in
libraries for a modest subscription, eventually in paperback (pulp fiction). We
won’t talk about the rather sordid tales of PI’s and loose women who eventually
ended up dead. The thing is, you knew what you were getting. A neat mystery
with a satisfactory solution that the reader might almost guess before the big
reveal.
This was also a time of growth for science fiction.
Another genre. Once again, magazines, library books, pulp fiction with lovely
lurid covers, often with semi-clad females. When they weren’t being murdered
over in the mystery genre, they were tangling with aliens and probably coming
to a bad end.
It is interesting that most of the Golden Age Mysteries writers included romance in their mysteries. This was also the Era when Georgette Heyer invented the Regency Romance. She started off writing small r historical romances but in the end, only a handful of her books are not considered true Romances under the modern definition.
So, it’s obvious there was a badly needed genre for
women who dared to love to get their happy ending. Romance had a bit of a dodgy
start, but by the fifties we pretty much knew what we expected from them. One
main protagonist we could relate to, a hero suitable for her to redeem and a
background cast of characters to provide colour. Occasionally there was a girl
somewhere who came to a bad end. Usually for daring to love the hero. Still
working on that one.
An interesting sideline. When Harlequin started to
acquire Romances from Mills & Boon for the American market, they had to be
cleaned up a little. No sordid bigamy, children out of wedlock and suchlike
nasty things that those decadent English readers tolerated. The American market
still has some idiosyncrasies. But that’s a story for another day.
The real story behind capital R romance is the
marketing machine. Because Romance readers are demanding and voracious. They
consume more books than any other segment of the reading market. They have very
specific demands and the marketing machine know that if they want to capture
all that filthy lucre, they have to give them what they want.
What do they want? Happiness. They want to go on a journey
that ends up with a Happy Ever After. Romance readers know that in real life, a
happy ever after is as elusive as the unicorn. That moments of happiness are as
hard to hold onto as dandelion fluff in the wind. If they are going to engage
with the protagonists, go on a journey that is often fraught with tears and
angst, they want the big reward at the end. They want the fairy tale. They want
to believe that love triumphs AND survives. They want it ALL.
When they pay their money, they aren’t buying the
sweat of some authors brow, the pain of RSI from typing until all hours to get
the book done on time. They aren’t even buying the pretty cover, although they
are a nice bonus. They are buying the feels. The feels they get from suffering
along with their protagonists and that magical, almost unbelievable happiness
when somehow, despite everything, it all comes out right at the end.
What am I trying to say here? I’m saying that we want
something with certain ingredients, we label it. You want muesli with oats,
sunflower seeds, sultanas and nuts, you check the label. You get home and eat
the muesli and discover cranberries in it and you hate cranberries, you are
going to be unhappy. You might leave the bowl half full. You might chuck the
packet at the wall in disgust. You did not get what you wanted. What you paid
for.
From the Romance Wiki: “Novels of this
type of genre fiction place their primary focus on the relationship
and romantic love between two people, and must have an
"emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending."
Much has been made of the phrase “emotionally
satisfying and optimistic ending” by those who say that it doesn’t matter if
one of the romantic couple dies so long as the other partner is optimistic
about the future and emotionally satisfied even if grieving their heart out for
the loved one. IT IS NOT ABOUT THEM. It is about the reader.
Do you really find
it emotionally satisfying when you are left grieving the might have beens? When
one partner of a romantic couple you have emotionally engaged with is left
ALONE. That is not romantic. The love affair might have been romantic. The end
of it is not. That is tragic. We might find it absolutely wonderful writing,
deeply moving, a literary tour de force. It is not a Romance. We expect both, preferably
all, the lovers to survive. Because it is a journey and the destination is
supposed to be HEA/HFN for all the main protagonists. Like the marines, we don’t
leave anyone behind.
When you are dealing with a product purchased by
millions of people who have a specific recipe they want to buy, you label it
correctly. Romance is now a label. Romance with a capital R, aka genre romance,
is shorthand for saying, when you buy this book it will have the essential
ingredients you want. There will be love. There will be people we hope you
relate to. Most of all, those people we hope you like will end up happy (and
mostly alive, bearing in mind paranormal romance) at the end, no matter what
happens to them on the journey. We promise you this.
