Politics, porn and romance novels

I don't live in Texas and I know nothing about the issues in the State Comptrollers race, but I can tell you that if I could vote in that election, I wouldn't vote for Fred Head.

Just sample the mud he's slinging at opponent Susan Combs:

Susan Combs claims to be a person of high moral standards. Her record of writing, having published and selling a pornographic book clearly shows that Susan Combs is a two faced, hypocrite who was obviously more concerned with her literary career and seeing her name in print than the morals of the young People of Texas who are exposed to her 222 page book, A Perfect Match, which has her name at the top of every other page - - - a clear testament to Susan Combs’ insatiable ego and desire to see her name in print.

...

It’s time for the People of Texas to send Susan Combs the message that hypocrite, pornographic book writers will not be tolerated any longer in Public Office in Texas.

Susan Combs has shown no remorse and made no apology for writing her pornographic book. Fred Head hereby challenges Susan Combs to fully explain to the People of Texas why she wrote a pornographic book, apologize to the People and withdraw from the race for Comptroller of Public Accounts.

What's this pornographic book that has Head so outraged? It's a straight-forward contemporary series romance novel titled A Perfect Match published by Kismet back in 1990.

I know that the line where art ends and pornography starts is different for everyone. Otherwise, this country would have a blanket definition for what constitutes pronography and not the vague "community standards". Attempts to define the difference between what is pronographic and not pornographic usually have to do with the difference between material that is intenteded solely to arouse sexual interest and material that has artistic and historical value.

Romance novels are generally defined as stories where the primary plot involves the relationship between two people, culminating in a satisfying ending. As a genre, it's so broad that you can find stories that barely hint at what happens behind closed doors (sweet and inspirational romances) and stories that explicitly state exactly what is happening -- action-by-action, emotion-by-emotion, page-after-page -- during love scenes (erotica, romantica). Then, there are all the thousands and thousands of stories that run the spectrum in between, including Combs' A Perfect Match.

Traditional romance novels, especially those like Combs' wrote, may have a lot of sexual tension in them, but the actual sex is usually very limited and within the bounds of a monogomous relationship that ends happily in commitment or marriage. Romances are relationship stories, and sex is a normal part of normal relationships.

Head has excerpts of Combs' book posted on his website. Out of a 222-page book, he has posted three pages of love scenes ripped out of their literary context. Only three pages. That's about 1 percent of the book.

This is his pornography?

And has he not noticed over his lifetime that it's a fairly standard fiction-publishing practice to put the author's name in the page header?

Head's comments are insulting to the MILLIONS of people who read romance novels, not to mention those of us writing them. Does Head realize that the national headquarters of Romance Writers of America is in Houston?

I wish Combs' book were still in print, because this publicity would have her sales numbers through the roof. A quick look at Amazon shows that a used copy of her book is selling for almost $20.

I also wish that the guy making these statements wasn't a Democrat.

For more on this subject, try writer Shana Galen's take on the situation at the Jaunty Quills blog or this news story from the Houston Chronicle or Romance novel fuels passionate debate: Candidate outrages writers with what they see as an attack on popular genre.