Just how blind IS love?
I read a great book recently about a wounded hero who meets up with the former “plain” girl who used to have a crush on him in high school. They both overcome great danger, learning to trust and rely upon one another–first for their lives and then for emotional fulfillment. It was my favorite type of book—dark, edgy and erotic. And it had a good message about valuing substance over beauty.
But then, at the very end, the hero said something that stopped me in my tracks. 7 words out of 100,000, but they literally make me cringe whenever I think of them.
On the very last page, the hero (who became blind just as the story opens), learns that the heroine is the former “ugly” girl from school and tries to reassure her that he doesn’t care. In a teasing, flirty way, he points out he loves her voice, her scent, her body.
And then he says (after acknowledging that he remembers what she looked like in high school), “So….what do I care about your face?”
I have to admit, this line, the third to last line in the book, ruined the story for me. I know it wasn’t the author’s intent at all. That she was merely trying to emphasize that even someone who is not blessed by beauty can be loved by a gorgeous, sexy, brave man. But with these seven words, the hero implicitly agreed that the heroine’s face was ugly, or lacking, or inferior in some way. He AGREED with the world’s view of her, and essentially stated he could love her anyway because he had found other things to COMPENSATE for it.
Not beautiful in the conventional sense, but beautiful to him. Her outward appearance hasn’t changed, but because of who she is as a whole, because of how she makes him feel, she is truly beautiful to him.
I don’t think the author of this book would disagree. I think she was trying to make the same point. But whether she intended to or not, the specific words “What do I care about your face?” proved the opposite for me.
Yes, people are flawed. Yes, people aren’t perfect. But in romance, I need the hero’s love to be “perfect.” No matter the challenges and hardships and mistakes, no matter the heroine’s flaws, the hero must ultimately see the heroine in a way no one else does. She’s his equal. He in no way settles. He sees the perfection in her imperfection.
QUESTION OF THE DAY?
Have you ever experienced an intensely negative reaction to a character, character’s actions, or character’s words in a novel?
March 12th, 2008
Virna 
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March 12th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Let’s see… there’s one character I intensely dislike to the extent that her name in any context causes my teeth to clench reflexively, but she’s a villain, so I’m supposed to hate her.
I had to stop reading a popular urban fantasy series because what most people view as the hero’s “endearing imperfection” crossed the line, from my perspective, into “complete incompetence” in the second book.
And I had a rant sometime last week about book I read years ago in which the heroine, in the first chapter, commits an act of wanton child endangerment, and I spent the rest of the book rooting for the villain, hoping she would suffer an agonizing death and the kid and hero would replace her with a woman who wasn’t such a self-consumed moron. I had such a bad reaction to that one, I refuse to read anything else written by that author.
March 12th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Such an interesting post, Virna. I agree with you about how that one line, while likely written with a different intention, can be interpreted the way you did and can have a negative impact on our view of the hero. It’s a fine line and your point is really driven home about how careful authors have to be in creating our characters. I think we become so close to them, that we often fill in the blanks in our minds and don’t see how the words alone frame them on the page, thus creating a slightly different painting for the reader.
I can’t think of a book to hold up as an example, but then I NEVER can remember anything because my memory’s SO bad!!! One will probably come to me in the middle of the night.
March 12th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I’ve read plenty of books where I’m half way through and the hero or heroine are simply to stupid to live. At that point I stop reading. In one book I read, and forced myself to finish, but wanted to through it across the room, because the actions of the heroine was selfish and ridiculous. I couldn’t stand it. Nothing the author wrote, and how the character grew, made her likeable. I continued reading, because she as a cop and I really wanted to like her. By the end of the book, I disliked heroine more then ever. Her actions were so stupid in the real world she would have been arrested. She too committed child endangerment, and I just wanted to slap her.
I believe when authors do this to there characters, its out of a sort of innocents. They honestly don’t have enough experience in the world they’ve chosen that they don’t see the injustice they do their beloved characters.
Once this happens to me, its hard for me to go back to the same author. I know, but it will take a great book for me to return to them. I feel let down.
March 12th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Kerry–it’s super hard for a character (and author) to redeem themselves when stupidity with children is involved. For you to root for the villain, it must’ve been a serious lapse in judgment.
Misa–I agree that as authors we sometimes forget that every word counts for our characters. I love the word “painting” because art, like writing, is so subjective!
Lee–It’s especially hard when you have special skills/knowledge, such as with law enforcement. In one of my mss, I had to have my hero do something, but then I talked to a Sheriff’s Deputy who told me it would never, never happen. I pulled my hair out, but eventually came up with something different–and realistic. At least to me!
March 16th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Yikes! That would turn me off, too. I agree that she should be beautiful to him. If he feels like he’s “settling” then things aren’t on an even playing field.
March 25th, 2008 at 2:06 am
thank you, brother