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Beyond Heaving Bosoms by Sarah Wendell & Candy Tan
by Bhetti Ameen
Dear readers of corrupt.org, if you've had a look at my bio*, then you'll know that I love romance novels:
"Two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally-satisfying and optimistic ending."
You may not be intimately familiar with the genre (hopefully not also unfortunately still using the term "bodice-rippers". It's not only scientists that need to keep their terminology current but I've even seen students and teachers of English Literature have their total knowledge of the genre amount to this archaic term). One question you might be asking is, well, why? Why do I love them and, moreover, why am I revealing this to you?
Romance novels are unabashedly written by (mostly) women for (mostly) women. They are incredibly diverse. In fact, for every current section of genre fiction, there's a romance subgenre or two reflecting it. The sources of tension and conflicts within the novels pushing the narrative can be external, internal or both. The protagonists' worries can range from saving the universe to meeting the in-laws. There's romantic suspense, historical, contemporary, steampunk, sci-fi, paranormal, fantasy and urban fantasy to name but a few. The level of sexual content can range from outright erotic romance (which sells very well in the ebook business, by publishers such as Samhain or Ellora's Cave) to effectively absent (in inspirational romance, which is religiously themed, or in sweet romance, which is the term for a romance low on the heat level). Due to the sheer volume of romance novels published, the writing can range from brilliant to atrocious.
This massive demand for these novels also allows the unique format of series or category romance wherein cheap and fairly short titles are put out on shelves, usually for a limited amount of time (about a month, I do believe). The most famous of these is Harlequin publishing; you can sample some of their books here for free in pdf and ebook format (note the diversity of their category romances: Blaze (where the spice level is up), historicals, suspense, paranormal and even one of their NASCAR-themed ones. Someone please explain to my England-dwelling self, why the NASCAR? In any case: series romances have formed the impression of the genre to a lot of people, which I have talked about before but it is like forming an impression of chocolate having only M&Ms available to you. You haven't tried anything else, especially the Ferrerro Rochers or the Godiva chocolates.
Seeing as how there is so much ground to cover, how can I even begin to explain to you what draws me to it, and even what draws women to it and what it can say about the female psyche?
What better way to explore the genre then by reviewing 'Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels' as my first official review on corrupt.org. If you can't already tell by the title, those smart gals at smartbitchestrashybooks.com who are bloggers-turned-authors have a unique sense of humour (their love of the Internet, including some memes, really shows in the book). They're also razor sharp academics and have an appreciation of the camp that borders on adolescent. It makes for some hilarious reading in their book. The book is filled with:
- swearing. A lot of creative swearing. Holy guacamole on a toasted tortilla bread, I am not kidding with you. Do not let the kiddies near the book if you don't want them going around yelling 'holy cuntmonkeys'.
- euphemisms that are deliberately overblown for high comedic effect, managing to exceed some used in romance novels themselves. That is no mean feat, let me tell you.
- merciless parody of the genre.
- piercing analysis and exploration of the genre.
- fun little games ranging from Choose Your Own Adventure type stuff (well, Choose Your Own Mantitty) to an in-book boardgame.
What I found really important about their examination (yes, there was examination in between all the hilarity) was their indirect exploration of the female psyche. They explored how romance has changed: diversity and sexual expression in the genre is a relatively recent phenomenon, precipitated by historical events such as the sexual revolution. You can extrapolate from this the good, the bad and the ugly about the recent changes that have set into society, which have by many theories centred around women, their views and their rights. Romance novels are the barometer by which female-centred thinking and issues are measured and mirrored, if you will.
They explore the feminine attitudes to sexuality, love and partnership which influence romance novels or run contrary to them. This is important for both genders to gain a deeper understanding of: both as people affected by this in everyday life but through being on the search for partnership of one sort or another themselves, as well as finding ways to maintain relationships and keep them nurtured. Their researched examination reveals things that cannot be extrapolated from the romance novels themselves, without an understanding of being a woman and the collective contexts of romance writing. A frequent complaint is that romance novels set expectations too high for love, men and women; they attempt to deconstruct this myth and -- I think -- represent the female reader experience very well. They've taken an amazingly light-hearted tone in their book, but this is ultimately (laugh out loud!) window-dressing for some Serious Business.
I can only aspire to the braveness of their unique style: unapologetic humour as well as serious academic points. This book has something for everybody: lovers of the genre, people looking for a bit of fun, literary academics and people who want an introduction. They've done their research, with citations listed at the back. The only thing I wished they had was an index, although the entry for some words (like 'hoo-hoo') would be 'every other page'.
Romance novels are one of the unexplored secrets of women. It's time you learnt a thing or two about them: being female, male or possibly both.
You can buy the Smart Bitches' Guide at:
You can find excerpts and outtakes at their website.
Related: 'Romance Anniversary' at the blowhards.com website. There're some romance novel recommendations others and I have made in the comments for you.
*If you've also had a look at our bios recently, you'll notice some of us are on twitter with Alex tweeting: @corrupt_org. You can also find @SmartBitches on there.
To all people commenting on Corrupt
This comment thread, and many others, have circumvented the original topic at hand and become monkey circus drama. It's disrespectful to the author(s), and quite frankly, a sign of low character.
Personal attacks, totally off-topic rants, and confusing anger towards the site, should be directed either at yourself (we won't miss you), or personally to me:
http://www.corrupt.org/users/alex_birch
If you have general criticism, good or bad, directed at Corrupt, you contact me directly. Posting stupid shit in random posts makes you look like a retard.
That's all folks - enjoy yourselves!
Posting stupid shit in random posts makes you look like a retard
A retard desparate for attention, as well.
Intelligent people can make their own decisions about the quality of Corrupt, and will either keep reading, or go elsewhere. We don't need your poorly written screeds to convince us. Have some dignity, and go do something productive, instead of being a whiny whore on the internets. I don't know why Birch even tolerates these comments; censorship is always necessary, especially in a world with so many no-life idiots.
I think some readers want
I think some readers want Corrupt to be ANUS, and don't recognize it has it's own purpose. I don't agree with everything going on with Corrupt, but nitpicking gets us nowhere. I wonder how many naysayers have done anything worthwhile instead of bitching every time a new article goes up.
They are behaving like internet people: http://www.anus.com/metal/hall/index.php/topic,5926.0.html
We don't need these dipshit fuckheads.
Agreed; take anonymous posting away
People are at their worst when behind masks (i don't know how you can get behind a bigger mask than the internet)
and moderate posting to filter out the morons.
Yeah you guys are right.
I mean block out all the other opinions that dont go with our veiwpoints. Filter out the morons that dont agree with us, what morons they are challenging what is confortable lets get rid of them.
Yeah Anton I agree why would Birch tolerate these comments he should "Have some dignity, and go do something productive, instead of being a whiny whore on the internets."
What?
You twist things around now. Corrupt is open to different viewpoints, as seen among its columnists, but flaming and personal attacks are not constructive ways of expressing criticism. If you hate Birch or Corrupt so much, why don't you contact him personally, or find another site? Your use of English language barely makes any sense. You must be a really frustrated person inside. Maybe that's why you seem so upset and angry all the time?
Hahahahahahaha... This better be a joke.
Maybe you should bring back moderated comments again, hahahaha.
If I cant show my distain for the site on comments then how will I ever get people to join in bashing Corrupt? Oh lordy, what shall I ever do?
I thought that a site that supports assholes would let other people trying to be assholes in, but apparantly not.
It also looks to me that everyone is enjoying themselves, but you.
Good point though, I for one will stop posting "stupid shit in random posts" because it makes me look like a retard for my own monkey circus drama. Now if you will excuse me I am going to go masturbate.
done
If this doesn't signal the end of Corrupt, I don't know what does
This was a total waste of
This was a total waste of space on corrupt. Seems like this site has been going downhill for awhile now, losing site of its own mission statement and instead of focusing on important issues, trying to get cheap kicks to get more traffic from google
Do you ever get the feeling the wrong people are reading?
I mean, do you ever suspect that women who read romance novels don't really need the information they contain anywhere near as much as asocial male nerds do? I don't know much about romance novels, but I often get the feeling that the average nerd could learn a ton from a typical hockey game or boxing match.
What would there be to learn
What would there be to learn from a boxing match? This site is just getting better and better every day. Will you be recommending soap operas too next week?
Here's just one example
One thing boxing teaches probably better than anything else on the planet is that we will all get old, and we'd better recognize it when it happens. The nerd may not feel his mental sharpness declining and his thoughts getting less creative in his 30s, he may not even see that a basketball player who's still very good but ain't what he used to be is costing his team victories. But in boxing if you go from being great to being merely good and don't quit, it's clearly visible when your face ends up bloody and swollen as you get pounded by a guy you know you'd have no trouble with in your prime. That's a painfully visible reminder that we will all someday be unable to do what we were able to at 25.
Actually, that's probably something young women need to learn more than male nerds. Get the best long-term guy you can before your attractiveness starts to decline. See - boxing and romance novels serve some common purpose by helping women have more satisfying relationships with higher-quality men.
Here is another example.
One thing snorting coke teaches probably better than anything else on the planet is that we will all get old, and we'd better recognize it when it happens. The nerd may not feel his mental sharpness declining and his thoughts getting less creative in his 30s, he may not even see that a basketball player who's still very good but ain't what he used to be is costing his team victories. But in snorting coke if you go from being great to being merely good and don't quit, it's clearly visible when your anus ends up bloody and swollen as you get pounded by a guy you know you'd have no trouble with in your prime. That's a painfully visible reminder that we will all someday be unable to do what we were able to at 25.
Actually, that's probably something young women need to learn more than male nerds. Get the best long-term guy you can before your attractiveness starts to decline. See - snorting coke and huffing paint serve some common purpose by helping women have more satisfying relationships with higher-quality men.
fix'd.
Lol! Much better version!
Lol! Much better version! Martin Regnen I can't believe you'd say nonsense like that through corrupt; are you not ashamed or embarrassed? There must be a conspiracy going on to end ANUS's influence; there is just absolutely no way people are so horribly irrational they could use the platform of corrupt and ANUS to review romance novels, rail against nerd stereotypes, and use the absolutely worst armchair philosophy about the value of boxing in society. I don't even know how any of you got appointed writing positions? Everyone of you is trash. Where is Prozak?
One out of four
I'm not American, I don't care for anything underground, have no use for nihilists or nihilism, and like society. So by that count I'm interested in 25% of the letters in ANUS... so why do people expect me to care about that site? That makes about as much sense as the commenters who think I "need" to know more about heavy metal music because they think their favorite bands are equals of both Haydn and Aristotle. A bizarre and utterly incomprehensible view.
Did Regnen expose himself as a complete fucking fraud?
"I don't care for anything underground, have no use for nihilists or nihilism , and like society."
"ANUS... why do people expect me to care about that site?"
- Martin Regnen
"ANUS is part of a loose organization of people, sites, and local groups[...] CORRUPT is part of this group [...] We're all different views on the same slightly esoteric but scientific, logical, realistic, naturalistic, integralism, idealist, holistic, nihilistic truth"
- Brett Stevens
Brett was one of the founders of this organization so I must ask, what the fuck?
So why are you writing for this site then?
You dont need to be American to get the messages being said, if you arent a nihilist and think society fine then why the hell are on Corrupt and writing for it? There are plenty of other sites that would love your type of banality but you are in a the wrong place, I dont know why you started here to begin with.
"That makes about as much sense as the commenters who think I "need" to know more about heavy metal music because they think their favorite bands are equals of both Haydn and Aristotle."
You dont "need" to know it as you have shown quite thoroughly, but it wouldent kill you since to know it since that is part of philosophy behind this site and ANUS since they are brother and sister sites you should know both and you should know both of thier philosophies.
But as you claim to be uniterested in such things and you dont "need" to know them then again I ask you, why are you here?
You come post bullshit that has nothing to do with this site, you dont know its message and you also dont care about it either. Do you write so that you can masturbate your ego because you have your name and a little picture beside you when you log on?
Why else?
I write here because the owner believes I'm a valuable addition who makes the site and its message better. What else could the answer possibly be?
How about....
So you write simply because Alex Birch told you to? That is your only reason?
Another answer could be because you enjoy writing and giving a message or you enjoy trolling people who are trying to be serious. You have nothing better to do with your time so this makes you feel better about yourself. I could keep going but the reasons are endless.
See, this is the kind of thing that really makes me see how much Corrupt has fallen.
Basically, yes
Well, it wasn't Alex, but yeah - I was asked nothing more than whether I'd like to keep writing what I was writing about science, music etc. elsewhere, just do it on Corrupt instead. I hesitated because a lot of the posts were rather gloomy and negative in tone back then, but I'm glad I accepted because things have gotten much better around here since then.
On second thought, I should apologize
I'm really sorry, Bhetti, for hijacking the comments to your posts and making it all about me. I already do more than enough of that in the comment threads after my own posts and really shouldn't be doing it in everyone else's, too.
The problem some readers have
The problem some readers have isn't with Regnen, he just is who he is.
I think their problem is with Birch, being the editor. Why would he bring on writer's that confuse or contradict the original purpose of the site?
Maybe he's doing it for diversity of thought, to be challenging, which isn't a bad idea but...
corrupt.org can either be a place where discuss and argue differing viewpoints, or it can be a place with a focused viewpoint that can make a difference. You can't provide direction with all this arguing and diversity (isn't that one of corrupt's fundamental principles?).
It's clear the writers share differing ideas, and it's confusing to the readers. If I were to introduce someone to this website, it wouldn't provide the same motivation it did when I was introduced to it a year ago, when there were just 3 writers agreed on most things (ostensibly).
Actually, Martin fits in with the site's goals...
...more than many want to admit.
Part of Corrupt's goals is to attack comfortable lies and promote harsh and unpopular, but true, concepts. Martin does that.
He primarily takes pot shots at the Magnus S. Alzheimerian worldview of "everything is and should be super DEEP and sacred all of the time, and anything that isn't an umpteenth regurgitation of Nietzsche or Schopenhauer or Plato is worthless trash and beneath us." There are a LOT of Magnus S. Alzheimers on this site that feel threatened by this.
For example the wide spread hatred of sports (or the Beer with the Bathwater mentailty towards it) on this site. 95% of sports hatred can be explained by the fact that said sports hater got picked on by jocks in highschool and has not grown up and moved beyond that to see that not all sports lovers are "evil" and out to get them. Said sports hater rationalizes their hatred further by sports not seeming to have any direct intellectual benefit. Plus... sports are popular. Everything popular, regardless of it's quality void of popularity, MUST be evil in their eyes. Nevermind the obvious benefits such as promoting healthy bodies (and thus healthy minds according to scientific research) as well as team work and social skills (of course the Magnus S. Alzheimer is especially indifferent to the latter, since they are typically anti-social).
Spinning off further from the above, I see a lot of people whining and bitching about any article posted that doesn't meet the earlier mentioned requirements of DEEPness. Yet a lot of these articles have some rather clever insight gleaned from everyday life, if the readers would be willing to look past the fact that they aren't always something ripped directly from a philosophy text book.
That's another thing about Magnus S. Alzheimer: everday life is BENEATH him. He places experiences that in his eyes are valuable on such a ridiculously high pedestal, that he completely disengages from present reality in favor of a super DEEP philosophical theoretical ideal. You won't see an article from a Magnus relaying a profound experience gleaned while taking a stroll through their city/village/etc.
Then there is the arts. A popular and long held pedagogy about the arts is that they are inherently spiritual, supernatural and sacrosanct. Martin has written articles suggesting a more rational approach to this matter. Rather than seriously consider his viewpoint, he gets attacked by rabid dogs, despite the fact that the spirit of Nihilism is stripping away man created meaning and examining something as it is in a rational context.
In short, Corrupt needs Martin. Who else is going to give the basement dwelling pseudo-intellectuals the kick upside the head they need?
"That's another thing about
"That's another thing about Magnus S. Alzheimer: everday life is BENEATH him."
No results found for "Magnus S Alzheimer". I've never heard of this man. Do you have any information or urls to share, and what if anything does he have to do with ANUS?
"95% of sports hatred can be explained by the fact that said sports hater got picked on by jocks in highschool and has not grown up and moved beyond that to see that not all sports lovers are 'evil'"
That's simply an excuse to protect your moralization of your hedonism. The common idea is that watching sports is an end in itself; that's it's a selfish and hedonistic excuse to engage in surrogate activities such as hipsterism, socializing for the sake of boosting one's ego, lewdness, and excessive drunkeness. Spending your life thinking and talking about how much you want the Raiders to win is a complete waste of your time on the Earth. There is a totalitarian government in North Korea based on religious myth in which Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il came down from heaven and morphed into human beings on Mount Paektu. Racism is a taboo. The problem of positive and negative liberty is still unanswered. People all over the world are using genomics at an ever increasing rate to alter the species and create completely new ones under the moralization of defeating the old christian ideal of heaven and nature; that anything we do is natural and thus GMOs are not inherently bad. Western civilization is collapsing. The human population is growing so fast it with soon be unstable. Sayyid Qutb's islamism is spreading which has a powerful insight about western culture as a meme with a hidden violent and selfish nature. Public relations groups are using the power they've discovered in the irrational emotional part of the human to control him for selfish ends; politics are becoming increasingly involved because they think they've found a way to create predictable social outcomes in a world of free people. The list goes on! Why would one waste the one short life they have on entertaining themselves through egoism, and watching popular sporting events on television? Playing a sport to better your body, mind, and physical intelligence with people who are a positive influence on you is completely different, and shouldn't in any way be confused simply because they share the minds token of sports.
"Then there is the arts. A popular and long held pedagogy about the arts is that they are inherently spiritual, supernatural and sacrosanct. Martin has written articles suggesting a more rational approach to this matter."
Spiritual phenomena can be explained through the structuralist ideal of the mind, but explaining how it works doesn't make it vanish any more than explaining sight makes you blind.
"Rather than seriously consider his viewpoint, he gets attacked by rabid dogs, despite the fact that the spirit of Nihilism is stripping away man created meaning and examining something as it is in a rational context."
Your contradicting him; he said he doesn't care about nihilism.
Nihilism doesn't stop at rational context. Nihilism destroys all meaning leaving a void. You do this because it's hard to separate the rational from the irrational, and most importantly rational ideals are not necessary truth; maybe reality is so queer the human mind can't comprehend it, but hopefully only, as J. B. S. Haldane said, "queerer than we suppose".
Part of Corrupt's goals is to attack comfortable lies and promote harsh and unpopular, but true, concepts. Martin does that.
Great now we are creating a self destructive meme since we all have a different idea of what others think of as harsh and unpopular but true. There was an unsaid consensus on how to define unpopular but true, and that unsaidness was corrupt's weakness that you and martin are using to destroy it.
Hmmm.
"That's simply an excuse to protect your moralization of your hedonism blah blah blah there are thousands of super important things in the world going on while you indulge in your dirty entertainment. You should be trying to do something about these things ALL OF THE TIME WITH YOUR EVERY BREATH! (event though you can't)"
Yes you're right. Watching sports/entertainment on occassion is the ultimate sin. How could I not have known this? Just about everyone does something at one time or another that isn't super DEEP. As I said before, sports are targeted in particular because of being bitter over jock bullying. Whether you like to admit it or not, sports serve as a social lubricant for most of the general populace, and that's the way it is. I personally prefer martial arts to most team sports, but I can objectively see the value in the former. Not everyone on the face of planet earth is going to want to chit chat about the meaning of life at any time: get over it.
"Spiritual phenomena can be explained through the structuralist ideal of the mind, but explaining how it works doesn't make it vanish any more than explaining sight makes you blind."
You're missing my point entirely. I don't necessarily agree with Martin 100%, but he brought in a an idea that is controversial in a community like this, and instead of engaging in debate with him, most members slung verbal poo at him like monkeys. Isn't Corrupt supposed to take a hard look at controversial ideas instead of just dismissing them with the same contempt that the general populace does?
"Your contradicting him; he said he doesn't care about nihilism.
Fair enough.
"Nihilism doesn't stop at rational context. Nihilism destroys all meaning leaving a void. You do this because it's hard to separate the rational from the irrational, and most importantly rational ideals are not necessary truth; maybe reality is so queer the human mind can't comprehend it, but hopefully only, as J. B. S. Haldane said, "queerer than we suppose"."
There's still a point where you're going to rationally analyze it in one way or another. It's impossible to just view something as a blank void without eventually assessing it from a rational or irrational context. Part of my point is that a lot of people on this site are afraid and outright hostile to a rational analysis of "spiritual" concepts to the point that they come off as plugging their ears and screaming "LA! LA! LA!" at the top of their lungs, which I think is ridiculous.
"Great now we are creating a self destructive meme since we all have a different idea of what others think of as harsh and unpopular but true. There was an unsaid consensus on how to define unpopular but true, and that unsaidness was corrupt's weakness that you and martin are using to destroy it."
You think that Corrupt is void of having unpopular truths within it's own community? Accepted consensus that does not need to be challenged?
How about this.
You go to a party with intellectuals and you bring a moron, they all think that the moron's ideas are new and fresh and challenging simply because its something dumb never heard before.
That is the case with Martin, hes the moron and the new Corrupt just likes to accept everything which is why its falling. They have lost the definition of what should be valued and accepted and let everyone in so they start falling apart.
You see Corrupt went multicultural which means all the editors/writers have conflicting veiwpoints and no concensus about anything. When it should have been just American or Swedish because that way you build the "right" veiwpoint, thing ect. for America or Sweden and then let whoever visits look at that "American" working form of Nihilism then adapt it to thier own.
Corrupt is a failed experiment.
Multiculturalism or Pan-Nationalism?
*Note* the post titled "Hmm" was mine. I forgot to sign in when I posted it.
But hasn't Corrupt basically switched gears to a Pan-Nationalist/Pan-Traditionalist anti-modern site (For example, Bhetti Amen's article on Islamic marriage provided some interesting insight into a more traditional style of relationships that many moderns are not accustomed to)? I really don't mind hearing good and interesting ideas and values from different contributors. I also don't mind the occasional divergent humorous anecdotal article, that a lot of the users seem to hate, interspersed amongst the weightier ones.
As for the consensus issue; Martin has written plenty of articles mocking dysgenic trends, and modern stupidity that is inline with Corrupt's stance. The only time I can think of the contributors lacking consensus was Martin and Frank's brief debate on sports, but that's about it. I don't mind if the staff doesn't agree on every little thing as long as it keeps the central vision in place.
Then tell me this.
Martin admitted himself that he dosent care about Nihilism or anything of the sort, how can you have have a central vision in place if they dont even know the central vision. You defend Corrupt and I cant understand why, im starting to think that you defend them because you are trying to different from the people attacking since its a stance not taken.
Is Nihilism...
...an absolutely essential ingredient of Nationalism, Traditionalism, or of attacking flawed ideals?
Helpful? Useful? Yes. Possibly. But does everyone have to be an absolute Nihilist on this site to be in line with Corrupt's vision?
Thats not what I said.
I thought you could look into this more logically but apparently not. No, nihilism is not an essential ingredient to any of those but it is from nihlism that comes the views from this site which if you are writing for it you should know, there are tons of other sites that dont follow "Nihilism" but then why do we not go to those.
I am not claiming everyone has to be nihilist since being a "nihilst" is quite a vauge thing as nobody is a "nihilist" it is dependant on the person but I am claiming that everyone should at least try to understand it and take steps to understanding as best as possible especially if you are going to be an editor.
Fair enough...
...I understand that this site is a sister to ANUS. Nevertheless, especially in a particular past interview, Alex himself said he wanted this site to be a bridge of common values between various groups such as conservatives, liberals, environmentalists, traditionalists, etc. I assume he's partly going in this direction by enlisting editors who may not be nihilists (in a vague sense or otherwise).
I'm the one who posted
I'm the one who posted "That's another thing about". I'd continue our conversation but it appears we have run out of space! Maybe we could all exchange contacts?
Magnus S. Alsheimer
Exhibit A.
The correct spelling is Alsheimer
Here are Magnus S. Alsheimer's guest posts for Corrupt:
http://www.corrupt.org/news/why_superhuman_philosophers_do_not_enter_bars
http://www.corrupt.org/news/why_superhuman_philosophers_do_not_live_in_c...
http://www.corrupt.org/news/why_superhuman_philosophers_do_not_find_wome...
Enjoy.
lol
Why don't you write some columns for Corrupt? We could do with some new gaylord-orientated perspectives!
Gaylord
That's an interesting insult. What's the difference between a Gay and a Gaylord? Does the Gaylord command other less-powerful gays that submit to him or something?
By the way, this is relevant, we are talking about Romance Novels after all.
I really want to know which
I really want to know which specific romance novels you're reading/referring to there.
"They explored how romance
"They explored how romance has changed: diversity and sexual expression in the genre is a relatively recent phenomenon, precipitated by historical events such as the sexual revolution."
Venus in Furs, Justine, Juliette, The 120 Days of Sodom (even the film predates the sexual revolution), Pietro Aretino, Titian, Charles William Mitchell, Taoism. The history of pornography is so expansive one could study it all their lives; these are just obvious popular historical examples of pornography.
"Romance novels are one of the unexplored secrets of women. It's time you learnt[sic] a thing or two about them: being female, male or possibly both."
I'm not interested in your angst, or the model of the human mind as a blank slate. Man can't have empathy for things that are only attributes of woman, because if he were they would be attributes of what it is to be human and he would know them already. The essence of a woman's mind is queer to a man's mind simply because they are two different minds designed to fill the two different roles they play.
"You can buy the Smart Bitches' Guide at:"
Your advertising cosmopolitan diarrhea through a meme that grew out of Prozak's writing. Prozak did reviews because he had an existentialist problem in the same way that Jean-Paul Sartre did in the last decade of his life: That through nihilism we understood we are free to give meaning to our own lives, but what meaning does that arbitrary allocation of meaning have? One way to solve it is to pick something life affirming and then hold it's meaning above the arbitrary power you have and above your own life. Prozak did this with a specific type of intellectual death metal; he attempted to point it out to others, defend it, and make it his meaning. This was the purpose of the reviews.
Go suck a tailpipe.
Your knowledge of the history
Your knowledge of the history of porn and review memes is impressive, as well as your theory that no man can learn anything from something feminine and inherently knows all that he can know about being human. Regardless, there are actually female members of the audience here, so your male theory does not apply in that case.
"The essence of a woman's mind is queer to a man's mind simply because they are two different minds designed to fill the two different roles they play."
Still, I fail to see your general point, I'm not suggesting anything more revolutionary than trying a newspaper of your choice, which you could argue is an inherently masculine media as a whole and is occasionally "pornographic", while also not valueless as a whole to women.
"Your [sic] advertising cosmopolitan diarrhea through a meme that grew out of Prozak's writing."
I apologise for offending you in violating Prozak's tradition in advocating something that isn't necessarily 'life affirming', although this isn't sincere as I will probably continue to violate this.
If there is something you ideologically, philosophically or morally disagree with in terms of the genre as a whole (of which the only concepts you can attack are: love story, optimistic ending), or in terms of the specific book I've espoused, feel free to express this.
If not, don't put the effort in and leave it at 'Go suck a tailpipe.'
...
"Your[sic] knowledge of the history of porn and review memes is impressive"
Thank you very much. :)
"[A]s well as your theory that no man can learn anything from something feminine and inherently knows all that he can know about being human."
That's not what I was trying to state in the slightest; you used similar language then I, but destroyed it's meaning. No one can ever fully grasp what it is to be human: In the same way a hand can grab other things and make use of them but cannot fully grab and make use of itself; the human mind can't ever fully grasp itself. Men therefor as well as women can never fully understand human nature. If we could ideals wouldn't evolve such as the archaic vengeful nature of humans reaching detente in multiple games of the prisoner's dilemma (cold war), or the protestant revolution evolving into capitalism, and gay marriage. We would be able to calculate the outcomes and emergent behaviors of the totality of our thoughts and actions.
"Still, I fail to see your general point, I'm not suggesting anything more revolutionary than trying a newspaper of your choice, which you could argue is an inherently masculine media as a whole and is occasionally 'pornographic', while also not valueless as a whole to women."
I'm a social idiot. If you would could you reframe what your trying to convey. I lost you at how a newspaper is pornographic, and I assume your inducting that pornography isn't useful to women? My general point however was threefold: The sexual revolution didn't create diversity and sexual expression in the genre and is not a recent phenomenon; that requires an absurd amount of ignorance that I'm not willing to tolerate. That your you've hijacked the symbolism of Prozak's reviews but forgotten the meaning (to clarify I thought Prozak's reviews were schizophrenic). There was nothing useful in your post.
"If there is something you ideologically, philosophically or morally disagree with in terms of the genre as a whole (of which the only concepts you can attack are: love story, optimistic ending), or in terms of the specific book I've espoused, feel free to express this."
That has nothing to do with what I've said. I don't care about the merits of romance novels themselves; I'm saying there was no point to what you posted, and had nothing to do with ANUS's culture.
"If not, don't put the effort in and leave it at 'Go suck a tailpipe.'"
I apologize. It's frustrating to see you writing here because for a lot of people nihilism is a moral compass. You don't frame your ideals as an emergence out of nihilism; which really is the core element of how corrupt ignited. Your ideas are not framed at all really, they are below average, cosmopolitan, and postmodern. Surely there are more interesting and novel people who should be writing instead.
[sic]
Your vs you're:
Your = posessive. 'Your tailpipe'
You're = You are. 'You are advocating'
I will assume you were kidding around by putting the 'spelled in correctly' label on something that was used correctly and that this comment for that particular instance was unnecessary.
Omg! I'll be honest because
Omg! I'll be honest because lying rarely lends to the pursuit of truth. I had thought you used the incorrect one! So since we are scoring social points; you assume wrong! lol
Romance, sex, anus
I was referring to the sexual expression in the genre itself. In terms of healthy sexual expression, romance novels were in a phase where sex had to be initiated via rape or lack of choice. Some theories explain this via the general immorality attached to voluntarily engaging in premarital sex, along with the tension of wishing to portray sexual interaction.
I wasn't referring to portrayals of sex in general. Those are outside my field of knowledge and all I perceive is that any woman historically in the popular media who's sexual (including what I've read of Shakespeare) was punished, met a disastrous end or was a villain.
I refer you to Jane Austen or Georgette Heyer to understand what I mean by lack of sexual expression in the genre. Sex and happy endings and love were not perceived to go together and a woman as being both a good woman or deserving of love or happiness and being sexual has not been an idea commonly observed through the ages. It still lingers now, with virginity something often present in a romance novel and enjoying sex before meeting 'love of her life' is unheard of.
I think I represent at least one or two parts of ANUS.com's culture. Firstly, do not always take yourself or life seriously (it would be insane if there weren't a couple of schoolboy chuckles when they decided on their acronym).
Secondly, seek knowledge. I look for the truth behind human beings and interaction. I'm a student of the scientific method. I ask for us to share our collective knowledge, while not accepting it blindly. Meanwhile, I accept that I'm human -- a fallacy to think you can escape this-- and that I will be part of social reality, because human beings are a social animal. I will be selfish, I will pursue pleasures, I will manipulate, I will lose sight of personal principles and I can attempt to escape this, but evolutionary mechanisms of survival underlie all that we do, I am flawed or imperfect and rejecting your own nature will always be a struggle: a pointless one to do for every single thing at that. You are subjected to contradictory forces: multicultralism, emotional, psychological wellbeing, morality, logic, group survival or crowdism, individual survival. There is no whole truth that I can, as a limited human being, comprehend but the pursuit of it is one fundamental drive behind all that I do and say. Truth is everywhere, but you need the tools and hypotheses to glimpse it. If you want to share this truth with another human being, then you need to understand humans as much as you can and continue to survive as a social human being yourself. Your survival depends on you finding moments of contentment and happiness which as a human being often involves other human beings. I like to assist in this or point out places where this can be found, and why. This is balanced against descending into hedonism, which in its pure form leads to destruction of happiness' meaning anyway by the very inability to comprehend how true selfishness leads to unhappiness in the long term.
I'm not, however, explicitly advancing a philosophical or political agenda of mine. I am also not stealing a limited position on the columnist panel; it's not as if we're limited by funds or space. Some will find a use for what I say, some will not.
I'm the happiness Nazi
"I was referring to the sexual expression in the genre itself. In terms of healthy sexual expression, romance novels were in a phase where sex had to be initiated via rape or lack of choice."
Oh I see what you had meant to say. That's correct if you only look at the eighteenth century pornography; which is a modern myth of the starting point of pornography. The myth comes from the etymology of the word pornography itself which was coined in a book written in the nineteenth century to retrospectively label eighteenth century obscenity. The elite arts in Europe have usually conveyed something spiritual or philosophical about sex. The ancient Greeks used pornography to depict valor where naked hoplites would charge into battle, and as a way to advertise prostitutes by painting pornography on the doorways of public buildings. Stone age men painted depictions of sex on cave walls along with paintings of animals. My point is pornography hasn't solely been used to depict the inherent violent nature of sex or of men hypocritically repressing women's libertinage; those are merely the popular themes of eighteenth century European pornography which our scholastics have mistaken as the genesis of porn.
"Sex and happy endings and love were not perceived to go together and a woman as being both a good woman or deserving of love or happiness and being sexual has not been an idea commonly observed through the ages."
I doubt libertinage whether it be male or female has anything to do with deservedness or happiness. In fact libertinage leads to choice paralysis which is the antithesis of happiness, and the ideal that you deserve something by having the human form is an archaic enlightenment age ideal which requires metaphysics and God.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice:_Why_More_Is_Less
"Firstly, do not always take yourself or life seriously"
Ironic how some people here hate sterile battles of scholastics, but that's precisely what this is; your simply just not using the quote.
"The gay science" - Nietzsche
Well I've created a paradox for EinZeta and the gay Magnus S. Alsheimer character which came from Alex Birch's mind. And of course I agree with you!
"Secondly, seek knowledge. I look for the truth behind human beings and interaction. I'm a student of the scientific method. I ask for us to share our collective knowledge, while not accepting it blindly...."
Brilliant! Write about topics such as this more often. Your commentary inside of your own article is far more valuable than the article itself. I'm confused however that you can say evolutionary mechanisms of survival underlie all that we do, and then go on to talk about the importance of creating happiness. Our meaning as humans has nothing to do with happiness or comfort, and has everything to do with survival of the information that created you as its' vehicle. Sure we can create our own meaning given a meaningless world, but really that's just a sophistry to make ourselves feel better. Genes have ingenious ways to propagate; it's ignorant to think they can't overcome your failure to create happiness. Genes create their own "synthetic" happiness without you through the frontal lobe.
"I'm not, however, explicitly advancing a philosophical or political agenda of mine. I am also not stealing a limited position on the columnist panel; it's not as if we're limited by funds or space. Some will find a use for what I say, some will not."
I found use in your commentary! It was very eloquently stated.
I doubt it's as funny as..
spousal abuse.
Who the hell cares about the female psyche?
oh here we go again...
Why do I get the feeling you took Schopenhauer's On Women a little to seriously! Lighten up fellas. Love and War riggggggghht!
Yeah, they're only half of
Yeah, they're only half of the population and it's not as if a person would actually want to get laid or, God forbid, be in a relationship with a cootie-transmitting female...
Does anyone seriously expect me to respond without sarcasm to silliness? 'SPOUSAL ABUSE'?! Only if it happens to Kiera Knightley. I kid, bless her criminally thin heart.