09-08-2010, 07:19 AM
I like your thoughts! I feel the same. That's why the first person narrative is my favorite kind: you get to live vicariously through the heroine and there are no distractions by having to read other, less interesting character's adventures.
Now that I write the word "adventure" another line of thinking enters my mind. I've just tried reading a novel like The Da Vinci Code. The purpose of the story was to find out a connection between the bible and UFO's, Rennes le Chateau, Egypt, secret sects, murders etc. etc. I put it away after reading about 1/5 when I realized that I wasn't interested to find out about this connection at all. The book lacked something that would place me in the mind of the hero so I could empathize. I think the difference between this book and the gothic romances I love is that I don't get to feel deeply what the hero feels. There's not enough emotion. In a gothic romance you feel everything the heroine feels: wonder at her new surroundings, curiosity to learn about some secret, bewilderment when people behave oddly, a fluttering heart when she encounters the hero, joy when she's bantering with him and of course anxiety when she discovers she's in danger. I think the average novel doesn't dwell on emotions as much as the gothic romance does. Perhaps it's got to do with the "romance" part of the genre. I know in Mills & Boon books it's all about the emotions of the heroine as well, though they don't have the variety the gothic romance offers. It's mainly about her feelings for the hero.
So summarizing I could say not only is the appeal of the gothic romance that you identify with the heroine, but also that you get to feel so many different kind of emotions through her.
Well, this was rambling on a bit, thinking about it as I typed it, but hopefully it's making sense.
Now that I write the word "adventure" another line of thinking enters my mind. I've just tried reading a novel like The Da Vinci Code. The purpose of the story was to find out a connection between the bible and UFO's, Rennes le Chateau, Egypt, secret sects, murders etc. etc. I put it away after reading about 1/5 when I realized that I wasn't interested to find out about this connection at all. The book lacked something that would place me in the mind of the hero so I could empathize. I think the difference between this book and the gothic romances I love is that I don't get to feel deeply what the hero feels. There's not enough emotion. In a gothic romance you feel everything the heroine feels: wonder at her new surroundings, curiosity to learn about some secret, bewilderment when people behave oddly, a fluttering heart when she encounters the hero, joy when she's bantering with him and of course anxiety when she discovers she's in danger. I think the average novel doesn't dwell on emotions as much as the gothic romance does. Perhaps it's got to do with the "romance" part of the genre. I know in Mills & Boon books it's all about the emotions of the heroine as well, though they don't have the variety the gothic romance offers. It's mainly about her feelings for the hero.
So summarizing I could say not only is the appeal of the gothic romance that you identify with the heroine, but also that you get to feel so many different kind of emotions through her.
Well, this was rambling on a bit, thinking about it as I typed it, but hopefully it's making sense.