As a child, Rebekah Stoltzfus suffered a freak accident that left her legs paralyzed. Now, confined to a wheelchair...
Are you and I thinking the same thing when we say "romance novel"? Dear god, I hope not.
There's actually a huge market for books aimed at the Amish, particularly children's books. If you go to the Amish country, you'll see them for sale most places.
I don't think these were aimed at the Amish -- more at people who daydream about the Amish. I figure the Amish clientele of the hotel gift shop I was in is limited.
And they sure looked like romance novels -- what, a romance novel can't star a disabled Amish woman.
The ones for sale in the Amish country probably sell mainly to tourists as well, I'd think. I mean more that they're written from an Amish perspective (rather than, say, from the perspective of an outside observer).
I've been musing for a while now that leftists need to get into the romance novel business: there's a real dearth of social-revolutionary romance heroes, and almost all of the Regency-period protagonists are reactionary snobs.
It's true, almost all the authors of romance novels are conservatives. I also hate the recurring trope in romance novels of the woman who was a little overweight and has therefore reached the age of 35 without ever having been kissed, but after spending a year as a nurse in Africa, is now incredibly thin and beautiful, not knowing how lovely she's become.
"Wanda E. Brunstetter" is my new blog name.
Just as a wheelchair accelerates down the rolling hills of Lancaster, I found myself reading hesitantly at first, then faster, captivated by the charming prose.
I've seen Amish women play volleyball, by the way. Not pretty.
Hey, me too. There were like 30 of them, playing in a corn field. It was a bit startling.
That charming prose was frightening. If I'd read any more I'd be hoping for a tree to drop on me too.
I can understand why a lot of romance novels would be fundamentally conservative: the basic structure is usually "get rescued by wealthy sexy man and everything will be alright." However, enough of the trappings of the Adventure novel are floating around that some writer interested in pushing a little further into uncertainty might be able to make less conventional heroes and heroines--and less conservative historiographies--work.
"Rebekah Stolzfus" is like the "Jane Smith" of the Amish world, which is why I always use it as a pseudonym when I'm in drag and trying to crash Amish weddings.
Wow, there's even a novel called Romance Drives the Buggy. We are richer for knowing this.
Belay that ridicule; that's just part of the subtitle of the "Lancaster Brides" collection.
I just had no idea there was any significant number of women out there fantasizing about being Amish. Regency aristocracy? Not my thing, but I'm not surprised it's popular. But Amish surprised me. (I actually thought they were colonial New England romances from the bonnets on the covers, until I picked one up.)
Many people romanticize the Amish; it doesn't take a genius to realize there's money to be made in Romanticizing them.
The Amish themselves make a lot of money from romanticizing the Amish; hence lots of crafts, buggy rides, and dinner-at-the-farm.
Slightly, OT, but in the wasteland that is Rochester, there is pretty good barbeque if you have time and the need for food before you make the trek back home.
21 to 19; I've never had Dinosaur Barbecue myself, but I've heard good things.
The trek has been made -- we're back in NY, BBQless.
I know the Amish are romanticized, but not in a way that I thought was compatible with being Romanticised. Romance novels are usually about money more than sex -- sex drives the plot, but the happily-ever-after always involves being rich somehow. A romance that involves getting married and then getting up at five the next morning to milk the cows and churn the butter, or whatever, doesn't fit the pattern.
The Amish aren't poor. And these novels aren't coming from quite the same perspective as your average romance; Brunstetter seems to be a very serious Christian (though she is not Amish), and the publisher is explicitly Christian as well.
That is to say, these novels are aimed at people for whom a simple life of farming and prayer sounds like a very attractive outcome.
Well, I'd argue it's more about security than either money or sex. You sometimes see romance novels with a fabulously wealthy--but loveless or displaced or unsatisfied--heiress as the protagonist.
This gives me an excuse to link to my sad excuse for a most-trafficked blog entry. Be sure to click through to the graph at 'Aqoul.
"dandiacal" -- is that yours? excellent.
Did y'all see that one of the lists that included this book was called "Defending Christianity"? Also included in that list was Little Black Sambo. That's damning enough evidence of its ideological incorrectness for me.
On the other hand, don't pirates often figure big in mainstream romance novels? I guess maybe they all get pardoned at the end and go live on their estate in Jamaica and stuff.
I haven't read all that many, but I'd expect any mainstream romance novel with a pirate hero would end up unmasking him as the rightful Earl of Chomonlendnenendoley (pron. "Chey"),
I can't take credit for "dandiacal"--even if that's the correct spelling, which I'm suddenly leery of, again. It's how people who read the English dandy back through Baudelaire tend to adjectivize the noun. I suspect that this explanation may sour your delight in the word, and I'm sorry.
Or the pirate turns out actually to be an English gentleman engaged in TOP-SECRET espionage against the scurrilous French.
Hooray! Nonce-names are properly nonce once more.
Or the pirate turns out actually to be an English gentleman penguin engaged in TOP-SECRET espionage against the scurrilous FrenchItalians
Nonce-names are properly nonce once more.
What does this mean?
Penguins versus Italians? I don't get it, w-lfs-n.
That, my dear Jack Mormon, is because, despite (or perhaps because of) your fancy University education, you are ignorant of the classics.
Pokey often tangles with the Italians, who are always trying to steal arctic circle candy, which he guards jealously.
God I love Pokey. One, two, three, four, five.
Slol, what I mean is that if you change your name for the nonce, as I have done above (or, from your perspective, below), the change isn't recorded in your "cookie", so that when next you post a comment, your name will have reverted to the standard. Those of us who occasionally indulge in this practice find this return to the old behavior most welcome.
Oh. My name never sticks. I'm sure I'm using the wrong browser, or using the right browser wrongly, or something.
"Nonce" has other, more mineshafty meanings, you know.
The UK isn't part of the internet, slol. Only America is.
24 -- any idea how evangelicals feel about the Anabaptists?
45: Not positively, it seems. But on the other hand...
re: 42 and 43
Invented by an English chap*, in Switzerland.
* although he probably had a Scot, somewhere in chains, doing all the hard sums and calculatin' ...
46: I don't think Phelps demonstrations are good evidence one way or the other for evangelical opinion. But it does seem to me like there would be some pretty tough points of doctrinal dispute. I'm not versed enough in evangelical or Anabaptist theology to say for sure though.
8: One of the famous old radicals of Portland, OR, Julie Ruuttila, secretly made a living writing "True Confessions" pulp. Not romance, though, and it was not radical-themed.
Hey AWB, you're on TV -- "Nature" is running a segment about how you care for your cubs.
It's funny, but I never used to see my kind around very often, and now we're everywhere. Is this just because I am suddenly interested in us, or have we indeed become more interesting in the past year?
This was actually a replay of classic "Nature" episodes, so it would not be evidence for such an uptick in interest.
I've seen Amish women play volleyball, by the way. Not pretty.
Sexist.
23: Money, for some. But for a lot, the hero is some bluecollar manly man. I can see an Amish farmer playing that role for some readers.
Hey, the comment pages now seem to be defaulting to the top instead of the bottom. Anyone else notice this?
That is to say, these novels are aimed at people for whom a simple life of farming and prayer sounds like a very attractive outcome.
Plus, the simple charms of hott hook-and-eye ripping love.
eye ripping love
Is that the rough version of "making eye babies"?
Nonce-names are properly nonce once more.
It appears to me that your "fix" was merely to default the "remember personal info?" box to being unchecked, such that now I have to check it each time, whereas noncers could simply uncheck it when they nonce, no?
Is there something I'm missing, or am I going to have to get on board the Ben w-lfs-n Hate Train?
I've had no trouble with having to check that box each time. You may still need to board the w-lfs-n Hate Train, but not for this reason.
there's a real dearth of social-revolutionary romance heroes
Yes. Though: Carla Kelly?
Chick novels aren't particularly conservative are they? I've read a couple of British ones (Getting Over It, Backpack!) and they didn't seem to emphasize the rescue so much as the mess getting to wed.
!= is so inelegant. Let's see if this works: ≠
It works, but ASCII is just so much easier.
But it makes everyone seem so agitated by the inequality.
If I read those books, Saheli, and they suck, I will curse you with my secret powers.
The real issue here is whether Teo's 67 is a defense of Chick Lit, or of romance novels. Of course, defense of either makes him totally gay.
Wait, what? Why would you blame her?
My 67 is a defense of neither; I was just pointing out that they're different genres.
Dude, I love good Chick Lit. OTOH, I'm imagining you sucking my cock right now, so maybe that's not contradictory evidence.
73: No, it marks him as a man of discriminating taste, a man who can recognize that not all products marketed to women fall into single, indistinguishable category labeled "Ewwww! Cooties!!"
Which is not to say there aren't some books in the world that deserve to have cooties.
It appears to me that your "fix" was merely to default the "remember personal info?" box to being unchecked, such that now I have to check it each time, whereas noncers could simply uncheck it when they nonce, no?
Not so. A stupid behavior change made unchecking it delete your current information and your current cookie, so this would cause Trouble for Everyone (but especially noncers). I can't think of a reason why you should have to check it each time; if you leave it unchecked it will continue to use your old cookie without problems. (Or anyway, it should; apparently slolernr can't get things to work right, and he's a fancy perfesser, so it may be that, I dunno, your browser sucks or something.)
Teo, at this stage in your life, being gay is definitely the fast track to popping your cherry, so you should give it some thought.
My 67 is a defense of neither
Nice try gaylord.
79: Speaking of the site, is it a little slow tonight or is that just me?
80: What makes you think I haven't? I didn't say I had anything against either chick lit or romance novels.
Speaking of the site, is it a little slow tonight or is that just me?
The site seems ok, but you might be noticing that the page doesn't fully load for a while, and that seems to be because statcounter is responding slowly, and there's a statcounter script on every page.
I don't think I've ever read a book belonging to either genre, though.
What makes you think I haven't?
Because if you have, and haven't told us about it, we're going to be Very Sad, and I know you don't want that.
What makes you think I haven't?
Is this an announcement that you hooked up with a girl, or that you've considered taking your twinkalicious self to a gay bar?
Who's the "we" in that sentence, ogged?
No gay bars in Teoville. I'm beginning to see some flaws in this plan.
"We" is the Unfoggetariat, for whom I speak.
No gay bars in Teoville.
Oh, there's somewhere they're meeting up. Even Salt Lake City has gay bars.
It appears I spoke too soon. There's at least one gay bar here, and the town is known as a gay haven. I should have known.
Now get out there and pop that cherry young man.
84: Yep, that's it. Thanks for explaining.
90: Whoa, Ogged is feeling his oats. What did you cook for yourself?
I'm afraid Teo's Big Gay Adventure may have to wait until after my second date with the girl I had the first date with. Sorry, Unfoggedtariat.
the Unfoggetariat, for whom I speak
ogged is the Lorax of this blog.
So what are other books people would consider good chick lit? I await somecallmetim and teo's selections! And, just so no one is self-conscious let me offer Bridget Jones' Diary and I Capture the Castle as my own recommendations.
Tim's your man there, I'd say. I don't read lit, chick or otherwise.
But teo, by then it might be too late.
I was a huge BJD fan, myself, but since then I've mostly had negative experiences with the genre. Girl's Guide to [Something or Other], for example, sucks. I'll try Castle, though.
Let me go out on a limb: you will love that book. Do you have a return suggestion? I'll read anything so long as it isn't about young professionals in Manhattan cheating on each other.
I was just told that I Capture the Castle isn't really chick lit, but that The Secret Life of Bees "maybe" is, and the person who told me this was just written up in a local paper as being an excellent source of recommendations.
103: I quite liked the first couple of Sparkle Hayter books. They're mysteries, but the books are set in Manhattan, and people do cheat on their lovers.
68: really? Girl meets boy. Girl and/or boy like each other. BIG MESS. BIG MESS untangled. Girl and boy end up together. No wedding, necessarily, but cohabitation frequently, right?
71: heh.
73: Uh. . .hmm. I can't say they don't suck. I read them in a rushed, desperate bid for distraction, and they did their job. It was a while ago. i'd say "Getting Over It" had more substance and interesting observation but was less smoothly executed, while "Backpack" seemed much more cliched in its observations and such, but had a smoother plot. Strictly speaking Backpack is really a mystery novel, I think.
Who is this mysterious person of allegedly good taste giving ben chick-lit recommendations?
Sure, the plots are generally similar, but they're still different genres.
The truth is pretty boring, actually.
The truth is pretty boring, actually. quoth the philosopher.
I should go to bed. Good night, all.
Your friend is correct, but in another way incorrect. "I Capture the Castle" is, by standards of the genre, chick lit; but the salient fact about "I Capture the Castle" isn't that it's chick lit, it's that it is a great novel. Likewise, Ruyard Kipling's "Kim" is a boy's adventure story, "Farewell My Lovely" is a noir, "The Man Who Was Thursday" is a Christian apologetic, etc.
Another voter for Castle. It is also YA, but that doesn't mean it isn't great.
108: IOW, the history of the western romantic novel is a series of footnotes to Daphis and Chloe(?)
Anna Maxted (who wrote Getting Over It) has written other stuff too, all pretty good. (Good in the sense that it's easy to read, an interesting enough story, and doens't insult one's intelligence). Elegance is too weird to be proper chick lit imo.
Catherine Alliott's ok, Marian Keyes, Mike Gayle, A Certain Chemistry is good and very funny and I imagine his other stuff is too.
Sorry, can't spell. Whatever, Δάφνις.
102: Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing? Ugh. Annoying and pretentious.
British chick-lit seems to be a lot better (less conservative, less bound to formula, sometimes better-written) than American chick-lit.