Comments on: The Need for Recognition

By: Vickie

Vickie — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:34:48 +0000

On the subject of characters in a story and connecting with them on a personal level. I feel that it isn’t the characters physical appearance that we identify with as much as it’s their thoughts, feelings and actions. When we imagine ourselves within the story, we often think about what we would be like in that situation or how we might have done it differently. I feel this is the form of escapism we seek when we read and what makes reading a story so different from watching the same story on TV where everything is visual.
I also don’t feel that authors necessarily stereotype a culture when they make a character in the story opinionated. People will always have diverse personalities and opinions regardless of their cultural background. If the characters in the story weren’t a little controversial, it wouldn’t be as intersting.

By: Manda

Manda — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 07:07:13 +0000

Abi, have you read one of Laurenston’s earlier books, “The Beast in Him?” Hilarious and sweet, and it also features a black heroine. It wasn’t until I read the book the second time that I realized she wasn’t white: Laurenston’s unique, I think, in incorporating different races seamlessly. Regardless, it’s a teriffic book!

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:45:30 +0000

“Personally I read to escape. However… I don’t mind reading books set in geographical areas I’m familiar with or focusing on occupations I’m familiar with, even if I notice irritating mistakes. All in all I don’t care where they are set or who the protagonists are, or the color of their skin, for that matter. If the book is well written, I can relate to them regardless.”

I think part of being well written is not succumbing to stereotypes. I love Linda Howard’s books set in the south because she writes with authenticity about the people of the region. Not all southern women are vapid airheads with a conservative bent politically. Not all southern men are either emasculated gentlemen or ruthless racists. I believe it is fine for authors to interject the occasional caricature, but with many writers I think they blur the line between character and caricature when they really do not know the region they are writing about. If we have some personal investment in a particular region, race or ethnicity, I think that there is a greater likelihood that we will be more critical.

By: marcella

marcella — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:31:54 +0000

Lots of food for thought, Abi.
Personally I read to escape. However… I don’t mind reading books set in geographical areas I’m familiar with or focusing on occupations I’m familiar with, even if I notice irritating mistakes. All in all I don’t care where they are set or who the protagonists are, or the color of their skin, for that matter. If the book is well written, I can relate to them regardless. I must admit, however, finding it harder to relate to M/M relationships. Okay as a sideline in the book, but not as the main couple.

I do NOT want to read, however, about protagonists or their friends/family with certain personal problems or diseases. Call me superficial, but those problems are the ones I want to escape from for a while.

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:23:33 +0000

“Why couldn’t the author just write that the characters smelled nice?”

LOL! And in that day and time they probably did NOT smell very nice. …and speaking of nice, heroines that are too nice to be true are sometimes hard for me to identify with. Do we tend to identify with characters who are more like us in personality? If we like the hero/heroine from the get-go are we more likely to overlook historical inconsistencies?

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:09:40 +0000

I’m an African American woman that grew up in Europe and the South(military brat), I do not read AA romances as they all seem to revolve around what my friends talk about and that is defintely NOT an escape for me.
I too have read “the mane squeeze” and was totally estatic that she didn’t over do the sterotypes and just made me appreciate Shelley all the more. Now I have come across recently an author that everytime a certain character came up in the book she always described him as “the black vamp” hmmm does he have a name. It annoyed me to the point I even wrote to the author, no answer. My email to the author stated I get enough of the calling out of a persons race from the news I don’t need it thrown at me in the books. I could have sworn usually you say a persons name and describe them, for the rest of the story a name will do, but it just made me realize he was “the black vamp” to her not an actual character, very disappointing.

By: SusiB

SusiB — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:31:04 +0000

Mary: I think it is sometimes harder to read about your own culture than it is another culture. I am a southerner (American) and unless the author is from the south, I rarely read southern/Civil War romances. Too many times they either get the regionalisms wrong or they devolve into stereotypes. When reading about a culture not my own, I am less nit-picky and hopefully I learn something new. I would love to read a Caribbean romance (maybe Abi can write one!). Other than the fact that they were well written, one of the reasons I liked T.J. Bennett’s books so well were they were outside the usual setting.

Mary, I agree with you, but if you were German, you might not like T.J. Bennett's books all that much. I read The Legacy after it got a favorable review on AAR, and it was a huge disappointment. I'm not a Historian and so I probably won't even note a lot of anachronisms and other mistakes, but apart from the fact that I found the plot old and clichéd and the characters TSTL, there were a few things that were really annoying. The way people addressed each other seemed to be wrong, and several times, it was mentioned that the hero used a sandalwood and lemon soap, and the heroine a rosemary and vanilla soap (or was it the other way around?), which their housekeeper made herself. These ingredients - except maybe the rosemary - would have been highly expensive luxuries in the north of Europe at the time, so it's unlikely a printing press owner of modest means would have owned them or used them for making soap. Why couldn't the author just write that the characters smelled nice?

By: AAR Heather

AAR Heather — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 01:59:06 +0000

Interesting column, Abi. Like Mary, I’m southern (US) and I won’t read too many romances based in the South because I end up getting annoyed with the stereotypes. Also, if the book is set in a place that I’m familiar with, the errors or lack of detail revolving around the setting really stick out and I ususally can’t move past them. I also won’t read books with teachers in them because I want to distance myself from my reality in my reading. It’s all about the fantasy for me.

By: Ellen AAR

Ellen AAR — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:23:37 +0000

I’m a Catholic. Whenever a Catholic character appears in a romance, I just know that the author is going to get it wrong. Usually she does. I’ve often thought about hiring myself out as an expert consultant in that area.

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:06:50 +0000

I think it is sometimes harder to read about your own culture than it is another culture. I am a southerner (American) and unless the author is from the south, I rarely read southern/Civil War romances. Too many times they either get the regionalisms wrong or they devolve into stereotypes. When reading about a culture not my own, I am less nit-picky and hopefully I learn something new. I would love to read a Caribbean romance (maybe Abi can write one!). Other than the fact that they were well written, one of the reasons I liked T.J. Bennett’s books so well were they were outside the usual setting.