But then again, how often does it really happen? My experience of romance reading tells me we usually find out that the rake hero has in fact not been half as active sexually as he was given credit for… While even the Regency virgin heroine is way less of a virgin than you’d think, meaning she already knew sexual pleasure from masturbation!

Otherwise… yes. This idea of women not being complete without men, as opposed to men being complete unto themselves is something I’ve reflected on time and time again, way before I started reading romance. Actually, romance kind of contributed to take me out of this frame of mind. So many strong-willed, independent and irresistible heroines… who certainly DON’T need a man, except maybe for pleasure.

Well, that is interesting. I think I agree with you on almost everything, except I’ve chosen to hold the other end of the rope. Yes, there is still a lot of crap being written under the name of romance, but the times they are a-changing, and you don’t have to read that crap, either. I am myself surprised at how easily I’ve found my way around really intelligent, refreshing romance novels once I knew where to look.

Then there’s another issue, which I haven’t yet got to address: does romance reflect the world, or does the world reflect romance? Of course there’s probably some dialectic going on there, but how about it was mainly the former? Since romance is given such a bad name and all but ignored by most people, since we can see it evolving together with society, I sometimes feel like reminding that romance is not a political programme… Like, there’s definitely a part of it which tells you how you should live (which clearly includes that you should have a sexually fulfilled life, for instance), but most of it remains fiction. And what I like most about fiction is when it shows us life as fucked up as it really is, and not just perfect as it should be.

Common problems in romance are when these things (prescriptions vs descriptions) get mixed up, and the characters appear to be rewarded for something awful they did earlier. I’m going to say now that’s just plain bad writing, which could happen in any genre. Nothing specific to do with romance.

It seems to me that female virginity in romance does often seem to function as a commodity with a very high value (perhaps partly because of its perceived scarcity) which offsets the fact that the heroine is generally much poorer in financial terms than the hero.

As a medievalist, this is a metaphor I’m extremely familiar with. I did a quick Google and here are some later examples of the reversal of the metaphor, in which besieged cities are described as virgins: Tournay (1513) and various later German examples.

It seems to me that the virgin as castle/fortress/city metaphor is a subset of a metaphor which Lakoff and Johnson give describe as “love as war.” They give a variety of different examples:

LOVE IS WAR

He is known for his many rapid conquests. She
fought for him, but his mistress won out. He fled
from her advances. She pursued him relentlessly. He
is slowly gaining ground with her. He won her hand
in marriage. He overpowered her. She is besieged by
suitors. He has to fend them off. He enlisted the aid
of her friends. He made an ally of her mother.
Theirs is a misalliance if I’ve ever seen one. (49)

It’s not the only metaphor used about love, of course. Lakoff and Johnson give several others, and there are probably more that they don’t mention at all, but it may nonetheless have serious implications. As Lakoff and Johnson have written in their Metaphors We Live By:

The concepts that govern our thought are not just matters of the intellect. They also govern our everyday functioning, down to the most mundane details. Our concepts structure what we perceive, how we get around in the world, and how we relate to other people. Our conceptual system thus plays a central role in defining our everyday realities. If we are right in suggesting that our conceptual system is largely metaphorical, then the way we think, what we experience, and what we do every day is very much a matter of metaphor. (3)

I think that view of metaphor as something which isn’t confined to texts, but has an effect on people’s thinking and actions, fits well with what you say about the metaphor of the virgin as a fortress:

This model not only has very fraught gender dynamics and figures the heroine as a thing rather than a person, it is also violent, which promotes a dialogue of abuse and assault.

——
Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. 1980. Chicago: U. of Chicago P., 2003. [There's a condensed version of a number of chapters from Metaphors We Live By in this chapter of someone else's book of readings. I think it gives the gist of Lakoff and Johnson's argument, though, and if you find it interesting you might want to get hold of a copy of the original book.]

Is the “virgin/playboy thing” so overwhelmingly out there?

I’m only an author and reader mind, but I don’t know that it is. Harlequin publish more than 100 titles per month, more than 80 of them category titles that fall across several different lines or series.

Don’t forget, when you’re talking about category, you’re talking about all of those lines, not just one or two of them. Here’s the blurb from a few to get an idea of the style of the books they represent – all different flavours of romance if you like, all with different tone and levels of sensuality, all with different types of hero, from type A alpha heroes to boy next door beta heroes to everything in between. (And I’ve chosen the first book listed under each line in October releases on http://www.eharlequin.com – I haven’t cherry picked to avoid mention of playboys or virgins).

If the “virgin/playboy thing” as you call it, was so overwhelming, it should be pretty clear, if not from the titles, then from the blurbs you’d think.

Harlequin American Romance – styled as “Romance the all-American way” under the Heart and Home tagline, 4 titles per month including such titles as “The Triplets’ First Thanksgiving” by Cathy Gillen Thacker. Here’s the blurb…

The baby buggy containing the pink-clad triplets arrives at the ranch with a note… asking Kurt McCabe to step up to the plate. Being a son of that honorable, family-first clan, he’d never turn his back on a person—three miniature persons—in need. But he can’t do it alone. That’s where Paige Chamberlain comes in.

The pediatric surgeon is ready to start her own family, with or without a husband. But foster parenting the adorable infant girls, even temporarily, is an offer no woman who longs for a child can resist. Even if it means sharing baby detail with the devilishly handsome vet…Paige’s old childhood rival. 

They may or may not be his, but Kurt’s getting used to having the tiny tykes—and Paige—around the ranch. And he just thought of the perfect solution!
Harlequin Blaze – Red-hot reads – 6 per month including such titles as “Another Wild Wedding Night” by Leslie Kelly

Sister-of-the-groom Bonnie Campbell is certainly no groupie. But when famous, drop-dead-hottie action star Drew Ericson films his latest flick at the wedding inn, she turns into his naughtiest fan….

Jazz Wilkes is rough, tough and totally in touch with her sexual appetite. No man can withstand her desires…except proper yet wildly sexy Blake Marshall! He’ll give her a night to remember… but only if she’ll give him the rest of her life!

Passion? Abby Bauer wants some! Her fiancé, Keith, just doesn’t make her toes tingle. But the dashing masked man at the reception sure does….

Harlequin Historical – Historical romantic adventure! – 6 per month including Western Winter Wedding Bells

Small town Christmas—Three big proposals!

Christmas in Red Willow by Cheryl St. John
Chloe Hanley must save the town church. But only if she can convince reclusive carpenter Owen Reardon to help repair the broken heart of the community and open his own up again— in time for Christmas!

The Sheriff’s Housekeeper Bride by Jenna Kernan
Running from her past and a crime she didn’t commit, Eliza Flannery bumps into her future—all rugged six-foot sheriff of him! Single father Trent Foerster mistakes her for his housekeeper, but there’s no mistaking his desire for a mistletoe kiss from this mysterious miss….

Wearing the Rancher’s Ring by Charlene Sands
Cooper Garnett is shot and left for dead near Double J Ranch when widow Rachel Bodine comes to his aid. Could his unexpected arrival be the best Christmas gift ever— a second-chance family for Rachel and her little son?

Harlequin Medical Romance – Trauma, triumph and love!
6 per month in the US. Here’s the blurb from “Valentino’s Pregnancy Bombshell” by Amy Andrews
When Paige buttons up her silk bridesmaid dress she feels beautiful for the first time in years—giving her the courage to take deliciously dangerous Valentino Lombardi’s hand on the dance floor.

Paige spends one incredible night with Valentino. Until the cold light of dawn reminds her she’s a single mom with a daughter who really needs her care. As the sun rises she creeps away.

Then Valentino arrives as the new surgeon at her hospital, with his playboy reputation in tow! But the bombshells don’t stop here—now Paige must tell Valentino she’s expecting his baby….

Steeple Hill Love Inspired – Romance that inspires
6 titles per month. Here’s the blurb from Jillian Hart’s “His Holiday Bride”
Big-city sheriffs don’t belong in tiny Wild Horse, Wyoming. At least that’s what rancher Autumn Granger thinks when handsome Ford Sherman sweeps into town and sets his sights on her. A country cowgirl, she can’t possibly be his match. Like most newcomers, he’ll eventually get restless with small-town life and leave it—and her—behind. But when rustlers attack her family’s ranch, Ford helps her protect Granger territory. She finds herself hoping that he really is in Wild Horse to stay. Could her holiday wish of a happily ever after with this handsome lawman come true?
Silhouette Desire – Always powerful, passionate and provocative

6 titles per month. Here we have the blurb from “Ultimatum: Marriage”, by Ann Major

Mr. October: Billionaire business man Jake Claiborne
His Quest: Steer clear of scandal
His Quandry: He’d gotten the enemy’s daughter pregnant!

It had been sheer madness to bed Alicia Butler. The beauty’s father had cost Jake’s company millions and any association with her would surely create troubling tabloid fodder. But Alicia was pregnant with his baby and he would not walk away from this responsibility. Their only option was marriage and the hope that the gossip would dwindle…even as their passion reignited.
Harlequin Romance – Warm your heart with the ultimate in feel-good romances. 6 (or 7 in October) releases per month, including such titles as Margaret Way’s “Cattle Baron Needs a Bride”.

If only the society beauties jostling for the bouquet, hoping to become Mrs. Garrick Rylance, knew that the dashing best man in question has eyes for only one woman…. 
Bridesmaid Zara was his friend, his lover—but that was five years ago, before she flew to the city and out of his life, and Garrick cordoned off his heart.
So now, seeing Zara again, Garrick is wary. But there’s one thing he’s certain of—he won’t let her run this time!
Harlequin Presents – Seduction and passion guaranteed! – 6 releases per month with 4 Presents Extra mid month including 2 titles from Modern Heat editorial, and featuring such titles as Helen Bianchin’s “Public Marriage, Private Secrets”
Four years ago Gianna made a whirlwind marriage to the man she loved—Raúl Velez-Saldaña was the father of her baby. But, tragically, her pregnancy didn’t last and neither did their marriage. Discovering Raúl’s infidelity, Gianna left. 
But the Spaniard who stole her heart has returned!
As far as Raúl is concerned, his marriage to Gianna was simply postponed—now he wants his wife back! In public they are the perfect society couple; in private the secrets of their past still haunt them both and their desire is just as strong as ever….

Of course, there’s 11 lines I haven’t even touched on, but it’s certainly worth doing the exercise to see that even from the 8 listed above, we have what, a count of one playboy and he could only manage a single mum. Overwhelming? Really?

“Throwing the genre open to change and evolution can only be a good thing, I think. I mean, people obviously love the steamroller stuff, because they buy it and buy it again and again… but why should it be the only thing available to buy?”

Well, I think the examples I’ve given from the various lines above shows that last line not to be true. There are many different kinds of stories within category romance to buy, so many in fact, that I really don’t understand why someone would keep on buying books they don’t like. It’s beyond me. Life’s too short.

“Genres evolve by nature – they grow and change. But with category, we essentially get the same thing, over and over – rich alpha male meets socially inferior young woman.”

Do we? Again, that wasn’t obvious from the blurbs I read. But I do agree that genres evolve by nature. Just as the romance genre and Harlequin Mills & Boon books have evolved. Mills & Boon have been around (and excelling) for longer than 100 years. Harlequin doing likewise in excess of 60. Does it make any kind of sense at all that they have done so without change? No. Harlequin Mills & Boon books have changed with their readership and with the times.

There’s more I could address in your blog, but I have a book to write. All the best with your doctorate. It should make for interesting reading.

This constant distinction between romance and love story gets tiresome and old. I can name countless of stories written in the same vein as Sparks but call them literary novels; the same with crime, the same with westerns, the same with any other genre. Where does one draw the line?

We read books because we want to escape, we’re looking for answers, intellectual empathy, an understanding of the human condition in whatever crisis we meet it, at whatever point we are in our lives. The pleasure in reading is personal; we turn to books for solace, joy, consolation, validation.

Reading the article, I can’t help but conclude that Sparks is confused. And more importantly in search of writer’s validation.

In regards to her career being over: I was going for a sort of melodramatic reaction to something that in the end wasn’t so bad – a sort of hyper-emotional response because of stress – but I don’t know if it worked out too well.