Romance, Porn and Politics
October 28th 2006 09:44
Hey, it's US election season and the capaign season is in high gear. First, George Allen of Virginia, is accused of racism because he called somebody macacca. Allen then retaliated by saying that his opponent wrote graphic scenes in his novels which described digustingly lurid sex acts and therefore, is not to be trusted with a US senate seat. The Democratic Party in turn dug up novels of no less than Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice-President. Apparently, she wrote in lesbian scenes in her novel Sisters too. Never knew that US political class was brimming with so many literary figures.
Lynne Cheney has a standout interview with Wolf Blitzer with CNN which is so enjoyable, it is unreal. She was there for talking about her latest children's book and she was taken "around a mighty long trip around a merry-go-around." Just notice how after their high-strung argument, they decide to leave the guns outside like sheriffs in old cowboy movies, talk about the children's book, and then complement each other, he on her preparedness for answering his questions and she on his not fair but tough questions. It spins and rolls itself like a postmodern dream of an interview.
That was not all. This time a Democrat cadidate running for a state comptroller race, refered to the unsuitability of his opponent's porn writings. Apparently, she was a romance writer in her younger days and filled her novels with great passages of steamy sex. The Democrat then posted the offending passages on his website provoking a huge backlash, from romance writers! Who knew there were so many romance writers in the world and they were organized. Apparently, even the usually Democrat voting romance writers are not voting for the democrat can. Read this from Houston Chronicle:
Both the links are courtesy Wizbang.
This gets better and better. Remember, the disgusting sexual act that I talked about in the first paragraph in the novel?It involves a father lifting a four year old child and performing fellatio on him. Ugh. Apparently, this is not something Webb has dreamed up. It's a strange custom in Cambodia!
This item from Cnsnews.com :
Can it get any more sublime?
That was not all. This time a Democrat cadidate running for a state comptroller race, refered to the unsuitability of his opponent's porn writings. Apparently, she was a romance writer in her younger days and filled her novels with great passages of steamy sex. The Democrat then posted the offending passages on his website provoking a huge backlash, from romance writers! Who knew there were so many romance writers in the world and they were organized. Apparently, even the usually Democrat voting romance writers are not voting for the democrat can. Read this from Houston Chronicle:
Dismiss romance writers as the drama queens of the supermarket set, perhaps, but call them pornographers at your own peril.
Just ask Fred Head.
Head, the Democratic long shot in this year's state comptroller race, is reaping the wrath of Texas romance writers for calling Republican rival Susan Combs a "pornographic book writer."
Since the Texas Democratic Convention in June, Head has repeatedly attacked a steamy romance novel Combs published in 1990, and even features excerpts from it on his campaign Web site. Head says it was hypocritical of her to write such a book and then support abstinence education as a Republican politician.
Once word of Head's attacks hit the romance trade press, cyberspace buzzed with the news.
"Out of the blue I had e-mails from England, Canada, California, all over Texas," said Combs, Texas agriculture commissioner and author of the 1990 romance, A Perfect Match. "Women all across the United States and foreign countries are very angry at what they see as an attack on women."
Combs launched a $3.2 million political advertising blitz Tuesday. The TV spots, which end with the words "experience we need, values we trust," stress Combs' roles as a small-business owner, former state legislator, agriculture commissioner, wife and mother.
Head, with $0 in campaign money, remained defiant, repeatedly calling Combs' book pornographic.
"I think the romance novelists should endorse my opponent," he said in response to their criticism of him. "That could probably get me elected. I just don't agree with writing what I believe is pornographic and not good for the young people."
Outraged romance writers first flooded Head's campaign in-box with angry e-mail.
This week, they vowed revenge at the ballot box.
"I told him I was a Texan, a Christian, a voter, a grandmother and I have written 46 novels," said Houston romance writer Patricia Kay. "I said, 'You are not going to get my vote.'
"The truth is," added Kay, 69, "I probably would have voted for him because I'm a registered Democrat."
Head could pay a big price for offending aficionados of romance fiction, the writers said, noting Romance Writers of America is headquartered in the Houston suburb of Spring and boasts more than 9,000 members. With $1.2 billion annually in sales, romance fiction makes up more than half of all popular mass-market fiction sold and 39 percent of all fiction, the association boasts.
"This has been a huge issue in the romance community. It's been a huge topic of conversation," said romance novelist Shana Galen of Houston.
"Are Romance Novels Porn?" she asked recently on blog www.jauntyquills.com. "Is a written depiction of two adults falling in love and expressing that love physically pornographic? I have always felt that my books promoted conservative, family values like love, fidelity and marriage."
A Perfect Match tells the tale of Emily Brown, a "cryptanalyst" for the National Security Agency. She meets her match in Ross Harding, a superspy.
"Their mouths had fused hotly, desperately, a feverish urgency in his touch," reads one passage in the book.
Galen wonders why Head posted excerpts from Combs' novel on his Web site if he views the writing as pornography young people shouldn't see.
"I just thought it was about the lowest blow he could make. It seems like a desperate attempt to knock Susan Combs down," said Julia London, an Austin author of 17 romance novels.
"I don't equate sex with bodice-ripping," she added. "A lot of women like to read about sex. It's part of the romance fantasy. Everyone likes to be in that feeling of falling in love. The initial thrill is always fun to read about."
Combs said she wrote her book during her 31-year marriage, and her husband jokes that the hero is modeled after him. "I think Fred Head is a very strange man, and I'm very concerned that anybody would believe anything he says," Combs said.
"We love romance, and women like happy and positive endings," she added. "I guess Mr. Head doesn't."
Just ask Fred Head.
Head, the Democratic long shot in this year's state comptroller race, is reaping the wrath of Texas romance writers for calling Republican rival Susan Combs a "pornographic book writer."
Since the Texas Democratic Convention in June, Head has repeatedly attacked a steamy romance novel Combs published in 1990, and even features excerpts from it on his campaign Web site. Head says it was hypocritical of her to write such a book and then support abstinence education as a Republican politician.
Once word of Head's attacks hit the romance trade press, cyberspace buzzed with the news.
"Out of the blue I had e-mails from England, Canada, California, all over Texas," said Combs, Texas agriculture commissioner and author of the 1990 romance, A Perfect Match. "Women all across the United States and foreign countries are very angry at what they see as an attack on women."
Combs launched a $3.2 million political advertising blitz Tuesday. The TV spots, which end with the words "experience we need, values we trust," stress Combs' roles as a small-business owner, former state legislator, agriculture commissioner, wife and mother.
Head, with $0 in campaign money, remained defiant, repeatedly calling Combs' book pornographic.
"I think the romance novelists should endorse my opponent," he said in response to their criticism of him. "That could probably get me elected. I just don't agree with writing what I believe is pornographic and not good for the young people."
Outraged romance writers first flooded Head's campaign in-box with angry e-mail.
This week, they vowed revenge at the ballot box.
"I told him I was a Texan, a Christian, a voter, a grandmother and I have written 46 novels," said Houston romance writer Patricia Kay. "I said, 'You are not going to get my vote.'
"The truth is," added Kay, 69, "I probably would have voted for him because I'm a registered Democrat."
Head could pay a big price for offending aficionados of romance fiction, the writers said, noting Romance Writers of America is headquartered in the Houston suburb of Spring and boasts more than 9,000 members. With $1.2 billion annually in sales, romance fiction makes up more than half of all popular mass-market fiction sold and 39 percent of all fiction, the association boasts.
"This has been a huge issue in the romance community. It's been a huge topic of conversation," said romance novelist Shana Galen of Houston.
"Are Romance Novels Porn?" she asked recently on blog www.jauntyquills.com. "Is a written depiction of two adults falling in love and expressing that love physically pornographic? I have always felt that my books promoted conservative, family values like love, fidelity and marriage."
A Perfect Match tells the tale of Emily Brown, a "cryptanalyst" for the National Security Agency. She meets her match in Ross Harding, a superspy.
"Their mouths had fused hotly, desperately, a feverish urgency in his touch," reads one passage in the book.
Galen wonders why Head posted excerpts from Combs' novel on his Web site if he views the writing as pornography young people shouldn't see.
"I just thought it was about the lowest blow he could make. It seems like a desperate attempt to knock Susan Combs down," said Julia London, an Austin author of 17 romance novels.
"I don't equate sex with bodice-ripping," she added. "A lot of women like to read about sex. It's part of the romance fantasy. Everyone likes to be in that feeling of falling in love. The initial thrill is always fun to read about."
Combs said she wrote her book during her 31-year marriage, and her husband jokes that the hero is modeled after him. "I think Fred Head is a very strange man, and I'm very concerned that anybody would believe anything he says," Combs said.
"We love romance, and women like happy and positive endings," she added. "I guess Mr. Head doesn't."
Both the links are courtesy Wizbang.
This gets better and better. Remember, the disgusting sexual act that I talked about in the first paragraph in the novel?It involves a father lifting a four year old child and performing fellatio on him. Ugh. Apparently, this is not something Webb has dreamed up. It's a strange custom in Cambodia!
This item from Cnsnews.com :
In an interview on Washington Post Radio Friday morning, Jim Webb, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Virginia, said excerpts of his novels are "a little bit inappropriate" to be read on news radio.
"I don't know why you're reading that on WTOP," Webb told host Mark Plotkin. "I think it's a little bit inappropriate."
Plotkin was reading an excerpt from Webb's novel "Something to Die For," in which Webb describes a female stripper performing sexual acts with a banana.
"I don't think that's appropriate for you to read on WTOP," Webb said again as Plotkin finished the excerpt. (Washington Post Radio is WTOP's sister station.)
The campaign of Republican Sen. George Allen on Thursday released excerpts from some of the war novels Webb wrote between 1978 and 2002. The books include some graphic sexual passages, as well as frequent uses of a racial slur for blacks and descriptions of Vietnamese women as "monkey-faced."
Among the excerpts is a scene from the 2002 novel "Lost Soldiers," in which a man embraces his four-year-old son and places the boy's penis in his mouth.
Webb said the release of the excerpts was "a Karl Rove campaign tactic" and a "classic example of the way this campaign has worked. It's smear after smear."
He defended his fiction as "illuminative."
"It's not a sexual act," Webb told Plotkin regarding the "Lost Soldiers" excerpt. "I actually saw this happen in a slum in Bangkok when I was there as a journalist."
"The duty of a writer is to illuminate the surroundings," he added.
Coincidentally, a Cambodian woman in Las Vegas is facing sexual assault charges for performing a similar act on her young son, according to an Oct. 14 report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The article quotes an office manager for the Cambodian Association of America, who described the act as a sign of respect or love.
"It's an exception," Thira Srey told the Review-Journal of the practice. According to the report, the act is usually performed by a mother or caretaker on a child who is one year old or younger. In Webb's novel, the child is four years old.
"I don't know why you're reading that on WTOP," Webb told host Mark Plotkin. "I think it's a little bit inappropriate."
Plotkin was reading an excerpt from Webb's novel "Something to Die For," in which Webb describes a female stripper performing sexual acts with a banana.
"I don't think that's appropriate for you to read on WTOP," Webb said again as Plotkin finished the excerpt. (Washington Post Radio is WTOP's sister station.)
The campaign of Republican Sen. George Allen on Thursday released excerpts from some of the war novels Webb wrote between 1978 and 2002. The books include some graphic sexual passages, as well as frequent uses of a racial slur for blacks and descriptions of Vietnamese women as "monkey-faced."
Among the excerpts is a scene from the 2002 novel "Lost Soldiers," in which a man embraces his four-year-old son and places the boy's penis in his mouth.
Webb said the release of the excerpts was "a Karl Rove campaign tactic" and a "classic example of the way this campaign has worked. It's smear after smear."
He defended his fiction as "illuminative."
"It's not a sexual act," Webb told Plotkin regarding the "Lost Soldiers" excerpt. "I actually saw this happen in a slum in Bangkok when I was there as a journalist."
"The duty of a writer is to illuminate the surroundings," he added.
Coincidentally, a Cambodian woman in Las Vegas is facing sexual assault charges for performing a similar act on her young son, according to an Oct. 14 report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The article quotes an office manager for the Cambodian Association of America, who described the act as a sign of respect or love.
"It's an exception," Thira Srey told the Review-Journal of the practice. According to the report, the act is usually performed by a mother or caretaker on a child who is one year old or younger. In Webb's novel, the child is four years old.
Can it get any more sublime?
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