-       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.

 

·       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 21^st 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)

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

 

 

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

Space King Jeff Bezos.

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