Comments on Bookphilia.com: Reading as a political act/The political inefficac...

heidenkind: Yes, I have read many, many Harlequin ...

2009-11-26T08:47:38.990-05:00

heidenkind: Yes, I have read many, many Harlequin romances. When I diss things like V.C. Andrews and Harlequin romances, it's not based on a lack of experience with them.

Tony: We must be familiar with very different kinds of porn because the porn I'm familiar with tends to push the notion that women's pleasure is either secondary to or contingent upon men's pleasure. Which is pretty damned conservative.

But even reading porn is a political statement: it...

2009-11-26T05:56:47.845-05:00

But even reading porn is a political statement: it challenges the conservative morals driving the country and shows your refusal to conform to gender stereotypes.

Possibly.

Are you sure about that? Have you ever read a Har...

2009-11-26T00:42:00.850-05:00

Are you sure about that? Have you ever read a Harlequin romance novel?

I can't believe for a moment that reading somethin...

2009-11-25T21:16:32.266-05:00

I can't believe for a moment that reading something like a Harlequin romance constitutes any sort of thinking for oneself. It's porn for housewives, and it's not good or interesting porn.

Also, putting Harlequins and Jane Eyre in the same category of book is like putting me and Michael Jordan into the same category of athlete; it's not a useful or fair comparison.

Well, in some ways I agree with you and other ways...

2009-11-25T19:48:28.686-05:00

Well, in some ways I agree with you and other ways I don't. I wouldn't call reading anything a political act in and of itself. But reading is such a personal experience, and I think it scares people--the idea that I can read something and have ideas, emotions, and reactions to it that no one can predict or control. So even though Harlequin romances are just silly fluff reading on their surface, they still represent a certain freedom of mind and independence that undermines the idea that the reader--whoever he/she is--can't think for themselves. I'm not about to espouse that they're great works of literature, but romances HAVE been on the forefront of the fight for civil rights and social equality since, oh, Jane Eyre maybe? Including today when the up-and-coming romance sub-genre is GLBT.

My point is, books represent ideas and free thinking, whether they're "good" books or not. But I do agree with you that Manguel's idea that all reading is political is a stretch. It sounds like there's a strong point to be made in that book, but he went off in the wrong direction and failed to make it effectively.