Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Black romance

In an effort to avoid thinking of my graduate school failure, I've been re-reading some of the erotica/romantica I've collected over the years, and it got me to thinking:


Are black romance and romantica impossible? And if not, why?*


Man, that should've been my thesis.


I've seen lots of (mostly bad) black erotica. And that can be the result of one or both of two things: 1)the fact that there aren't a lot of black erotica writers out there, and of those, few are good, and 2)like porn, there's just lots of bad out there, period.


But what if that's not it? What if black sex is possible, but black romantica isn't?

And I hesitate to continue here, because just saying it makes me cringe at myself and the implied self-hatred it implies, but...


What if the connection, the emotional attachment that makes good romantica just isnt there because it can't be?


Literarily, we don't have the same 'romantic' background as caucasian literature. From Authurian legend and reformation poetry and Shakesperian works, there is this bed of romance (and I suppose I'll have to define romance) from which modern romance springs that simply does not exist in African-American romance literature or erotica. Sure, we can copy it, but for all intents and purposes, it seems that romance novels are for and about white people. There is no African-American Romance.


I see the contemporary black romance novels and to me, they fall into one of two categories: Zane (sex and drama) or Harlequin (cliche and lackluster sex). As for historical romance, that IS impossible -- Beverly Jenkins was the only one to ever try, and while she did a good job, I couldn't get past her history lessons enough to enjoy the plot. not that I didn't appreciate the lesson and knowledge...but history books don't interest me in the same way as a romance novel does, y'know?


that said, though, I can't read 'southern' romances, contemporary or historical. I don't think they can exist outside of the race problem.

I was IMing with a friend the other night, and he intimated that we mostly only have the fantasy of security -- notably financial success. Which explains the focus on the material sides of things in "our" books: the bentleys, the designer gear. It's practical, and what's been denied for a very long while. BAsically Black Folks are Nouveau Riche, so can you blame us for wanting to flash it around a bit?

But back to the romance. If "Black Women are the mules of the world", then what A said next is so true it makes my head hurt:

"Black women don't have the luxury of believing in the love story, much less the fantasy of romance."

Love hurts. Love's real. Love will claw your ish up and throw some rock salt at you, just to make sure you're paying attention. And as painful as it can be, it's a treasure when you find it. And I think in our community, even more so because it's such a rare thing. But romance? Sad state of affairs when we can't even suspend disbelief long enough to imagine that someone could put our needs first, care that much. Even in a fantasy.







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Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Career change or midlife crisis?

So I've been thinking of a career change.

I want to be a librarian.

I want to shelve books and do interlibrary loan and organize things and see that kids growing up actually know how to use reference materials, not just wikipedia. I want to see kids reading stuff like Harry Potter -- big books, with no pictures! -- and see them discover new authors and new things to be interested in. I want to be around books. And people who read them. And people who should read them.

My husband says I should go ahead and do it. So despite my potentially paralyzing fear of failure (i'm looking at YOU, thwarted thesis and demoralizing French classes!) and me wondering if 32 is too damned old to try and launch a new career , I've looked up places with MILS distance learning programs.

As C. says, "The only one holding you back is you."

I hate when he makes sense like that.