Smart Bitches, Not Meerly Sex

I have to admit, since it’s only the 19th of January, it’s pretty cool to see the ‘sexiest plagiarism scandal of 2008′ erupt so soon! And all because of animal sex and romance fiction! Hawt.

I’ll admit upfront and proudly that I’m a fan of romance novels. Yes, from the trashy ones to the ones you grumbled about having to write essays about. The reasons are simple – firstly, the genre is fantastic for introducing students to writing fiction. In fact, ‘romance’ is educational on many different levels.

Romance is a subject of serious study in Psychology, with a lot of research on breaking down the different facets of attachment and analysing how romantic relationships contribute to one’s personal development. ‘Intimacy versus isolation’ (as Erikson puts it) can be traced to how you interacted from a young age with your parents, including infancy (Scharf, Mayseless & Kivenson-Baron, 2004). So, with that much impetus to make a connection in our lives – why should we be ashamed of supporting a writing tradition which creates massive publishing industries, is a significant part of literature worldwide, on the stage, screen and page – as well as reflecting an important part of life as we know it?

Certainly when encouraging young women who are resistant readers, suggestions like reading Gossip Girl, the Twilight Series and Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants are a great way into exploring literature and enjoying books. As a member of ‘Smart Bitches, Trashy Books‘ since last year, I’ve enjoyed the blog; reading advice and checking out the links that reinforce the value of this genre as an artform – and as a really fun teaching tool. Especially when blog entries request for authorial advice like ‘I want to write paranormal romance – what’s the stuff to avoid and what should I include?’

Over the past few years I’ve used books in the “EQ” – English Quest” series in my high school classes. They meet the requirements of English outcomes and have a great range of activities, including one on writing romance fiction. Taking a chapter from the Harlequin Romance novel ‘The English Bride‘ by Australian author Margaret Way, students break down the elements of characterisation, structure and most fun of all – learn how to use adjectives powerfully!

One of the exercises they do whilst reading the selected passages in EQ is highlight all the analogies to ‘lions’ that are used to describe the hero of the story. He’s tawny, with a mane of dusty locks that peek from beneath his Akubra hat. His muscular arms clench manfully around her as he guides her with his paw-like embrace into the steamy … okay, you get the idea.

You might think that the cliches would be a turn-off – but it’s the challenge of finding new ways to describe settings, capture characterization with evocative and interesting uses of language. I must point out, however, I warn my students that if they get a little TOO evocative, that they might have to face reading out their faux-romance novel chapter to the class… that makes them selectively stop just before the really interesting pages!

So, when hearing that Paul Tolme was alerted to plagiarism of his work ‘Toughing it Out in the Badlands‘ (Defenders Magazine, Summer 2005 – on Black-footed ferrets) – by romance-writer Cassie Edwards, author of ‘Shadow Bear‘… er, I wasn’t really that shocked:

Sensing her vulnerability, Shadow Bear knows just what to say: “In turn, coyotes, badgers, and owls prey on ferrets, whose life span in the wild is often less than two winters ? They have a short, quick life.”

Wow, that is some bad dialogue. It stands out as clunky and awkward even by the standards of romance novels. That’s because Edwards didn’t write it. I did.

Taking chunks of Tolme’s work is, of course, shocking and disturbing. But despite the ‘clunky’ misuse as a post-coital-cool-down conversation – note that it recognises that relationships in the animal world can be racy, engaging and portray relationships just as tumultuous as a story about five unmarried sisters during the Napoleonic Wars? As the news article in Newsweek demonstrates – watch out Animal Planet!

Dr Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex reflects this brilliantly. Olivia Judson’s book takes stories of the bizarre sex life of animals and teaches about natural history and evolutionary biology… in the form of sex-columns. And you thought they had it tough in the city…

“I’m a spotted hyena, a girl. The only trouble is, I’ve got a large phallus. I can’t help feeling that this is unladylike. What’s wrong with me?”

Sorry, my first response was ‘never mind – join the Scissor Sisters‘, which isn’t correct…

“I think I’ve made a dreadful mistake. I’ve just lost my virginity to a fellow who recently escaped from a local fruit fly factory… he says he’s put a spell on me so that I’ll never be able to have sex with anyone else… is he all bluff?”

I think that’s a potentially good plot source for the ‘paranormal romance’ that was being touted earlier… an alien male with his own sexy spells? In this case, it’s all due to an ‘antiaphrodisiac, a chemical that makes her stink, so that males will find her repulsive.’

You’ll learn about oral sex in fish, bestiality and necrophilia in bacteria, really sad tarantualas who can’t get a girl and have only two months of life to live, flirty seahorses that don’t deliver the goods and as you can see from my links – it has inspired me to do even further research to check out the wonders of weird and wacky lives of animals! By the way, this book features a GREAT bibliography and index pages… something that really should be emphasized in this tale of black-footed research banditry in a romance novel.

Okay, these tales are not really ‘PG’ in that regards. But in many ways, it’s a pointer as to how we should encourage more animal-related stories in general as material fit for encouraging a love of reading and science… er, as well as learning about how love is really a fascinating topic and not something to be feared of if you discuss it in a rational, informed way.

If you’re looking for something for the younger years, I can’t go past a fond favorite. When I was ten, I was given a copy of ‘My Family and Other Animals‘ – if you’re keen on the ‘Alexandria Quartet‘, you might recognize the famous last name ‘Durrell’. This nature-filled youthful autobiography, however, is by Gerald Durrell – the younger brother of the famous poet and chronicler Lawrence. Gerald Durrell, like Paul Tolme, was a great supporter of animal conservation and created the famous Jersey Zoo – which featured in the John Cleese film ‘Fierce Creatures.’

‘My Family and Other Animals’ is the first in a series of animal-packed adventures that lasted all of Durrell’s life, well into adulthood – with healthy helpings of travel journalism, family eccentricities and some of the best breakdowns of the life of little creatures that you’ll ever find. Beautiful descriptions, wonderful prose writing. And often very funny:

The fruit that [Achilles the tortoise] liked best were wild strawberries. He would become positively hysterical at the mere sight of them, lumbering to and fro, craning his head to see if you were going to give him any, gazing at you pleadingly with his tiny shoe-button eyes… but if you gave him a big one, he behaved in a way that I had never seen another tortoise emulate. He would grab the fruit and, holding it firmly in his mouth, would stumble off at top speed until he reached a safe and secluded spot amongst the flowerbeds, where he would drop the fruit and then eat it at leisure, returning for another one when he had finished.

It’d be great if more authors were able to say ‘I read widely, I’m inspired by the world around me and I reference science works based on facts and research when I create fiction.’ Or ‘I was interested in romance literature and nature from a young age and it improved my vocabulary and my appreciation for life on earth – and you hear my unique chat-up lines!’

… Oh – the moral of the story? Paul Tolme, the man in the center of the ferret fur-flying has this to say on the SBTB site:

I urge you to learn more by visiting sites such as www.prairiewildlife.org, www.defenders.org and www.nationalwildlife.org. Having my work copied in a romance novel has introduced me to an audience of readers I knew little about, and for that I am glad.

And a shout-out to the talented “FerretLover” from the www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com comments for this relevant image:

References:

Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton.

Scharf, M., Mayseless, O., & Kivenson-Baron, I. (2004) Adolescents’ attachment representations and developmental tasks in emerging adulthood. Developmental Psychology, 40, 430-444.

Sternberg, R. J. (1997). Construct validation of a triangula love scale. European Journal of Social Psychology. , 27, 313-335.

Whitbourne, S.K., Zuschlag, M.K., Elliot, L.B., & Waterman, A.D. (1992). Psychosocial develoment in adulthood: A 22-year sequential study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 260-271.

Tagged as: Animal Planet, animals, blog, conservation, Durrell, Education, ferrets, Gossip Girl, intimacy, language, Literature, novels, Olivia Judson, plagiarism, Psychology, romance, Science, sex, Sex and the City, smart bitches, social development, trashy books, Twilight