glee and its "ballad" vexations
November 19, 2009
Did you ever run across one teeny tiny small thing in an episode or something that just bugged you so much you wanted to smack the people responsible? And you know it's tiny, and you know it's not meant the way they said it, and you still want to smack them?
In last night's episode of Glee, they made the students pair up with each other to sing ballads to each other, as it would be required at sectionals. Fine and dandy. And the students were paired randomly by picking names out of a hat, which allowed for people to be paired in hi-larious ways. The club has an interesting yet very Hollywood mix of apparent ethnicities -- a black boy and girl, Matt and Mercedes, and an Asian boy and girl, Tina and .... They have, interestingly enough, resisted the temptation to pair everyone up romantically along ethnic lines. So far, so good. For last night's episode, the black guy, Matt, was supposedly out sick, leaving Mr Schuester, the teacher, to pair off with the student who he discovered had a crush on him. Larf riot! And then Tina pulled a piece of paper out of the hat, and she said: "Other Asian."
Ha.
Ha.
Ha.
Here's the thing: Glee club only has 12 students. They've been going for several weeks in the show's time. Mr Schu is practically neurotic about trying to be a good mentor to his students. You're telling me that after all this time, he wouldn't know the student's name? Moreover, he wouldn't know how humiliating it would be for that student to have it stated in public that the teacher couldn't remember the guy's name? Mind, it's also possible -- perhaps even probable -- that Tina said that on her own, as an insult to someone who might well have been one of her persecutors. Which ... OK, but in that case, the teacher should have said something. It shouldn't have passed unnoticed. And in either case, quite honestly, it feels vaguely like the powers that be were trying to avoid giving him a name because once he has a name, he'd actually maybe get lines, and the speaking cast is quite crowded already.
I suppose I shouldn't be terribly surprised. They screwed the pooch rather badly the last time they brought up anything like ethnic issues played for comedy, in the episode "Throwdown", but that was easier to get past, since they were trying to make a point -- albeit badly, and the point was actually quite quite wrong -- and the good intentions were practically glittering on their sleeves. (And, in fact, in light of later revelations about Sue Sylvester, the episode makes a great deal more sense ... though the point Schu makes is still quite quite wrong.) In "Ballad", this was just a small moment played straight up for comedy ... and they should have known better. Anyone thinking about it for a tenth of a second would have known better. It's not true to the characters as they've built them, it's not true to the situation, and it's wrong on its face. Plus, it's just plain not funny.
To be sure, last night's episode was wildly uneven. One thing they did right was showing other parents, finally, and how they react to the news that their children are going to have an untimely baby, which the entire school including faculty already knew. Finn's mother was hurt, but supportive; Quinn's parents threw her out. There's also the gay kid Kurt with a crush on Finn, and Finn having the brains of a flea (and, to be fair, being a teenager) has not the slightest idea how to handle it. And the actual crush plot with the teacher and student was handled fairly well, and done in one, which is good. And we will not speak of Mercedes' advice to Puck, which was not only wrongheaded, but possibly also wrong for the character as we've seen her built to date. (She seems to have very firm ideas about what's right and wrong, and to tell someone that they should just shut up about what's right in order to make life easier for someone else doesn't seem in character.) It wasn't, overall, a bad episode, and it had some very good moments in it.
But that "Other Asian" crack ... it still nags, for some reason. It's a tiny, small thing. I know this, I absolutely know it. It just ... vexes me.
It vexes me, you hear?
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Commendations? Brickbats?
harlequin is publishing WHAT?
November 9, 2009
So Harlequin is going to be publishing Gay and Lesbian romances. And, like, smutty books.
No, really.
No ... really.
Carina Press is a new digital-only publisher that combines editorial and marketing expertise with the freedom of digital publishing. With a long history of digital marketing and editorial experience, the Carina Press team is committed to bringing readers fresh voices and new, unique editorial.
Our philosophy is: no great story should go untold!
Carina Press will publish a broad range of fiction with an emphasis on romance and its subgenres. We will also acquire voices in mystery, suspense and thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, erotica, gay/lesbian, and more!
Our first books will hit the digital shelves in Spring 2010. Stay tuned!
As Carina Press is a division of Harlequin Enterprises Ltd, how is it different?
At the very basic level, Harlequin is a traditional print publisher with a robust digital-offering, while Carina Press is a digital-only publisher.
Both the contract and distribution channels are very different:
- The Carina Press contract does not include an advance or DRM, and authors are compensated with a higher royalty.
- Unlike Harlequin there is no guaranteed series distribution (no standing order, no direct mail, no overseas translation markets).
- Carina Press titles will be sold direct to consumers through the Carina Press website, and we’ll be securing 3rd party distribution on other websites....
All content © Harlequin Enterprises Limited
"Acquire voices" ... well, whatever.
Most likely, to the extent that gay romances get published, they're going to be M/M romance rather than gay -- that is, aimed and oriented at their women readers, rather than at the gay market. Developing a new client base would be massively difficult, after all, and they've had Torquere and Samhain and Dreamspinner and Ravenous Romance and (somewhat accidentally) Cleis Press to show them that yes, there are lots and lots of women out there who will read stories of men in love and/or gettin' it on. And Carina, as long as people know that it's a Harlequin imprint, would be a desperately hard sell to gay bookstores and gay male readers. After all, we've long been conditioned to run screaming into the woods at the very sight of a Harlequin romance, because gooshy books that women like are icky! Icky icky icky! (We men are delicate flowers that wilt at the mere mention of women's literature and/or romance. Be gentle with us.)
(For the record, I have, somewhat accidentally, wound up with three Harlequin audiobooks. One was actually pretty enjoyable, although the pace of the reading kept the wacky hijinks from coming off quite the way the author probably intended. The other two, I must admit, were rather dreadful. Not because they were romances -- strangely enough, I like a good romance, meself -- but because the authors didn't seem to trust the characters or the story they were telling. They kept introducing extraneous obstacles, because if the characters actually just, you know, talked to each other, the stories would have been about half the required word length. It was very frustrating. But one digresses. For the record, I've also quite deliberately bought some from Ravenous Romance, including some gay(ish) and a couple of straight ones. Overall, not bad, although I do have Issues with some of the writers. But that's fodder for another entry.)
It really will be interesting to see what writers and what types of stories wind up getting published by Carina. The no-advance policy may deter some people from even trying to sell to them; it depends, in part, on what the royalty rate actually is. Judging from ravenousromance.com and Amazon's Kindle books, the price of your average e-book will be noticeably lower than that of a paperback, so it might wind up that you get a smaller amount of royalty moneys than you would from a traditionally published book, with or without advances, anyway.
The other interesting point, from a purely business perspective, is Harlequin deciding to make their books DRM-free. If they also pick one of the more open formats -- which, if they're not using DRM, they might as well do -- that will enable their books to be used on the Kindle, the nook (Barnes and Noble insists on the lower-case "n", and I'm certainly in no position to kvetch), netbooks and laptops or most PDAs and smart phones. There should be the potential for a surprisingly large market. It is, however, a highly unusual business decision; most of the current e-book publishers are pretty solidly in the "DRM! DRM! Oh, dear gawd, do not put something out without DRM lest we die! die! Die right here and now! Aieeee!" camp. Harlequin may be one of the few major publishers to decide not to copy-protect their works. This will, of course, lead to a certain amount of piracy, but it may also lead to slightly higher sales, as well, assuming that the model for the music industry is somewhat valid.
I have to admit, I am rather curious as to how Harlequin's M/M books will turn out. My main issue with the M/M romances that I've read is that the men frequently aren't particularly realistic, but then, I'm never quite sure how realistic romances are supposed to be. After all, they're a fantastical sort of literature, entirely by design. It seems rather pointless to harp at fantasies for not being real. I suppose my particular taste in romantical literature would be for more real men, though. Somehow, that seems to make for a story that works better.
But that's an entry for another day.
Questions? Comments? Brickbats?
Posted by iain at 07:23 PM