‘Some exciting new literary genres’ My latest Guardian Books cartoon. - ThreadSky

tomgauld.bsky.social • 320 days ago

‘Some exciting new literary genres’
My latest Guardian Books cartoon.

Comments

freihanddenker.bsky.social•320 days ago

Sci-Finance is all about which torment nexus company to invest in

kaiyalai.bsky.social•320 days ago

Don’t these all already exist?

tomgauld.bsky.social•320 days ago

Romantasy is the only one I’ve heard used as a genre name. Though there are books that could fit into the others. Except the phrase book one, though I’d love to be proved wrong about that.

planetslade.bsky.social•319 days ago

Mills & Boon has a whole line called Supernatural Romance. Titles include Seducing the Dark Prince ("Hell might be Heavenly ... for one of the Sisters in Sin"), Tamed by the She Wolf ("He’s the last man she should trust, but the only one she can’t resist") and The Billionaire Werewolf's Princess.

planetslade.bsky.social•319 days ago

The billionaire werewolf, the book's blurb adds, is also"son of the Fairy King". Certainly covered the bases with that one, didn't they?

drmikewiser.bsky.social•319 days ago

Billionaire by way of fairy gold is either into crypto or vaporware.

kaiyalai.bsky.social•319 days ago

Or into playing the people who are into crypto or vaporware for fools to soon be parted from their money.

tomgauld.bsky.social•319 days ago

That sounds mad!

kurtbusiek.bsky.social•320 days ago

Joanne Harris wrote a delightful story called “Gastronomicon” that’d fit into Gothicookery.

tomgauld.bsky.social•320 days ago

Great title! I shall have to look into that.

kurtbusiek.bsky.social•320 days ago

It’s in her story collection JIGS & REELS, which has lots in it well worth reading.

numbereightball.bsky.social•320 days ago

"The Alchemaster's Apprentice" by Walter Moers is full of fantasy recipes, puns and a Gothic/sinister mood.

soundandfury.bsky.social•320 days ago

Totally here for Romantasy but I'd hope she'd negotiate with the dragon who may have eaten said Papa because threatened/other. (Not that eating people is right, mind.)

templinjay.bsky.social•320 days ago

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qjAHw2DEBgw

drakyn.bsky.social•320 days ago

WhodunnItalian Phrasebook is just a Within the Wires season

madamehardy.bsky.social•320 days ago

Romantasy has existed for decades. There was even a Harlequin (Mills & Boon) romantasy line, Harlequin Luna.

tomgauld.bsky.social•320 days ago

I’d agree that romance/fantasy books have been around for ages, but the name Romantasy seems to have only gone mainstream the last year or two. And is maybe subtly different to the older stuff? (Not quite sure how though)

madamehardy.bsky.social•320 days ago

Yup, the word is absolutely new. Speaking as somebody who's been reading the stuff, I don't see that the genre has changed, apart from being more explicit in some cases.

Hell, Twilight was published in '05.

blat.at•320 days ago

EVE Online is massively multiplayer sci-finance.

hitchkitty.bsky.social•320 days ago

Reminds me, I must check on my evil galactic empire portfolio.

hebusvontroy.bsky.social•320 days ago

I didn't know that Boba Fett was into finances. 😉

violetarrows.bsky.social•320 days ago

Here's your dystopiano:

jesrcerulean.bsky.social•320 days ago

The first three are well represented in the AU tag on AO3

dalstrus.bsky.social•320 days ago

"Romantasy" is very not new lol

tomgauld.bsky.social•320 days ago

I’d say it’s new as a mainstream genre. I’d never heard the word mentioned before last year and it only got a Wikipedia entry a few months ago.

planetslade.bsky.social•320 days ago

The term may be new, but surely the genre's been around ever since gothic fiction first appeared. Anything with a woman swooning over a sexy vampire aristocrat would qualify for a start. It's fine in the context of the joke, though.

tomgauld.bsky.social•320 days ago

That makes sense. I was under the impression that Romantasy had some elements / focus (like romance as more than subplot. Or women swooning less and doing more) that distinguished it. But maybe I misunderstood.

kurtbusiek.bsky.social•320 days ago

You’ve got it right. In a romantasy there’s a fantasy context (and content), but romance is one of the prime plot drivers. Not unlike what used to get called paranormal romance, or, to some, fangbangers.

gilibug.bsky.social•320 days ago

I don’t know exactly when “Romantasy” was first coined, but it’s definitely a *current* hot trend, at least as a marketing term. And then it gets applied retroactively to older works that could have been marketed as such, had the term been trendy back then. It’s not so much a genre as a sales pitch.

kurtbusiek.bsky.social•320 days ago

That’s what genres are. They’re categories for the convenience of readers (or viewers, listeners) finding what they want. Fantasy used to be called fairy-stories, even when there were no fairies in them. YA used to be called juveniles. They’re convenient identifying labels.

intheologus.bsky.social•320 days ago

I read the last talk bubble in a Dalek voice complete with final upward stress.

spavel.bsky.social•320 days ago

The Traitor Baru Cormorant has a significant finance component

quinb.bsky.social•320 days ago

What IS that tune fragment???
It's going to bug me now.

tomgauld.bsky.social•320 days ago

Look in the Alt text 🎵

quinb.bsky.social•320 days ago

Dang!
Thank you SO much though, I'm not yet used to viewing alt text as a source.
In return, I link you to... Windy Thriller!
https://youtu.be/1qtFDCYLlRQ?si=b0v70rVkBLcmzkub

He's been at the cider again.

tomgauld.bsky.social•320 days ago

😄

quinb.bsky.social•320 days ago

Misery loves company😉

marcosfaria.bsky.social•320 days ago

Wow, such a careful and detailed alt text!

ksmiles.bsky.social•320 days ago

I mean a whodunitalian is just a giallio

effektpodcast.org•320 days ago

Sci-finance, or, the Traveller RPG

rigg.lgbt•320 days ago

Heh, I'm still waiting impatiently for the publication of this tome:

https://unbound.com/books/a-gothic-cookbook

tomgauld.bsky.social•320 days ago

That sounds great!

donbecker.org•320 days ago

That last one sounds familiar... https://open.spotify.com/track/6rBX43qy0Et0aCNifnB7R7?si=c3111b6a6ac7439d

lizardky.bsky.social•320 days ago

That last one already has an MMO (EVE Online), so it ought to have novels. :)

zarleckazpa.bsky.social•319 days ago

Enjoy...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k4giIWNFAs

marcherwitch.bsky.social•301 days ago

you know the first one is... actually a genre, tho, yes? i can recommend some!

also would learn any language that way! you're on to something!

henninghampress.bsky.social•320 days ago

Sci-Finance covers Star Wars episodes I-III

alaeriia.bsky.social•320 days ago

This feels like a "Says You!" category.

jowilliams.bsky.social•320 days ago

Someone told me the first sentence they learnt in Latin was "There's a dead body on the beach" so that one might be covered!

inplacesdeep.bsky.social•320 days ago

Romantasy is just YA fiction.

Dune is Sci Finance. They left the CHOAM out of the movies.

devilstower.bsky.social•320 days ago

I would so read a novel of gothicookery. I may have to write one.

deathginger.bsky.social•320 days ago

Brilliant.
Just brilliant.

lovesdaryl.bsky.social•320 days ago

Sci-Finance is the intro crawl for Phantom Menace.

carriagereturn.bsky.social•320 days ago

I remember a podcast that was just Evil Corp corporate broadcasts that was more or less Sci-finance with a slight Lovecraftian bent and now that I'm describing it the name has completely left my brain

zsombr.bsky.social•320 days ago

The last one is just dune tho😆

kumararepublic.bsky.social•320 days ago

Aren't vampires "allergic" to onions as much as they are garlic & sunlight? Or just garlic & sunlight?

celsius1414.bsky.social•320 days ago

Research on the question probably scant due to usual difficulties of working with the undead, especially aristocratic ones, but an analogy might be made with human reactions to plants in the nightshade family. 🧛‍♂️ 😉