This weekend a friend gave me a DVD of her new favorite
movie, THE OTHER MAN. (Spoiler warning: if this is on your dying-to-see list,
don’t read on) She told me to tell her I loved it even if I didn’t. Looks like
I’m going to lie.
I love romance novels so watching a story where a wife
(Laura Linney) while dying of cancer sets up her husband (Liam Neeson) to discover
her infidelity after her death—well, I’ve got a problem with the b*!#$!
Everything we see on screen shows a loving relationship and yet she leads him
to discover she had an affair with a janitor ( Antonio Banderas, but still…) in
Milan and leaves pictures on her laptop of them together. Naked. The cruelty was
inconceivable to me and as a result I couldn’t believe two men could love this
woman so deeply. Hey, in romance the heroine has to deserve the hero and vice
versa or they don't get their happily-ever-after.
When the movie was over I realized that for my friend it was
a cinematic equivalent of a literary novel. She's made it clear she thinks
romance novels are trite and formulaic and yet I think she misses the point.
Like all genre fiction, romance is entertainment, and yet there’s an integrity
to the stories, characters and relationships that I love. No romance heroine
would intentionally inflict pain on the man she loved in such a heartless,
selfish and irrevocable way. Yeah, they make mistakes and hurt people they love,
but never deliberately and cruelly.
In romance we create a lot of flawed characters and torture
them into redemption. But redeem them, we do. One of my favorite writers, J.R.
Ward, has written the Black Dagger Brotherhood series in which horribly damaged,
murderous vampire warriors find redemption in order to make a life with the
females they love. This is an edgy series that has limited appeal even in the
paranormal romance world, and yet these characters do their best to love,
protect and nurture—and any hurt they inflict is unintentional and sorely
regretted. Their happily-ever-after isn’t guaranteed, we
know they’ll always have to work at their relationships, and yet they try to be
the best people, or vampires, they can be. Call me shallow, say I live in a
fantasy world, but that’s the life I want to live—one of caring and integrity.
Expand to other genres--thriller, sci-fi, fantasy, suspense,
mystery—and the moral compass still points to good, not evil. Sure, some protagonists
have a dark side but they also have a moral code—think Mitch Rapp, Jack Reacher and
any action hero Jason Statham plays on screen. We love them because we want
good to triumph and for the hero to do the right thing. It’s human nature.
Hmmm. Maybe genre fiction says more about who we are than literary fiction
after all.
There are great pieces of literature that I love and cherish
in my library, books I read over and over. On the other hand, I’m still on page 22 of A Confederacy of Dunces and not likely to get much further no
matter what prize it won.
What’s your guilty pleasure? What books move you and bring a
smile to your face?
6 comments:
I'm standing and applauding (it's hard to type when doing those things)! Thank you for this defense of genre fiction. I'm proud of the "code" that grants characters the right to pursue happiness once they've shown themselves worthy of it. I don't apologize for wanting justice to triumph.
Last weekend, Ted and I watched "The Way" via Netflix. In it, a character played by Martin Sheen walks the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. A couple of scenes tried too hard to teach a lesson, but overall, I enjoyed it immensely. Why? The human spirit triumphed. (Also, Ted conceded that he and I probably could make it from the Friench Pyrenees to Santiago, Spain in five weeks if we had good shoes. That pilgrimage is now on my bucket list.)Again, thanks for this post, Lark.
I'll have to watch The Way, Pat. Walking Camino de Santiago de Compostela has intrigued me since I read Shirley McLaine's account of her trek. (Yeah, I love Shirley as crazy as she is.) I doubt I'll have 5 weeks vacation to even try until I'm too old and infirm to make it.
Since getting Steve to Lourdes for the day was a feat, I'm not thinking a 750km pilgrimage by foot is on his wish list. Then there's that thing about me not sleeping in Spain. Take lots of pictures!
I'm standing there beside Pat. Great post, and I want to read (and see) the same things as you.
We genre readers stand together, Liz! Thanks for stopping by.
Sounds like the movie you described lacked 3 basic craft skills: Motivation (why would the wife do that??) Character sympathy (uh..none.) And audience suspension of belief. (This would never happen.)
Says the writer on her 5th rewrite.
:(
I agree with 1 and 2, Sarah, but I'm not sure it would never happen. Life is much stranger than fiction--which should be believable.
Hang in there on the re-writes! I'm cheering for you!
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