Last night I watched the old version of Clash of the Titans. When I was a teenager, it was one of my favorite movies. Last night, I just wanted to laugh my ass off. The princess was a wilting lily. I was waiting for her to get a case of the vapors. At least until she had to be chained to a rock at the end. Then she just marched to her death with all the emotion of a dead fish. Come to think of it, her mother was pretty emotionless at the time too. With all that can be done with special effects and story lines these days, I guess I've developed a taste for a bolder type of heroine.
The whole thing got me thinking about how romance has changed over the years. There was a time when romance wasn't romance if the heroine wasn't a virgin in her twenties or the hero wasn't a brooding brute in his thirties. And even if the couple did get married, leaving the bedroom door open was unthinkable or the love scenes were full of euphemisms. But still, I loved those stories, despite the really purple prose. You know what I mean. Throbbing manhood, love caves, blah,blah, blah. I looked up an old story on amazon and in the reviews section, the author got slammed because the heroine wasn't a virgin.
Fast forward to today. The market is full of non-virginal more than one partner at a time stories. Some of them are really good. But sometimes, I want a sweet, old-fahioned romance. I sometimes miss the virginal heroine and the brooding brute. Howevever, I in no way miss the purple prose. It always made me want to bust out in hysterical laughter.
What about you? Is there anything you miss about the old romances of the 70's and 80's? What's your "remember when" story?
The whole thing got me thinking about how romance has changed over the years. There was a time when romance wasn't romance if the heroine wasn't a virgin in her twenties or the hero wasn't a brooding brute in his thirties. And even if the couple did get married, leaving the bedroom door open was unthinkable or the love scenes were full of euphemisms. But still, I loved those stories, despite the really purple prose. You know what I mean. Throbbing manhood, love caves, blah,blah, blah. I looked up an old story on amazon and in the reviews section, the author got slammed because the heroine wasn't a virgin.
Fast forward to today. The market is full of non-virginal more than one partner at a time stories. Some of them are really good. But sometimes, I want a sweet, old-fahioned romance. I sometimes miss the virginal heroine and the brooding brute. Howevever, I in no way miss the purple prose. It always made me want to bust out in hysterical laughter.
What about you? Is there anything you miss about the old romances of the 70's and 80's? What's your "remember when" story?
Uhm I have a confession to make. I have a weakness for purple prose. I love it. It makes my heart go 'zing'. Give me 'manhood' and 'flower' over the 'c' words any day. I want the author to let my mind do the guessing. There is something about the innuendo that does it for me, too, as compared to textbook terms. That's like the people are just bodies that sweat, grunt and exchange other fluids after trying this position and that. Oh my, it must be Friday. And I got no sleep at all last night. Pardon my rambling.
ReplyDeleteThe first romance I ever read was about a nanny taking care of an Irishman's kids. He was dark haired with green eyes and of course he thought she had betrayed him but the nanny's kind heart was proven in the end and the bad girl was sent packing. Wish I remembered the name. It was a Harlequin back in 1977? I was too young to be reading it anyway. ;)
Great topic! -Kara
Kara, have to admit, Harlequins hold a special place in my heart. I remember a book called "The Matchmakers". It was a book about two little girls that tried to hook their father up with the nanny. Funny, I don't remember any purple prose in that book.
ReplyDeleteI liked the epic nature of these books. Seriously, some of the them were 500 - 600 pages each! I remember reading a series about the Civil War that was called "Love and War" (or something like that)that was 3 books and thousands of pages total!
ReplyDeleteWow! Had to be an awesome book to keep you reading thousands of pages.
ReplyDeleteI read MM Kaye's "The Far Pavillions" when I was younger. I don't think I'd have the patience to read it today. Even the cover was purple. Although, I'd have to admit that I skimmed over the war scenes to get to the "good" stuff ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of purple, but I sure do love old-fashioned romance. And miss it. I'm rading Amish stories right now, and I thinks that's why.
ReplyDeleteI mean, I THINK that's why. It was Popeye who "thinks," wasn't it?
ReplyDeleteLiz, I was wondering more about the rading..LOL
ReplyDeleteLol Margie! So was I.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh--and I want to type for a living?
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with you paople that you don't know how to rade? :)