Tall, Dark and Handsome: The Themes, Symbols and Imagery at the Romance Genre's Heart PART 1

Tall, Dark and Handsome:
The Themes, Symbols and Imagery
at the Romance Genre's Heart
PART 1/SUITE 101
by Suzette L. Mako

He'd woken with a gun to his head after this loca redhead sneaked into his cabin and it had just gotten worse from there. In the short span of hours from sunrise to sunset, she'd ridden with him halfway across the territory, practically gotten him killed by red men, and just about drowned both of them in the Rio del Oro. If the sight of her in the firelight didn't kill him now, nothing would.

She rounded on him, ignoring his groan as he laid eyes on her half-dressed body. "It's all just black and white for you, isn't it? Well, it's not for me! It's my homestead, my hard work, my brother's life!"

"Dammit, woman, I may be a lawyer, but I can't talk ethics with you when you're standing there in your petticoats! But I can think of a coupla other things we might do -"

The impact of her fist, still holding a wad of sopping wet calico gown, was impressive. He found himself sitting with his feet practically in the cookfire. She was reaching for a cast iron pot when he decided he'd had enough for one day. He grabbed her by those long legs, tumbling her down into his lap, a sensation both surprisingly comfortable and agonizingly intimate. She tussled for a few moments as he wrapped his arms around her and spoke calmly to her, as though she were a wild mare to be gentled.

"You sure are the darndest woman I've ever met. As much bravery and determination as the best of any men I know - even if you do go off half-cocked - and after seeing you like this, well, I may just have to marry you." Now where had those last words come from? he wondered, but the thought disappeared when he saw the light in her upturned face.

"I accept your proposal," she whispered, melting into him.

Now I've done it, he thought. But he kissed her anyway.

...

Black and white. Bravery and determination. Honor and love. No, Romance is not for the admirer of the obscure, for its value systems hold little ambiguity. In these days of flexible morals, social sensationalism and sexual pandemonium, the Romance genre creates a world where honor is of paramount value, where social (and even antisocial) behavior falls within recognizable limits, and where the issues of sex are dealt with in terms of commitment, rather than as commodities. When the Romance writer draws upon myth and archetype, giving it modern or historical dress in reinterpretation, she confronts the issues with symbolic imagery.

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