[LMB] trashy books for guys - what's the difference?

[alayne at twobikes.ottawa.on.ca]

On Fri, 1 Feb 2008, Lois McMaster Bujold wrote:
> The Executioner series 
> would be closer to the trope tangle I have in mind, gun porn certainly.  
> (James Bond has rather escaped into some larger category, "cultural 
> phenomenon" perhaps.)  Something that is as comparably constrained, both 
> exclusive and excluding, as the modern romance genre.  (And, I suspect, 
> as comparably scorned.)  Trashy books for guys.

The following applies to non-SF only:
the defining characteristic of men's trashy adventures is that they define 
and explain the gadgets. In Great Detail. In fact, so much that they slow 
up the plot. Guns, airplanes, cars, whatever: you know them to the last 
detail before the author's finished.

Michael Crichton would be the epitome of this, but it applies to many 
authors, such as Ian Fleming or Bob Mayer.

I've read just about every genre at one time or another, so I've read some 
of these books. Some I enjoyed, some turned me off (I can't get more than 
a few pages into a James Bond book).
 
> My own take on the two genres is that in romance, characters get to 
> *say* things readers would never get to say in real life but wish they 
> could, to vicariously triumph over those who oppress them, and in 
> guy-books, characters get to *shoot* folks readers would never get to 
> shoot over in real life but wish they could, to vicariously triumph over 
> those who oppress them.  But my reading in both market sectors is not wide.

This is true. But it has to be more than just the shooting in the 
guy-books; they also have to outwit the bad guys.

> Mystery does seem to be a universal donor, like Type O blood, an element 
> that can be added to any other genre, just as F&SF seems to be a 
> universal receiver, like Type AB blood, that can *accept* elements from 
> all other genres,

I like your metaphor! It makes sense to me.

-- 
Alayne McGregor
alayne at twobikes.ottawa.on.ca

"I propose a new standard by which to judge mainstream literature. The
more often a fantasy reader thinks, 'Oh, just forget all that and go save
the world, will you?' the lower the quality of the book." -- Janni Lee Simner