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Originally Posted by Sparrow
Yes, a good romance can appeal to anyone.
But many romances treat the secondary character (usually, but not always, the man) as a two-dimensional fantasy figure - I thought J. D. Robb did this in the book of her's I tried to read. This is irritating if you're not 100% identifying with the main character - imho this is why most male readers find most romance fiction trying.
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And you don't think they treat the female character as a 2-dimensional fantasy figure? They do. That's why romance generally doesn't appeal to me except if it's male/male pairings. I've read 1 straight romance novel, and if we stretch the definition a bit, I also read such authors as Rosamunde Pilcher and Diana Gabaldon, plus a load of chick-lit. It's all fantasy, also the female lead characters, which tend to be fairly 2-dimensional.
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Originally Posted by Fledchen
I think it's unfair to categorize men as disliking romance fiction because of some kind of moral failing. I think the reason most men dislike romance novels is because they tend to be written from the perspective of the woman (whether or not the writer is female). Books that treat both the main characters with equal importance are more likely to appeal to a wider range of people.
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Of course, but if this months' genre is 'romance' shouldn't we then try to find a book within the genre? If we turn your argument around, I should have problems with reading books written from the male perspective in that they would, supposedly, not appeal to me. But I don't generally find my position so problematic that I don't give it a try those months were we have read books written from the male perspective. Using your argument, I could have complained about 'The Road' for example - that it did not appeal to a "wider range of people", only men
Basically, I was annoyed with the assumption in several posts in (the beginning of) this thread that men couldn't possibly read a real romance novel - and that we all know that all romance is badly written anyway. How arrogant.
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Originally Posted by kennyc
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Ouch! Good one
