Sometimes I see people say that they like M/M fiction because they’re tired of the clichés of M/F fiction and the unequal relationship between the hero and heroine. They say they prefer the equality of the relationship between two men.
Hang on a second…
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There are no distant events any more. I realised that on Monday, when I heard about the bombing of the Boston Marathon. Twenty years ago this would have been an awful thing happening in a far away place. I’d think it was terrible, but it wouldn’t affect me directly. But now, through the Internet, I know several people who live in Boston – including my editor. Thankfully they are all safe and well.
It reminded me forcefully that if a horrible event happens in a major city in America I probably know someone there. And it’s nearly as true for Australia. I know people all over Europe. I know people who live in the Middle East. And here in the UK of course. All through the Internet. It’s kind of artificial of course. I don’t really “know” these people and I’ve never met most of them. But I feel a connection with them. I value what they have to say. They have a place in my life. So if they are potentially in danger, I worry about them.
A lot of this is down to Twitter. I’ve said before that Twitter has its own time zone. It’s only ever NOW on Twitter. But there’s something else. There’s no place on Twitter except HERE. Following those tweeting about the events of this last week as they happened, and of many other previous unfolding events and knowing some of them are potentially directly affected made me feel like it was happening in my back yard. Twitter connects us, often to good purpose, but that also means the circle of people we have to worry about becomes much wider. Twitter makes the whole world my neighbourhood.
If the world is a global village, Twitter is the village square, where it is only ever HERE and NOW.
So there’s this guy and he organises a local choir to serenade his girlfriend on the train into work. It’s a big job to get everyone required onto the train at the right time. She almost derailed the scheme by deciding to take the car to work that day – forcing the boyfriend to sabotage her car to make sure she got the train after all. So far so good. Romantic, if a bit embarrassing. But then he ruins it all by proposing to her in the train carriage. At that point I turn away in disgust.
I hate public proposals. They are not romantic.
What? I hear you cry. How can that not be romantic? Declaring his love and his desire to marry her in front of the whole world?
But it’s not. It’s manipulation disguised as romance. It doesn’t matter if it’s in front of thousands at a sports stadium, or a couple of dozen friends and family at a party, the public proposal is an attempt to put the woman (and it’s nearly always a woman) into a position where she can’t say no. Whether that’s done from insecurity about her answer, or a misguided sense of what’s romantic no doubt varies. I’m sure most of these men don’t consider themselves to be hatching an evil scheme to trap their girlfriend into marriage.
I’m also sure many of the women do find it romantic and their Yes answer is sincere. But what about the ones who don’t? What about the ones who feel manoeuvred into saying yes? Think of the position of the woman in this scenario. This man she’s presumably very fond of, even in love with, bares his soul in front of others. He risks a humiliating public rejection. How can she hurt him that way? She’ll have to say yes to spare him the humiliation, even if she’d have said no in private. And for her own sake – if she turns him down in public, crushing him in front of dozens or even thousands of people, she becomes the villain. The bitch who metaphorically kicked her boyfriend in the nuts in front of the whole world. Naturally, she doesn’t want to be in that position. This woman and some others you can find on You Tube at least had the guts to refuse to be manipulated and to be the villain in that scenario. And listen to the boos as she hurries away off that basketball court. Like she did something wrong there.
Don’t even get me started on this Russian jackass.
Man fakes death to show girlfriend how meaningless life would be without him, then proposes.
Men, respect the women you love and let them give a free and honest answer to that question. Be a man and don’t take along “backup” to a marriage proposal. Trying to manipulate the answer you want from her makes you a passive aggressive asshole and not the romantic guy you claim to be.
There’s a controversy going on right now on Amazon. (Isn’t there always.) There’ve been numerous controversies in the past of course, but the one I’m talking about today is the recent bar Amazon have put on authors reviewing other authors books on Amazon. Some writers have seen dozens or hundreds of reviews vanish from their profiles. Amazon’s position is that it doesn’t allow a review on a product from the maker of a rival product.
Who’s right and who’s wrong?
I do believe there’s a logic to Amazon’s position. They can’t let someone working for Apple come on the site and diss products by Samsung for example. There’s an obvious conflict of interest. But is Amazon right to treat authors like the manufacturer of a product? Or are writers special? Or are other words for special in this case “privileged” and “entitled”? What about favourable reviews? Is there a conflict of interest if the writer is reviewing a friend’s book, or someone in their own genre, or someone who’s with the same publisher. I know I’d feel a bit inhibited about publishing a negative review of a book from my own publisher. And does what applies to writers apply to other creative people whose work is sold through Amazon, like musicians?
Are writers actually in competition with each other in the same way as two manufacturers of the same product? Does it depend on how close they are in terms of genre? Two people writing m/m romance can obviously be seen as directly competing for the money of the buying public. But what about a writer of m/m romance and a writer of YA? Or a writer of non-fiction? They’re all books, but are they in competition with each other any more than a desktop printer is in competition with a TV rather than only with other desktop printers?
How close do the books have to be in content before they are considered competition? What’s the competition for a romance novel? All books? All fiction books? All romance books? Or only books in the same romance sub-genre? But many readers don’t stick purely to one sub-genre, so a m/f sci-fi romance and a m/m historical romance could indeed by competing for my finite book budget money!
Amazon’s owners can do what they like with their site of course, but Amazon is so important in the book business that it’s natural people are going to get wound up about what they do. The stakes are very high. And even if they are right in principle that doesn’t mean they’ve handled the issue well. Personally I’ve stepped back from doing any more reviews in the m/m romance genre, and am cautious about others if I’ve got a connection to the writer or if they are also published by Loose Id. Reviewing is a total minefield right now, on Amazon and elsewhere and this is only one of the controversies. I’m waiting until the dust settled before I dip my toe back in those waters.
So what’s caught my imagination this year and what’s ticked me off? Has anything changed from the Advent Opinions 2011 list?
Likes
Making a stunning leap from the in-between list last year, the vowel deprived Tumblr has become a firm favourite of mine this year. It seems to be the 20-teens version of Live Journal – fannish squeeing mixed with social justice. All illustrated by Gifs. Tumblr is the centre of the Gif universe. People are very emotional on Tumblr. Good looking actors are “life ruiners” by virtue of their good looks. They end up “legit crying” or even “ugly crying” over pictures and videos. A good post isn’t just good; it’s The Best Post on Tumblr. It’s got its own language – Feels. Can’t. IDEK, GYOP etc. It’s a lot of fun. It’s got its flaws. The interface is minimalist to a fault. It’s not really possible to have a conversation on a post the way you can on Live Journal. But I love it anyway.
Holy cow, why did I ignore Pinterest for so long? Well you know, for about a year, but that’s like a decade in Internet years. I’m very visual – I want to art school many moons ago – and Pinterest is a great place to create galleries of pictures. Of course you could download pictures to your own PC and look at them, but on Pinterest, you share the collection you’re making with the world. I like the way that when pinning something from another site, or repinning from another user, the source is acknowledged. Aside from the photos I took and have uploaded I don’t claim to own any of the images I’ve pinned, just that find them cool, or funny, or cute or inspiring. Pinterest and Tumblr kind of go together for me, because I often find content on Tumblr that I want to Pin, to put it somewhere more permanent than Tumblr, which moves pretty fast!
This is a show on MTV you probably know I’m into if you already follow my Twitter, Tumblr or Pinterest. In fact I got into it thanks to Tumblr. This is not the first time I’ve gone and bought DVDs for a show after encountering the fandom online. That’s been happening for years! I suspect once Christmas is out of the way then the next one like that will be Supernatural. Anyway – Teen Wolf. Yes it’s based on the same premise as the 1980s movie; high school boy becomes werewolf. But as a TV show rather than a movie, it’s got the time to really explore the whole thing more deeply. Even going pretty dark at times. The characters are complex and flawed, their allegiances are constantly shifting, and nothing is black and white.
Is it the new Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Maybe. Does it have a lot of sexy young men taking their shirts off a lot? Oh yes! Does it have Tyler Hoechlin, King of Eyebrows as Derek Hale, Prince of Angst? Yes indeed!! Does it have a young actor named Dylan O’Brien who is going to be a star one day? Definitely. And he’s mesmerising.
What can I say about Twitter I haven’t said already? It’s my fave social media site-PERIOD! Or leave period off to keep it to 140 characters
Dislikes
Facebook still does not speak to me. I closed my author page, which was pointless, yet time consuming. I only keep my personal one to play a couple of games with other people. This post comparing it with Twitter is right on the money for me.
Amazon Author Rank.
Amazon apparently decided the level of sanity in the author community was still too high. So they introduced Author Rank to really drive us clean out of our minds. Thanks, Amazon. Sales Rank just wasn’t getting the job done.
In between
Goodreads
It’s great for tracking my reading, but oh my, the drama! The drama! The site has even more drama llamas than Tumblr – and that’s saying something. Many of the recent fights between authors and reviewers have started on Goodreads. I think it’s a place for authors to approach with extreme caution. I primarily use it as a reader.
Live Journal
It’s on probation. I used to love it, but it’s changing, it’s trying to make itself look and function more like the newer sites, like Facebook and Tumblr. But that makes it lose sight of the things it does really well and that the users value it for – customisability and conversation.
So that’s a few things around the internet and beyond that I’ve been enjoying or disliking this year. What will be on the list a year from now? Maybe something we haven’t even heard of right now.
