That may take a little bit of looking into. I live in a town of literally 6k+ people. Searched the library archive and they don't have it anywhere within 50 miles. I would hate to have to opt out due to my circumstances. Besides throwing caution to the wind, I bought a lesser known Metal album years ago and it turned out to be pretty good. Sometimes it is best to throw a little risk out there. Anyways the over all exercise is to gain at the least a base understanding of how the overall genre works. That and it should not cost more than time, considering the aim is for academic purpose. BayVeiw raises a good point that just because one person likes something, does not translate over to the next.
Yeah that's every genre. There's plenty of stuff in my own spheres that I'm not a huge fan of. Although in this case, commentary on lighter, fluffier Romance from readers who don't do light and fluffy might be funny as heck. (If this worked out my next move was going to see if I could get a few strictly-Romance people to return the favor and assign them some Hard SF like Cixin Liu's "The Three-Body Problem"...three cheers for worldbuilding based on abstract physics and orbital mechanics!) (I know, I know...I'm a horrible person )
We could still read a novel from Romance, and then compare notes. Take the good with the bad, while giving a choice on what novels we all choose. Like wise you could extend the same to the Romance crowd with the SF challenge. Not exactly the standard 'book club' mentality, but then again why not break out of the classic mold. That being said to keep it within your original proposal, I find no reason why it couldn't work in either case. Sound fair?
There isn't really any way to change people opinions of the genre. If you are writing romance though I would say probably the most common criticism of romantic fiction is how cliched some of the stories can be so if you want to write "respected" romantic fiction try to be as original as possible and avoid common cliches.
Ummm...genre Romance is just a story where the Romance is the main plot rather than a subplot. (And every romantic comedy I've ever seen on film has non-romantic subplots just like any other story). There's nothing wrong with that.
It's rather mundane and specific by itself, like having a genre devoted to pizza store finance management. There's a very limited range of possible conflicts (adultery, forbidden relationships, etc.) that is quickly exhausted and causes the writer to outsource conflicts and ideas from other genres. By that point, it might as well be about the other genre because that's what the conflict now revolves around.
Good gravy that's like watching two classic movies and writing them off as boring. Taste is involved - how do you know you found a style of romance you liked.
And do you think those two books gave you enough of an understanding of the genre to be able to responsibly declare that the genre shouldn't exist? Do you distinguish between "It's not something I choose to read" and "It shouldn't even be a genre?" Are you just stating things to an extreme level as a way to stir things up, or do you actually believe what you're saying?
It's a bit more than that. Fiction generally serves to deliver an experience that one would not experience in their lives. Alien invasions, magic, effects of speculative technologies on society, etc. Like paying the taxes, romance is something most would eventually experience. Honestly, I'd rather spend my time pursuing romance in real life if I were interested.
So you only read SF/F? No realistic fiction? Do you think that's a standard you should apply to everyone else, who may have different preferences?
I sometimes read realistic military/political fiction. It's a personal preference, really. Other people should read what they like. I just think romance is like soy sauce. Romance adds flavor, but I'd rather not have too much of it.
Fair enough - personal preference (or the lack thereof) is a bit different from declaring a genre shouldn't exist!
It's sorta implied, though. It'd be tedious to add the phrase "I think that" to the start of every opinion. I'm not going to start a crusade to end a genre.
Well - I don't read hard scifi - the few books I've read have bored me to tears. But I don't think that it shouldn't exist. I just think it's not for me. But you apparently think that if you don't care for something, it shouldn't exist? Or are we back to the "overstated for effect" thing?
To clarify, I think it simply does not change enough to constitute an independent genre. It's a subgenre like military/political/crime. You cannot have fiction that is simultaneously realistic and fantasy, but you can have any combination of romance, war, etc. because they're subgenres.
Well, okay. You're disagreeing with the vast majority of book publishers, sellers, and readers, but - okay. Don't get too confused when you see the big "Romance" section at the book store, though!