Genres of fiction.

[rogueslayer452]

Taken from the Crunchy Questions Meme:

What's a genre of fiction that you didn't think you'd like, but found yourself liking after something changed your mind?

While it's not that I didn't think I'd like it, science fiction is a genre that I wasn't that exposed to much growing up. Sure, I grew up on Star Wars, but that was about it. I think it just wasn't a genre that I consciously gravitated towards much, and the things that are classified as scifi weren't what you'd typically view as it, or would be a mixture of other genres (ex: Ocean Girl is a science fiction show, but as a kid I didn't realize it). It wasn't until Firefly and Battlestar Galactica where I really started to look more closely at the genre, and the subgenres within it. So, it's more or less a genre that I had to really reexamine my own understanding of.

On the other hand, while we're on the topic, fantasy is a genre I grew up on but it's a genre I realized that I prefer watching more than reading. Fantasy books tend to be a hit or miss for me, usually because a lot of fantasy, especially high fantasy authors, tend to use really flowery language that is very difficult for me to understand. I've tried numerous times with certain recommended books and I just cannot get through them.

When it comes to fanfiction, I've recently been delving more into darkfic. Now, I've read darkfic in the past, but it wasn't something I actively sought out because, at that time, it wasn't my cup of tea. In fact, fanfiction in general is something that I'm quite selective for when it comes to my fandoms, even more so when it comes to the OTPs/pairings, but lately I've been more experimental with reading outside of my typical comfort zone, and one of these is of the darkfic area. Much of this is due to specific fic authors who were able to write so beautifully and tragically in a cathartic sort of way, and sometimes that's all it takes.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

I love fantasy, but yes, it can be hard to read, especially when English is not your mother tongue. I love Astreiant by Melissa Scott, but her writing style is probably the hardest I've read.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and perhaps I need to go searching more thoroughly to find fantasy authors that have better writing styles that aren't so overly complicated. But fantasy books as a whole can be a huge hit or miss for me. I don't know what it is, exactly, but even if the writing is easier to understand I find most of them hard to get into for some reason. Fantasy in visual media, however, I'm all about. I have so many favorite fantasy shows and movies that I love.

[xfirefly9x.livejournal.com]

Do you have any darkfic recs?

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Well, I've mainly been reading fanfics from The Untamed lately, which is where my interest in darkfic suddenly came about since one of my OTPs (Xue Yang/Xiao Xingchen) is kind of of the dark/unhealthy and complicated side. I'm thinking of doing a fic rec post sometime soon, because this is a fandom that has kind of rejuvenated a lot of my fanfic reading in a way.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

I haven't read or watched much fantasy or sci fi at all. I will say that I prefer fantasy and sci fi that's character focused, rather than mostly focused on the worldbuilding. Some sci fi/fantasy shows and movies I tried getting into were so action packed that I lost interest, or with novels, so focused on description.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Some sci fi/fantasy shows and movies I tried getting into were so action packed that I lost interest

The industry, unfortunately, tends to focus more on the special effects aspects rather than the characters which is a shame because I find character-driven stories (of any genre, tbh) more appealing. Though I think many people can agree that this is a problem within the entertainment industry as a whole. Like, even things such as superhero movies, for example, where it's all about the action and less about the characters, something that has got a lot of people tired of when it comes to these cinematic universes.

And when it comes to books, it can be a hit or miss with the descriptions. It depends on the author and if they're able to convey the information in an interesting way. One of my favorite book series is written in a very clinical manner that I can see where people might not like it, however, to me, it works with what is going on and it makes the world-building more interesting and how the characters react to their environments and what's going on.

[haebin.livejournal.com]

Okay, I have to ask because I never heard of it before. What is darkfic? :o

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

There's a more thorough explanation here (https://fanlore.org/wiki/Darkfic), but to put it simply: it's where the contents of a fic are dark or disturbing. It can range from a lot of things, but generally speaking these are not happy fics.

It's interesting, because I like genres such as horror that explore these things, but for some reason fanfiction wasn't where I would normally go searching for that kind of content. As I mentioned in the post I'm very particular with what I read in regards to fanfic, and it wasn't the kind of fics I was interested in, but lately I have changed my mind, though again, quite selectively depending on the fandom and the characters involved.

[haebin.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for explaining it to me. Like I said, I've never heard it before but this sounds so interesting. I like horror/thriller-plots, too so maybe I should check some of the fanfics in the future. :)

[noybusiness.livejournal.com]

I grew up on reading fantasy and scifi books from earlier decades in the public library when I was a young kid.