You and me could have a vampire romance

[foxfirefey]

sunnyskywalker is reviewing a paranormal romance fitting into a certain common theme:

This book is terrible. However, it is also an absolutely perfect encapsulation of the deeply-embedded cultural narratives all the romances with hot, rich, creepily controlling vampires are tapping into: namely, that the world is full of natural human predators who deserve their position at the top of the social hierarchy, and that to survive you need to find a predator who will resist the urge to hurt you and will protect you from the other predators because he thinks you’re special.

...

For whatever reason, Harkness, Meyer, et al. find the tale of the frighteningly violent man who basically owns you but decides to protect rather than hurt you because you’re special appealing. Enough so to write book after book around the theme of, “He won’t treat me the way he treated those other women or the way he’s constantly threatening to treat me, because I’m different than the others, so really it’s like I have control! Slavery is freedom!” And literally immortal overlords literally sucking the life out of the less powerful for millenia? Means it will be totally romantic if one of them takes a liking to you and lifts you up to your “proper” station in life! There’s no need to question this setup’s moral foundations or ask if it could change. After all, they are stronger, faster, and more powerful than you, and the good ones won’t hurt you (much) if you just do as they say, so really it’s a pretty sweet deal even if you are just their ditch-digger or carpenter or whatever for your entire life with no hope of anything more, isn’t it? Isn’t it?

Comments

[clean_dirt]

Great analysis! I never thought about the trope that way before, but it's soo true.

Sidenote: I tried the audiobook version of this story. It was a good cure for insomnia. I accidentally skipped a CD and never noticed the difference due to the slow pacing.
I tried the sequel, but the issues you mentioned became even more grating when placed in Elizabethan London.

[sunnyskywalker]

I wish I'd skipped a big chunk of it too, let me tell you...