Radway put a different spin on romance novels for me.
Typically I view romance novels as pieces of work that depict stories of
relationships that its readers wish could happen to them. I feel like most
romance novels are synonymous with fantasy novels due to the fact that I have
never witnessed love for anyone to occur with overwhelming romance. After reading
Radway’s work, I had many questions, but also formed a few new opinions on how
I should actually view the impact of romance novels on its clientele.
The Gill and Radway readings made me really think of how
audiences actually consume items such as romance novels and how they use these
books as an ‘out’ or a ‘release.’ I actually felt sympathetic for the women
that were interviewed in the study in Radway’s piece. It seems like they read
these books in order to live vicariously through its characters in order to
hope that there still may be hope for them to experience a movie-like romance
in their lives. However, they are unattainable. These books have the structure
to make women yearn for these experiences. The romantic novels use normal
settings, normal people, and true love as its components for its plot, and they
concoct a storyline that professes life values that true love is blind and that
there is one person out in the world for you to its readers that live in a
society where obviously that isn’t always true because the divorce rate is the
highest it’s ever been. This sets up its readers for failure! How can one love
her own life when they are getting sucked up in books weekly that have relatable
characters that are achieving true happiness in every novel? It must be tough.
I never thought that there was this kind of potential impact out there in the
book world.
Radway makes strong claims in her reading, and Gill’s work
is very complimentary to the problems Radway discusses. Audiences consume
differently in different areas and demographics. Yes, the effects of romance
novels have common effects on its readers; however, they are stronger and
weaker in different places. Thus, people are experiencing the issues of romance
novels pressuring their own personal lives, but the difference in degree of
certain impacts are differing from area to area. This was a very interesting
topic to read about, especially for a male college student. I never thought
that a certain genre of literature could have such a major impact on a
demographic, especially when they are considered ‘hits’ and ‘classics’ by book
critics.
