On fantasy and romance and tropes that irritate me
Although the fantasy genre is becoming increasingly popular and more mainstream, I’ve noticed there’s still something of a stigma attached to reading it in certain circles. Remarks from non-readers don’t particularly ruffle my feathers (I’ll clearly never understand them anyway), but frequently I’ve found myself forced to defend my preferred genre to other readers. Often this segues into a combined defence of the Romance genre (another one I also enjoy, particularly when combined with Fantasy). Defending Romance to I-only-read-high-brow-literature people is an even more challenging task than defending Fantasy, and when you combine the two it starts to seem impossible.
It also amuses and depresses me how self-professed readers of only-great-literature-which-certainly-doesn’t-include-fantasy will jump through all kinds of self-imposed mental hoops to explain why a fantasy book they enjoyed was not, in fact, fantasy. Terry Pratchett? Satire. George R R Martin? History. Harry Potter? Children’s literature. Lord of the Rings? Written before fantasy existed, so clearly can’t be fantasy.
Now, the ones I just mentioned probably don’t need any help from me in defending themselves. But, as well as reading fantasy books that even non-fantasy readers would probably be forced to admit have some merit, I also read a lot of trashy fantasy novels. Of course, I’m not saying that my trashy fantasy novels are some kind of undiscovered great literature that should be handed down through the ages for future generations. They’re not (although the thought of some future English Lit class analysing them as Serious Literature is diverting). Are they so full of holes that you could use them as sieves? Yes. Do I enjoy them? Yes. Does that make me a low-brow kind of person? Maybe.
So I started thinking about why I enjoy trashy fantasy novels, and conversely where the line is between trashy-but-good-fun and OMG-this-is-terrible-and-the-author-needs-some-sense-knocked-into-them. Here is a list of things that either cross, or start to cross that line for me
- questionable consent
- OOC plot convenient stupidity
- deus ex machina, especially if it runs along the lines of 'and then the hero/heroine becomes God and Saves the World'. I'm looking at you, Terry Goodkind.
- jerk-ass 'heroes' whose only redeeming feature is their physical attractiveness. Don't mind jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold, but there has to actually be a heart of gold. I'm looking at you, Becca Fitzpatrick.
- controlling heroes, particularly when combined with spineless heroines.
- preachiness - a strangely common one I come across is 'If only everyone stopped trying to be monogamous, the world would be a better place'. Todd McCaffrey and LKH, I'm looking at you.
- cliffhangers for the sake of cliffhangers. If I have to sit there biting my nails until the next book comes out there better be a damn good reason why it had to end there rather than a cheap sales technique!
- people partnering up with their torturers. Maria Snyder, I'm looking at you with great disappointment.
- people that are only together because of some mystical 'mating' force. I can stomach the whole 'soulmates' thing if the author can show me why they work so well as partners. But if there's no reason they'd be together apart from this mystical soulmate force, then it smacks too much of loss-of-free-will to me (besides being a dull story).
- love triangles. They're becoming harder and harder to avoid these days. They seem like a lazy way to get out of introducing real conflict into books. I've never read a love triangle that didn't (a) make me think the girl involved - it's usually one girl and two guys - wasn't a b*tch for stringing them both along and (b) seem forced because it was obvious which one she was going to pick. I hate them. THERE ARE OTHER WAYS TO HAVE CONFLICT IN RELATIONSHIPS!!!
Huh, on reflection most of my quibbles seem to be related to the romantic aspects of books. Basically, if I like the story and the characters, I can gloss over enormous plot holes and fail world building. If the characters, relationships or story is broken, then I find it a lot more irritating.