Genres


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Liberty's Edge

The selection has too many PRICES . . ..... and ..... VAULES

Does "fantasy" actually have a useful meaning any more?


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Posting while drunk is always a bad idea.

Liberty's Edge

Shadowborn wrote:
Posting while drunk is always a bad idea.

Man, I'm only drunk on lack of sleep. And by "lack of sleep" I mean "raw power." I'd daresay a drop of alcohol has never touched my lips.

Really, though, do we need "genres?"

Dark Archive

NOT ALL THE CANS ARE THE SAME


Shadowborn wrote:
Posting while drunk is always a bad idea.

Not always.

Shadow Lodge

I'm genre blind!


Gark the Goblin wrote:
Shadowborn wrote:
Posting while drunk is always a bad idea.

Man, I'm only drunk on lack of sleep. And by "lack of sleep" I mean "raw power." I'd daresay a drop of alcohol has never touched my lips.

Really, though, do we need "genres?"

Joking...

I wasn't exactly sure what you were asking. You had me confused by what you meant by "prices" and "values." Also, genres in what? TV? Books? Movies?


Genres in general (see how I did that?) are useful, sure. I mean, a spy novel is not fantasy.

But Fantasy is a broad term, that's true.

As I ranted in another thread, I don't think every tiny little tweak or gimmick needs its own genre name. If I see one more "--Punk," tacked onto the end of something truly lame, like to denote the supposed separation of a story with dog poop from a story without any dog poop, I might just push the History Eraser Button.

It is jolly, shiny, red and candy-like after all. So I'm already itching to press it.


Fantasy is too broad a term.
Being a music snob I'm all into micro-style analysis of books. Don't describe, say, Wheel of Time as Fantasy. Describe it as Heroic Epic High Magic Fantasy Shlock.

Lord of the Rings is fantasy. But so is Alice in Wonderland. So is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. These are not at all similar works.

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Shadowborn wrote:
Posting while drunk is always a bad idea.

You say that like he's old enough to drink.

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Bruunwald wrote:

Genres in general (see how I did that?) are useful, sure. I mean, a spy novel is not fantasy.

But Fantasy is a broad term, that's true.

As I ranted in another thread, I don't think every tiny little tweak or gimmick needs its own genre name. If I see one more "--Punk," tacked onto the end of something truly lame, like to denote the supposed separation of a story with dog poop from a story without any dog poop, I might just push the History Eraser Button.

It is jolly, shiny, red and candy-like after all. So I'm already itching to press it.

Hmmm ...

Lamepunk? - Nah.
Poopunk? - Definitely not.

Hmmmm ...
Jolly, shiny, red, candypunk! - This one could work.

The Exchange

Fantasy

wiki wrote:


A story about magic and supernatural forces, rather than technology, though it often is made to include elements of other genres, such as science fiction elements, for instance computers or DNA, if it happens to take place in a modern or future era. Depending on the extent of these other elements, the story may or may not be considered to be a "hybrid genre" series; for instance, even though the Harry Potter series canon includes the requirement of a particular gene to be a wizard, it is referred to only as a fantasy series.

* Bangsian:is a fantasy genre which concerns the use of famous literary or historical individuals and their interactions in the afterlife. It is named for John Kendrick Bangs who often wrote it.
* Contemporary Fantasy:also known as modern fantasy or indigenous fantasy, is a sub-genre of fantasy, set in the present day.
o Urban Fantasy:is a sub-genre of fantasy defined by place; the fantastic narrative has an urban setting. Many urban fantasies are set in contemporary times and contain supernatural elements, making them a sub-genre of Contemporary fantasy. However, the stories can take place in historical, modern, or futuristic periods. The prerequisite is that they must be primarily set in a city.
* Dark fantasy:is a term used to describe a fantasy story with a pronounced horror element.
* Epic/High fantasy:is a subgenre of fantasy that is set in invented or parallel worlds. High fantasy was brought to fruition through the work of authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, whose major fantasy works were published in the 1950s.
* Heroic:The concept of a story archetype of the standard "hero's quest" or monomyth pervasive across all cultures is somewhat controversial. Expounded mainly by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, it illustrates several uniting themes of hero stories that hold similar ideas of what a hero represents, despite vastly different cultures and beliefs
* Magical girl: Popular in Japan, of girls who uses magic in either their training, idol stardom or even to fight evil.
* Mythic fiction:is literature that is rooted in, inspired by, or that in some way draws from the tropes, themes and symbolism of myth, folklore, and fairy tales. The term is widely credited to Charles de Lint and Terri Windling.
Science fantasy: A story with mystical elements that are scientifically explainable, or which combines science fiction elements with fantasy elements. It should be noted that science fiction was once actually referred to under this name, but that it is no longer used to denote that genre, and has somewhat fallen out of favor as a genre descriptor.
o Sword and planet: A subgenre of science fantasy that features rousing adventure stories set on other planets, and usually featuring Earthmen as protagonists. There is a fair amount of overlap between "Sword & Planet" and "planetary romance" although some works are considered to belong to one and not the other. In general, Planetary Romance is considered to be more of a Space Opera subgenre, influenced by the likes of A Princess of Mars yet more modern and technologically savvy, while Sword & Planet more directly imitates the conventions established by Burroughs in the Mars series.
o Dying Earth: A sub-subgenre of science fantasy which takes place either at the end of life on Earth or the End of Time, when the laws of the universe themselves fail. More generally, the Dying Earth sub-genre encompasses science fiction works set in the far distant future in a milieu of stasis or decline. Themes of world-weariness, innocence (wounded or otherwise), idealism, entropy, (permanent) exhaustion/depletion of many or all resources (such as soil nutrients), and the hope of renewal tend to pre-dominate
* Sword and sorcery: A blend of heroic fantasy, adventure, and frequent elements of the horrific in which a mighty barbaric warrior hero is pitted against both human and supernatural adversaries. Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Cimmerian, Kull of Atlantis, the Pictish king Bran Mak Morn, etc. is generally acknowledged as the founder of the genre, chiefly through his writings for Weird Tales and other 1920s and '30s pulp magazines.
* Wuxia: A distinct quasi-fantasy sub-genre of the martial arts genre.

Dark Archive

I think specific genres are pretty useful. If someone asks me to play in a "fantasy" game I might come expecting a medieval-European setting with some magic and orcs, and end up getting a version of Victorian England with vampires and jet packs.

Genres are useful for the purposes of identifying whether you'll be into a game setting or a movie. That said, creating new genres because you don't think there are enough, or writing a book specifically to conform to the "steampunk" genre, is not something I'd support. Genres are there to help us find the types of books/movies/games we want, just like the dewey decimal system is there to help us find things in a library.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
malebranche wrote:
Genres are there to help us find the types of books/movies/games we want, just like the dewey decimal system is there to help us find things in a library.

Basically how I feel. And, like you said, so we know what we're getting in an RPG.

Liberty's Edge

Crimson Jester wrote:

Fantasy

wiki wrote:


A story about magic and supernatural forces, rather than technology, though it often is made to include elements of other genres, such as science fiction elements, for instance computers or DNA, if it happens to take place in a modern or future era. Depending on the extent of these other elements, the story may or may not be considered to be a "hybrid genre" series; for instance, even though the Harry Potter series canon includes the requirement of a particular gene to be a wizard, it is referred to only as a fantasy series.

* Bangsian:is a fantasy genre which concerns the use of famous literary or historical individuals and their interactions in the afterlife. It is named for John Kendrick Bangs who often wrote it.
* Contemporary Fantasy:also known as modern fantasy or indigenous fantasy, is a sub-genre of fantasy, set in the present day.
o Urban Fantasy:is a sub-genre of fantasy defined by place; the fantastic narrative has an urban setting. Many urban fantasies are set in contemporary times and contain supernatural elements, making them a sub-genre of Contemporary fantasy. However, the stories can take place in historical, modern, or futuristic periods. The prerequisite is that they must be primarily set in a city.
* Dark fantasy:is a term used to describe a fantasy story with a pronounced horror element.
* Epic/High fantasy:is a subgenre of fantasy that is set in invented or parallel worlds. High fantasy was brought to fruition through the work of authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, whose major fantasy works were published in the 1950s.
* Heroic:The concept of a story archetype of the standard "hero's quest" or monomyth pervasive across all cultures is somewhat controversial. Expounded mainly by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, it illustrates several uniting themes of hero stories that hold similar ideas of what a hero represents, despite vastly different cultures and beliefs

...

Sorry, this is not complex enough. Not by half. I need to be able to sum up Princess Bride in one breath. (Iconic films and songs and books and whatever don't really work as examples here because even though everyone knows what I'm talking about it's difficult to define them based on other works - but whatever.)


Gark the Goblin wrote:
Sorry, this is not complex enough. Not by half. I need to be able to sum up Princess Bride in one breath. (Iconic films and songs and books and whatever don't really work as examples here because even though everyone knows what I'm talking about it's difficult to define them based on other works - but whatever.)

I think you need to differentiate genre and style. Genre is...general by definition. Rolling Stones are Rock music. So are Slayer, so are Pink Floyd, and so is Neil Diamond. It's extremely broad. They're all radically different styles, which is a more refined and granular category.

Princess Bride I think is pretty Mythic Fiction, possibly Heroic Fantasy (Westley's quest to save the princess is pretty iconic) or just a fairy tale, combined with Comedy. If I had to explain it concisely I'd say it's a romantic comedy fairy tale.

The Exchange

meatrace wrote:
Gark the Goblin wrote:
Sorry, this is not complex enough. Not by half. I need to be able to sum up Princess Bride in one breath. (Iconic films and songs and books and whatever don't really work as examples here because even though everyone knows what I'm talking about it's difficult to define them based on other works - but whatever.)

I think you need to differentiate genre and style. Genre is...general by definition. Rolling Stones are Rock music. So are Slayer, so are Pink Floyd, and so is Neil Diamond. It's extremely broad. They're all radically different styles, which is a more refined and granular category.

Princess Bride I think is pretty Mythic Fiction, possibly Heroic Fantasy (Westley's quest to save the princess is pretty iconic) or just a fairy tale, combined with Comedy. If I had to explain it concisely I'd say it's a romantic comedy fairy tale.

Here I was expecting Iconic, mythic fairy tale, done as a romantic comedy Simply because of the differences betwixt movie and book.


Aberzombie wrote:
Shadowborn wrote:
Posting while drunk is always a bad idea.
You say that like he's old enough to drink.

Technically, anyone who can pick up a glass and put it to their mouth is old enough to drink...but then when did the legal drinking age ever stop anyone?

Liberty's Edge

Crimson Jester wrote:
Gark the Goblin wrote:
I need to be able to sum up Princess Bride in one breath.
Iconic, mythic fairy tale, done as a romantic comedy

Perhaps I didn't mention that I have been smoking for thirty-four years.


Gark the Goblin wrote:
Crimson Jester wrote:
Gark the Goblin wrote:
I need to be able to sum up Princess Bride in one breath.
Iconic, mythic fairy tale, done as a romantic comedy
Perhaps I didn't mention that I have been smoking for thirty-four years.

You've been smoking since before you were conceived? Interesting. This sounds like a mystery for... Inspector Spacetime!

Or did Jeff roll a 1 again?

Liberty's Edge

Abed Nadir wrote:
Gark the Goblin wrote:
Crimson Jester wrote:
Gark the Goblin wrote:
I need to be able to sum up Princess Bride in one breath.
Iconic, mythic fairy tale, done as a romantic comedy
Perhaps I didn't mention that I have been smoking for thirty-four years.

You've been smoking since before you were conceived? Interesting. This sounds like a mystery for... Inspector Spacetime!

Or did Jeff roll a 1 again?

Perhaps you haven't heard of goblin years.

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