There certainly are such things as virgin stories, but are there any virgin stories? In other words, romance is filled with those stories about protecting virtue, preserving virginity, etc. But in presenting this theme throughout the genre, are any of these stories original? And does the repetition of this theme, the formulaic quality of the romance, turn certain people off? Is it the cliche that sends some of us into groans?
Many of my fellow students alluded to the fact that they do not enjoy the repetition of the archetypes found in romance. But for the very same reasons, there are those who are die-hard fans of romance. Is it the familiar that we cling to, but also reject? As Dr. Sexson said last Friday, is it our ancestral memory, our collective unconscious that leaves us pining for this comfortable "happy ending?" What, then, of originality? Will there ever be another cherry popped in the annals of romance?
There certainly are those off the wall romance stories, like Natural Born Killers or True Romance, where the conventions of romance are stretched to the breaking point. For some, this may be the only romances worth paying attention to. This certainly negates the idea that no one may die in a romance, as we see in both of these stories. Corpses litter the landscape in these modern romances. So, I wonder what other conventions may some day be stretched. And as we pull apart the ideas of romance, do we automatically turn them into irony and tragedy? Or do we simply classify them as "bad romance?"
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