First, I prefer — by a wide margin — To Love and To Cherish, which I personally consider as close to a perfect historical romance as I could want. But I understand the debate over THATH and whether a book can ever have a hero rape a heroine without losing the appellation “hero” and thus negating even the theoretical possibility of a HEA. If THATH works as a romance novel, it must be the case that a hero can rape the heroine and, in effect, get away with it as a romantic matter. This, quite reasonably, bothers some people. And there’s the rub.

First of all, it’s a historical romance. Written in the 1990s, but set to be roughly contemporary with Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, for example. Context, as you’ve pointed out, is important — that same plot set in a contemporary novel is unthinkable; droit du seigneur is appropriately no longer a viable defense to sexual violence. The moral relativism of the mid-19th century vs. the 21st century is perhaps all the defense Gaffney needs.

But romance novels do cast a shadow. What moral responsibility does the author have to reflect a modern sensibility about a modern problem? In this vein, I have greater questions about Mary Jo Putney’s contemporary romance The Burning Point — in which the hero was physically violent to the heroine in their backstory and then has to prove to her & her family that he’s changed. Women who live with domestic violence often make excuses for their abusers, and those excuses often take the form of “he’s promised he will change.” Did Putney’s book risk encouraging that sort of enabling, or does the totality of the story and the fact that Putney’s characters made it very clear that domestic violence is never ever okay counterbalance the fact that by the end of the book the hero is supposedly rehabilitated?

In THATH, the really challenging aspect of Gaffney’s gift of characterization is that those two people were all too plausible. The heroine is really damaged, and damaged people often shape the world around them so that it conforms to, and reinforces, their internal sense of what they are apt to expect. Put another way, she’d been brutalized before, and may have been in a psychological position to be brutalized again. She doesn’t ask for Sebastian to rape her, but another woman with a different backstory might have given off different vibes and not been raped in the same situation.

Wow, I can feel a feminist backlash building up already!

The point I’m trying to make is life is complicated, and Gaffney’s book reflects that complicated nature. But current societal attitudes about rape are very simple: It is wrong. So does Gaffney betray her gender by writing a book that is internally coherent and consistent but still runs counter to modern mores, or is she allowed to write a novel in the 1990s that wouldn’t have raised eyebrows if it had been published in the same era in which it takes place?

I defend Gaffney, in large part because the book is so scrupulously written. I’m sorry that she’s not more lauded for her best historical romances; I believe she’s a victim of the literary ghetto that romances are forced to dwell in. (A sort of red-lining that shows how romances aren’t even considered worthy of Harold Bloom’s savagery against Harry Potter.) But I can see how THATH is polarizing.

I’m also reminded of the Luke & Laura controversy. Back around 1980, Tony Geary’s character raped Genie Francis’s character on General Hospital. Unforgiveable, but there was such great chemistry between them that the writers let them fall in love. One reason that was permitted (I’m not saying it was OKAY in the moral sense, just that it was allowed) was that soap operas are evanescent. What was an episode six months ago is quickly forgotten, so with enough time viewers could forget about the rape and go with the flow of the romance. (I went to Wikipedia to get the details and was surprised by how long GH took: the rape was in October 1979, L&L fell in love in 1980, and the wedding was in November 1981. Two years on a soap is like ten years in real life!)

There’s more to all this, of course — nothing is ever simple! — but I wanted to comment on such a thought-provoking topic. Sorry I’m a year late!

I love this time of year too! I’m so bummed I’m not back in school or teaching right now. -_- Oh well.

Too late! We are already onto another big blowup. Send me an email and I will give you my totally biased opinionated views on both.

*begging puppy eyes* pretty please, ma’am, could I have some of that too?

Oh my, were you the sender-upper of the Great Western Drive?

No, I was the sender upper of the Epic Flouncers in Romanceland. But thanks!

Tumperkin wrote:

3. I am very intrigued as to what you are referring to! I have obviously missed something!

Too late! We are already onto another big blowup. Send me an email and I will give you my totally biased opinionated views on both.

@ sybil:
Have you seen Wendy’s post today? “Once upon a time it was about the book” sums up a lot of what she has to say.

Edie wrote:

I am relatively new to blogland, but have noticed that the blow-ups seem to be fairly regular., and must admit I find them a bit entertaining in a carcrash sort of way. But I am not very nice. With the most recent one and there are traces of it in a lot of the “battles”, I just do not get the if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say it attitude, haven’t come across that in any other genre fandom(?) apart from romance… but hey

I agree with you on all points.

My dd flies back east to college tonight: yep, she’s in Nor’Easter land — we’re in NorCal — so I found the post particularly funny.

My morning is ruined because of following all your blog links … if I don’t get going, there goes the day! Thanks again

1. I don’t watch them either and the I must say that the use of frequent video posting has also put me off the much mentioned Borders blog too. I like watching videos people post to blogs such as music videos but not videos-made-for-romance-blogs. As someone else commented above, I prefer the written word. (I also don’t like conversational blog posts – written like a script – somehow, in my head, these preferences are related….)

2. The fact that your students don’t find this unethical is interesting. I agree it is wrong, but it isn’t an immediately obvious wrong to some – perhaps because books are available for free from libraries and to be bought second hand? So yes, action is required to draw attention to that. Kristie J has been very vocal about this lately too.

3. I am very intrigued as to what you are referring to! I have obviously missed something!

4. I try to keep a manageable list of 20-25 that I check weekly with a handful that I check daily (like this one). I try not to let it get above that. I’ve tried ‘pot luck’ on CJ’s sidebar a few times and sometimes I google books I’ve recently read and find new sites that way. If I add a site to favourites but every time I click I’m not really reading the posts, I’ll usually drop it after a few weeks.

2. Blooming hate pirates! Been coming into contact with them for years, started my bookselling career on ebay, where pirate audiobooks and photocopied books often come up. Going through official channels is definitely the only real way to get anything done.

3. I am relatively new to blogland, but have noticed that the blow-ups seem to be fairly regular., and must admit I find them a bit entertaining in a carcrash sort of way. But I am not very nice. With the most recent one and there are traces of it in a lot of the “battles”, I just do not get the if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say it attitude, haven’t come across that in any other genre fandom(?) apart from romance… but hey

4. I have a massive bookmark folder, which really needs cleaning out, but it boils down to how much time I have as to how many get checked out daily, most on the list will get checked at least once a week. (Working from home can lead to horrible habits though, so a fair chunk get checked daily.) Generally it is the ones that have had the most interesting (to me) posts on a regular basis that get checked most often.

5. I am jealous of you.. lol

6. Puppies rock! Though are nearly always trouble, the tales I could tell about a certain German Pointer x Kelpie.. sigh

7. Can you tell that I am really not in the mood to work today, judging by the length of this post?

I have been on and offline for over a year almost, mostly due to health or net crap, and have to say I am amazed how much things are the same. And sadden by the changes… how commercial many blogs have become or worse they start that way without any real interest in the community but at the heart of it, I would question how much of it is ‘dislike’ or hate. Blogs should be honest and should allow honest discourse – hearing ‘it is easier to say nothing, than listen to her whine if you don’t agree with her’ – makes me insane. People are way too quick to make disagree = omg!hate. I am not saying you, just in general.

The saddest thing is much of it comes down to traffic, regardless of if they love you or hate you at least they are talking about you – if that is your aim. And more and more the goal in blogland seems to be traffic, what can I get for ‘all this hard work’, how can you ‘appreciate me’, how can I be appreciated for appreciating you, how can I milk this baby.

So much gets sent back to email because people are tired and were just here for the books not the bullshit, as well as they don’t want to be used to continue stupid drama. The sad thing is I don’t know if there is really any NEW drama to be had *g*. So it is just rinse, wash, repeat…

Once upon a time it was about the books, finding a community to talk about romance novels because no one in ‘rl’ cared, it was fun (even ‘bad/negative’ grades omg you can’t do that/omg you can’t NOT do those) and that is where we need to get back to I think. Then again for as much as I tease you, I tend to way over think things.

I am glad to have school back in session and a return to our regular routine. Plus with school starting it means football season is here!!

I like routine, as well. And as a halfhearted Pats fan, I am interested to see what Tommy does on the field.

@ Jill Monroe:
Jill, thank you for explaining the genesis and intent of AT. After reading some of the press on romance after RWA, I can see there is a bit of a problem there. Humor is very subjective, which is why I put this point in an opinion post. I happen to think Rowan Atkinson is hilarious, which should tel you how idiosyncratic my sense of humor is.

Aoife wrote:

I don’t watch the Author Talk videos, partly because I tend to prefer the written word, and also because they seemed to me to be kind of an insider thing.

Yes, I think you put your finger on it. I feel the same way.

good for you for enjoying your August offline!

I do have a list of blogs that I try to follow, but in the last month or so about all I have done is stop by DA in the morning while I have my first cuppa. I’ve noticed that sometimes I seem to have more time and energy for hanging about on the internet, and August just wasn’t one of those months.

There are some online brouhaha’s that make me profoundly uncomfortable, and when one of those blows up I tend to stay away.