I guess I think of romance as knights and dragons and long, episodic narratives, not Austen. I may be using a different definition of romance.
I can handle the Oz Full Monty. I mean, not 'handle' handle.
Xander ,'Help'
Natter 58: Let's call Venezuela!
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Burrell - Apr 24, 2008 5:25:10 pm PDT #3439 of 10001
Why did Darth Vader cross the road? To get to the Dark Side!
Typo Boy - Apr 24, 2008 5:27:08 pm PDT #3440 of 10001
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.
Jorge Amado, though he was lighter on the fantasy and heavier on the sex and romance than most magical realism.
Also very macho writer - very male chauvinist by todays standards, though considered somewhat feminist in his cultural context. Wonderful regional writer - marvelous picture of the society, great warmth, great humanity marvelous characters, marvelous poetic language.
I would compare him on women's issues to Mark Twain on racial prejudice. Genuinely horrified by the injustice of men's treatment of women, genuinely unable to see women as equals.
Like Mark Twain you have to decide if the virtues compensate for the vices - though poetic in a way Twain never was.
Very political. Anti-war, anti-censorship, anti-racism, pro-working class. A romantic in both the best and worst senses of the word.
Susan W. - Apr 24, 2008 5:27:54 pm PDT #3441 of 10001
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights
To me, Austen is the most typically romance of what's been discussed--at least for the modern genre definition as opposed to the medieval sense.
Kat - Apr 24, 2008 5:28:23 pm PDT #3442 of 10001
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
I'd like a contemporary US playwright who wrote a comedy, juliana. And one that is thought of as semi-canonical. I mean, Sam Shepard is the right demographic but the wrong genre.
Pix - Apr 24, 2008 5:28:45 pm PDT #3443 of 10001
The status is NOT quo.
There's an interesting article about the evolution of "romance" as a genre here: [link]
Hil R. - Apr 24, 2008 5:29:20 pm PDT #3444 of 10001
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
Gawain and the Green Knight would be fun. Nice and creepy and gory.
Pix - Apr 24, 2008 5:30:35 pm PDT #3445 of 10001
The status is NOT quo.
Does the playwright have to be American? Samuel Beckett comes to mind.
Also, I will ask ND. A big chunk of his MFA was focused on 20th century American theater.
Kat - Apr 24, 2008 5:31:04 pm PDT #3446 of 10001
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
Burrell, I'm with you on the romance front. I mean, Possession doesn't work under the medieval front at all (and someone at the College Board makes an interesting case for it here [link] but it might be nice for all of the secondary works to be the traditional medievally defined Romance as a contrast point.
Burrell - Apr 24, 2008 5:31:25 pm PDT #3447 of 10001
Why did Darth Vader cross the road? To get to the Dark Side!
Someone argued that Siddharta was a romance in that medieval sense because it's got journey, hope, heroism. I was like, "Dude left his wife and kid alone for YEARS. Are you shitting me!?" That's like saying the BIBLE is a romance!
Okay, there's the distinction. Medieval romance is totally different than the current definition of romance novel.
To me, P&P is quintessentially a novel because it simply plays around with the tropes of traditional romance in an entirely new, and much more realistic, context.
Pix - Apr 24, 2008 5:35:30 pm PDT #3448 of 10001
The status is NOT quo.
ND says certainly Neil Simon is probably the best benchmark for mid-20th century American theatre comedy.