This is phenomenal. The way you talk about reading always solidifies for me what I miss about my pre-online reading life. Also, I am floored by your review of August Lane. When you write your biggest hope is that someone will understand what you’re trying to say. This made me tear up as I read it. Thank you so much.
"Loving a thing– really loving a thing is to allow that the thing has some power or influence over you. How annoyingly sentimental!" !!!!
what am I loving right now: I am doing a re-read of Judith Ivory/Judy Cuevas's entire backlist and I'm so in love with her prose I could faint. I'm trying to write, briefly, about each book as I read them but it's hard! There is a vulnerability I feel when attempting to describe WHAT or WHY I feel so connected to her specific works, her turns of phrases. Sometimes, all I can come up with is, "it moved me!" I want to dig deep and say more.
I love all the Buffy updates in your stories. Watching people discover and love something you love is exciting and wonderful. It makes me feel alive!
i think about this a lot! there are certain romance novels i love so dearly that i don’t think i am skilled enough to talk about them in terms that are interesting to others (yet). hard to capture just how the whole is greater than the sum of its parts!!! “it moved me” is sometimes all we can say
I’ve recently been reading a lot of Lisa Kleypas’ greatest hits after going through the Reformed Rakes back catalog (so good! so important in my understanding of thinking critically about romance as a genre!) - not because I love her books, but because I want to understand what moves so many others about her work, and her significance to the genre. I can’t say I’ve hit on one that really worked for me in terms of character or craft, but it’s been a fun and interesting dive and hopefully a jumping off point for further exploration.
" Even the more “social justice,” and “leftist,” approaches to criticism in bookish spaces seem mired in the desire to determine if your dollars are spent in the most ethical possible place."
Also, "My favorite haters¹ are rigorous, careful, even hopeful. They’re also interested in questions beyond the commercial and moral. They’re interested in good stories and complicated truths and ambivalences and all the nitty gritty and inconvenient details. Something to aspire to, I think."
Yes. I look for these people, too. They aren't easy to find.
Glad you enjoyed S2 of Buffy. It's a heck of a ride.
This passage legitimately brought tears: “That romance novels are a part of my life is not a matter of necessity, it is a matter of the fact that I love them, and I have submitted myself to the project of loving them wholly and without reservation. I have given them power over me, ceded a kind of authority and detachment so that I may look at them closely, fondly, and with discernment.” Thank you for the gift of this. I shall read it at my next romance book club and credit you with the group tears that additionally ensue. I’ve never read this sentiment so perfectly expressed until now.
Got excited when I saw “Daddy issues” in your list bc for a brief second I thought you meant the Katherine Angel book - which does feel appropriate to this piece as it’s such an excellent little work of criticism!
I’ve never watched Buffy, but now I’m wondering if I should. After recently rereading the Immortals After Dark series, I’m definitely primed for paranormal content right now 😁
Looooove this as always you put into words a lot that’s been on my mind. I recently had an experience rereading one of my favorite books (The Time Travelers Wife). This is a book I reread every couple of years at different stages of my life to check in with past versions of myself (On Keeping a Notebook style) so I was overdue for a reread anyway, but that’s not what inspired me to pick it up this month. I had recently lent it to two friends to read for the first time and got sucked into a defensive loop over what I believe to be a truly pointless discourse (time travel age gap grooming accusations, yawn) and went into the reread guns blazing ready to find definitive Proof of the books Moral Goodness and therefore also my own (a terrible attitude to have as you have rightfully pointed out). Anyway, I ended up crying like a chapter in, totally giving up on my mission, just overwhelmed by how much I loved the book and missed these characters. I don’t care if they are good (but I think they are!!)! I just love them. You very aptly point out that the underlying issue here is that in current Discourse sometimes the /only/ definition we have for an insightful read is a critical one. A loving close read, reading “with care” is what it’s all about for me, and I always love your insights into different lenses with which to do that. Those lenses are not just as equally deep and challenging as a criticism, but often more so! Fear and anger and just knee jerk dislike are all easy. Love is always challenging, because like you said, love changes you! Which ironically ended up being my main (and I understand, wholly unnecessary) defense of TTTW (love is inherently altering, boundaries are active choices rather than circumstances, true love can exist within a deterministic worldview and that’s not anti feminist because feminism is not about the agency you are afforded it’s about the reality of your personhood, etc). Anyway, thanks for this and happy reading!
I see where you’re coming from with your criticisms. Your summation of my attitude towards romance novels doesn’t really match up with what I think of as myself as saying, but I may have struck a tone I didn’t intend in that substack. I’ll avoid over-explaining myself, except just to say I was by no means talking about romance at large in that substack – I don’t think of romance novels in general as frivolous, or question why they hold my attention – there are just a few books and authors I was talking about!
I definitely do, though, want to clarify the MSG line – I wasn’t saying that MSG is bad for you (I love cooking with it, there’s always a jar in my pantry) but rather that it’s the element in some foods that makes it just so savory and tasty that you keep reaching for more in spite of yourself – the ingredient that you can’t even pick the taste out of on its own, but that has an effect on the whole. What I meant by the literary equivalent of MSG re: these books is that it’s as though there’s something in there that just makes it hit the spot, even though I can’t identify what it is, that keeps me reading books that I don’t even like the characters or relationship dynamics of. But in retrospect perhaps I should have found another way of saying that, or at the very least explained more thoroughly how the analogy was working in my head.
i’ve been telling everyone who will listen about the hark & maya dynamic paralleling simon & eileen’s. (though i have to say i liked bwway more). so glad to hear someone else say it. i loved this piece and the way it approaches review culture!
I'm not joking when I say I need you to form an analysis reading list. I want an entire syllabus of old romances, new romances, and analysis material. I'll pay you, I'm not joking. Thank you for articulating some of the things I love so much about romance and how upset I get when people consider it "mindless." It happens less now, I think, with such great television and the hierarchy of media changing, but this is what people used to say about tv even a handful of years ago. Before I really delved back into reading, I had fallen deeply in love with story through tv shows. And people would talk about turning the tv on to "not think" and it drove me insane. I feel the same way with romance novels now. It's not mindless, you've chosen to turn your mind off. It's lazy to assume someone put months and years of their lives into something and it's just "mindless entertainment."
this is one of the best substack essays i’ve read in part because of the citations. i’m a historian, so i am biased, but you clearly took the time to synthesize information you’ve been learning into a cohesive idea about another topic. too many essays on here end up being personalized and sourceless rants, with better formatting. bravo
thank you! the footnotes are definitely sloppy and i am a sloppy thinker by nature but it does feel useful to make it clear that my thinking doesn’t emerge fully formed of its own accord lolol
so good and interesting and making me think at 8am in terminal b at laguardia (lol). obviously i snagged august lane as soon as i saw you talking about it, cannot wait to read and discuss!!!
This is phenomenal. The way you talk about reading always solidifies for me what I miss about my pre-online reading life. Also, I am floored by your review of August Lane. When you write your biggest hope is that someone will understand what you’re trying to say. This made me tear up as I read it. Thank you so much.
💗💗💗
"Loving a thing– really loving a thing is to allow that the thing has some power or influence over you. How annoyingly sentimental!" !!!!
what am I loving right now: I am doing a re-read of Judith Ivory/Judy Cuevas's entire backlist and I'm so in love with her prose I could faint. I'm trying to write, briefly, about each book as I read them but it's hard! There is a vulnerability I feel when attempting to describe WHAT or WHY I feel so connected to her specific works, her turns of phrases. Sometimes, all I can come up with is, "it moved me!" I want to dig deep and say more.
I love all the Buffy updates in your stories. Watching people discover and love something you love is exciting and wonderful. It makes me feel alive!
i think about this a lot! there are certain romance novels i love so dearly that i don’t think i am skilled enough to talk about them in terms that are interesting to others (yet). hard to capture just how the whole is greater than the sum of its parts!!! “it moved me” is sometimes all we can say
I’ve recently been reading a lot of Lisa Kleypas’ greatest hits after going through the Reformed Rakes back catalog (so good! so important in my understanding of thinking critically about romance as a genre!) - not because I love her books, but because I want to understand what moves so many others about her work, and her significance to the genre. I can’t say I’ve hit on one that really worked for me in terms of character or craft, but it’s been a fun and interesting dive and hopefully a jumping off point for further exploration.
" Even the more “social justice,” and “leftist,” approaches to criticism in bookish spaces seem mired in the desire to determine if your dollars are spent in the most ethical possible place."
oooof.
Also, "My favorite haters¹ are rigorous, careful, even hopeful. They’re also interested in questions beyond the commercial and moral. They’re interested in good stories and complicated truths and ambivalences and all the nitty gritty and inconvenient details. Something to aspire to, I think."
Yes. I look for these people, too. They aren't easy to find.
Glad you enjoyed S2 of Buffy. It's a heck of a ride.
rare and precious follows!!
This passage legitimately brought tears: “That romance novels are a part of my life is not a matter of necessity, it is a matter of the fact that I love them, and I have submitted myself to the project of loving them wholly and without reservation. I have given them power over me, ceded a kind of authority and detachment so that I may look at them closely, fondly, and with discernment.” Thank you for the gift of this. I shall read it at my next romance book club and credit you with the group tears that additionally ensue. I’ve never read this sentiment so perfectly expressed until now.
so glad it resonated! 💗
Got excited when I saw “Daddy issues” in your list bc for a brief second I thought you meant the Katherine Angel book - which does feel appropriate to this piece as it’s such an excellent little work of criticism!
need to give it a read!!
I know it’s Gemini season bc you’re at the height of your powers in this one 🙂↕️
thank u queen 💫💗
I’ve never watched Buffy, but now I’m wondering if I should. After recently rereading the Immortals After Dark series, I’m definitely primed for paranormal content right now 😁
Looooove this as always you put into words a lot that’s been on my mind. I recently had an experience rereading one of my favorite books (The Time Travelers Wife). This is a book I reread every couple of years at different stages of my life to check in with past versions of myself (On Keeping a Notebook style) so I was overdue for a reread anyway, but that’s not what inspired me to pick it up this month. I had recently lent it to two friends to read for the first time and got sucked into a defensive loop over what I believe to be a truly pointless discourse (time travel age gap grooming accusations, yawn) and went into the reread guns blazing ready to find definitive Proof of the books Moral Goodness and therefore also my own (a terrible attitude to have as you have rightfully pointed out). Anyway, I ended up crying like a chapter in, totally giving up on my mission, just overwhelmed by how much I loved the book and missed these characters. I don’t care if they are good (but I think they are!!)! I just love them. You very aptly point out that the underlying issue here is that in current Discourse sometimes the /only/ definition we have for an insightful read is a critical one. A loving close read, reading “with care” is what it’s all about for me, and I always love your insights into different lenses with which to do that. Those lenses are not just as equally deep and challenging as a criticism, but often more so! Fear and anger and just knee jerk dislike are all easy. Love is always challenging, because like you said, love changes you! Which ironically ended up being my main (and I understand, wholly unnecessary) defense of TTTW (love is inherently altering, boundaries are active choices rather than circumstances, true love can exist within a deterministic worldview and that’s not anti feminist because feminism is not about the agency you are afforded it’s about the reality of your personhood, etc). Anyway, thanks for this and happy reading!
love this love this thank you for weighing in!
Writing about things you love is a grueling process. And this piece really helped "unstick" me on something I've been hacking at for this entire month
so glad to hear it!!
Subscribed for now? Subscribed for always!
I see where you’re coming from with your criticisms. Your summation of my attitude towards romance novels doesn’t really match up with what I think of as myself as saying, but I may have struck a tone I didn’t intend in that substack. I’ll avoid over-explaining myself, except just to say I was by no means talking about romance at large in that substack – I don’t think of romance novels in general as frivolous, or question why they hold my attention – there are just a few books and authors I was talking about!
I definitely do, though, want to clarify the MSG line – I wasn’t saying that MSG is bad for you (I love cooking with it, there’s always a jar in my pantry) but rather that it’s the element in some foods that makes it just so savory and tasty that you keep reaching for more in spite of yourself – the ingredient that you can’t even pick the taste out of on its own, but that has an effect on the whole. What I meant by the literary equivalent of MSG re: these books is that it’s as though there’s something in there that just makes it hit the spot, even though I can’t identify what it is, that keeps me reading books that I don’t even like the characters or relationship dynamics of. But in retrospect perhaps I should have found another way of saying that, or at the very least explained more thoroughly how the analogy was working in my head.
I’m rewatching Buffy too :)
thanks for being cool about this and appreciate you expanding on your pov! hope the buffy watch is going well
i’ve been telling everyone who will listen about the hark & maya dynamic paralleling simon & eileen’s. (though i have to say i liked bwway more). so glad to hear someone else say it. i loved this piece and the way it approaches review culture!
thank you so much!
I'm not joking when I say I need you to form an analysis reading list. I want an entire syllabus of old romances, new romances, and analysis material. I'll pay you, I'm not joking. Thank you for articulating some of the things I love so much about romance and how upset I get when people consider it "mindless." It happens less now, I think, with such great television and the hierarchy of media changing, but this is what people used to say about tv even a handful of years ago. Before I really delved back into reading, I had fallen deeply in love with story through tv shows. And people would talk about turning the tv on to "not think" and it drove me insane. I feel the same way with romance novels now. It's not mindless, you've chosen to turn your mind off. It's lazy to assume someone put months and years of their lives into something and it's just "mindless entertainment."
this is one of the best substack essays i’ve read in part because of the citations. i’m a historian, so i am biased, but you clearly took the time to synthesize information you’ve been learning into a cohesive idea about another topic. too many essays on here end up being personalized and sourceless rants, with better formatting. bravo
thank you! the footnotes are definitely sloppy and i am a sloppy thinker by nature but it does feel useful to make it clear that my thinking doesn’t emerge fully formed of its own accord lolol
so good and interesting and making me think at 8am in terminal b at laguardia (lol). obviously i snagged august lane as soon as i saw you talking about it, cannot wait to read and discuss!!!