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sci fi, fantasy, and mainstream today
I’ve always loved the fantasy genre. When I was younger, I had two major problems with it:
-It was sort of looked down upon. I saw fantasy/sci fi authors writing about it themselves, that it was not a “respected” genre, and the flack the writers receive for not being “literary” or “serious”. Mostly I didn’t like this because my sophomore English teacher told my mom she wished I’d read higher brow novels instead of reading Dune.
-When I was around 6-12 years old, I could never find anything aimed at me I wanted to read. I liked the fantasy novels, but they were some hard reading for a 9 year old sometimes. There was A Wrinkle In Time and Narnia and some others, but finding things was hard work!
I feel like all of that is different now. And I feel like the number one cause or effect is named Harry Potter.
Is it just me, or is fantasy more in the mainstream now? I mean, Twilight is everywhere. Ann Rice was admittedly very popular, but I still feel like you didn’t have your average highschool cheerleader madly in love with it. The Road is a bestseller, even if many people deny it’s sci fi. I feel like every other movie preview I see is for sci fi or fantasy. And when I go to the YA bookshelves, I have difficulty find books that aren’t fantasy.
Is Harry Potter? a cause or effect? Was it the LOTR movies coming out around the peak of HP’s popularity, connecting generations of fantasy lovers? Was it advances in special effects, allowing movies like LOTR and The Matrix to be made, thus sharing fantasy/sci fi with a broader range of people? Is the sci fi movie explosion and fantasy book explosion connected? Was it mystical realism in South and Latin America influencing literature today? Did people just get bored? Is it just me, or is the world so much better now?
Not that I need my tastes to be mainstream. But I do love getting to see fantasy and sci fi movies, of which there exist so few in the past, and I love having more books to read.
I’d be interested in people’s thoughts on this. Is there more fantasy and sci fi available; if there isn’t more, doesn’t it at least seem more mainstream? Or do these things come and go in waves? If that’s not just my imagination, what are the causes? Has it been slowly growing? Does it have anything to do with HP? Is HP a cause or an effect? Discuss.
-It was sort of looked down upon. I saw fantasy/sci fi authors writing about it themselves, that it was not a “respected” genre, and the flack the writers receive for not being “literary” or “serious”. Mostly I didn’t like this because my sophomore English teacher told my mom she wished I’d read higher brow novels instead of reading Dune.
-When I was around 6-12 years old, I could never find anything aimed at me I wanted to read. I liked the fantasy novels, but they were some hard reading for a 9 year old sometimes. There was A Wrinkle In Time and Narnia and some others, but finding things was hard work!
I feel like all of that is different now. And I feel like the number one cause or effect is named Harry Potter.
Is it just me, or is fantasy more in the mainstream now? I mean, Twilight is everywhere. Ann Rice was admittedly very popular, but I still feel like you didn’t have your average highschool cheerleader madly in love with it. The Road is a bestseller, even if many people deny it’s sci fi. I feel like every other movie preview I see is for sci fi or fantasy. And when I go to the YA bookshelves, I have difficulty find books that aren’t fantasy.
Is Harry Potter? a cause or effect? Was it the LOTR movies coming out around the peak of HP’s popularity, connecting generations of fantasy lovers? Was it advances in special effects, allowing movies like LOTR and The Matrix to be made, thus sharing fantasy/sci fi with a broader range of people? Is the sci fi movie explosion and fantasy book explosion connected? Was it mystical realism in South and Latin America influencing literature today? Did people just get bored? Is it just me, or is the world so much better now?
Not that I need my tastes to be mainstream. But I do love getting to see fantasy and sci fi movies, of which there exist so few in the past, and I love having more books to read.
I’d be interested in people’s thoughts on this. Is there more fantasy and sci fi available; if there isn’t more, doesn’t it at least seem more mainstream? Or do these things come and go in waves? If that’s not just my imagination, what are the causes? Has it been slowly growing? Does it have anything to do with HP? Is HP a cause or an effect? Discuss.
no subject
I think the trend is based on a whacked misconception from the studios that translating comic books, movies and video games into films will guarantee them an audience and bigger box office returns.
Well, but it appears to be true. There seems to be less and less original cinema in Hollywood, but it's bigger than ever.