Reading Romance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

The usual saying goes a little differently: “Distance makes the heart grow fonder” or its opposing sentiment, “Familiarity breeds contempt” but writers are always on the lookout for a different way of seeing the everyday.

To make our work fresh and unique, we scour our brains for ways of saying what ultimately is the same truth — the truth that has been told by our predecessors from the first instance that one human spoke to another member of the cave-dwelling group about an experience they would all need to understand to survive.

In tales of romance, the element of survival may not seem quite as drastic as how to wrangle with a saber-tooth tiger or avoid eating those poisonous berries that look so delicious. But the human heart — technically a mere symbol of the miasma of emotions we cope with every day — can cause the most dire of consequences to arise from what some consider trivial events.

Falling in love, for many of us, is one of the moments in our lives that carries with it all the elements of human drama: comedic and tragic. Romantic love is not for the faint of heart nor is it in any way limited by circumstance. Each couple experiencing the wonder of finding the one-in-six-billion person who is their perfect match can testify to the miraculous phenomenon — that overwhelming elation of supreme good fortune. The ultimate “I can’t believe this has happened to me” moment.

Along with that elation comes the doubt — “This can’t be happening to me - I don’t deserve this - This can’t be love” — when you wish you’d never met this person.

Although Romance, as a genre, is often denigrated as “fluff,” “trivial,” “inconsequential,” most of this criticism comes from a misplaced sense of intellectual superiority. When I entered the Creative Writing Program at my university, I did so with the objective of writing “important” novels. I took classes in every aspect of writing the meaningful short story to the construction of the meaningful novel.

Try as I did, I wrote …“and they lived happily ever after.” The optimistic ending is in my nature, probably a result of my childhood spent in reading the classic fairy tales of world literature but more probably related to my “cup half full,” “walking on sunshine” point of view.

“Important” novels are those that drag the reader into a downward spiral of misery and hardship. “Frivolous” books lift readers up, provide “the air beneath their wings.”

I know which I’d rather write and read. Life is hard, why make it harder?  

Modern Fairy Tales

by Gina Ardito

Photo by  Matthew Murphy
Courtesy of Playbill

This past weekend, my daughter and I went to see a quirky musical called Disenchanted! It's an ensemble tale, told by a few famous storybook princesses who want to set the record straight on that whole Happily Ever After rumor. (Can I just say we loved it? We had a fantastic time and laughed A LOT.) 

In the space of an hour and forty minutes (the amount of time the fairy godmother would allot), these fed-up ladies tackle such subjects as their figures (buxom on top and waistlines narrower than their necks), breaking the color barrier, changing the annals of history to make a heroine into a princess (Spoiler alert: the real Pocahontas was 12 when she met John Smith!), and being happy with yourself no matter how different you are. It's a fabulous, raucous show, and I highly recommend it (but you better go fast; it closes this coming weekend!)

When my husband learned we'd bought our tickets, he asked me, "What is the fascination between you girls and fairy tales?"

I understood his confusion. The week before, my daughter and I couldn't wait to see Into the Woods at the movies. We're rabid fans of Once Upon a Time on television, we saw the Maleficent movie opening night, and we're obsessed with Wicked on Broadway. And of course, let's face it. I'm a romance writer. I'm totally invested in the whole Happily Ever After scenario.

From the time we're little girls, most of us are fed these fairy tales where, if we're good enough, pure enough, thin enough, a handsome prince will come rescue us and we'll live the dream life. But in the last decade or so, writers have been turning these fairy tales around with wonderful results. Nowadays, we're seeing the heroine slay the dragon and rescue the prince; strong, smart, and capable females who don't need a man to complete them; and characters who aren't all good or all bad, but a little bit of both. You know. Real-life humans. 

And just like for real-life humans, Happily Ever After comes with hard work, a few tears, sharing the good times and struggling through the bad times together. Today's princesses don't sit around singing with woodland creatures, while waiting for their prince to come for them. They go out and create their own happy endings. I wonder what stories will be told about these new princesses to future generations.

SERENDIPITY

 by Sandy Cody

Do you have favorite words? I do. Serendipity (a seeming gift for making fortunate discoveries accidentally) is high on my list of darlings.

It comes from a Persian fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip, in which three princes are sent on a quest by their father and discover wonderful things for which they were not looking.

I only learned recently about the fairy tale origin of the word and, when I did, I instantly thought of Albert Einstein's statement that “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.” He's right, of course. Not only will their imaginations take flight, they'll probably discover something they didn’t know they were looking for - and so will you.

Whatever its source, serendipity is an impressive word. Some words please because of the way they sound, others because of what they mean. Serendipity works on both counts. When you say it out loud, the five syllables produce a tripping sound, forcing the lips into a smile.  It starts slow and then picks up speed until it tumbles out, like it’s rushing toward a happy surprise, which, of course, fits its meaning perfectly.

There are other words that mean almost the same thing - chance, fate, destiny, karma, fortune, coincidence, accident, kismet - but for my money, none of them quite measure up to serendipity.

Not only is it a great word, it’s an appealing concept, a reason to leave ourselves open to the unexpected, to pay attention to where life may be trying to take us. Who knows what wonderful things may be waiting to be discovered? History books are filled with examples of happy accidents.

I understand chocolate chip cookies were created by a serendipitous accident (thank you!), as was the discovery of penicillin (more thanks). The microwave oven was invented when Percy Spencer noticed that the microwaves from a radar set he was working on melted the candy bar in his pocket.

As for me, I met the love of my life when I cut an algebra class to go ice skating.  How could I not appreciate serendipity?

How about you? What serendipitous events have changed your life?