For whatever reason, the past year or two I’ve been reading a lot more that falls (to some degree) into the category of romance -- I don’t mean ‘category romance’, or the specific genre, just that even the mainstream fiction I’ve been reading contains a very strong romance subplot -- if the primary plot isn’t a romance itself. Rather peculiar, but then again, maybe it’s simply that this is where a lot of the writing is happening that also happens to appeal to me. Though I should qualify that, for those of you worried this means I’m going soft and mushy: what I particularly like about romance plots/subplots is not the romance, but the stage during which there is romantic potential, very little actual. Or perhaps I should say, I prefer the denial stage: when you have chemistry in one sense and avoidance in another, whether this be in the pre-relationship area or the relationship+conflict area. (I retain my dislike/disinterest for writers who conflate intimacy with sexuality, though, because that just isn’t how people always tick.)
This is ostensibly a discussion/critique of Totally Captivated, a Korean manhwa that’s up to its 5th volume (and will therefore contain spoilers through volume 5, chapter 35), but first I’m going to explain the attitude/observations I’ve had that cause my reaction to TC itself. Mostly, I guess, to place it in context as a romance sub/plot, even if (technically) it stands outside the Japanimanga traditions of uke/seme (in M/M relationships) as well as separate from the western AlphaMale romance stereotypes. It’s still squarely within romance, regardless of cultural base, and I think to some degree our interpretations of, tastes for, preferences about, the fine lines we tread in romance aren’t cultural so much as just part of being human. But I’ll get to TC itself, in a bit. First...
It’s hard to avoid the romantic sub/plot breed (in any genre, it seems) of the Alpha Male (or, in the japanimanga subculture, the ‘seme’; in M/M, the ‘pitcher’). Most writers -- okay, there are a few exceptions but I’ve figured out who they are and I avoid them now -- but most writers are aware that relationships of any sort have a handful of basic stages. ( Most important is that there’s some reason these two characters don’t fall straight into HEA, even if they did fall straight into the sack; even in stories where there’s no sack involved, there’s still an emotional connection that has to be denied, deflected, whatever, before achieving HEA. )
I’ve more to add, about the stereotypical dominant-protag’s arrogance and “I buy you things so you love me” kind of logic, and Yoo’s use of what is really an abusive situation (for Mookyul) that further explains and clarifies (and adds to the sympathetic element of) Mookyul’s understanding of relationships... but I’ll do that in the next post, or in the next day or so. Need to go put down the last bit of cork on the kitchen floor, and then to clean up the glue, seal the ends, and soon, we will have kitchen floor. Woot.
This is ostensibly a discussion/critique of Totally Captivated, a Korean manhwa that’s up to its 5th volume (and will therefore contain spoilers through volume 5, chapter 35), but first I’m going to explain the attitude/observations I’ve had that cause my reaction to TC itself. Mostly, I guess, to place it in context as a romance sub/plot, even if (technically) it stands outside the Japanimanga traditions of uke/seme (in M/M relationships) as well as separate from the western AlphaMale romance stereotypes. It’s still squarely within romance, regardless of cultural base, and I think to some degree our interpretations of, tastes for, preferences about, the fine lines we tread in romance aren’t cultural so much as just part of being human. But I’ll get to TC itself, in a bit. First...
It’s hard to avoid the romantic sub/plot breed (in any genre, it seems) of the Alpha Male (or, in the japanimanga subculture, the ‘seme’; in M/M, the ‘pitcher’). Most writers -- okay, there are a few exceptions but I’ve figured out who they are and I avoid them now -- but most writers are aware that relationships of any sort have a handful of basic stages. ( Most important is that there’s some reason these two characters don’t fall straight into HEA, even if they did fall straight into the sack; even in stories where there’s no sack involved, there’s still an emotional connection that has to be denied, deflected, whatever, before achieving HEA. )
I’ve more to add, about the stereotypical dominant-protag’s arrogance and “I buy you things so you love me” kind of logic, and Yoo’s use of what is really an abusive situation (for Mookyul) that further explains and clarifies (and adds to the sympathetic element of) Mookyul’s understanding of relationships... but I’ll do that in the next post, or in the next day or so. Need to go put down the last bit of cork on the kitchen floor, and then to clean up the glue, seal the ends, and soon, we will have kitchen floor. Woot.