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I have been pondering, once again, just what this experience of reading a gothic romance is about. One thing that dawned on me is how very private an experience it is. All reading is somewhat so, but I think the gothic romance even more. There is such a strong identification that develops between heroine and reader. She is in such intense trouble, surrounded by difficulties and dangers, and when her story is told well my absorption in it is complete. I am right there with her to the very end, and I want to be alone to fully experience her life. How satisfying, then, is a well-told ending, and how disappointing a bad one.
When my children were younger, my son was wont to look down upon his addle-pated mother who habitually read the same type of stories over and over. "Another woman running away from a house, huh, mom," he would say, scanning the cover in a superior manner.
So I read his sister and him a gothic romance aloud. (We often did this with other books). Do you know, the experience of the story just wasn't the same for me. I didn't engage with it in at all the same way. (This didn't happen with other types of books we read aloud). The experience had become too public, I think.
Oh, and by the way, The love of gothics is not hereditary. My children are avid readers, but not of gothics!
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I like your thoughts! I feel the same. That's why the first person narrative is my favorite kind: you get to live vicariously through the heroine and there are no distractions by having to read other, less interesting character's adventures.
Now that I write the word "adventure" another line of thinking enters my mind. I've just tried reading a novel like The Da Vinci Code. The purpose of the story was to find out a connection between the bible and UFO's, Rennes le Chateau, Egypt, secret sects, murders etc. etc. I put it away after reading about 1/5 when I realized that I wasn't interested to find out about this connection at all. The book lacked something that would place me in the mind of the hero so I could empathize. I think the difference between this book and the gothic romances I love is that I don't get to feel deeply what the hero feels. There's not enough emotion. In a gothic romance you feel everything the heroine feels: wonder at her new surroundings, curiosity to learn about some secret, bewilderment when people behave oddly, a fluttering heart when she encounters the hero, joy when she's bantering with him and of course anxiety when she discovers she's in danger. I think the average novel doesn't dwell on emotions as much as the gothic romance does. Perhaps it's got to do with the "romance" part of the genre. I know in Mills & Boon books it's all about the emotions of the heroine as well, though they don't have the variety the gothic romance offers. It's mainly about her feelings for the hero.
So summarizing I could say not only is the appeal of the gothic romance that you identify with the heroine, but also that you get to feel so many different kind of emotions through her.
Well, this was rambling on a bit, thinking about it as I typed it, but hopefully it's making sense. 
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(09-08-2010, 07:19 AM)Charybdis Wrote: In a gothic romance you feel everything the heroine feels: wonder at her new surroundings, curiosity to learn about some secret, bewilderment when people behave oddly, a fluttering heart when she encounters the hero, joy when she's bantering with him and of course anxiety when she discovers she's in danger. Very nicely put! I couldn't agree more.
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Are we're missing something in our own lives? If our lives were full of excitement, mystery and passion would we even have time to read at all?
Yeah, I think there's a bit of the "living vicariously through the heroine" going on here. LOL!
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Hello Gothic Tiger, and thanks for your input.
Well, you know, in reality we can only experience one life---our own, and by definition there is a fair amount of humdrum about it.
I suppose most forms of entertainment are meant to supply some vicarious living.
Movies, books of all genres, video and computer games, even spectator sports. Depending on the kind of person we are, and our interests, these choices will be made in different ways.
Our life is also trapped in time, a limitation indeed! Books can transport us out of that to experience other times and places which open up to us drama and romance impossible to achieve otherwise. (Movies, of course, do something similar).
I like historical gothics best for they reveal a world so different from our own. This world I can experience while retaining all the conveniences (and safety) of my own modern life!
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I think you've hit on an important point. This individual and private experience of reading is, at least for me, an essential factor in its enjoyment. Even as a child, I preferred a solitary exploration of a story to a group-oriented one (such as sitting in a movie theater) where everybody's strings were being pulled at the same time.
Even today I prefer to watch movies alone. It has nothing to do with being a recluse or asocial; to the contrary, it is perhaps because I feel too connected to others around me, and can't separate myself from their experience. In order to have a complete, pure experience of a story, I require a buffer zone between me and other human beings. I'm interacting with the people in the story, in another world.
As for other people (such as one's children) not understanding the appeal of Gothics, well . . . that seems hopeless. A lot of readers are prejudiced by the "romance" aspect of the genre and don't have a grasp of the history behind it. It's frustrating trying to convince the uninitiated that these old paperbacks with sensational covers and authors they've never heard of might contain worthwhile reading. One friend of mine said, "If you're going to read trash, why don't you read good trash, like Carrie?"
That's why we need forums like this one. 
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Quote:Even today I prefer to watch movies alone. It has nothing to do with being a recluse or asocial; to the contrary, it is perhaps because I feel too connected to others around me, and can't separate myself from their experience. In order to have a complete, pure experience of a story, I require a buffer zone between me and other human beings. I'm interacting with the people in the story, in another world.
I feel like this too, though only with "emotional" movies. Watching a funny movie together with other people makes it even more funny, and sharing an action movie makes the experience even more exciting. But when it comes to private feelings, I do think it's best enjoyed alone.
When I was still living at home, a looong time ago, my little brother used to make smacking noises whenever people kissed on TV. Spoils the mood for sure.
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I gave up a long time ago, Penfeather, trying to get friends and family to see my gothic romance reading with something besides an amused and tolerant air. The value of these stories to me and my pleasure in them is not diminished because of it. I good-naturedly (I hope!) join in the laughter at my expense.
But you are right . This forum is validating!
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(09-09-2010, 10:15 AM)AliceChell Wrote: I gave up a long time ago, Penfeather, trying to get friends and family to see my gothic romance reading with something besides an amused and tolerant air. The value of these stories to me and my pleasure in them is not diminished because of it. I good-naturedly (I hope!) join in the laughter at my expense.
But you are right . This forum is validating!
Reading Twilight is hip, reading Gothics is unhip. (For now -- tides change.) People tend to follow the flock. Your attitude sounds healthy and mature. You obviously know yourself.
We all have our escapist needs. J. R. R. Tolkien, responding to the charge of "escapism" in his work, replied, "Oh, yes, I am an escapist -- in the proper sense of the word, the sense of getting out of prison."
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