Aug 09 2007
TEA: Do not serve with crumpets
Ah, the requisite “happily ever after,” one of the defining characteristics of the romance genre. I support the concept, but I think the perception of what it means is oversimplified. The verbiage itself is limited, so I vote to change it.
Some take ”happily ever after” literally and believe it implies the characters actually live happily in conjunction with ever after. They then state that this is ludicrous because no one is blissfully happy all the time, much less for eternity because no one is immortal. (Guess they don’t read paranormals.) I’ve heard this from readers of romance, not just those pesky detractors, so it’s not springing from a lack of understanding of the genre.
Even the most loving couples squabble from time to time. If the hero and heroine butted heads at any point in their story, it’s a foregone conclusion they will again. Not to mention bad days at work, rush-hour traffic, stubbed toes, and all those other life events that harsh your happy. Nobody is happy all the time (at least not without serious pharmaceutical assitance).
Particularly when the worldbuilding constructs a dark, scary world in which bad things occur on a regular basis, the idea that everything is always and forevermore going to be hearts and rainbows and butterfly kisses once the hero and heroine declare their love is patently ridiculous. There will always be terrible goings-on in such a world, and unless the hero and heroine are selfish assholes and wash their hands of the rest of the world now that they have what they want, the badness is going to affect them, as well.
I don’t expect characters to float on a fluffy cloud of joy for eternity any more than I expect them to break up a week after the book ends and start seeing other people. I assume they’ll remain together. I assume they’ll have good times and bad, but on average, the scales are going to tip in favor of the good. I glean my satisfaction not from the idea that peace and harmony will reign for the rest of all time, but from the idea that whatever trouble the future may bring, it won’t be as daunting because they will face it together and overcome it, the way they did the conflicts in their story.
Therefore, I will hereafter refer to the essential romantic ending as a TEA: Together Ever After, because whatever route is taken from beginning to end, the only finish I demand from a romance novel is an enduring love.
What about you? Are you a purist, craving the wedding-and-babies epilogue of the traditional HEA? Or do you seek acknowledgement that sometimes the future is going to suck, but love will survive anything thrown at it?
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