As I continue to neaten and streamline this site for a kind of redeployment and repurposing sometime in 2012, I surveyed my reading lists from the past few years and noted two things: 1) I have read far fewer books this year than the previous two years, thanks to a much busier work schedule this academic year; 2) my recreational reading tends to be almost exclusively genre fiction -- specifically category romance. (I don't keep track of my professional or academic reading here, so the "On the Bookshelf" section in the sidebar doesn't reflect any of that.)
A friend laughs at me: "You have a B.A. and an M.A. in literature, and you have a Ph.D. -- and you read trash novels!" I might quarrel with her designation, but I get her point: I seem to have very little mid-range. Classics or genre fiction -- but very little contemporary mass market fiction. It's not that I don't enjoy some of it when I do read it. It's more that, when I want to relax, I want to relax completely, and with category romance I can do that. I never have to anticipate the lack of a happy ending (it all ends happily). I never have to worry about outcomes (they're all positive).
Category romances are my version of vegging out. Some people watch TV -- but I teach media, and so I can't always turn off my brain when I'm in front of a screen, large or small. I used to teach literature and writing, too, and when I'm reading literary fiction, I tend to go into analytic mode. Sometimes I enjoy that, of course. But sometimes I simply want to drift.
Perhaps because I was trained in traditional notions of literary canons but migrated into a field (film and media) in which definitions of art and popular culture merged, I find myself drawn to so-called sequels, prequels, and spin-offs of classic works of literature (hence part of my current fascination with all things Phantom of the Opera related). I relish the breaking of boundaries between high and low-brow culture, between original author and fan fiction, between text and context. I have yet to tap into the whole Jane Austen-inspired line of fiction and probably won't (I like Austen but I'm not passionate about her), but you never know: I might.
In the meantime, I'm going to settle down with yet another category romance tonight, having put in a reasonably productive first day back at work on my POTO research. Time to let the brain rest.
B


