This week’s column is up at AMC and in honor of Valentine’s Day, I cover the structure of fantasy romance.
Confession: I’m a hopeless romantic, but I’ve never had that much interest in Valentine’s Day. My husband and I celebrate the day after Valentine’s because that’s when we met, but that’s the closest the day ever comes to having any significance for me. In a lot of ways, Valentine’s Day resembles a romantic fantasy in structure: People cram all the trappings of a romance into a single day, and typically disregard any resemblance to real life in the process. I know a lot of people who base their ideas on true love from what they see in fantasy — and for that reason love the holiday. The problem is that what makes for good romance in a fantasy flick isn’t necessarily what you should look for in real life, on Valentine’s Day or any other.
Trouble is fantasy is not real life. In fantasy you’ve got perfect princess (no flaws here) and perfect prince (no faults either), meet, defeat witch, live HEA (happily ever after). In reality Miss Pringle meets Fred the Amazingly Dull Guy and there is just something about him, hairless fat dweeb that he is, that makes him shine like fire in her eyes.