Skip to main content

At least it was a library book

I have a pet peeve.

This pet peeve is "Historical" romances with "modern" women who are too stupid to live.

Arabella Blydon in Julia Quinn's novel _Dancing at Midnight_ is truly too stupid to live. It's an older book and I've read a number of romances by Quinn that I enjoyed but this is just painful. Utterly painful.

It's a rather common thing, gives me a rash, but Quinn is certainly not alone. A "strong" woman is not an idiot. A "strong" woman trusts her man to be competent.

Please repeat these two sentences after me all you romance writers! A "strong" woman is not an idiot. A "strong" woman trusts her man to be competent.

Now tattoo it on your forehead.

Thank you.

Comments

Trooper York said…
"Now tattoo that on your forehead."

Hey you stole the plot from "The Hangover 2"
3:21 PM
Synova said…
LOL!

I'm told I should see that.
8:47 PM
Big Mike said…
Yes. One of my own pet peeves as well. Woman is intelligent, successful (sometimes in a challenging career) and then does unbelievably stupid things.

The romance writers need to follow Ron Howard's advice -- he says he made Conan a bit stupid because no intelligent person would get into the situations that Conan would get into.
6:47 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tyranny.gov vs Tyranny.com

Compulsion is Compulsion, no matter who does it.  This is Brilliant Theft is Theft, no matter who does it. Freedom of Association has no room in it for *private* action   that takes that away Freedom of Association. If I have a business and have voluntary associations such that I choose to serve some people and to not serve others, that might make me a jerk and it might lose me business, it might make me smart and it might gain me business, but it's got to be my choice.  If I would normally serve the current disliked minority in my shop except for the fact that if I'm SEEN to serve them by the wrong people I'll have a private campaign against me as those people do everything possible to ruin me by preventing me from doing business physically or by attacking my customers or suppliers, then I am NOT free to make those choices. Does it really make a difference to losing my CHOICE to voluntarily associate if there's a law that says I may not serve "those people" o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Don't Look Down by Crusie and Mayer

Not really a review, just wanted to say that I enjoyed this book, _Don't Look Down_ by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. I went to Amazon to get the link and noticed that it's getting trashed in the reviews by people who have been fans of Crusie's romance novels. I can see why they were upset but I hope she continues to collaborate with Mayer because all I can say is "your loss is my gain." I'm also going to be looking for Mayer's books written as Robert Doherty to check them out. _Don't Look Down_ is a silly novel that had me laughing or trying not to let the kids see I was crying... The laughs weren't belly laughs and the tears weren't heart wrenching sobs... It was just fun. And it *was* a romance. With guns. And knives. And Wonder Woman action figures with matching "wonder wear" underwear. And the items the international terrorist was shipping to the Russian mob boss? Pre-colombian jade penises. At least two people get e...
11 comments
Read more

How "Representation" In Fiction Becomes Toxic

  Some things sound so obviously good that they don't need to be examined.  One of those things is the idea of Representation in fiction; movies, television or books.  Entertainment where some people are conspicuously absent would seem to be an obvious problem, right?  A person doesn't have to be "woke" or any sort of feminist to occasionally watch an old television show and realize (for example) that all the scientists and astronauts in an old movie are men. It's as glaring an anachronism these days as watching a show where everyone is chain smoking cigarettes. Entertainment should reflect the diverse nature of real life and society because, in the end, fiction has to be even more real than real life.  If nothing else, it makes that entertainment more interesting to introduce characters with a variety of backgrounds and challenges. And so we're told that diverse fiction is BETTER fiction. The way that this rather obvious truth is often framed, often discussed...
4 comments
Read more