McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Dresden vs everyone in the Genre
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Rook on October 22, 2007, 02:41:50 AM ---Who else but Dresden does things like send pizza to the middle of nowhere once a week as a retainer for faerie services? Or references Wile E. Coyote during a street fight?
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Felix Castor ? Bob Howard ?
[ "I like rhetorical questions. I usually get the answers right." ]
Lizard King:
--- Quote from: neurovore on October 22, 2007, 03:10:28 PM ---Felix Castor ? Bob Howard ?
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What's your point?
The reason I'm asking, is it seems like you are simply trying to be argumentative. And maybe a bit obnoxious.
DragonFire:
--- Quote from: neurovore on October 22, 2007, 03:04:41 PM ---That may well be true in the subgenre of dark urban fantasy - and how much of that is a combination of what that genre is perceived as being about by publishers, and what sort of people are drawn to that perception, is a different question - but it's way excessive as a generalisation even in SF/Fantasy as a whole. Or at least, the thought of Sarah Monette or C.J. Cherryh, or even Lois Bujold, being perceived as emphasising romantic relationships and such just makes me laugh.
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LAugh away. I've not read anything by those authors, nor am I aware of any urban fantasy they've written. I do stress not ALL authors fit this mold, but it seems to me that most do.
MAybe you could stop being so defensive and borderline rude and actually discuss why you think that is??
ANd I never, ever stated it was across SF/F as a whole, I specifically stated URBAN FANTASY, as this is what the thread is about.
I can tell you of one female author that has the balance right. Mercedes Lackey. She has a decent balance between romance and action, but there is still more romance in her stuff than, say, DF, or the Felix Castor books.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Lizard King on October 22, 2007, 04:56:38 PM ---What's your point?
The reason I'm asking, is it seems like you are simply trying to be argumentative. And maybe a bit obnoxious.
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My point here, fwiw, is that, fond of the Dresden Files as I am, they are not a unique example of urban fantasy with a male protagonist who has the virtue of a snarky sense of humour, and that this is probably worth letting people know about in this context, as anyone who is looking at the Dresden Files as unique in this way may be unaware of other authors and characters out there whom they would find enjoyable. I'm sorry you find this problematic; it seemd a positive thing to me.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Lightsabre on October 22, 2007, 07:23:56 PM ---LAugh away. I've not read anything by those authors, nor am I aware of any urban fantasy they've written.
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Your statement "Female authors, male or female lead characters, tend to emphasise romantic relationships and such, in their stories" did not read to me as limited to this particular subset of SF/fantasy. My apologies if that was a misreading.
--- Quote ---MAybe you could stop being so defensive and borderline rude and actually discuss why you think that is??
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The first half of the post of mine you were just replying to was intended as an answer to that, but to expand on that, as it clearly wasn't clear enough:
There is a perception of a certain kind of urban fantasies with female protagonists - paranormal romances, vampire shaggers, nosferotica, call them what you will - as being principally about romance with action secondary if present at all. This is a marketing perception. It leads publishers to think more of this stuff will sell. It leads authors to think that this kind of stuff will sell; or, perhaps a more apropos and less cynical way of putting it, it leads authors who want to do things with lots of romance in to find that market appealing. The more of it there is, the more the people who like that kind of thing will buy, the stronger the genre gets, it's self-sustaining and self-fulfilling, and I think LKH and Buffy are explanation enough for how the whole thing got started.
--- Quote ---ANd I never, ever stated it was across SF/F as a whole, I specifically stated URBAN FANTASY, as this is what the thread is about.
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How are you defining urban fantasy ? I don't think the biases you express about women and romance extend to Emma Bull or Kara Dalkey, for example, in the work of theirs I think of as urban fantasy.
If you want to define urban fantasy specifically as meaning paranormal romance, then yes, sure, lots of it is by female authors and romance-focused; I think what this says is that at the paranormal romance is a popular subgenre and easier to sell than other kinds of urban fantasy, [ witness for example the total failure of the final part of Walter Jon Williams' Metropolitan trilogy to find a publisher ] and I do find going from that to generalisations about how men and women write to be problematic.
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