Romantic Fiction, Reality Shaping and The Work

[Juba]

Final warning: do NOT read any of the Dark Romances. You should know enough about them by reading the Grok exchange to know that they will probably traumatize you. I was reading like a naturalist, looking for clues as to the psyches of the authors and readers so I was basically protected. But still, it was not pleasant.

Maybe writing an article about the dark and twisted romances on Substack could be a good idea. After all, they are a form of negative programming, especially if young people, like teenagers or even children, are reading them. I'm scared to think about what these kinds of books are doing to them and how they will affect them in the future. Are they going to be able to have a normal relationship or family?

 

[seek10]

Do we also have Lisa Kleypas' series that follow the Wallflowers: Bow Street Runners, Hathaways and Ravenels?

She also has a two volume set: Vallerands

Standalone: Love, Come to me

Added: Bow Street Runners series is, in time, prior to Wallflowers and there is a small crossover in book 3 to a character who later is major in Wallflowers. Hathaways follow Wallflowers with crossovers and then Ravenels.

Ravenels series was already in the list. The following books were added to the site.

Books Reading Project

Recommended Book List

sites.google.com

 

[Laura]

Ravenels series was already in the list. The following books were added to the site.

Books Reading Project

Recommended Book List

sites.google.com

View attachment 112658

Order should be Bow Street, Wallflowers, Hathaways, Ravenels. Vallerands is a two book set where the action takes place in Louisiana right after the Louisiana purchase, I think, so it is earlier than even Bow Street. Love Come to Me is set in the US also, Boston area, after the Civil War.

 

[Seato]

There seems to have been a growing awareness in the public space on the issues with popular modern “romantic literature”.

The Absolute Degeneracy of Modern Writing
The Second Story

This two month old discussion on the subject by the YouTube channel ‘The Second Story’ by Hilary Layne doesn’t go anywhere near as deep as Laura’s breakdown with Grok on the phenomenon but nether less tries to explore the subject pointing out a lot of the most popular and pushed romance novels to be essentially porn. Some more attention has surfaced within the last week as more popular commentary channels have been touching on the subject.

Layne perceives the mass of ‘women’s literature’ as essentially porn and adult entertainment disguised behind the veil of content for women. She explains how men and women each engage differently with explicit content. She suspects there is a similar trend in literary smut acting as a gateway for the more extreme content for women akin to adult visual media for men. Noting it can be easier to hide more extreme taboos in books.
She discusses the argument that such books help to heighten empathy. Layne points out this may not be a good thing as excessive empathy may impair judgment with links to anxiety, stress and mental issues. I think it may be seen as a contributing factor to the mental health epidemic in the West especially. She suspects this tying of emotions and empathy to negative relationship dynamics is conditioning women to look towards abusive relationships for gratification.
On the matter of the warning against Dark Romance novels Layne describes her own negative reaction to engaging with some of the content she discusses. Because the literature is meant to engage with the reader on an emotional level it can end up having this negative impact.

The lack of research and attention the addiction to this explicit material is treated with makes it difficult for women to receive help with these issues, especially when compared to how seriously the issue of porn addiction is viewed for men. Denial and ignoring of reality. Smut is being promoted as female empowerment but may in fact be causing significant harm. Supposedly you must 'listen to all women', but women's issues from modern ideology are championed as 'female empowerment' or ignored as 'internalized misogyny'.
She briefly goes over the growth of such literature arguing that the increasing focus on sex is also lowering literary standards. If all you need to sell a book is some explicit content do you even need to bother with a good story? She seems to suspect money is the main drive behind this, though we may suspect the mental harm and conditioning may be an intended consequence on some level.

 

[Andrian]

Final warning: do NOT read any of the Dark Romances. You should know enough about them by reading the Grok exchange to know that they will probably traumatize you. I was reading like a naturalist, looking for clues as to the psyches of the authors and readers so I was basically protected. But still, it was not pleasant.

Just wanted to say that it seems that out there people are beginning to notice the side effects the pathological post modern culture has on those that fell under its spell, especially the liberal women denying their own nature, thus acting in opposition to the creative energy of the universe that they represent.Thus falling under the entropic force that becomes the active force in their lives. One of the ways the entropic force manifests in those affected by it is through the perversion and distortion of thoughts, emotions and actions. Laura put it much more eloquently in her exchange with Grok.

Here below a video of a youtuber that speaks about the pathological phenomenon that is spreading across the liberal women like an egregor corrupting their hearts and minds.The video is clearly made for a younger audience but still is worth watching from an observational point of view: