I am a bitter Fantasy fan (now with recs)

[mothwing]

I have been reading Fantasy written by English and American authors ever since I was fourteen. It is my favourite genre, and most of my favourite books are Fantasy books. This genre was my cure for sadness, loneliness, and boredom ever since I discovered it. And even though I love that genre and spend quite an amount of time defending its literary

Comments

[eumelia]

Rage On!
I'm a sci-fi/fantasy reader as well and am also in the Pratchett Camp!

I'm a Neil Gaiman fan, I think he manages to not fail when it comes to characters.

[mothwing]

I have to admit that the only things I've read by him were Stardust, which I didn't dislike but didn't really make me see why he's awesome, Anansi Boys, ditto, and Good Omens, which I enjoyed, so I don't really know what his women tend to be like. :)

[virginia_fell]

From what I've seen, his women are just... people. I didn't feel like he was tripping along happily in the well-worn tracks, but I also didn't sense the strain of trying to break the mold in some obvious way (which can sometimes be just as bad, imo).

So yeah, I'll second that rec. Thank you for this big list. Very cool.

[burningmarl]

Spot on!
I think the 'Strong Female Character' trope is misused everywhere, in rom. coms. particularly but SF&F writers should have no excuse!

And I think your analysis of fic really hit the nail on the head with something I've been trying to articulate for a while

[nightcrawler_2_]

Ah yes, the slash writers... Let's not talk about them. I quit reading fanfiction ages ago because it looks like the only thing people can write is porn, and I'm not very interested in that. I mean, sure, everything has its place, but come ON. You can barely find a fic without a sex scene these days.

I have to admit that I'm guilty of the "my personal preference" thing, and I know why. I mostly watch shounen shows, and the Japanese stereotype of a "good" woman is... questionable. Most of them are only there as decoration. They don't add anything to the story, except maybe screaming the male lead's name every few minutes. I suppose this could be fixed by watching shoujo, but those storylines are uninteresting to me (I hatehateHATE romance stories). Frankly, the few female characters I could relate to in anime were the Major from Ghost in the Shell and Utena.

/thoughts on yaoi

But yes. Fantasy authors FAIL at writing women (Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, I'm looking at you. Stop with the cleavage descriptions already!)

[mothwing]

That's what bothers me - I like my porn, but when ALL fanfiction seems to be written with porn or fetishistic voyeurism lurking somewhere in the near future, it starts getting pointless.

[ishyface]

Oh, God, Robert Jordan's female characters are terrible. SO MUCH SPANKING. AND FOOT-STOMPING.

[lisaquestions]

And sniffing. And braid-tugging. And terminally passive-aggressive.

I hate Jordan's writing so much.

Agree. 100%.

[seeinglife]

Dear SF/F: Presenting female characters that are NOT love interests would be great. Males get to be just characters with their own lives and stories... how come women seem to have to be somebody's love interest to get in the story?

(Also a Pratchett fan!)

Re: Agree. 100%.

[mothwing]

Good question.... I'm trying to think of SF/F books which have female characters who are not love interests, and the list is pitifully short compared to list of the ones that are.

Re: Agree. 100%.

[emily_goddess]

Dear SF/F: Presenting female characters that are NOT love interests would be great.

P.S.: presenting female villains that aren't seductresses/insane/abuse survivors would also be lovely. Thanks.

Re: Agree. 100%.

[emily_goddess]

Ack! Should've said "women," not "female". Sorry.

[mothwing]

It definitely depends whom you hang out with. IRL, luckily, I have a lot of people who have similar interests as I do, but online I found it rather hard to find people who have similar outlooks on fandom- and the sheer prevalence of people who are happy not ever analysing anything does get frustrating after a while.

I lurk on both sites you mentioned. :)

[mothwing]

I do have one, but I'm never over there. Maybe I ought to start. :)