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Misadventures in Amazon ...
11 years ago
General
And sadly, not the big sexy kind...
Recently I was poked with the idea that I should set up a wishlist on Amazon.com. I'm, frankly, terrible to buy for; I'm old enough, live by myself, and earn a decent living, such that when there's something I really want/need, I buy it. That leaves things that I *kinda* want or need for gifts, and when asked, I'm pretty much guaranteed not to remember what any of those things are.
So, today I started randomly entering words into Amazon, relating to things I like, or things I'd kinda like to have but really don't need. Most of the time, the results have been at least marginally useful, enough so that there are some nice items on my wishlist now, things I don't need but would certainly enjoy receiving. Very occasionally the searches turned up really curious items (including one I bought that I'll elaborate on in a later post).
However, when I put in "hyena" (you *had* to know that was coming), one of the first things that came up was a book, "Every Sunset Forever (Hyena Heat Book 3)". The cover was dubiously Harlequin Romance, one of those "bodies pressed together" bodice-ripper covers. I thought "Okay, must be some sort of metaphoric reference there, not actually having anything to do with hyenas." But being bored and curious, I Googled the title and author's name.
Nope, it was not, in fact, metaphorical at all! Based on the synopses, the stories are soft-core porn; in every single one (at least of these three) the heroine is a, haunted, tortured female werewolf, separated from her pack and/or abused and/or (chose from usual list of heartbreaking issues associated with trashy romance), surrounded by a pack of huge hunky male were-hyenas. It was *all* of the trappings of bad romance fanfic. And then to tip me over the edge, JakeRabbit had to point out to me that the series was named "Wild Shifter Babes".
I spent about twenty minutes giggling like a loon at all the cliches you become painfully aware of after skimming fanfics online for too many years. As a purveyor of smut I'm probably the last person who should be casting stones, but at the same time, I'm forced to wonder aloud: do the people who write this stuff *recognize* the horrible trite cliches they're writing? Are they merely pandering to a market? Or are they, like, actually serious about this?
Recently I was poked with the idea that I should set up a wishlist on Amazon.com. I'm, frankly, terrible to buy for; I'm old enough, live by myself, and earn a decent living, such that when there's something I really want/need, I buy it. That leaves things that I *kinda* want or need for gifts, and when asked, I'm pretty much guaranteed not to remember what any of those things are.
So, today I started randomly entering words into Amazon, relating to things I like, or things I'd kinda like to have but really don't need. Most of the time, the results have been at least marginally useful, enough so that there are some nice items on my wishlist now, things I don't need but would certainly enjoy receiving. Very occasionally the searches turned up really curious items (including one I bought that I'll elaborate on in a later post).
However, when I put in "hyena" (you *had* to know that was coming), one of the first things that came up was a book, "Every Sunset Forever (Hyena Heat Book 3)". The cover was dubiously Harlequin Romance, one of those "bodies pressed together" bodice-ripper covers. I thought "Okay, must be some sort of metaphoric reference there, not actually having anything to do with hyenas." But being bored and curious, I Googled the title and author's name.
Nope, it was not, in fact, metaphorical at all! Based on the synopses, the stories are soft-core porn; in every single one (at least of these three) the heroine is a, haunted, tortured female werewolf, separated from her pack and/or abused and/or (chose from usual list of heartbreaking issues associated with trashy romance), surrounded by a pack of huge hunky male were-hyenas. It was *all* of the trappings of bad romance fanfic. And then to tip me over the edge, JakeRabbit had to point out to me that the series was named "Wild Shifter Babes".
I spent about twenty minutes giggling like a loon at all the cliches you become painfully aware of after skimming fanfics online for too many years. As a purveyor of smut I'm probably the last person who should be casting stones, but at the same time, I'm forced to wonder aloud: do the people who write this stuff *recognize* the horrible trite cliches they're writing? Are they merely pandering to a market? Or are they, like, actually serious about this?
We all know that wolves are quite prone to the good ol' savannah fever.
Could even set it in post-colonial America for the extra schlockiness.
So, quite possibly, they don't recognize the cliches, and some might even consider it a personal affront to have them pointed out.
Of course, a lot of this sort of thing is also really Mary-Sue-ish. which is part of the sets of cliches you mention. Focused entirely on the interests of the author, which is probably part of why the author doesn't necessarily see the flaws.
http://rainydaypaperback.tumblr.com.....kurt-smith-has