Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
I put romance and SF in the same trash heap of generally awful. Thrillers? That category is so broad that I don't know if generalizations can be made. The easy answer to why the romance genre is mocked is that it's marketed to women, and therefore must be inferior to genres men read. Another reason might be that genre romance is so formulaic. SF seems to allow for more variation in plot.
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I also class romance and sci-fi together as far as my own distaste goes; however, I know that within each there must be better books, typical books, and lousy books. As for thrillers, I was thinking of the subset with a manly man with a weapon on the cover and a limp partially clad woman in a subservient position.
I think you’re right about romances being formulaic, up to a point. I think the insistence on what is called HEA, or at least HFN, does them a disservice. Why limit outcomes and in a manner which the reader expects? I assume sci-fi doesn’t do that. But then, it’s not dissimilar to mysteries in that respect; readers have every confidence that Peter Wimsey or Hercule Poirot will figure out the culprit and that someone will find Nancy Drew bound and gagged in that closet.