What’s Love Got To Do With It?

(Another appropriated title, this time from Tina Turner)

This is one of two posts related to a picture doing the rounds on Facebook (and possibly other social networks, I just haven’t seen). Having downloaded a copy, this is what it looks like:

Lessons from Twilight and Buffy

Twilight versus Buffy The Vampire Slayer

While I’m a Buffy fan and not so much of a Twilight fan, there are a couple of things I think should be borne in mind when making the comparison above. This and the other post should cover them. So…

The point covered in this post is (sub)genre. More precisely, it’s about how important genre is to the debate.

Compare and Contrast

Consider Twilight. The central point of the story is the relationship between Bella and Edward (and now I feel dirty because I knew their names without looking it up). It is a Romance. The use of vampires and werewolves makes it a Paranormal Romance. Expanding the sub-plots and the world around the two lovers makes it four books long. This adapts very well to a finite set of movies (provided you like the Twilight movies, and I don’t).

Now consider Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Well, finding a root story line that stayed the main point all the way through is a little bit more difficult because it was a TV show that continued for eight seasons (using the American term) and has continued into a comic run. So Buffy’s constant wishing to be “normal” has worn a bit thin but the main point is about a young girl learning to be a (super)woman. Her relationships are just part of that. The vampires, etc, come first, making this an Urban Fantasy – with love interest(s) featuring heavily but not taking over the core point.

This means that a completely different set of markers are being used by these two – what’s the best word? “Franchises”?

I hear and read plenty of people looking down on Romance. I also hear and read plenty of people looking down on Speculative Fiction / Science Fiction / Fantasy / Horror. The main gripe – usually from people who don’t read or watch it – is that there is a standard, predictable plot line for each of the genres mentioned. The shorter the work, the more likely it is to rely on stereotypes, standard tropes, generalisations (like this one) and short cuts to get the main point across.

As a marketing sector, Romance has more in common with Westerns in that there is an overflow of 50,000 word short novels / novellas. The “modern” trend is towards Erotica in that the sexual content has increased and tends to be more explicit that twenty years ago. (From a female point of view. Tab A fitting into Slot B descriptions are not likely to happen in Romance or female orientated Erotica. I haven’t read enough male orientated Erotica to know how this stereotype matches up.) While Erotica doesn’t demand a “Happy Ending” and can get by with a good lay, the core point of Romance is that the couple overcome all obstacles to be together. From this point of view, the message of abstinence in the YA Paranormal Romance that is Twilight is about as subtle as getting hit around the back of the head with a brick in a sock.

Fantasy, on the other hand, doesn’t require a happy ending – although the readers and viewers like to see fairness, reward and possibly a working relationship. The problems often arise when we confuse the three things, i.e. the Princess is the reward for good work, and so on. From this point of view, the YA to College Age Urban Fantasy that is Buffy The Vampire Slayer is all about learning to cope with being an independent (super)woman. Your mileage, as they say, may vary, bearing in mind there are moments when feminism is clear and moments when it’s not so much.

In other words, making direct comparisons between Twilight and Buffy is difficult territory if we’re actually going to make a reasonable argument. We have to be really be careful of what part of the mix is being compared. For example, complaining that it is ridiculous to have vampires unable to go outside during the day because they sparkle is one thing (although it has been argued that this could be quite reasonable, see Science In My Fiction: I know why the vampire sparkles! [External Link]), while complaining that either of the leads in Twilight don’t function properly without the other is completely ignoring the point of the story.

From a Buffy perspective, wondering how they managed to get so many demons and monsters into the world without them apparently being noticeable is understandable, while complaining that Buffy’s boyfriends tend to bow out at some point is ignoring how long running Urban Fantasy works – even if it was relatively new to mainstream entertainment at the time, it’s no longer the case, so we should have a fair idea of how these things go.

Of course, Buffy being the older materials, people tend to hold Twilight up to Buffy and say “It doesn’t work!” – forgetting, as I’ve just put it here, that we’re talking different story arcs and different genres.

Boy Meets Girl

The basic anatomy of a Romance plot line is: boy meets girl (or vice versa, or girl meets girl, or boy meets boy), they think it might work, something gets in the way, they stay together, the end.

How developed this gets depends on how many words goes into the story. In a short story, the obstacle might be something silly like a small misunderstanding. The longer the story, the more likely it is that there will be work, warring family members, “bad guys”, or a soured past relationship. (Or any other problem you can think of. Like aggressive vampires.)

Word count also dictates how developed the characters will be. There are only two important characters: the lovers. (And, writing that, I am now gripped by the urge to write something with polyamory, just to shake it up.) The story might play out from both points of view, so they will both be protagonists. At some point, they will argue, so they will be each other’s antagonists. At other points, they will help each other, so they will be allies. You remember the character roles from earlier posts ( Women’s Roles in Fantasy posts, Strong Women: Perverted By Choice), right?

There will be other people mentioned but it’s unlikely they will get much time. The more words, the more depth these secondary-to-background characters may get but the primary focus is always the lovers. How much development they get depends on how well said development fits in the definite story arc. Romance is plot driven.

I’ve admitted before that I read Romance. Having attempted a few ideas, I don’t think I’ll ever write it particularly well. Part of my issue (my failure) as a writer is that, mood dependent, I can end up wanting to slap my heroine. I never want to do this to my hero. What I want to do to my hero in these moods involves significantly more fighting skills than slapping. Why would I want to hurt these men? Well, the three basic attributes expected are:

  1. Handsome – after all, they must be physically attractive
  2. Wealthy – in order to support our heroine and their potential children (not necessarily mentioned directly)
  3. Powerful – in order to provide the best future, he must be able to influence the people around him

Not all of these notes are necessarily hit and a longer work may have some wriggle room around them. But if it does, it’s more likely to be classed as “Chick Lit” than outright “Romance”.

What’s so bad about these attributes? Yeah, well, as I enjoy the 50,000 word length Romance, my answer to that is “nothing”. We’re talking idealisation and generalisation. Having these characteristics in there does not mean that all women are expecting perfect looks, obscene amounts of money and absolute power in their prospective mates. This is a fantasy (of the non-genre type) and should be treated as such. It doesn’t mean that the reader doesn’t want independence, a career of her own, to have her own skills recognised, etc, etc. However, these characteristics can wipe that out in the heroine as they also lead to the hero being:

  • Overbearing
  • Condescending
  • Confident to the point of arrogant

I could make the list go on longer but I won’t. The point is, these men are an exaggeration of the alpha male. The only truly redeeming feature about these characteristics – for the fictional hero, at least – he appears to be a mind reader. While he’s busy telling the heroine what to do and how to do it, he is actually aware enough and the story works out such that he’s giving the right orders or doing the right thing at the right time. This is why it’s best to leave these things as fantasy. Telepathy or empathy to the point of knowing exactly what someone wants and when they want it doesn’t seem to be part of the human make-up and, even if it were, I strongly suspect that very few people would be nice enough to act on in only on altruistic or True Love grounds. Knowing what to do and when to do it comes through communication, and actually doing it requires caring.

And, of course, Edward is an even more exaggerated version of this – powerful with vampire strength, wealthy due to vampire longevity, beautiful due to the sparkly.

There is only so much fighting against the worse side of these macho traits the heroine can get away with – at some point, she’s going to end up in bed with the man, after all. She will display patience and forbearance, the like of which I cannot always understand. And there is also something of a back-handed compliment in there. In order to get her hero / mate, the heroine must at some point accept that the hero is right and that’s she’s been silly (and “silly” does usually come up as a description in that conversation). It’s very rare, particularly in the short form, to get a similar admission from the hero – because then he wouldn’t be an alpha male. When there is a back down from the man, it’s an apology for unreasonable behaviour brought on by past trauma. It’s not all that surprising that more militant feminists than I have problems with the genre of Romance as a whole, particularly as it’s that point that makes me want to hit the hero or slap the heroine when I’m in a bitchy mood.

So Bella must need her hero in order to fight for her – her strength is in that he cannot live / go on without her to offer comfort. This is what most Romance boils down to.

That’s Not Love, That’s Just Romance

(With apologies to The Proclaimers for using lyrics from Ghost of Love)

Romance, as The Proclaimers suggest in Ghost of Love, is about flourishes – large or small. It’s about presents of flowers and jewellery, going out on dates, being swept of your feet and … Have you noticed these are all things we’re led to believe that women want? I guess we do. After all, it’s nice to get gifts and be taken out for dinner. However, there is more to love than that first flush and there’s more to being someone’s hero than taking them away from whatever is bothering them.

I’m not going to hand out relationship advice but I am going to point out that the reason I didn’t like Twilight as a whole was not because it was badly written. It may be but I found myself reading through the first three books without much need to stop and complain. I didn’t like Twilight as a whole for the same reason I don’t like most long Romance novels. (Yes, I even attempted the first movie. Never again.) I can’t suspend my need to be valued as an individual long enough to watch two people with a need for exactly the opposite. I’ve worked damn hard to be a functioning person, so why are they so desperate to not be?

Basically, these stories aren’t about love, it isn’t about knowing a person – either the hero or heroine of your love story – and helping them be or develop that personhood. It’s about an idealised instant attraction / lust that we can assume leads to “Happy Ever After”. Romance is no more about love than Fairy Tales are about good morals. It’s actually about the dream / fantasy / wish that things would be so easy that two people really can fit together perfectly from the time they first meet until the day they die – at the same time, naturally, so that no-one is left lonely. This isn’t about role models or being a balanced character, it’s about a guaranteed “Happy Ending” in the same way that Jack being rewarded with the Princess’s hand in marriage is a “Happy Ending”. It’s not and shouldn’t be treated as an aspiration.

For me, it’s just a form of mental chewing gum or fast food. It won’t last long but it fills a desire to read (or watch) and has an expected ending that is, depending on your point of view, happy. There is skill in writing it and writing it well but there are plenty of people who don’t. At the very least, it doesn’t require the death of a lead character or finding out their life has turned to crap.

My preference is for Mills & Boon (Harlequin in the USA, I think) short novels, which are just long enough that it takes me a couple of hours to read but just short enough that I don’t end up mulling over unfortunate implications. (Like how Bella accepts what is tantamount to abuse.)

For longer reads, I’m happier with Urban Fantasy. It has content that covers the same areas of female sexuality (Let’s Talk About Sex) – although very vanilla by some people’s standards – but doesn’t rely on just the sexual relationship to provide a satisfying (heh!) end. It also has the benefit of the characters actually being characters outside of the relationships in question, so there’s more chance of either of the leads being well-rounded, strong or even role models. From that point of view, Buffy is really the other end of the spectrum from Twilight and probably isn’t even comparable.

Tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.