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PETTY_TRIUMPHS_CLEAN_HANDS

                                             August 29, 2014


The female lead is emotionally upset about her
ex getting married to someone else.  She gets           SECRET_HOTEL
drunk by herself, has a chance encounter with
her boss-- a Desireable Male-- and as he's
trying to help her home, out of the blue she
repeatedly, drunkenly insists that they get
married.  He surprises all onlookers and says
yes (Just to get her to calm down?  Has he
secretly had his eye on her?).

The actual point of all this is not to lead up
to a Happy Ending where our heroine marries this
Desireable Male.  The point is that this happens
publicly, in front of witnesses, including her
competitor, a slick woman who has been after the
boss herself.

The heroine gets to provoke envy, but she
does so *accidentally*, without scheming
to create the situation, so her purity and
niceness is not compromised.

This business-- which actually all works
very well as romantic-comedy schtick--
shows up a flaw in the form, I think: the
protagonist can not work toward the goal.

There's a common understanding of fiction that
it is at root about problem-solving: there's
a conflict, and it must be resolved through
the efforts of the protagonist.

In this genre, passive, accidental
triumphs are the rule.
                                         ROMANCE


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