How can we be interested in consuming stories that we already know? How is it rational? Or, is it simply irrational?
This is what I call the paradox of junk fiction. (227)
Harlequin Romances are often held up as the epitome of the formulaic. So many of these novels mobilize the same scenario: girl meets boy; girl misunderstands boy, or vice-versa; the misunderstanding is cleared up; girl gets boy. But despite the formulaic structure of these stories, each novel affords the reader the opportunity to exercise her interpretive powers. (233-234)