Urban Fantasy
Dec. 19th, 2008 01:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmoore"Here, hold my veil. I don't want it to get caught in the catapult."
I love turning on the TV to lines like that.
ANYWAY!
For most of the week, I've been following this post by Lilith Saintcrow, which is essentially about "what is urban fantasy," which she starts with "chicks in leather kicking ass," and then continues. Earlier today, I read this post at her LJ, which is a followup.
As expected of anything that says any variety of "Hey, maybe women like to be important in fiction, too!" there are troll comments, though in this case, I think some of the troll comments had valid criticisms of the genre buried inside.
*recs everyone read the posts and at least some comments before reading further*
When I started reading urban fantasy, what attracted me was that a lot of it seemed to be a blend of noir and fantasy, applied to the modern world (or a close equivalent), and that it did a much better job of giving female characters their due, even in books with a male protagonist. What caused me to eventually burn out was the endless romantic machinations and revolving doors on love lives and how so many series seemed to eventually turn into how she was somehow Special, and focusing more on what guy she'd choose (resulting in often either making her seem wishy-washy, or making me irritated because not only was it obvious, but it also asn't being portrayed as being her choice) than the interesting meta-arcs and the paranormal aspects. I mean, seriously, I love it when there's a romance that I like, but I can only take so much of being jerked around in that department.
Also, as I've been reminded of elsewhere, I often want to shove Elisa and Fox of Gargoyles (awesome UF cartoon from before the UF boom) at UF writers (and writers in general) as examples of awesome badass heroines with romances who aren't just their romances, are never undermined or lessened, and never code as remotely male.
So, thoughts on the article? On UF in general? Even if you aren't a fan of it?
ETA: I understand that many on the f-list are suffering from a snowpocalypse. I apologize if I caused this by complaining about the cold earlier this week.
I love turning on the TV to lines like that.
ANYWAY!
For most of the week, I've been following this post by Lilith Saintcrow, which is essentially about "what is urban fantasy," which she starts with "chicks in leather kicking ass," and then continues. Earlier today, I read this post at her LJ, which is a followup.
As expected of anything that says any variety of "Hey, maybe women like to be important in fiction, too!" there are troll comments, though in this case, I think some of the troll comments had valid criticisms of the genre buried inside.
*recs everyone read the posts and at least some comments before reading further*
When I started reading urban fantasy, what attracted me was that a lot of it seemed to be a blend of noir and fantasy, applied to the modern world (or a close equivalent), and that it did a much better job of giving female characters their due, even in books with a male protagonist. What caused me to eventually burn out was the endless romantic machinations and revolving doors on love lives and how so many series seemed to eventually turn into how she was somehow Special, and focusing more on what guy she'd choose (resulting in often either making her seem wishy-washy, or making me irritated because not only was it obvious, but it also asn't being portrayed as being her choice) than the interesting meta-arcs and the paranormal aspects. I mean, seriously, I love it when there's a romance that I like, but I can only take so much of being jerked around in that department.
Also, as I've been reminded of elsewhere, I often want to shove Elisa and Fox of Gargoyles (awesome UF cartoon from before the UF boom) at UF writers (and writers in general) as examples of awesome badass heroines with romances who aren't just their romances, are never undermined or lessened, and never code as remotely male.
So, thoughts on the article? On UF in general? Even if you aren't a fan of it?
ETA: I understand that many on the f-list are suffering from a snowpocalypse. I apologize if I caused this by complaining about the cold earlier this week.
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Date: 2008-12-20 02:34 am (UTC)And then I found UF. I think my first one was a few years ago, but I honestly can remember the specific book with which I started. But UF was like a breath of fresh air. They had these AWESOME leads who were GIRLS and they could kick ass and take names and they didn't settle down and no one got stuck with a baby at the end. I was in heaven.