Thursday Thought: Romance

Romance in novels is one of those things that I've always kind of loved and hated. I love seeing characters fall for each other, I love the silliness, the passion and all that. It's great fun. But it has always irked me that it's often so unrealistic and even as a teenager I wondered about what effect it had on readers. 

I never believed the romance in books was realistic. My fiancé was my best friend for a good few months before we got together. During that time he fancied one of our friends who didn't return his feelings, I had a boyfriend of three years when I first arrived at university, then another boyfriend for a couple of months, and inbetween was your usual studenty flings. We finally got together because his best friend came to visit and told him he was an idiot for fancying our friend and not me because I was the one who had the most in common with him. I have always fallen for my best friends, except once (see above boyfriend of a few months), and personally I cannot fathom the idea of being with someone who isn't your best friend. Why would you want to date someone who isn't your friend?

In novels though you always see heroines (though you do get the odd hero) falling for a boy at first sight because he's oh so good and he's oh so fine (to quote The Kinks). You don't get many who slowly end up realising that they fancy their best friend. You also don't get many main characters who go from fancying one person to another to another throughout the novel, which is generally what happens when you're a teenager. You often fancy people you can never have as well and you don't see very much of that either. 

Where's the rejection? Most heorine's end up with the guy they want, at the most they have to choose between two but they still end up with someone. Where's the heroine's that end up with no one? Even more so where's the heroine's who don't want anyone? Where are the girls who feel that they can stand up on their own two feet and do not need a boyfriend to complete them? I haven't seen many.

I do think that a lot of novels create unrealistic images of love and relationships. I don't know many teenagers who stuck with one person for more than a few months. Teenagers can love, of course they can, I'm not saying they can't and I had the same boyfriend from when I was 15 to 18 years old, but I know I was an exception amongst most of my peers. Not many people had relationships that long.

I think that over all I find romance in many teenage novels to be a bit too clean. I'm not saying we need lots of raunchy sex scenes but it's all very...nice. Even the bad boys are quite squeaky clean in some cases. I want more realism. I want to see love and lust. I want to see sex portrayed as it really is, not just having sex with one person, not all these virgin main characters, not just straight. I want to see confusion over sexuality but not just in books aimed at LGBT teens but in ordinary stories aimed at everyone. I want to see straight characters feeling confused about whether they might fancy their best mate as well as lesbian, gay and bisexual characters and their relationships. I want to see more transgender characters too.

I want realism.

My friendship groups at school consisted of geeks, musicians, bisexual/gay/lesbian teens, teens with eating disorders, teens who self-harmed, teens who slept around, teens who never had sex, teens who stuck with the same person for years, teens who cheated, teens who did drugs, I think we all drank, teens who were really into computers and video games, teens with anger problems, teens with depression, teens who were aiming for Oxford or Cambridge, teens who were aiming to drop out and teens who seemed like the most well-adjusted people ever. A lot of these traits were all combined in a few of my friends from those days too. And that was just my friendship group at school!

But when I read a lot of teenage novels (which is pretty much all I read) I don't see many teenagers like this. I'm not sure if it's because most of the books I've been reading lately are American, because I know publishers over there are very touchy about such subjects, or what. Maybe it's the view that teens like this wouldn't want to read books about characters similar to them? Or the idea that people might worry it would upset or influence teenagers to act like this? I'm not sure, but I find it weird to read about generally pretty average, white-bread teenagers. We have TV shows and films that portray these sorts of characters and much worse, and they're pretty amazing films so it's not as if there isn't an audience for it.

As a writer I'm sure I'm guilty of creating similar characters so maybe I should just take my own advice! Which I plan to. I'm not saying romance novels are all bad, some are wonderful and realistic, and to some degree I do think that it's totally fine for readers to have a way of fantasizing. As I said at the start I like the silliness of it all and the passion, but I still wonder if it affects our idea of relationships. With romance in novels (or comics, or film, or whatever) you never really see the boring bits and I wonder if that makes people feel that their relationships need to be perfect all the time. Even as an adult I know so many women who are still holding out for a Mr Darcy type. In those cases all I can think of is 500 Days Of Summer when Paul says : "Robin is better than the girl of my dreams, she's real". Which is so true.

All images are from weheartit.com

What do you think about romance in teen novels?

Coveted Cover: Johnny Wander

Johnny Wander: Volume 1

I adore Johnny Wander, it's one of my favourite webcomics and I love the covers for their published book versions. I especially love volume 2's cover:

Johnny Wander: Volume 2

Yuko and Ananth who work together to write and draw the comic are both really awesome people too, and you can see that in their work. The series is whimsical, auto-biographical, surreal and at times features fictional work. It's one of those comics that I like to trot out whenever someone either say they don't like comics or when someone says that they don't know what to read. So check it out!

From Goodreads:

Johnny Wander is about life after college, striking out on your own, and all the moments in between the adult stuff. 

Page Turners: Unleashed

I am currently reading:

Unleashed by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie

I started this the other day and I'm enjoying it so far. Forest, sexy boy, grumpy grandfather and secrets. Sounds good to me! I'm not sold on the cover though, the girls hair irritates me because it's soooo scraped back that I can see the shape of her skull and the boy is a bit weird looking floating up there in the sky. But it's certainly not a bad cover either.

From Goodreads:

Katelyn McBride’s life changed in an instant when her mother died. Uprooted from her California home, Katelyn was shipped to the middle of nowhere, Arkansas, to her only living relative, her grandfather. And now she has to start over in Wolf Springs, a tiny village in the Ozark Mountains. Like any small town, Wolf Springs has secrets. But the secrets hidden here are more sinister than Katelyn could ever imagine. It’s a town with a history that reaches back centuries, spans continents, and conceals terrifying truths. And Katelyn McBride is about to change everything. 

Listen To This: Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston passed away on Saturday so it seems only right to feature her today. She was pretty stunning and a massive influence on music and people.

Sunday Catch Up

Apologies for the late update! 

Sick Day by Erin McGuire

I wish I had a cat, instead I've been cuddling rats and gerbils.

I've had a cold most of this week which has been really boring. But I did get to see my parents last weekend which is always great! I returned home with some really nice dresses, t-shirts, a new jumper and a new cardigan too.

I don't think I've done anything interesting since last Sunday...I got back home on Tuesday and have since been working as usual. 

Oh, we did get a new bed, finally! Which I put together yesterday with some help from the boy. It's a bit higher than the old bed which is kind of weird but it's so nice to sleep in a bed that doesn't slope to one side.

When not working I've mostly been reading comics or reading about comics or feeling sorry for myself while drinking disgusting lemsips and blowing my nose a million times a day. 

Hopefully I'll be more interesting next Sunday. So I shall leave you with this image of a frog:

Isn't it cute?

Something For The Weekend

Something to read:

I hate reaching into the cupboard or fridge to discover that those lovely veggies I was looking forward to eating have gone funny. So it's important to know how to store fresh produce, that way you're not wasting food or money!

Do you love nice, cheap clothes like me? Well here are some thoughts on thrifting.

Feeling low? What are some good mood foods?

Dar! A comic that is most certainly NSFW and is more for those who are 18 or older.

DAR! chronicles the six year long autobiographical story of Erika Moen, a lost 20-year-old lesbian artist-wannabe in college who falls in love with a boy in England and the evolution that her sexual identity undergoes before winding up marrying him as a queer 26-year-old full-time cartoonist. Along the way there are many vignettes about sex, farts, the queer community, the Brits, vibrators and figuring out sexual identity. 

Read it here.

Something to eat:

Chickpea, shallots and hummus salad

 I want to make this for my lunch today because chickpeas awesome. On a side note, so is peanut butter.

I also want to make this salad:

Brussel sprouts, potatoes and cranberries salad

Because I also adore brussel sprouts. They're mini cabbages! Another side note, broccoli is mini trees.

Something to listen to:

Scientists think that they have discovered the most relaxing tune ever! Give it a listen.

Feature Friday: Super Smart Animals

I watched this last night so thought I would share it with you all!

Super Smart Animals!

The latest science reveals that animals are a lot smarter than we thought. Prepare to be amazed, entertained and even outwitted by the world's Super Smart Animals.

You can watch episodes one and two over on iPlayer. It's definitely worth a watch because it is amazing to see some of the feats that these animals can achieve. I love animals and have always considered them to be intelligent so it's lovely to see just how intelligent some animals really are. They feature a great range from chimps to jay birds and meerkats to dogs.

This chimp was particularly amazing, as was the gorgeous collie dog Chaser.

I've also been watching Martin Clunes as he presents Horsepower.

Martin Clunes travels the world to unlock the secrets of man’s partnership with horses in Horsepower, a two-part documentary series that was broadcast on ITV1 in late August. 

His fascinating journey takes him from remotest Mongolia to the deserts of Arabia; to see the enigmatic wild Mustangs in Nevada, and watch the thrills and spills of rodeo in Las Vegas. He finds out what life in the saddle is like for cowboys out west and rides into battle on horseback in a suit of armour at Warwick Castle and joins the pomp and ceremony as horses and carriages are prepared for the State Opening of Parliament.  Martin is a special guest at the world’s most glamorous and lavish racing event in Dubai, and watches the colourful Palio horse race in Italy, which dates back to the 1200s. 

No animal has changed the course of human history as profoundly as the horse. For 6,000 years there was no faster way to travel. It helped us to win battles and build empires. It carried kings and emperors. It also pulled our carts, ploughed our fields and carried our heavy burdens. It’s been called the best slave we humans ever had – though that does not do justice to the rich and mutually rewarding relationship that’s possible. 

Martin unravels the story of how man and horse first got together, what the horse has done for us through the ages, and what the horse still means to us today. 

“I wanted to find out how this animal became so important to us. How did we manage to tame such a huge, fearful prey animal and make it both our servant and our friend,” says Martin. 

Horsepower follows the success two documentaries presented by Martin Clunes for ITV1: Martin Clunes: A Man and his Dogs, and Islands of Britain.

 You can watch Horsepower on DVD, through LoveFilm and on ITV3.

I love animals and love watching programmes that celebrate them, but even if you're not as into animals as I am these programmes are certainly worth a watch and you might end up leaving with a little more appreciation for our furry friends.