When Too Much is Too Much – Literally
So I was tooling along happily, reading the first dialogue between hero and heroine, and suddenly the hero concludes that he had rarely been so expertly teased. Expert teasing my ass. The hero hasn’t done anything except feel up the heroine’s leg, and the heroine hasn’t responded with anything resembling wit, and it all took place within twenty lines of speech. This was the last straw; I’ve had it with hyperbole.
I’ll be the first to admit that in some ways I’m as guilty as the nameless hero above. In an age where gushing reigns supreme, it’s hard not to exaggerate. Last night’s show was absolutely amazing! That is the most heinous skirt I’ve ever seen! You get the drift. I’ve tried to guard against it, but Natural tendencies + Cultural Inundation = Gross, Humongous, Amazingly Out-of-this-World Exaggerations. See what I mean?
When it comes to fiction, I do realize I have to take it with a grain of salt. I mean, fiction is, by definition, made up, which means I could get anything from a grocery cart itemization to Ursula LeGuin. And some of the most beloved romance tropes are extreme extrapolations: Opposites Attract becomes The Rake and the Virgin, Birds of a Feather becomes Love at First Sight. Some might even argue that the happy ending itself belongs to this category. I mean, the idea that life can continue permanently on an overall upswing –isn’t that a bit much?
But it does happen. And even if it didn’t, you have to believe in something. We’re human. So we have romances with happy endings and mysteries with solutions; we have Harry Potter and Frodo and Rincewind (who, in my book, is just as heroic as the other two). And no matter how fantastic the situations, the best scenarios are uplifting because they are credible. So when the hero, on ten-minutes’ acquaintance with the heroine, says she’s the wittiest person he has met, he loses credibility with me. When all I read about are devilishly handsome men and angelically beautiful women, I stop relating. And when this so-called love story is based on an inflated, distorted reality, I no longer believe.
I know there are exceptions. I just read a short story (The Natural Child) in which the main characters essentially fall in love in two hours, and you know what? I totally believed it. But Sharon and Tom Curtis are exceptional writers, and in this case their Lucy and Henry Lamb are more nuanced than some characters in full-length novels. But for too many authors, their hyperbole truncates the character development; it becomes a shortcut to the ending. Imagine if Sherlock Holmes’s suspects never prevaricated. Or if Eve Dallas always found the perpetrator at the scene of the crime.
When an author displays the attraction on a silver platter, it diminishes the achievement in finding and succeeding at love. A mystery has no meaning if the solution presents itself too easily. And a romance has no meaning if love comes too easily.
-Jean AAR
Witty banter and engaging dialogue doesn’t seem easy to consistently write. When I start to have to really stretch my imagination to maintain believability I begin to lose interest in the book and not care what happens to the characters. Imo the ten minute personality assessment you describe takes time in real life and in literature it takes a well-read writer with imagination to bridge that gap and move on with the plot.
As far as story endings go:
I saw a movie a few years ago called ‘Once’ and it did not have a typical HEA. I was disappointed at first even though I knew the ending could not have reasonably worked out any other way. This is pretty obvious based on the characters and story line so I don’t think I am spoiling anything here. On the other hand, I was surprised and perversely satisfied the ‘bad guys’ got away with the crime in a financial suspense novel I read recently. I read the book before the reviews and can’t say with certainty I would have pursued the book as eagerly since a few reviewers I admire trashed the book. Go figure.
Witty banter and engaging dialogue doesn’t seem easy to consistently write. When I start to have to really stretch my imagination to maintain believability I begin to lose interest in the book and not care what happens to the characters. Imo the ten minute personality assessment you describe takes time in real life and in literature it takes a well-read writer with imagination to bridge that gap and move on with the plot.
As far as story endings go:
I saw a movie a few years ago called ‘Once’ and it did not have a typical HEA. I was disappointed at first even though I knew the ending could not have reasonably worked out any other way. This is pretty obvious based on the characters and story line so I don’t think I am spoiling anything here. On the other hand, I was surprised and perversely satisfied the ‘bad guys’ got away with the crime in a financial suspense novel I read recently. I read the book before the reviews and can’t say with certainty I would have pursued the book as eagerly since a few reviewers I admire trashed the book. Go figure.
Totally agree. This is a basic case of show, don’t tell. If you don’t show me the heroine being witty or the hero being heroic, I don’t believe it just because the author tells me and throws in a bit of hyperbole as if it were proof.
Totally agree. This is a basic case of show, don’t tell. If you don’t show me the heroine being witty or the hero being heroic, I don’t believe it just because the author tells me and throws in a bit of hyperbole as if it were proof.
^ there is an annoying kid of my class who thinks everything remotely funny is extremely funny (and he says stupid things. I can’t wait for the semester to be over)….so there really are people are there who laugh at things that are not that funny.
“”So when the hero, on ten-minutes’ acquaintance with the heroine, says she’s the wittiest person he has met, he loses credibility with me. “” —-> I agree with this. Are you serious? She’s the ONLY person you’ve met who can string an intelligent sentence together?! For real? Then what about the other great females in your fictional universe who end up with your friends/brothers/cousins/coworkers/neighbors in earlier/later books? You’ve never met them before?
^ there is an annoying kid of my class who thinks everything remotely funny is extremely funny (and he says stupid things. I can’t wait for the semester to be over)….so there really are people are there who laugh at things that are not that funny.
“”So when the hero, on ten-minutes’ acquaintance with the heroine, says she’s the wittiest person he has met, he loses credibility with me. “” —-> I agree with this. Are you serious? She’s the ONLY person you’ve met who can string an intelligent sentence together?! For real? Then what about the other great females in your fictional universe who end up with your friends/brothers/cousins/coworkers/neighbors in earlier/later books? You’ve never met them before?
I posted on a forum thread about a similar experience to the one in your opening paragraph. It was a Julia Quinn novel (Minx, if memory serves) and the hero was left (and these are quotes) gasping for air and wiping tears of mirth and clutching his sides with laughter after every third line of dialogue from the heroine, none of which was actually funny in any way. Extremely annoying.
I posted on a forum thread about a similar experience to the one in your opening paragraph. It was a Julia Quinn novel (Minx, if memory serves) and the hero was left (and these are quotes) gasping for air and wiping tears of mirth and clutching his sides with laughter after every third line of dialogue from the heroine, none of which was actually funny in any way. Extremely annoying.
Brilliant review: I know I’ll see hyperbole everywhere I go now!!
Gotta agree with you katyco … AAR is always there with a well-written, sound review, even if I don’t always 100% concur. But devil’s advocate here, I have been burned so many times, often with hyperbole about a new book, that, well, using a new historical as an example, I’ll check AAR, Dear Author, Rakehell (go Cybil & Cheryl!) and bloggers that I know have a soft spot for historicals like Kristie J and Wendy Super Librarian. My time, not to mention my money, is too precious to not cast my net a bit more widely. Also, love review sites like AAR and DA that give a snapshot of their reviewers: I match up really well with some reviewers and their taste so I put a little more credence in their reviews. Anyhoo, that’s what works for me :)
Brilliant review: I know I’ll see hyperbole everywhere I go now!!
Gotta agree with you katyco … AAR is always there with a well-written, sound review, even if I don’t always 100% concur. But devil’s advocate here, I have been burned so many times, often with hyperbole about a new book, that, well, using a new historical as an example, I’ll check AAR, Dear Author, Rakehell (go Cybil & Cheryl!) and bloggers that I know have a soft spot for historicals like Kristie J and Wendy Super Librarian. My time, not to mention my money, is too precious to not cast my net a bit more widely. Also, love review sites like AAR and DA that give a snapshot of their reviewers: I match up really well with some reviewers and their taste so I put a little more credence in their reviews. Anyhoo, that’s what works for me :)
Jean – I agree completely. I get so bored when a story falls short on real character development. I believe in instant attraction but if there is going to be a HEA, I need to know why. Why are these characters drawn to one another? What needs do they fill in eachother? My reading time is limited and precious. I don’t want to spend it rolling my eyes. That’s why AAR is so important. It helps me weed out the really bad and determine what books are more to my taste.
Jean – I agree completely. I get so bored when a story falls short on real character development. I believe in instant attraction but if there is going to be a HEA, I need to know why. Why are these characters drawn to one another? What needs do they fill in eachother? My reading time is limited and precious. I don’t want to spend it rolling my eyes. That’s why AAR is so important. It helps me weed out the really bad and determine what books are more to my taste.