Lois’s answer to “Hi there! I wish I could rant on about how much I love your work, but space is limited, so you'll h…” > Likes and Comments
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I'm weird about romances. I think the things I like aren't 'typical' things. ^^;
Oh my god that's such a good point about how romance plots work. Damn.
...that is the single most insightful thing about romance I've read in a good long while. Both fictional romance and real life ones.
(it also explains why romance as a genre is so hard to get right)
Huh. I hadn't thought of Friday's Child like that. Years since I read it, must re-read it soon.
Lois, when you describe it this way all I can think of is Miles asking:
"Elli—if we were flying along, in a lightflyer or an aircar or something, and I suddenly ordered you to crash it, would you?"
"Now?" asked Quinn, startled. The shuttle lurched.
Trust! On both sides!
I never saw that as love, but rather obedience to someone who not only holds rank over her, but more importantly, she thinks is a genius and sometimes thinks faster than he can talk. But, definitely a show of trust.
Well, that's where it gets weird dating a subordinate. For example, even though she is his subordinate, Elli next tells Miles that she'd do it but would ask pointed questions - likely with her hands wrapped around his throat - after. Also, considering their relationship, even if he weren't her commanding officer I think she would do it just because of the level of trust in their relationship, as he would if she told him to crash the lightflyer regardless of who is higher in the chain of command. Note also that I never said it was love that made her willing to do so, but that this is a sign of the absolute trust which forms the foundation of their relationship.
@ Carro --
Re: Friday's Child, I suspect it makes a difference whether the reader is the age of the protagonists, or the age of the protagonists' parents. (Or grandparents, sigh.)
Ta, L.
Oh! Speaking of romances, I came across this the other day.
"We see movies in which people are represented as being in love who never talk with one another, who fall into bed without ever discussing their bodies, their sexual needs, their likes and dislikes. Indeed, the message received from the mass media is that knowledge makes love less compelling; that it is ignorance that gives love its erotic and transgressive edge. These messages are often brought to us by profiteering producers who have no clue about the art of loving, who substitute their mystified visions because they do not really know how to genuinely portray loving interaction… "
— “all about love: New Visions” by bell hooks
Does this mean that romances and spy fiction are the same under the covers? Is this why it is so seamless to go from Miles Vorkosigan's stories about his life as an agent of Barrayar to his romance with Ekaterin, ultimately combining the two in A Civil Campaign? (This is my favorite book set in the Barrayar universe. It is so clean beautifully structured and written.)
The response about romance is so (characteristically) insightful that I'd like to be able to quote it -- with attribution, of course. Any objection? (This is a public forum, sort of, but not quite like a published work, hence the question. :))
Thank you! Please do feel free to quote it.
I dearly love Friday's Child and read it when I was somewhere around 20. Much of my love for it comes from having a younger brother only a year younger and seeing some of the boneheaded things he would try at that age.
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Oct 30, 2017 03:43PM
I'm weird about romances. I think the things I like aren't 'typical' things. ^^;
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Oh my god that's such a good point about how romance plots work. Damn.
...that is the single most insightful thing about romance I've read in a good long while. Both fictional romance and real life ones. (it also explains why romance as a genre is so hard to get right)
Huh. I hadn't thought of Friday's Child like that. Years since I read it, must re-read it soon.
Lois, when you describe it this way all I can think of is Miles asking:"Elli—if we were flying along, in a lightflyer or an aircar or something, and I suddenly ordered you to crash it, would you?"
"Now?" asked Quinn, startled. The shuttle lurched.
Trust! On both sides!
I never saw that as love, but rather obedience to someone who not only holds rank over her, but more importantly, she thinks is a genius and sometimes thinks faster than he can talk. But, definitely a show of trust.
Well, that's where it gets weird dating a subordinate. For example, even though she is his subordinate, Elli next tells Miles that she'd do it but would ask pointed questions - likely with her hands wrapped around his throat - after. Also, considering their relationship, even if he weren't her commanding officer I think she would do it just because of the level of trust in their relationship, as he would if she told him to crash the lightflyer regardless of who is higher in the chain of command. Note also that I never said it was love that made her willing to do so, but that this is a sign of the absolute trust which forms the foundation of their relationship.
@ Carro --Re: Friday's Child, I suspect it makes a difference whether the reader is the age of the protagonists, or the age of the protagonists' parents. (Or grandparents, sigh.)
Ta, L.
Oh! Speaking of romances, I came across this the other day. "We see movies in which people are represented as being in love who never talk with one another, who fall into bed without ever discussing their bodies, their sexual needs, their likes and dislikes. Indeed, the message received from the mass media is that knowledge makes love less compelling; that it is ignorance that gives love its erotic and transgressive edge. These messages are often brought to us by profiteering producers who have no clue about the art of loving, who substitute their mystified visions because they do not really know how to genuinely portray loving interaction… "
— “all about love: New Visions” by bell hooks
Does this mean that romances and spy fiction are the same under the covers? Is this why it is so seamless to go from Miles Vorkosigan's stories about his life as an agent of Barrayar to his romance with Ekaterin, ultimately combining the two in A Civil Campaign? (This is my favorite book set in the Barrayar universe. It is so clean beautifully structured and written.)
The response about romance is so (characteristically) insightful that I'd like to be able to quote it -- with attribution, of course. Any objection? (This is a public forum, sort of, but not quite like a published work, hence the question. :))
Thank you! Please do feel free to quote it.
I dearly love Friday's Child and read it when I was somewhere around 20. Much of my love for it comes from having a younger brother only a year younger and seeing some of the boneheaded things he would try at that age.
