So many of you have forwarded me the Questionable Content cartoon for today entitled, ‘I love you, Sandra Hill.’ Have a look.
Perhaps your blood pressure will rise a bit at the “just a shitty romance novel.” And again at “Girl-porn.”
But look closer – she who casts the stone of “Girl-porn?” In the next frame she’s grabbing that paperback and then reading it. And even as the girl who calls her novel “shitty hilarious girl porn” sneers at it, she’s totally into it. I’d like to know where she falls on the Dear Author Apologia Scale.
Haj wrote, “I must know if there is, indeed, a romance novel about a time-travelling Viking who becomes a Navy SEAL.” I don’t know if he becomes a SEAL, but there is no time travel viking like a Sandra Hill time travel viking, hence Ms. Hill’s name on the cover.
As near as I can tell, this book is Viking Unchained.
So a slap on the wrist for Questionable Content for the girl porn/shitty romance double-punch. And yes, time traveling viking Navy SEALS is totally mock worthy. But as a merry fan of The Very Virile Viking, I say to Questionable Content:
Pull my finger.
To be fair, Penny (blond) seems to call it ‘shitty’ because well… let’s face it, she’s got a right to her opinion. And Penny is a big geek who loves to read, so her then-on referencing the book as ‘girl porn’ is because Faye (brunette) then establishes it as so. And it’s funnier and goes with the flow of the joke. (And Faye WOULD call it that, because she’s a bitch with issues who is sleeping with a guy she hates half the time. And that’s not my opinion, that’s almost a direct Faye-quote.)
So, uhm (don’t stone me) maybe give QC a little leeway?
i am an avid QC fan, and did have a little bit of an “oh no you di’int” moment towards jeph jacques today…but like Rainbow Tea said, it completely fits with the characters. although…if i ever meet him (which is likely, since i did see him in Northampton the other day and next time i SWEAR i’ll say hi) i might poke him about it 🙂
Also, the author says in his blog feed at the side of the page “yeah, this is real, my wife reads it and it’s HILARIOUS.” so she might hit him for it, and if she doesn’t, she probably agrees with him.
I just read that earlier (and was preparing my own little blog post) because nothing makes me grit my teeth more than “girl-porn”) but was prepared to give him some leeway because, well, it is Sandra Hill and I’ve read one Sandra Hill that was very nearly a wall banger for me and completely turned me off the rest of her books for life. So while I disagree with “girl-porn” I do not disagree with “shitty romance novel” if the time traveling Viking series is anything like her treasure hunters series.
But just think about it…what better cover for a time-traveling Viking than Navy SEAL? There are real possibilities here!
spam word: history 92—-how does this thing KNOW?!?
Elizabeth: I had a ball reading Hill’s Very Virile Viking because, well, if you can suspend disbelief about the whole time traveling Viking thing, it’s campy, oddly tender fun. Especially because the Very Virile Viking travels through time with a posse of kids, and the kids are a hoot.
I like to put a positive spin on this sort of thing as much as the next romance fan, but to me the girl reading doesn’t look like she’s totally into the book. More like she’s checking it out to prove that her friend is telling the truth about the plot. And I honestly can’t blame her—time traveling Viking who becomes a SEAL is fairly unbelievable. Unfortunately, in my experience reading the book isn’t likely to help. I read the first in the series and I was just as astonished when I finished it as I was when I started.
Sarah said:
I haven’t been able to read too many of this series because I can’t suspend disbelief enough to get into them. I did like this one, though. The viking in question was constantly complaining about his many, many, many children and how he can’t even look at a woman without her adding to the brood, but then it comes out in the end that the vast majority of the kids aren’t even his—he’s just a known soft-touch for kids, in spite of all the bluster and grumbling, and the women around him (prior to him traveling forward through time, that is) keep dumping their unwanted children on him. Didn’t he have 10 or 12 of them when he hit modern-day Texas (or California—can’t remember which), mysteriously able to speak to speak modern, American English?
Actually, the book is Wet and Wild. He goes overboard in the 10th century and comes to in modern times where everyone thinks he’s Max, a SEAL trainee.
I think these books are actually great, and i’m very upset that QC has decided to malign the entire genre as well as Mz. Hills books.
Personally I thought it was freaking hilarious, girl-porn and shitty romance novel and all. I mean, to me it seemed like Penny was leaving room for the existence of good romance novels, not defaming the entire genre. And I am actually tempted to read one of these books now because of the comic, and before I wouldn’t have touched one with a ten foot pole and a Hazmat suit. Of course, I also have to admit that the girl-porn title doesn’t bother me, possibly because I’ve seen porn with better story lines and more engaging characters than some romance novels I’ve read.
I find most time travel stories too ridiculous for words, but I have to say that I have yet to read a Sandra Hill that didn’t leave me laughing. Silly, goofy, completely ridiculous, and highly enjoyable.
Given the open sexual commentary of the strip, I don’t think ‘Girl porn’ can be considered an actual insult, at least from these characters. And there’s another character who makes a living by writing romances—the most cliche-ridden, snarkworthy books to ever grace a grocery store shelf—and he does it deliberately and has a fan base who recognizes this.
There are several time-traveling viking/SEAL books in this series – most of the Viking Series 2 books revolve around the SEALs.
Oh, and I happen to love them. Who cares if they’re not believable? I don’t read humorous romance because it’s so true-to-life, I read it because it’s funny and makes me happy.
Maybe jumping on each bit of disrespect for romance novels isn’t the best way to go. I used to live in WV and we had a politician (A. James Manchin—nephew is now governor, A James is now deceased) who used to rear back and rave any time WV was the punch line on a hillbilly joke or just disrepected. It got old.
Sometimes I think it’s ok to just let it go.
spamblocker: showed68—guess I’m one digit short.
Well I’ve been reading QC for years and years and I’m glad they referenced this book because googling ‘viking navy seal romance novel’ helped me to find this place. And I’ve been reading through the archive for over an hour now!
I love trashy romance novels. I must get it from my mum, she used to love to embarrass me and my brothers by reading excerpts out loud on long car journeys (nothing explicit mind).
I have to say, I don’t see the strip as slamming romance as a genre, or reading romance as a pastime. I mean, the character who is reading the book is perfectly cheerful and open about the book and its fabulous entertainment value, and the other character is the one who ends up checking out the book.
I actually think it’s great that they are recognizing that sometimes, “hilarious girl-porn” with time-traveling Vikings who become Navy SEALS is exactly the sort of literature one is in the mood for.
JD
ps- Now for some reason I’m picturing stealth attack submarines with dragon prows. Don’t ask me why.
If you look closely, the title of the comic is: “I Love You, Sandra Hill”. Therefore, I’m more with Jane Drew:
I love questionable content and even order shirts from them
I also would not malign them so much because I do believe the “shitty romance novel” is meant to be that this particular novel isn’t so hot, but many of them are and could be.
I have not read Sandra Hill, but seriously “time traveling viking becomes Navy seal?” sounds so ludicrous that I wouldn’t want to read it.
I have to say, I don’t see the strip as slamming romance as a genre, or reading romance as a pastime. I mean, the character who is reading the book is perfectly cheerful and open about the book and its fabulous entertainment value, and the other character is the one who ends up checking out the book.
Yeah, it reminds me of telling my husband about the charming awfulness of the Harlequin Presents I read. Not that they are all awful—there are some excellent ones—but a lot of them have major camp value.
And in fact, to follow up my own post, that is something the Smart Bitches do all the time, too.
I was wondering if that comic would make its way to the Bitchery. The content made me think about the debates here about attitudes towards romance and the line between romance and pornography. I have to say that, while I do object to people who can’t draw a line between romance novels and pornography as genres, the term “girl-porn” used in this way doesn’t bother me. Because, lets be honest, one of the nice things about a good sexy romance novel is that it can turn you on, both mentally and physically. In that sense, a good romance novel is “girl-porn” because it contains characters and a storyline that get you excited. Would that same storyline turn a man on? Maybe, but in my experience (based on husband and friends) the answer has been “no”. And also, the term fits well with Faye’s defensive character in the comic and her probable reaction to discovering that quiet, bookish Penny likes sexy novels.
That needed a put-down-your-beverage warning.
Captcha went71, the mph at which the tea exited my nostrils.
I can’t judge, because I would totally do what Penelope is doing. When I was stuck in Bumfuck, Montana, bored off my ass and with nothing to do but read incredibly bad Harlequins, that’s what I did. Sometimes one reads for the lulz. I don’t know if the authors WROTE for the lulz, but sometimes I just read them for the bad plots, which I then memorized and blabbed about to others to share the horror.
When you know that the writer of this blog is 28 and by the name might just be male…you take it from whence it comes…:)
I don’t mind the term “girl-porn,” but I really LOVE the term “emotional porn.” It describes perfectly the stories that are completely over the top emotionally, with a lot of brooding looks, passionate protestations of love, overwhelming devotion and heartbreak, emotional torment, the whole enchilada. LOVE IT.
Sometimes I’m just really in the mood for emotional porn, where it’s the emotions that are the hit and the payoff, and not the sex—such as, where the heroine running away from the hero because She’s No Good For Him and sending him into an emotional tailspin while she herself suffers horribly yet nobly is the money shot, as it were. Fantastic!
Ah, come on. Surely “girl-porn” falls in the same category as “crack”. Both terms now mean “something irresistible”. JR Ward is crack (with an H), cute animal videos are kitty porn, etc.
Didn’t Hill also do (well, not literally) an ex-Amish Navy SEAL, or ex-SEAL turned Amish Viking, or time-traveling shifting Amish walrus turned SEAL . . . or something?
My attitude toward SEALs is simple: Give me the man-titty; throw out the books. (Sorry, but I’d rather read about virgin widows with secret pirate babies.)
The part that made it totally worthwhile for me was the “Are you really a time traveling Viking pretending to be a Navy SEAL? – Don’t ask, don’t tell” bit. Hilarious!
Now watch the Dept. of the Navy add this to their list of wacko screenout questions…
I love QC!! What a great strip. Getting snarked there is like the web comic equivalent of getting snarked on the Daily Show—humor is the point, and nothing gets treated respectfully there. Totally different from when a serious (supposedly) piece of journalism dismisses a genre.
Know who else wrote a Viking time-travel romance novel? Fabio himself. It’s called Viking. You know that’s gotta be some high literary achievement.
YES. YES THEY SO DID. And they had a “family meeting” to figure out if they had indeed jumped the space/time continuum or if they were just all smoking the same bad fish together. Gosh I love that book, every silly, completely hilarious page.
Shit. Now I might have to reread it.
After that QC shoutout, the woman is going to wonder why she just halved her Amazon ranking.
Oh dear, clearly I skimmed a bit to fast reading SB Sarah’s post…
…I *thought* this thread was going to be about time travelling Navy SEALs who ended up in 10th Century Scandinavia and became Vikings, and I was havering about whether ‘Caught in freak Navy experimental Time Travel accident’ or ‘Send in the SEALs to stop the bad-guys destroying the timeline’ was the better plot prospect.
No, no, much better one: ‘We were the SEALs sent to the 10th Century with a Viking cover story, to stop the bad-guys destroying the timeline, but we failed.’ *cue angst, cue spooky music*.
And now I feel horribly disappointed to discover from y’all that it’s just one Viking/SEAL and the time travel goes the other way :/
*embarrassed*
@skapusniak
Actually, Hill writes a whole series of books about SEALs and Time travel and I believe there are several stories where time travel does go the other way and a few where there are multiple time travelers involved.
OMG! I adore “The Very Virile Viking”! Its camp as hell, but that guy, what a doll!! I crack up all over that book. Its actually rather touching, how he fathers his children. He adores all of them, even though, well…its been spoiled by others already, its clear some aren’t actually his at all. I also liked, how his logic, stayed pretty “real” to his character and how, despite Hill throwing in the random of them all understanding Modern English, she left in the fact that while they might know the words being used, they did not understand the context, or misunderstood a word and then pondered what the hell people were talking about.
“The Blue Viking”, no time travel, was also pretty damn fun to read. Some of the character conversations, are hysterical! The male lead, has a very strange group of friends he travels with and they were way fun to read about. Hill is pretty good at crafting some well rounded, good natured characters, and has a nice touch with dialog.
In fact, I’ve read them both, at least 4 times. I don’t think Ms. Hill is the best romance has to offer, by and large, but those 2 books, are just grand fun and a fine way to while away an afternoon.
As to the comic….What. Evah.
Having never heard of The Very Virile Viking before, now I just have to find me a copy of this thing. I could use a good laugh.
Agreed; based on this post alone, I now must aquire a copy of VVV so it can go into my BFF’s stocking!
See, I’d read that book if it was done well. Someone should write that book.
“hangs head in shame” I read that one. It was a team of SEALS that went back with one of the time travellers and returned with a Viking bride. And there was a trailer park called “Hog Heaven”.
I enjoyed it. Mindless way to kill an afternoon.
OK, I wouldn’t be seen reading it in public. But it was good, in a funny bad way…