10-24-2007, 02:17 AM
Calling these wonderful books "Sentimental Gothics" makes me cringe! Since this whole forum is supposedly dedicated to "Gothic Romances," why not call them what they truly are: "Gothic Romances"?
I think going down the path of using terminology like "paranormal gothics" and "horror gothics" will become hopelessly confusing, as there is no guarantee there is a romance in either of them. Romance is a key ingredient (at least I think so) in the books that primarily interest those who are members of this forum.
To me, if a book contains romance, life-threatening suspense, and a puzzle/mystery, it is a gothic romance novel. If any of these three ingredients are missing, it is something else and may not be of particular interest to the majority of members of this fourm. It could be discussed, of course, in the "General Off Topic Discussion" section of this forum.
There is a confusion regarding the word "gothic" because of its recent adoption by those who call their music gothic and/or those who dress all in black with pale white faces. I would suspect that those groups gravitate more toward horror gothics than gothic romances. I believe the intent of this forum is to discuss gothic romance novels.
I think the current sub-forum titles of Classic Gothics and General Gothic Romance Discussion are appropriate for this forum, but the addition of a Horror Gothic subforum is inappropriate and confusing. Judging from the small number of posts and replies in that sub-forum, most members unsurprisingly have little interest in these types of books. It's been my experience that romance lovers do not usually read horror novels. Some of the recent vampire novels add to the confusion, as they often masquerade as romances, but romance is not really a driving force in these novels. They are more often driven by a battle of good vs. evil or posession vs. independence.
I'd like to see this forum remain on topic.
I think going down the path of using terminology like "paranormal gothics" and "horror gothics" will become hopelessly confusing, as there is no guarantee there is a romance in either of them. Romance is a key ingredient (at least I think so) in the books that primarily interest those who are members of this forum.
To me, if a book contains romance, life-threatening suspense, and a puzzle/mystery, it is a gothic romance novel. If any of these three ingredients are missing, it is something else and may not be of particular interest to the majority of members of this fourm. It could be discussed, of course, in the "General Off Topic Discussion" section of this forum.
There is a confusion regarding the word "gothic" because of its recent adoption by those who call their music gothic and/or those who dress all in black with pale white faces. I would suspect that those groups gravitate more toward horror gothics than gothic romances. I believe the intent of this forum is to discuss gothic romance novels.
I think the current sub-forum titles of Classic Gothics and General Gothic Romance Discussion are appropriate for this forum, but the addition of a Horror Gothic subforum is inappropriate and confusing. Judging from the small number of posts and replies in that sub-forum, most members unsurprisingly have little interest in these types of books. It's been my experience that romance lovers do not usually read horror novels. Some of the recent vampire novels add to the confusion, as they often masquerade as romances, but romance is not really a driving force in these novels. They are more often driven by a battle of good vs. evil or posession vs. independence.
I'd like to see this forum remain on topic.