So many interesting things to talk about today!
There’s a new Kickstarter causing a good amount of interest and excitement: Bea and Lea Koch are aiming to open the first romance exclusive bookstore in Los Angeles, California, and are looking for community support.
The Kickstarter page has a lot of details, including how they envision the store layout:
We’ve thought long and hard about how to lay out The Ripped Bodice. We want to make it easy to both find what you’re looking for and discovery new works. In the romance section of a full service bookstore, things are generally organized alphabetically, making it hard to browse if you just want paranormal witch stories/cowboy heroes with hearts of gold/Regency house parties that go terribly awry. Because The Ripped Bodice is devoted exclusively to romance, we have the luxury of organizing by sub-genre.
The idea of shopping by genre is a heady concept for me. Bea and Leah are also aiming to make their store a romance community hub, with a subscription book club, reader events, tv and movie nights, and more.
The sponsorship rewards are kind of hilarious, too, including the opportunity to sponsor the bookstore water closet and have naming rights thereof. Someone wants a romance loo, right?
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Speaking of strong women, Liz Bourke wrote a sharp and terrific article for Tor.com called Sleeps With Monsters: Strong Female Characters and the Double Standard. Looking specifically at some of the criticism leveled at Kate Daniels, the heroine of Ilona Andrews’ series, Bourke writes,
I’m not arguing in favour of greater shallowness, lest anyone be tempted to misunderstand me. But the double standard of content, the double standard of criticism applied, bothers me really quite fundamentally. We fall into the error of really rather relentlessly applying criticism to female characters. They’re too domestic! They aren’t domestic enough! They have too little agency! Or too much, having unbelievably few constraints on their choices! They’re too violent, too shallow, too brittle. They’re too gentle, too generous, too forgiving, too soft. They’re insufficiently maternal, or too much so. They’re too independent! They’re not independent enough!
… So how should we address this double standard?
There are a couple of ways which have been pointed out to me, and which I think are worth considering. It’s vital that in our discussions of Strong Female Characters, we remember the double standard exists. It’s not fair to hold female characters to such a high level of scrutiny.
This compliments some of the very smart things Jaye Wells said in the podcast interview I did with her after RT, wherein she discusses the inherent flaws in the term “strong female character” itself.
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If you need some humor, might I suggest the 50 Nerds of Grey Twitter feed? I think this is my favorite:
Control played a big part in his sex life. So did escape, delete and caps lock.
— 50 Nerds of Grey (@50NerdsofGrey) October 17, 2015
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And finally, I love everything about this: Swapna Krishna assembled 20 Things I Learned from Kamala Kahn, aka Ms Marvel.
The first run of Ms Marvel by G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, Ian Herring, Joe Caramagna, and Kris Anka (not to mention the amazing guest artists) is over, and by all accounts, it’s been an amazing success. We’ve been treated to 19 glorious issues of Kamala stepping into her superhero role, finding herself, pairing up with amazing role models such as Wolverine and Captain Marvel, and coming to terms with the fact that she can’t save everyone, all while maintaining her trademark sense of humor and genuine love for the world around her.
Read the whole list – it’s just lovely. (And my mistake using “Miss” – darn autocorrect. Sorry about that.)
So what clever, interesting, or curious things have you been reading online lately?
Ehhh, I’m not overtly impressed with the kickstarter rewards -type, or quality (the design on those t-shirts and stuff is pretty ‘meh’).
$500 for six months of a book and gift? That’s $83 a month for one novel and a notepad or whatever they send you. Wayyy too much.
I mean, IMO, relying on *kickstarter* to open a brick and mortar store is not a sign of proper business planning and a specific genre only bookstore? A bookstore? Come on. This would have been a great idea say, 25 years ago, but in 2015?
I really liked that tor.com article, yeah! Good thoughts there, and I say that as someone who has in fact written one of those “there’s more than one way for a female character to be strong” type posts.
I disagree with the opinion that Kickstarter is a poor business planning model. Proper business planning is specific to each business venture, including knowing and recognizing the opportunity for growth in that area and taking in all investment options. I don’t see their full business plan proposal included for review on the Kickstarter site, so I’m reserving judgement.
The idea of a genre-specific (specifically romance and all subgenre) bookstore sounds amazing to me, and in the same vein as comic book stores or even the idea of a nail-specific salon instead of an all-service salon. Neither of those physical ‘sub-genre’ stores are noted as archaic or so last generation. I see no difference, personally.
Similarly, I firmly believe the romance novel genre is one of the most inclusive communities of readers out there, this site being a great example. I love bookstores, and the more the merrier; especially if it’s one in which I may be able to strike up a conversation about the latest Regency on my TBR pile with another fan and not feel the eye-rolls behind me from readers who dismiss romance as ‘not worth the paper it’s printed on’.
That being said – funded. Bam.
Much as I like the idea of a romance-only bookstore (and based on the size of the romance section in regular bookstores, that genre seems most likely to succeed on its own), the name seems a little off-putting. If memory serves (and Wikipedia backs me up), the term “bodice ripper” refers to old-school romance novels where a fairly rapey alpha male would rip the bodice off the heroine. (I mistakenly used to think “bodice ripper” referred to the top-heavy heroine and her heaving bosoms straining the fabric of a bodice.) That said, I wish them success!
We love Ms. Marvel at my house. I have a just-turned-four-year-old daughter who is going to be Spiderman for halloween and who has asked for the final Kamala Kahn Ms. Marvel from Santa. I think we must be doing something right!
I am not a comic book person whatsoever and I love the Ms. Marvels!
Ms. Marvel – yes! yes! and yes! I’ve just downloaded the vol#1 (first 5 issues) from comiXology and am devouring during my daily work commute. It has everything a good comix should: great cast of characters, superb drawings, witty dialogs… and Kemala!!! I was having high expectations because of GWW (I loved her “Alif the unseen”) and I have to say that Ms Marvel exceed those expectations. Kemala is such a complex and true to life (as much a super powers can be “tru to life” 😉 ) character! I am now recommending this to everyone 🙂 If you do not have a comiXology account yet (how come?!?!) it is worth it, if only for the Ms Marvel series.
Speaking of interesting things online, this sci-fi story, “In the House of the Seven Librarians” http://uncannymagazine.com/article/in-the-house-of-the-seven-librarians/?utm_content=buffer6e0d8&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin.com&utm_campaign=buffer
@Konst: Another ALIF and MS. MARVEL fangirl here. Have you read CAIRO, her fabulous b&w graphic novel? I cannot tell you how much I love that story and those characters.
@Darlynne
Cool! 🙂 No, I do not know “Cairo”, but will check it out for sure – thanks! 🙂