On the Road: Boston
I’m in Boston, having just finished two days at the Popular Culture Conference, my time travel back to academic life, and I have enjoyed it immensely, probably because I’m not worried about tenure or sitting on a committee. Or maybe it was because it’s the Pop Culture Conference, the best national academic conference to attend (I used to go years ago and give papers on mystery fiction and computer games, those were the days) because Pop Culture people know how to have a good time without highhatting each other. Or maybe it’s because the academics who study romance are just such good people. I finally got to meet Eric Selinger and Sarah Frantz from the Teach Me Tonight blog–the mysterious Laura Vivanco remains mysterious in Britain, but I think she’s just playing hard to get, or maybe she just loves it that we all refer to her as the Mysterious Laura–and so many other great people, including Glen Thomas from the Queensland University of Technology (his paper was “Romance: The Perfect Creative Industry”), a university I will now be visiting in August, so if you’re one of Glen’s students, brace yourself. And the papers were phenomenal. Sarah is reporting on them on the TMT blog and she’s doing a much better job synopsizing than I could (her paper was “”Sobbing SEALs, Frantic Football Players, and Weeping Vampires: The Rise of the Emotional Masculine Perspective in Romance Novels” which I think Bob should read, especially since her current work includes Don’t Look Down and is about to include Agnes and the Hitman as soon as I get her an ARC), so I’ll fast forward to the panel I was on today since it’s all about mememememe.
Well, me and Eloisa James and Suz Brockmann. I was there giving a paper on community (”A Book Where Everybody Knows Your Name: Community in Contemporary Romance Fiction” a lot of which will go into the Community lesson on HWSW in a couple of weeks), Eloisa was there as Mary Bly, the name she uses when she’s a Shakespeare scholar, giving a paper called “Hostile but Useful: Adorno, Pop Music, and Popular Romance”, and Suz was there as a discussant. Mary and I delivered our papers (Mary was brilliant and I would love a copy of her paper HINT), Suz spoke about being inspired to write romance and was fabulous, and then we talked about romance with everybody, on so many different topics that’s it’s hard to sort them all out now, but I can tell you I had a wonderful time.
I learned a lot about the current state of romance at this conference, but the thing that struck me most was how clearly the scholars in the room refuted Janice Radway’s abysmal Reading the Romance. Back when I was doing academic romance criticism (a million years ago), everybody thought Radway was the voice of God on romance fiction. But now that academic critics are actually reading romance themselves–I can’t say enough good things about the people who gave papers on romance fiction at this conference–they’re all looking at Radway’s work with reactions ranging from bemusement to outrage. And you know, having shrieked about how bad that book was so many years ago, hearing other people who have better academic credentials than I ever did say the same things was downright heartwarming. I am so encouraged by romance criticism right now, I’m almost optimistic. (If you’re interested, the Teach Me Tonight blog is a great place to start catching up.)
And I’m thrilled with the people who are working on it, especially Eric who did a paper on me. There’s just not enough academic criticism on Crusie, that’s what I say. Especially done by Eric Selinger who is not only a scholar but a reader, too, a combination that’s not as common as you’d think it would be. It was especially fun to watch him give his paper (”Brace Yourself, Brigid O’Shaughnessy: Jennifer Crusie Romances The Maltese Falcon”) in front of me. The urge to say, “You know, that’s not right,” was overwhelming even though he was dead on target in everything he said. And all my sympathies to Linda Lee, who came to give her excellent paper, “An Alternate Genealogy: Reconsidering Romance Novels as Postmodern Fairy Tales,” which pretty much refuted completely a paper I’d done long ago on the same topic, only to find I was sitting in the audience. That can’t have been fun, even though she was right and I was wrong. So I bought her lunch. It seemed the least I could do, after I said, “No, no, you were right and I was wrong.” Academic criticism is not for the thin-skinned.
Of course, I caught a cold here which meant I couldn’t stay and play with everybody after our panel–nothing like being Typhoid Jenny at the party–but I came back to the hotel and slept for hours and then pampered myself with room service and now I’m doped to the gills on cold meds and ready to call it a night so I can catch a plane home tomorrow. With any luck, the next On the Road I write will be in Australia in August. I’m looking at fourteen weeks of beautiful non-traveling and uber-writing. It’s enough to make me want to wallow.
But a huge thank you to Eric and Sarah and Darcy Martin (her paper was “”Exploding the Stereotype: The Heroine as Portrayed in the Silhouette Bombshell Series”) and everybody else who presented such thoughtful papers on romance fiction, and a special so-good-to-see-you-again to Emily Toth, and a definite you-were-brilliant to Mary and Suz. It was a very good day.
Bummer on the cold. Yay on the writing time!
I love Teach Me Tonight. It’s a great blog. Very insightful and thought-provoking.
What a cool conference! I wish I’d been there. When, by the way, does the book of Crusie criticism come out, Jenny? Have you heard?
Hope you’re better soon!
When, by the way, does the book of Crusie criticism come out, Jenny? Have you heard?
The deadline for us (i.e. Eric and me) to get the essays from contributors was only last week, so it’ll be a while before the volume’s ready for publication. Things are definitely beginning to come together though.
I’m not really mysterious. I just hate travelling. [Hmm. Maybe I should pretend that I'm like Greta Garbo, glamorous and with a need to be alone? I've met a couple of the UK Cherries, though, and I'm sure they'd soon let everyone know exactly how unmysterious I really am.]
The Mysterious Laura is cool, and one day I will drag her on a plane or train with me to a Cherry Con.
Funniest blog in ages Jenny. Please let us know Bob’s reaction to that masculine emotion paper.
Thanks so much, Jenny! I’ve enjoyed this conference almost more than any other as well (nothing quite beats getting dressed up in fake Regency clothes and English-country-dancing the night away at Jane Austen conferences, though!). It was so fabulous to have you and Mary and Suz in a room together–we need to harness that brain power! And we’re all completley excited about the “new” romance scholarship as well.
Eric, in his inimitable way, has decreed that we will have the First Annual International Conference on Popular Romance in Australia in August 2009. So let it be written on bar napkins. So let it be done.
I’m so glad to read what you said about Radway’s book. I just had to read it for a graduate course in library school and I thought that there was something wrong with me and that I just didn’t get it.
Oops. Somehow I hit submit before I finished typing.
Anyway, I’ve been using terms like “interesting” to describe Radway (while thinking “interestingly awful” or “it’s interesting that so many people think this is so great”) and I admire that you just come out and say “abysmal.”
Jenny, it’s really not fair that all the cool conferences take place in the US! What about us poor Europeans?
Back when I was doing academic romance criticism (a million years ago), everybody thought Radway was the voice of God on romance fiction.
Heavens. Radway’s book is one of the worst academic studies I’ve ever read: not only doesn’t she know anything about romance, but she also doesn’t know anything at all about academic fieldwork. Heck, the 19th-century pioneers of questionnaire studies knew more about how to conduct a questionnaire study than Radway.
Wow. Sounds like a great conference. Hope you’re feeling better today. Just read Glen Thomas’ article, “Who are you? What are you doing here?” confessions of an academic, in the Hearts Talk (the Aussie equivalent or the RWR.) I liked what he had to say. Glad you’re going up to Qld. it will be great for you to see more of Aust. than Sydney. (Although Sydney is lovely and my personal favorite.)
ok, all of this sounds fascinating. must go to that blog now…
Wow I would love to read some of those papers. I don’t suppose they are available?
Ditto what McB said.
Hope you’re feeling better, Jenny!
Eric and Sarah are doing a book of romance criticism and asked for those who’d presented papers to submit them, so there’s a good chance you’ll see a lot of them when they get that together.
Thank you. Theresa, I’ve still got this stinking cold. Bob and I are swapping e-mails that say, “No, I’M sicker.” As in more ill, not more perverted. When it comes to perverse, you can’t beat “Let The Alligator Eat Them” Mayer.
Hey Jenny! As one of Glen’s, Masters in Romance Writing students at Queensland University of Technology, I’m “bracing myself” for your visit to us.
This is the equivalent of getting Jane Austin, Ernest Hemmingway, Graham Greene or Agatha Christie to visit us - yeah, I know they’re all dead - but I’m sure you get my point!
Looking forward to meeting you.
Wow, the only way my weekend could have been betters is if I transported my book club party to that conference. It sounds wonderful!!!
I have always been a romance fan (well, since I was 15 or so) and became an überfan when I ran across both Suz Brockmann and Jenny Crusie who would never write about friendless orphans. Their characters all have friends and families and complications. I love it. And I would love even more to hear the fabulous Jenny Cruise speak about creating community in romantic fiction. Do let us mere fans know if we can ever do this, please !!!
As a Brisbane resident and huge fan of yours, I can’t wait until you come here! Do you have your Australian schedule posted anywhere so I can book myself into sessions?
Hello, Catherine and Sheena!
I have no idea when I’m going to be where. Romance Writers of Australia has me for August 10-12 and New Zealand Romance Writers has me for the next weekend and sometime in between I’m seeing Queensland University. That’s about all I know.
I’m putty in their hands.
Whaddyaknow. Where do I live again? Oh, Brisbane…. thats right.
Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Sheena, check out the RWAust conference pages for details -
http://www.romanceaustralia.com/conference/2007/index.htm
Jenny, hope you soon knock that cold on the head. Look forward to meeting you in August!
Waves to Catherine and all you other Brisbanites!