Thesis: the rise of fanwank and anti culture correlates directly with diminished understanding of what “romantic”, in a literary sense, actually means.
It doesn’t mean “this is ideal or healthy or even realistic”. It means “this is beautiful, this is tragic, this is grotesque, this stirs emotion”, even if it’s not, as @starryroom puts it, something you would be comfortable seeing play out in front of you at Taco Bell. It’s about grandiosity and mythology and heroism writ large. It’s about playing with the id, as beautiful and terrible as it can be.
LET LOVE AND LUST BE MONSTROUS.
that’s why Wuthering Heights is STILL a romance
I’m reminded of a piece of advice I saw recently–
people like characters that have goals
people LOVE characters that have obsessions
Published
tora42's nonsensne 