I was young and foolish, grasping at your waist
It feels remarkably unfair that I should come home and the construction should restart immediately on our street, all three mornings until this one where it didn't matter that we weren't contending with the noises of steel road plates and humps of new asphalt, I had been in too much pain to sleep all night. I managed to nap for a couple of hours around the middle of the day. I had several things I wanted to do this weekend and so far none of them are getting done.
Because there were multiple unclaimed paperbacks lying around chez![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
selkie, over the course of the last weekend I read about two and a half het romances traditionally published within the last fifteen years and none of them will be named herein, but the cumulative experience made this post feel particularly on point. I understand it would be taxonomically inaccurate to refer to the major players of Merchant Ivory as insane bisexuals, but I thought of it again while spatch and I were watching A Room with a View (1986), which did have the advantage of a primarily queer creative sensibility and is fully as allergic to heteronormativity as a successful m/f romance should be. That impassioned speech from George Emerson, Julian Sands of spiky and beloved memory straw-haired in his shirtsleeves, intensely and imperfectly beautiful and articulating a philosophy of relationships that shouldn't feel so radically sensible more than a century after its Edwardian origins: "He wants you for a possession—something to look at, like a painting or an ivory box. Something to own and to display. He doesn't want you to be real and to think and to live. He doesn't love you. But I love you. I want you to have your own thoughts and ideas and feelings even when I hold you in my arms." Good grief, thank God, I read the mother of my godchild half a dozen professionally published sex scenes that couldn't pass that bar. No wonder I get most of my favorite romances out of film noir.
The best thing about being asked by my godchild for the definition of hetero- as in -sexual was not the opportunity to discourse on classical etymology, but the fact that he thought the half Greek/half Latin line from The Invention of Love (1997) was hilarious.
Because there were multiple unclaimed paperbacks lying around chez
selkie, over the course of the last weekend I read about two and a half het romances traditionally published within the last fifteen years and none of them will be named herein, but the cumulative experience made this post feel particularly on point. I understand it would be taxonomically inaccurate to refer to the major players of Merchant Ivory as insane bisexuals, but I thought of it again while spatch and I were watching A Room with a View (1986), which did have the advantage of a primarily queer creative sensibility and is fully as allergic to heteronormativity as a successful m/f romance should be. That impassioned speech from George Emerson, Julian Sands of spiky and beloved memory straw-haired in his shirtsleeves, intensely and imperfectly beautiful and articulating a philosophy of relationships that shouldn't feel so radically sensible more than a century after its Edwardian origins: "He wants you for a possession—something to look at, like a painting or an ivory box. Something to own and to display. He doesn't want you to be real and to think and to live. He doesn't love you. But I love you. I want you to have your own thoughts and ideas and feelings even when I hold you in my arms." Good grief, thank God, I read the mother of my godchild half a dozen professionally published sex scenes that couldn't pass that bar. No wonder I get most of my favorite romances out of film noir.The best thing about being asked by my godchild for the definition of hetero- as in -sexual was not the opportunity to discourse on classical etymology, but the fact that he thought the half Greek/half Latin line from The Invention of Love (1997) was hilarious.
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That Tumblr post is great and relatable! My friend just loaned me a Harlequin het romance that she loved and re-read a couple of times... and I will judge it more fairly after I read it, but "No wonder I get most of my favorite romances out of film noir" is also very true for me, hehe!
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I could have come home from a vacation to a quiet street! Would it spoil some vast eternal plan?
My friend just loaned me a Harlequin het romance that she loved and re-read a couple of times... and I will judge it more fairly after I read it, but "No wonder I get most of my favorite romances out of film noir" is also very true for me, hehe!
Solidarity!
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WHAT ELECTION, WATCH ME GO.
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It's been a long time since I've seen A Room With a View, and my most recent novel isn't straight-up romance, but I was definitely going for that exact philosophy of relationships (as well as the bisexuality) when I wrote it.
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It just seems superfluous. It's October. We get the point. The point is that apparently our neighborhood will never not be under construction again.
It's been a long time since I've seen A Room With a View, and my most recent novel isn't straight-up romance, but I was definitely going for that exact philosophy of relationships (as well as the bisexuality) when I wrote it.
I approve of your novel already.
(I hadn't seen A Room with a View since
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Anyway, I do hope they pack and go away for good very very soon. <3
And published romance is just like that. It makes the inside of my brain itch trying to turn it into something else. I'm glad you had Merchant Ivory to come to the rescue!!
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*hugs*
I woke up the morning after I got back to street-cutting sounds and it just felt personal!
And published romance is just like that. It makes the inside of my brain itch trying to turn it into something else.
I should hasten to explain that
I'm glad you had Merchant Ivory to come to the rescue!!
Thank you! It was heroic of them. When I have recombobulated, I should rewatch Maurice.
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I'm not surprised! Hallowe'en revenge of the construction workers, the scariest sequel of all. *more hugs*
I should hasten to explain that [personal profile] selkie did not own any of these books by preference, but because they had been given her, which is why I could scarify both of us by reading the sex scenes aloud.
Oh, gosh, I mean, I've willingly read a number of the things, in a sort of foolhardy persistence because some of them feel like things that could be my thing if they were just a little bit... entirely different. (They were so easy I could learn to read again using them a few years back, so I read quite a few then.) I wouldn't judge! Honestly, I don't even judge half the writers all that much, because my understanding, however woolly and secondhand, is that the publishers have an incredibly rigid formula everyone has to stick to, and then they're churning this stuff out by the month. (Some individual ones I judge very hard nevertheless, though, tbf.) These days they all have to be linked, too, which makes things worse because then everybody else in the book is an identikit het lead waiting for their turn, and it's almost as terrifying as the construction people.
Thank you! It was heroic of them. When I have recombobulated, I should rewatch Maurice.
I've never seen that one, and I should some time! (I am currently following through on my find more Rattigan thing, which also works too on that score, heh.)
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Oh, God, of course. Just when you thought it was safe to go back to sleep.
Oh, gosh, I mean, I've willingly read a number of the things, in a sort of foolhardy persistence because some of them feel like things that could be my thing if they were just a little bit... entirely different.
Understood. A premise is sometimes irresistible and the conclusion anaphylactic. I just don't read that much category romance even when it's queer and self-published, so I tend to be unprepared for it when I try. In 2017, I read four novels and two novellas by the same author in three days while under the influence of a fever and enjoyed a solid fifty percent of them and haven't read anything of hers since.
(Some individual ones I judge very hard nevertheless, though, tbf.)
(That's fair.)
These days they all have to be linked, too, which makes things worse because then everybody else in the book is an identikit het lead waiting for their turn, and it's almost as terrifying as the construction people.
It sounds absolutely like horror: somewhere out there, an identikit het lead is waiting for you. Avert!
I've never seen that one, and I should some time!
I have never written about it and I love it. I could try to write about it in the near future, subject to the same chance of my brain coming back online. I have some other things in the figurative queue first. Like going back to sleep.
(I am currently following through on my find more Rattigan thing, which also works too on that score, heh.)
I have ludicrously specific opinions about The Deep Blue Sea, but I loved the National Theatre production with Helen McCrory which I saw via NT Live in 2016 and if you can stream it, I highly recommend doing so. Everyone in it was great. (Their Miller passed my standards with flying colors and then the next time I heard of the actor he was playing Krogstad in A Doll's House, so even without seeing the production I could feel catered to/attacked.)
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You Don't Know What We Were Doing In Your Road All Last Summer (But We're Back Again for Halloween II: the Nightmare on Sovay's Street.) /o\
It sounds absolutely like horror: somewhere out there, an identikit het lead is waiting for you. Avert!
I read a novella once by one writer who tended to liken her male leads to stallions, and it was a Christmas special where they were all under one roof and it was straight up one of the most hair-raising things I've ever read. Snowed in with the gigantic family of Alpha Het Stallions!
I generally just wrote even more Edward/Julia fic than usual after every attempt to read one. (Not like that, thank you. Like this, and with more James Maxwell and less scary alpha types, heh.)
I have never written about it and I love it. I could try to write about it in the near future, subject to the same chance of my brain coming back online. I have some other things in the figurative queue first. Like going back to sleep.
*hugs* I hope you have all those things, though, and asap! They are not unreasonable things!!
I have ludicrously specific opinions about The Deep Blue Sea, but I loved the National Theatre production with Helen McCrory which I saw via NT Live in 2016 and if you can stream it, I highly recommend doing so.
As I said, I mean to make a post, but basically I have obtained the BBC Rattigan Collection boxset, so the version of it I shall watch has Penelope Wilton, Colin Firth & Ian Holm and the BBC are very unlikely to delete characters, so I feel I shall be okay with that! But thank you for the link, as I bet Helen McCrory would also be great, and I had no idea there even was a 2011 film. If I get all completist, I may well watch it any way sometime, but duly warned. <3
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At least they still seem to knock off for Sundays, which is very Hammer Dracula of them.
Snowed in with the gigantic family of Alpha Het Stallions!
That's a two hundred percent helping of no thanks!
I generally just wrote even more Edward/Julia fic than usual after every attempt to read one. (Not like that, thank you. Like this, and with more James Maxwell and less scary alpha types, heh.)
I can understand that as a coping mechanism. I had been going to ask if you like romances as such in your fiction, but your parenthesis seems to answer the question.
so the version of it I shall watch has Penelope Wilton, Colin Firth & Ian Holm and the BBC are very unlikely to delete characters, so I feel I shall be okay with that!
With that cast, I can't understand your feelings. Seriously, I will be interested to hear about that version: I don't know why I hadn't guessed that mid-'90's Colin Firth played Freddie.
But thank you for the link, as I bet Helen McCrory would also be great, and I had no idea there even was a 2011 film.
You're welcome! The punch line for the 2011 film is that the role was eventually cast with Karl Johnson, but then I understood it to have been trimmed from its stage importance and, for one reason or another, I have never gotten around to seeing the film.
This conversation made me want to re-listen to the 2022 BBC Radio 4 Separate Tables which you linked me a couple of years ago, with the alternate, queerer text and Adrian Scarborough, but of course it was on the Internet Archive.
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Well, I would say yes - the rest of the world would apparently classify things differently!
With that cast, I can't understand your feelings. Seriously, I will be interested to hear about that version: I don't know why I hadn't guessed that mid-'90's Colin Firth played Freddie.
I'm looking forward to it - and, yes, somehow, I shall make do with that cast, ho hum. ;-p
This conversation made me want to re-listen to the 2022 BBC Radio 4 Separate Tables which you linked me a couple of years ago, with the alternate, queerer text and Adrian Scarborough, but of course it was on the Internet Archive.
Yes, I very much want them to come back and let me rifle through that Rattigan Collection someone had up there. *crosses everything*
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Oh, do not let category romance define the rest of the world! Just be allergic to their ideas of romance like everyone else who wants to (
Yes, I very much want them to come back and let me rifle through that Rattigan Collection someone had up there.
Fingers crossed along with you. I wish I had thought to download it at the time. I did grab The Twelve Maidens.
[edit] Hold the phones, it's back. Let's see if that extends to mp3s.
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I've had my ship fic recced as gen before now, although I do work harder at making the romance hopefully visible to the reader as well as me these days.
get through a thriller without having unprotected sex on a public lawn.
Ahahaha. Well, I can see why you were laughing at that one. As I said somewhere else in this post, you've got to sort out the killer on the loose before you indulge in the personal orgies. Priorities, people!!
[edit] Hold the phones, it's back. Let's see if that extends to mp3s.
\o/ And it's still up now, so that's a good sign. And, wow, they do have a lot of things there, don't they?
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Eh. I don't actually care if it's visible to me as romance so long as it is the kind of relationship you like to write. I don't find romances the naturally most interesting of all human interactions, so I'm not going to lose by not seeing one.
(I once encountered a review of my work which declared me to be "a writer who sees love and desire as something essential as breathing" and it was an incredibly complimentary review and I still feel weird about it.)
And it's still up now, so that's a good sign. And, wow, they do have a lot of things there, don't they?
I pounced on both halves of Separate Tables and the 1981 Bequest to the Nation on the sheer strength of Siân Phillips, Michael Bryant, and Anna Massey, whether I have any interest in a history play about Nelson or not.
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I enjoy writing all kinds of relationships, but that definitely includes romantic ones. It took me a long time to work out what I liked, how that worked in fic, and I'm still trying to get over how stupidly embarrassed I feel writing it, since it is terribly silly and annoying to me that that's still a thing. So I am very happy to show above the shipping line whenever I do! But, yes, I'm always interested in human interactions, and I like low-key, unsentimental things, but also underlying intensity or strong feelings with it, or comedic lightness with heart, and that's generally what I tend to write, whatever flavour it is. But also aliens and time travel and murders and things!
(I once encountered a review of my work which declared me to be "a writer who sees love and desire as something essential as breathing" and it was an incredibly complimentary review and I still feel weird about it.)
*hugs* Understandable! Reviewers are always so confident of these things they don't know, while they bring their own baggage and reading lenses to it, like everyone else. <3
I pounced on both halves of Separate Tables and the 1981 Bequest to the Nation on the sheer strength of Siân Phillips, Michael Bryant, and Anna Massey, whether I have any interest in a history play about Nelson or not.
Fair! I have just nabbed Man and Boy because the cast looked good and it's unwrangled on AO3. What are reasons?
Maurice spoiler?
Re: Maurice spoiler?
I really do believe in the viability of the endgame couple in Maurice! I could probably write an entire review from that angle, since it's what I shouted mentally at Roger Ebert about after seeing the film for the first time. (I may also have shouted at Quentin Crisp about it.)
Re: Maurice spoiler?
So do I--those rare happy endings for queer people are always something to celebrate! And I'd love to read your review if/when you write it! <3
Re: Maurice spoiler?
Thank you! I would love to write it! I need more sleep and time.
Re: Maurice spoiler?
Re: Maurice spoiler?
That is an unbelievably kind thing to offer! Would you accept it in November? Now that I have finally managed to get one review for October out of my head, I have what I hope are not delusions of kicking some other stuff out of my mental queue (although not several of the movies I had originally planned, what with the ongoing unavailability of the Internet Archive).
Re: Maurice spoiler?
After rummaging around I was surprised to discover that "Where Angels Fear to Tread" was *not* Merchant/Ivory, despite having Rupert Graves and Helena Bonham Carter, together in "Room with a view" and "Maurice" (only one overlapping scene in Maurice, I think, during a cricket match). A throw-back to my theory about people having the same agent. (there was a time period in the early 1990s when David Strathairn, Alfre Woodard, and Mary McDonnell kept showing up all together or in pairs, same thing).
I've also always wanted to read a review comparing "My beautiful laundrette" with "Room with a view." The superficial comparisons are that they both were released in 1985 and both starred Daniel Day Lewis. Is that enough on which to hang a (possibly specious) essay?
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Long story long, I worry about compulsive heteronormativity getting sold out there, and I don't think I've written a 100% straight pairing ever (S will bring me up to speed, but I think everyone is at least canonically bisexual, ever.)
Respect to everybody putting electricity in the wires and canned peas on the table via the Harlequin model, though. I never could be that productive.
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I can't take spicy seriously as a twenty-first-century designation. It's straight out of the love pulps which
Long story long, I worry about compulsive heteronormativity getting sold out there, and I don't think I've written a 100% straight pairing ever (S will bring me up to speed, but I think everyone is at least canonically bisexual, ever.)
There might be a couple of exceptions in A Verse from Babylon (2005) based on the historical record, but I wouldn't even put money on all of those.
Respect to everybody putting electricity in the wires and canned peas on the table via the Harlequin model, though. I never could be that productive.
The productivity would be the concern of the hypomania, it's the heterosexuality that'd give you brain damage.
*hugs*
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Rigid formula is indeed scarily rigid. *nods* You're right about it getting into every flavour, too, albeit from a very limited experience on my end.
Ha, whereas my problem is some sort of exact opposite from the more asexual adjacent area of the spectrum where I'm crying out, "Does no one know how to be emotionally repressed these days?" and being unwilling to have to sit through obligatory sex at least once every third of the book, and for some ranges, complete dissolving into sex in the final third. (Some of them were trying to solve murders! I feel they should have a think about their priorities before they forget the killer on the loose and engage in sex in every room of the house instead.)
So, lol, I am the wrong audience. I just get attracted to the things for various reasons sometimes, but it never works out. Poor canned romance producers trying to earn their peas!
Anyway, in short, good luck with your much more exciting romance! I am currently taking my unreasonable expectations off to someone who is liable to gratify them, aka Terence Rattigan.
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I was going to say I haven't seen A Room With a View since it came out, but upon reflection I haven't seen A Room With a View at all, I've only seen Howards End when it came out. Well. This seems fixable.
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Thank you!
I was going to say I haven't seen A Room With a View since it came out, but upon reflection I haven't seen A Room With a View at all, I've only seen Howards End when it came out. Well. This seems fixable.
It's on Criterion Blu-Ray/DVD and streaming just about everywhere. Enjoy!
(I only saw Howard's End a couple of years ago. It was excellent, although a very different emotional effect.)
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*hugs* Come back soon! I will snurch all the cocks-and-frocks ones from the Little Free Library and put Buber in their place!
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So much tits. So much. Italicized.
Come back soon! I will snurch all the cocks-and-frocks ones from the Little Free Library and put Buber in their place!
What an enticement!
*hugs*
(I will.)
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AND tits. All the tits that's fit to print. *begins stalking Little Free Library*
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Are you kidding, I slept like a rock. It was great.
All the tits that's fit to print.
And some that aren't!
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"It's our last chance."
The Department of Belated Commenting would like to note that it FINALLY knows where that one sound sample in Dream Theater's "Space-Dye Vest" comes from, and it is grateful to you for that!
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I who have never heard this song will have to listen to it! And I'm glad to hear it.
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