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.
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.
Labels: romance
posted by Gina at 9:28 AM
1 Comments:
I never put this into a coherent statement before, but your comment that you can’t read southern romances because you don’t think they can exist outside of the race problem crystalized my thought.
The questioning and recrimination you went through in this message seems to constantly show up in black folks examining their art. Complaints about the difficulty in finding satisfying black art in any form or genre is traced to the same source. It seems that to have any credibility, “Real Black Art” must be, by definition, about The Race Problem. Whether through comedy or drama, direct confrontation or subversion, if it’s about black people and it isn’t about race, it’s not “really black”. Look how quickly the self appointed Guardians of Afro-Centricity are to judge and condemn creative work for not being “black enough”. What they mean is that the work isn’t sufficiently (to their taste) focused on The Race Problem and the anger it nurtures.
This attitude limits black art to being merely propaganda— a club to beat the rest of the culture with. Unfortunately, too many black culture warriors see propaganda as the only proper role for what black art should be.
As for romances specifically, "Black women don't have the luxury of believing in the love story, much less the fantasy of romance", seems a cop out. Why don’t they? A statement like that seems more like deliberate scab picking to not let a wound heal rather than anything based in reality. There are plenty of fantasies black women “don't have the luxury of believing in”, yet still indulge daily. With the divorce and relationship failure rate as high as it is, white women don’t have the “luxury” of believing in these stories either, but you don’t hear them agonizing about it. What goes on in these novels is just as alien to the actual life experience of most white women as it is to black women.
Ultimately, I guess I’m saying that it’s too difficult to tell emotionally satisfying stories involving black people when the point of the stories are primarily about pushing a political agenda. Black folks need to be more inclusive about what makes art “black”.
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