Link list: power and romance in the blogosphere

My fellow VPer Chris Gerwel (The King of Elfland's Second Cousin) has been posting over at Amazing Stories about the exploration of power in romance -- and along the way looking at how romance, fantasy and science fiction intersect each other -- and that has pulled me into an impromptu blog hop about power's uses in romance.

It caught my eye because of the strong romance element in Disciple, of course. My brain has been burbling about what power is, in my Saints of War universe, how it was defined by society, how that society was applied to Kate, Kiefan and Anders (in different ways, because of gender and social class)... and how things changed over the six parts of the story.

Part of me wants to write up an analysis, but that's problematic. I may not have the best perspective on Disciple, since I'm deep inside that particular forest. It would also be extremely spoilery to post such a thing, and I don't like spoilers.

For example, in many romances (and erotica, especially 50 Shades) the hero is the one who "educates" the heroine in "what she wants." The education (or corruption) of an innocent woman, if you will. This is a power structure: the hero understands the heroine better than she does, and he spends the book controlling her access to what she desires both by bringing her to an awareness of them and... by physical control of some sort.

I don't find that sort of story compelling, to be completely honest. I tend to be skeptical. But obviously it sells. And yet... if you tilt Disciple ninety degrees and look between the lines... there is actually a little of that going on. Backwards, I think. But that's a post for another time, and quite possibly for somebody else to write. It's interesting to think about, though.

I'd like to post a link list, because the link hopping has taken me to new blogs and I will probably want to look at them all again, later. If you know of more posts, please tell me! I'd love to expand this list.

Chris Gerwel's posts:
Romance - more powerful than you could possibly imagine
The power in paranormal romance
Science fiction romance - a niche before its time
Is this a kissing book? SFF's relationship with romance

DearAuthor.com:
Love is, indeed, a battlefield
(series continues?)

Something More:
Sex + power = ?
Objectification, Part I
Objectification, Part II