Never let it be said that when Susan G says jump, we fail to ask “how high?” Oh, wait, we’ve never asked such a question. Lazy, you know.
Please pay attention because we’re going to admit a dirty little secret: we think Mrs. Giggles rocks. For the uninitiated, Mrs. Giggles lives in Singapore and writes about romance novels and the romance community. She’s one of the few reviewers out there who doesn’t try to sugarcoat her opinions. She makes grown women cry, in a manner of speaking.
We recently wrote (over at Romancing the Blog) that the genre needs stronger, more critical reviews. Mrs. Giggles suggests the industry needs more honesty. We like the sentiment, but, frankly, would note that poison is considered a woman’s weapon. By and large, the romance genre is filled with genuinely helpful women (we’ve met many of them), but humans simply aren’t as sweet and good as we like to believe. What with social rules and graces and all, how our acting out manifests itself is fascinating.
Authors crave positive attention. Fans crave brushing up against celebrity (why, we’ll never understan). We, here in the Center of the Universe, crave noodl–er, oops, we crave open debate that pushes an author’s work to the next level.
All of this is our way of saying that while the Giggles soapbox is a little wobbly, she makes a good point.
3 responses so far ↓
Susan Gable // Feb 16, 2005 at 7:20 pm
Ha! Jump, jump, I say! (snicker)
I think the point is that those who are honest and tell it like it is DO often find themselves with a knife in their back at times. And yes, sometimes things do feel like junior high, and good grief, do I hate that. Junior high was no fun the first time, I certainly don’t want to do it again.
What did you think of her implication that there are some authors running around with multiple-online-personality-syndrome, drumming up PR for themselves?
booksquare // Feb 17, 2005 at 9:40 am
As I said last night (in a completely different context), why would I want to relive the worst time of my life? The junior high/high school years should have been a valuable lesson, and surely incentive to grow up. Alas…though I’m not too proud to admit I love pettiness and gossip and meltdowns, I try to remain an observer, not a participant.
As for MOPS, oh yeah, didn’t even make me blink. It’s easy to create several (heck, hundreds) of identities. There is no verification that you’re who you say you are. I think this is why I take recommendations and reviews with a healthy dose of skepticism. Just looking at the online romance community (but you see evidence elsewhere as well), there is no vetting of reviewers or even that a person posting to a list is who they say they are. I know of one instance where the owner of a very large romance-related site signed onto a list where members were critical of her…only she used a different name. She was outed due to a mistake in her sig line (note: to live outside the law, you must be honest!).
I never trust groundswells of support without ample evidence that it’s deserved. It’s rough being a cynical optimist.
Susan Gable // Feb 17, 2005 at 9:49 am
Cynical optimist. (snicker) Yeah, that about sums me up, too. No wonder we get along so well.