I found this today on the blog of the man who basically wrote the definition of what fan fiction is:
And yes, I know what Fillion’s worried about — he’s worried about seeing something like what has happened to House this season. But the problem with House is not that House and Cuddy are in a relationship. The problem is that the writers do not have a clue how to depict a relationship between House and Cuddy in a way which shows any kind of emotional maturity, any kind of psychological depth, and any kind of personal growth.
I often suspect that Hollywood’s inability to depict relationships that grow over time has everything to do with the divorce rate in the entertainment capital, very little to do with the constraints of the medium (given how well television depicts the unfolding of interpersonal relationships over time) and even less to do with the desire of fans. (One of the things to pay attention to is how many of the “commitment” episodes for television series are written by a small handful of writers who have consistently ruined every couple they touched.)
From my experience, fandom is all about the relationships between characters, and fans are capable of pulling out insights into those relationships from the most subtle touch, the most nuanced reaction shots, and stitch them together through their stories and videos into stories which show how relationships can grow and unfold over time.
Read the rest, it has some fascinating insight into the topic. The question that occurs to me is whether even romance authors could write the relationship transition he’s talking about. I mean face it, most, if not all genre romances, deal with the story up to sealing the deal on the relationship, so to speak, too. They don’t go into what happens afterwards. So, I have to ask myself whether I would even trust the majority of them to write for any of these shows either. o.O
Okay, maybe a couple of the authors I consider tried and true masters of the romance genre craft, but who exactly are they and what proof do we have that they’ve written those committed relationships past that “will they/won’t they” transition?
Just curious.
St. John does indeed write westerns– for Harlequin. As for Jo Beverley, I’ve been meaning to go back and re-read her Rogues series. I’m thinking the one about Beth & Lucian would illustrate a couple struggling to make marriage work since they’re forced into it. Well, I’ll let this whole thing go now, but I did enjoy thinking about the “after” part of the HEA!
You know, I don’t know that I’ve ever read a Cheryl St John so I don’t even know what sub-genres she writes in precisely. My brain wants to say contemporaries and maybe some Westerns but that’s just shooting in the dark. 😉
Someone else, though, that I haven’t read in years but could probably do it would be Jo Beverley. I say that because she gets “the struggle” without being overly angsty about it. If that makes any sense. Which I’m not sure it does.
I thought about mentioning the In Death series as it is the obvious example, but I was trying to think of less obvious examples. I’ve only read a handful of Krentz, but I agree, she could do it. After pondering, I think Cheryl St. John is an author who could do it. One of her books deals with a couple who has to cope with the death of a child. It’s a long road back for the couple and it takes commitment to walk that road.
Yeah, sugary. That’s a good way of putting it. And while there’s nothing wrong with that per se, that’s not exactly what’s meant by a realistic portrayal of a committed long term relationship. 😉
Then again, neither is all spice either.
OTOH, I do believe there are some examples out there if we look hard enough. After I found the article and posted about it, my daughter suggested the In Death series by J.D Robb AKA Nora Roberts. Since I do consider Roberts a master of the romance genre I guess the Eve/Roarke relationship would count even though the books themselves are romantic suspense and I don’t personally read Roberts or Robb. Amy has every single In Death book, though. And the series is up to, what? 25 or so? Definitely long term. 😉
Another “master” that I know could do it even though I’m not sure which individual books to site as examples would be Krentz. I suppose so many of her books fit the “where the protags declare their feelings well before the end of the book and spend time solving some problem together” scenario that you’re talking about, Phyl, that I feel it’s a given she could do it. That and then some.
Other authors, though? I might have to be convinced.
What interesting food for thought! Naturally I cannot think of a single example but every now and then we get a book where the protags declare their feelings well before the end of the book and spend time solving some problem together. That’s the closest we ever get to seeing them live their HEA. And whenever a couple appears as secondary characters in a connected book, they’re always painted in a very sugary way.