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"I take you away from this world, but you're not moving. You see and feel your adventure, but you're not really seeing or feeling it. What are you doing?"

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"I take you away from this world, but you're not moving. You see and feel your adventure, but you're not really seeing or feeling it. What are you doing?"

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We tried to make a distinction between an adventure, a journey and a quest:

A quest is a journey to accomplish a task.

An adventure is a trip without a destination.

A journey is when the trip is more important than the destination.

Typical tropes of the genre:

A plucky/resourceful protagonist, who is often roped into the situation against their own will.

An unknown, mysterious location.

Characters meet up with and join the protagonist on their journey.

The use of a map to make their way to their destination.

There is a distinct lack of popular modern adventure stories; the Indiana Jones trilogy (we don’t talk about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) was arguably the last popular adventure franchise, to the point that every remotely popular adventure story can essentially be described as “Diet Indiana Jones”. Examples include:

Uncharted

Tomb Raider

Jumanji (2017)

Romancing The Stone

The Mummy

Jungle Cruise

The Goonies

Journey to the Mysterious Island

Most modern adventure stories seem to be aimed at children/young audiences; often made with mass-market appeal.

A lot of adventure seems to be rooted in colonialism, as it was the last time in which a sizeable amount of the world had not been explored → now that we have explored almost everything there is, the novelty of discovering new locations doesn't hold much weight anymore.

This raises the question about space adventure - the last exploration we have left is space (Boldly go where no one has gone before)

A lot of it is rooted in masculinity → a muscular, handsome male protagonist to saves the day and rescues the girl, who then falls in love with him → arguably a male power fantasy (similar to westerns).

Also, the ideal protagonist has changed (see proper gentleman Fogg becoming Indiana Jones) but yet we still see very few women as our leads.

There is a strong case for adventure stories being better suited to video games (e.g. Uncharted, Tomb Raider, The Last of Us) and movies (e.g. Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean) rather than books:

In a film, the sheer visual spectacle of the action sequences is enough to wow the audience → hard to convey that in the same way in a novel.

In a video game, much of the enjoyment comes from interactivity, thereby allowing the player to experience the adventure with the player → this can also be achieved in a novel, but by pairing visuals and sound with the player directly engaging with the outcome of the game's events, a video game arguably has a deeper level of immersion.

There is often an emphasis on the journey rather than the destination; though the protagonist may have an ultimate goal, they are often shaped by what happens along the way.

E.g. in Finding Nemo (2003), Marlin sets out to save Nemo from the dentist, but the bulk of the movie is made up of his interactions along the way (he runs into Dory → meets Bruce, Anchor and Chum → gets attacked by jellyfish → stows away with a group of sea turtles → meets Nigel, who helps him get to Nemo). In the meantime, Nemo is on his own adventure to try and escape the dentist’s office and get back his dad.

Similarly, in Apocalypse Now (1979) and the novel it’s based on (Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1893)), Capt. Willard’s mission is to kill Colonel Kurtz, but by the time he gets there, he has been so traumatized by everything that has happened to him that he begins to question what he is doing there in the first place.

Space King Jeff Bezos.

P.S. if you can figure out the riddle in the title, we'll give you a biscuit.

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When discussing adventure fiction, we found it difficult to settle on exactly what makes something part of the adventure genre. Does an adventure story have to contain characters going from one place to another (where Lord of the Rings is then an adventure story) or does it just need to be about exploring a different place (Lord of the Flies could then also be classed as an adventure)? Does the journey or experience of a new place need to be the focus, or can it be a feature (can you call Star Wars an adventure?)?
Does adventure just mean having an exciting, daring experience that requires someone to overcome danger in some way? In that case, an adventure could take place in your home. But like other genres, it seems like adventure can be identified when it feels like an adventure. If you read about someone having an exciting, daring experience in Birmingham City Centre, you probably wouldn’t tell your friends you had read an ‘Adventure’ story.
80 Days easily fits into the category of adventure however, and something that you can find within it is the importance of smaller adventures within a larger one. In a video game, these are side quests, and in writing this is a subplot (or perhaps the distinction doesn’t really exist?) and in 80 Days, there are constant smaller stories you can follow that either help or hinder the main goal of Fogg and Passepartout. How do you stop (or start) a mutiny on your current transport? Who killed that person and how? Where is the Black Rose and what does she want? The book also has these smaller ‘adventures’ that make up the bigger one, like Aouda’s story near Calcutta. Are the smaller events that happen along the way of the journey around the world what makes the story an adventure, or is the journey around the world itself what puts the book in that category? Could the answer to this also tell you why each adaptation changes the subplots and the exact route taken?

- Bobby's Minimalist House

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https://twitter.com/JohnSpiroSpero/status/1500155028547452931

Last term, someone (Sav?) was asking me why most of your markers instinctively distrust the passive voice. This tweet is possibly the most compact demonstration I could imagine! The passive voice is the think that allows the author to skirt a very, very important question: grown BY WHOM? Watch out for this in your own writing - 95% of the time, the passive voice is concealing something that should, in academic writing, be explicit.

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Beware of historical passive voice. 

“Was grown”

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Beware of historical passive voice. 

“Was grown” https://t.co/4m9uqVfdPH

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Beware of historical passive voice.

“Was grown” pic.twitter.com/4m9uqVfdPH
— John Kraljevich (@JohnSpiroSpero) March 5, 2022

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Beware of historical passive voice. 

“Was grown” https://t.co/4m9uqVfdPH

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Beware of historical passive voice. 

“Was grown” https://t.co/4m9uqVfdPH

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Beware of historical passive voice. 

“Was grown”

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This is film specific but I thought it was interesting seeing how popularity of genres has changed over time

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One thing that we discussed was the influence that oral storytelling seemingly has on the fantasy genre, specifically that of fairy tales, folklore, myths, and legends. After discussing Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings’ links to Medieval literature, we noted how Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle could possibly be a subversion of the traditional ‘loathly lady’ trope of the Middle Ages. Often seen in the likes of Arthurian literature, tales would tell of a homely, ill-mannered lady who usually, upon meeting their love, would undergo a transition into beauty. This would often take place in forests and settings of fantastical mystery. A key example of this trope is Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘The Wife of Bath’s Tale’ from The Canterbury Tales.

The character of Sophie in Howl’s Moving Castle seems to play upon this trope through her transition into an old woman (loathly lady), which is then reverted back into youthful beauty. An interesting contrast between Sophie’s transformation and the traditional loathly lady is that while appearing to be a haggard old woman, Sophie seems to be enjoying herself and earns the respect of those around her while in this form. Transformations like Sophie’s are seen in other fantasy texts too, such as: Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, and J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.

-

Another thing that we were discussing in our seminar last week is that whilst fantasy is one of those genres which is hard to define, all the 'fuzzy set' talk, it's just interesting how pretty much a lot of other genres will contain fantasy elements. Like it's almost as if writers will throw in things fantasy related to just make a story more interesting because if it was in the real "actual" world, it'd just be a typical story. And perhaps it's not necessarily a bad thing because we end up with such a diverse range of stories, perhaps not exactly fantasy in what we might originally deem it - like the go-to, staple fantasy book is Lord of the Rings and some of the others we discussed in class, Narnia and all those other classics. But then we have Shrek, which I looked up and yes it is a fantasy, and Twilight and it's just awesome because those couldn't be any more different but they're united by the fact that they're all so unapologetically made up. I found this article and I'll link it, but one of the paragraphs talks about how fantasy sets itself apart from other genres and particularly those which fall into the category of 'speculative fiction', and it's that '[...]While all writing requires imagination, fantasy is a playground for those who want to push the limit of theirs.'

(https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-the-fantasy-genre-history-of-fantasy-and-subgenres-and-types-of-fantasy-in-literature#what-are-the-common-elements-and-characteristics-of-the-fantasy-genre)

the importance of fantasy - not just a means of escapism but also serving as a genuine, albeit creative, way of engaging with problems we face. It's so inherent to our everyday lives, even if we don't actively engage with fantasy literature, daydreaming about the most random of things or hearing a noise in the middle of the night and conjuring up the worst and most impossible of scenarios, it's all a part of fantasy and what it stands for.

The Guardian article - https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2007/apr/23/bridgingthegapswhyweneed

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Hi everyone. Quick 3-minute Uses of Genre Bonus Activity: scan down this Books of the Year list. Don't think necessarily about the individual titles - think about the categories. What do they tell us - about the list, about the books, about the ecology of print?
-Will

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John le Carré’s final novel, the race to make a vaccine and the conclusion of the groundbreaking Noughts and Crosses series… Guardian critics pick 2021’s best fiction, politics, science, children’s books and more.

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Westworld
1. This was not a western. It was a sci-fi, which depicted Western cliches as a novum (putting the familiar trope of the Western into an unfamiliar ‘futuristic’ setting of an immersive theme park)
2. By having multiple settings (the medieval and Roman worlds) it downplays the western genre in the film
- but, was the gunslinger chasing our protagonist not representative of the genre in more than just setting?
3. John Blane’s (recalling cowboy hero John Wayne) death symbolises the death of western and being replaced by Sci-fi (just like Woody and Buzz, Toy Story)
4. All men.

Brokeback mountain
1. “What we got now is Brokeback Mountain. Everything built on that. Its all we got”
Setting is all that the Western genre has left
2. the women in the story still represent a domestic setting that the men don’t want to be a part of, like the original westerns. the men are tied down by their wives and families which stops them being with each other :(

Both of the pieces show that the western doesn’t really work anymore on its own.

considering the strict reliance the genre has on the past and setting, it’s clear the genre needs to reimagine itself to survive. does this mean that the genre is dead? that is different? or a completely new thing altogether?

-Space King Jeff Bezos

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Relevant guardian article!
- Will

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Overloaded: is there simply too much culture?

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With so much film, TV, music, books, streaming, games and podcasts easily available and vying for our attention, how can we absorb it all? And should we even try, asks Anne Helen Petersen

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The Western as a genre; lonely cowboys or more?

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The Western as a genre; lonely cowboys or more?

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I typed in the words 'the Western' without any other context into Google images and this was one of the first pictures that came up. And needless to say, it is pretty much the image that was conjured in my head (or at least contained elements that were similar to this) whenever I think of 'the Western'. It's a genre that is unique in that it is the only genre which is defined by the geographical location of where it is set. And this for me, as unfamiliar as I am with anything remotely to do with 'the Western' was intriguing because well, why is this the case? Why is it that this genre is so recognisable regardless of who the audience is? And does it still really have significance today?

The Western as a genre, to sum it up in the most brief way possible, is concerned with cowboys (specifically the lone cowboy), guns, showdowns, some sort of dysfunctional society, a Sheriff, the really heavy accent and how can we forget the beautiful woman with some sort of tragic past who gets kidnapped? And for me as someone who has never read a Western book and I don't think I've properly even watched one, that's kind of it. Most Westerns regurgitate the same kind of plot and tropes, yet even in the 21st century we're still talking about this genre so clearly there's got to be something more to it than just cowboys.

And so I did a bit of research and came across an article that claimed that to regard this genre as simply all of the tropes that I mentioned before would be missing the real meaning of the genre.
(here's the link to the full article if you want to understand it better:
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/07/how-the-western-was-lost-and-why-it-matters/278057/)
Essentially, some of the issues that are at the deep-rooted to American history and culture and also its 'journey' I suppose into how it has become the America we know today are represented in this genre, and a reliable one at that. From commentary on a flawed economic system that favours the rich, to the struggles of identity and the effects of the Great Depression, the Western as a genre is then so much more than what we often stereotype it as: rather it is a vehicle for addressing and understanding more about the American history (which is extremely complicated).

Maybe there's a degree of bias because I know virtually nothing about American history and also about the Western as a genre and I'm going off of stereotypes but from what I've read I can't lie and say that I am convinced that there may be more social commentary than I originally thought. For me though, that still doesn't really make it any more appealing because there still isn't much variation in the plot, but perhaps if the purpose has its roots in history and socio-political agendas then it kind of does make sense that there wouldn't be a massive focus on storylines.
But then again I've never really read any Western or watched any so this is all very much new to me.

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The western genre is perhaps one of if not the most recognisable genres in literature and film,  unlike umbrella genres such as fantasy or sci-fi thst often encompass a vast variety of different settings and themes, westerns generally take place within the same type of setting, with the same type of characters and the same type of plots.

Whether we’re looking at the magnificent seven, Rango or even our brief stint in the west from the lego movie, we can identify a western in a matter of moments. Iconic tropes rule the genre, shoot outs at dawn, a lone tumbleweed or even the creaking floorboards that alert us to someone new in town, Western is true to its themes and location.

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Whilst the romance genre can be seen as cringe and easy to criticise, it is also a genre within which boundaries can be pushed and expectations subverted. Despite the predictable happy endings, romance novels can still surprise the reader and create a world within which many different types of readers can escape. Alyssa Cole is an example of an Author that does just this with her work. She is an author who is extremely passionate about the inclusivity of people of colour in romantic novels as these characters are usually not portrayed to have happy endings. combining the genre of romance with protagonists who are people of colour, alters the idea that ethnic minority stories are largely negative. Alyssa Cole stated 'I’m black, and a lot of the kind of romance I write usually really tries to reflect reality and the reality of diverse people in society'. (interview in Jezebel). Cole fulfils the want for representation in romance novels and writes books that make people feel included and accepted, as well as desired, which can only be seen as positive. So, whilst Romance may have a bad reputation, it can also be a social tool for change and inclusivity when it comes to positive P.O.C representation.

Whilst there is still a lot that can be criticised about the romance genre, I would argue that it is a genre made for enjoyment rather than heavy literary criticism and therefore can not be judged based on the same criteria.

k - Bobby's Minimalistic House

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Both the reading and the lecture this week emphasised how the bread and butter format of the romance novel can be adapted to different circumstances and contexts such as geographical locations or time periods. In Let us Dream Cole was writing about a time which the experience for African-Americans is associated with pure sadness, yet she shows the irrationality of this, as people can still find love and happiness through their own communities and relationships. This consequently made us raise the question of what contexts/backdrops a romance novel should and shouldn’t use.

Whilst this novel comes under the Young Adult genre rather than the romance, it reminded me of my own personal discomfort with The Fault in Our Stars. This review of the film version kind of summarises my main issues with the plot: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jun/19/fault-in-our-stars-review-john-green

Similarly, in one of the Mills & Boons texts we read for week 5, the male love interest has a younger sister who is orphaned and left deaf by an accident which to me just seemed a bit cheap and insensitive- taking such difficult topics and using it as a tool for the reader to invest in characters?

Perhaps I’m personally being too cynical of these plots but I think it is really important that if authors are using these issues they are carefully used and discussed in detail instead of being shoe-horned in as a plot device.
Sarah- Bobby's Minimalist House Group

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·       Enjoy romance as a subplot, but as a whole plot, can feel like we're missing something.

·       A bias against the genre – we can associate it with misogyny and heteronormativity.

·       The women don’t always feel like real characters, they are undeveloped blank slates that the reader can project themselves on to.

·       In one of our Mills and Boon books, women who have less sex are referred to as ‘an innocent’ (Danger In The Desert, page 83). But women who have ‘too much sex’ are slut shamed and often villainised. Incredibly slut-shaming language.

·       (it’s not always male writers doing this, maybe the women writers have internalised misogyny?)

·       LGBTQ+ relationships are often classed as a subgenre of romance (which makes it seem abnormal), and when they’re shown the story revolves around a forbidden love or repressed sexuality. The genre also engages with dangerous tropes like the bury-your-gays, or repressing sexuality.

·       Even though the demographic reading romance is older women, there are more male gay relationships than lesbian, as in this case gay relationships are more fetishized than lesbian (by the older straight women readers presumably).

·       Furthermore, in the LGBTQ+ genre there is little lesbian/gay representation, but there is next to no other representation for trans or non-binary etc. relationships.

·       Finding LGBTQ+ books in a library is also hard -and the collection is select and limited. Most LGBTQ+ fiction would be found online after specifically searching for it.

·       There is a expectation for romance to be realistic, in a way that we don’t with other genres. Maybe this is because romance is closer to real life than other genres as it is usually set in our world, so we’re more particular with what is realistic.

·       We find that older romance (like Jane Austen), has more worldbuilding for our generation than romance set in the 21st century. We are put in an unfamiliar world, so romance doesn’t seem like the only topic, whereas these Mills and Boons texts are (horribly?) focused one the romance.

However, what we liked about the genre/Mills & Boon books:

·       Escapism

·       Gentle fiction (not much effort required. A comforting ending. –‘like a warm hug’, Emma.)

·       Comfort in knowing they are definitely getting together - There is definitely a happy ending.

·       You know where it’s going.

·       Female dominated market.

by Space King (Jeff Bezos)

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Binti – points of interest:

-       Extensive use of cognitive estrangement was interesting e.g Oomza Uni, the ship, the social/racial issues Binti faces and a technologically advanced tribe.

-       We also found it interesting that the tribe seems like a novum but exists in real life.

-       Inter-relation of genres – coming of age story and horror as well as science fiction.

-       Intertextuality – Meduse, Greek mythology reference to Medusa.

-       Combination of the traditional and futuristic as a theme e.g the tribe.

Hard Reading – points of interest:

-       ‘Estrangement means recognising the novum, cognition means evaluating it. ‘

-       Debilatory soap – example of cognitive estrangement. Could exist.

-       Political aspect of sci-fi = ‘The Years of the City’ inventing neutral sex terms to make us think about how we use speech/language.

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Hey everyone, I just wanted to thank you all for a really thought-provoking session today. Thanks in particular to BEFORE AND AFTER THE WINDOW INCIDENT, whose padlet post (below) set us off on such a great conversation. It was brilliant to see so many of you pitching in thoughts, and though it was a pretty fast conversation there was loads of value to take away from it!
One of the things I've been thinking about ever since is the idea someone (possibly Ellie?) brought up about "the best lies being the ones with the most truth". As a way of judging the success of SF, this is something we might return to next week, since it seems counterintuitive on the face of it (surely SF is about making stuff up!). But actually, I think considering Truth v Lies (as well as Hard v Soft, Optimistic v Pessimistic, Sci Fi v Fantasy, and all the other binaries we had out today) will also be really useful on all the other bits of the course...
Final note: I wanted to add that I really valued your attendance today! Friday 4-5 is an ugly slot, but you were all there and you were all ready to focus. I appreciate it!
- Will

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We decided to write about the benefits and pitfalls of both hard and soft sci-fi.
Throughout ur discussion, we found to be that hard science-fiction was best epitomised in “the Martian”, where real science is utilised to depict a thrilling story. While the biggest issue with this realism is the amount of knowledge required to maintain accuracy, it provides the reader/viewer with an enhanced sense of immersion in the story, being able to understand and relate to the specifics of the situation enhances the experience as well as heightening interest in the scientific features explored.

For soft sci-fi, our thoughts drifted directly to a childhood favourite, “Zathura” as while we might not find carnivorous space lizards so relaxant to our everyday lives, soft fiction allows for such unique and creative narratives. Lessening the need for excessive research, soft fiction allows for a wider realm of stories to be explored.

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In the week two reading one of the things our group discussed and which particularly interested me was the role that social class had in forming ideas of genre. This seemed poignant when learning about the role that newspapers and magazines had in publishing stories. Christine Berberich suggests that this cultivated a sense of national identity. There seems to be a fine line between liberating the mass population by giving them access to novels and the exploitation of working class people for economic value. Although, personally I think these two ideas can co-exist. Capitalist ideology dominated society and perhaps sensation fiction captivated the passive reader in a way that upheld capitalism. However, in the present day I don’t see ‘popular fiction’ as being exploitative at all and therefore there is a question of what has changed.

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So as you can see, this is the padlet! Use it to post ideas, afterthoughts, links, videos, problems... Remeber to sign your posts if you don't want them to be anonymous! -Will