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laramie at 09:29am on 10/07/2007
laramie at 09:29am on 10/07/2007One of my panels at CONvergence was on crossover Romances. Lois McMaster Bujold was the key panelist, and had a lot of interesting things to say on the topic. What struck me most was her mention of the different expectations that romance readers and f/sf readers bring to a story. Romance readers expect the relationship between the hero and heroine of the story to be a primary focus, and f/sf stories are generally expected to concern the fate of the entire world. Although, that focus can be narrowed to saving specific parts of the world: Gotham city, the family farm, the school yard from a bully, etc. depending on the sort of fantasy involved, and its audience. Some sorts meld more easily with the expectations inherent to a Romance. (LMB did a wonderful job in The Sharing Knife of tying the romance between the protagonists to the fate of their world.)
Thinking about the expectations inherent in differing genres reminded me that the fairy tales, which are at the root of much modern fantasy, were often unabashed romances as well. Not romances in the modern sense, with well-developed characters for hero and heroine, but in the sense that they were wish fulfillment fantasies, and they recognized fortunate marriages (the good hearted lad wins the beautiful princess, or the brave and clever goose girl wins the handsome prince) as at least part of what it takes for a happy ending (along with a degree of material success and saving the kingdom from whatever giant, ogre or dragon threatened it.)
In this sense it seems strange to me that the expectations addressed by the genres have diverged to the extent that they have done, and only natural that readers are again looking for stories that concern themselves with the full range of their possibilities: personal romantic relationships in the same context with magic, heuristics and world-spanning issues. The coming together of genres can be another way of affirming the merits of each contributing approach.
Let’s say we’re primitive people who have no written works (let alone tv or movies) and we’re all sitting around the campfire staring at the flames. We can look into the fire and imagine anything there: our fears, our wishes, the day just past, the faces of friends and enemies. Some people will prefer to imagine monsters they can slay, others to imagine treasures they might find, lovers they might win, etc. The birth of genres.
Still other people will see only the flames and the faces surrounding the fire, and in some sense we’ll all be aware of all of it: where we are in fact, and how we vary in fancy. The facts and the fancies are all real elements of the scene and the knowledge of this is more real than any one aspect of it. Therefore the stories that embrace more of that experience are more real, or, that is to say, they remind us of more of our real experience and real potential, and the real things that are to be discovered, enjoyed, puzzled over, wondered at in the real world, which is beyond real comprehension.
The Fantasy/Romance crossover seems even more appropriate to me when I think that love may be exactly what it takes to save the world.
Thinking about the expectations inherent in differing genres reminded me that the fairy tales, which are at the root of much modern fantasy, were often unabashed romances as well. Not romances in the modern sense, with well-developed characters for hero and heroine, but in the sense that they were wish fulfillment fantasies, and they recognized fortunate marriages (the good hearted lad wins the beautiful princess, or the brave and clever goose girl wins the handsome prince) as at least part of what it takes for a happy ending (along with a degree of material success and saving the kingdom from whatever giant, ogre or dragon threatened it.)
In this sense it seems strange to me that the expectations addressed by the genres have diverged to the extent that they have done, and only natural that readers are again looking for stories that concern themselves with the full range of their possibilities: personal romantic relationships in the same context with magic, heuristics and world-spanning issues. The coming together of genres can be another way of affirming the merits of each contributing approach.
Let’s say we’re primitive people who have no written works (let alone tv or movies) and we’re all sitting around the campfire staring at the flames. We can look into the fire and imagine anything there: our fears, our wishes, the day just past, the faces of friends and enemies. Some people will prefer to imagine monsters they can slay, others to imagine treasures they might find, lovers they might win, etc. The birth of genres.
Still other people will see only the flames and the faces surrounding the fire, and in some sense we’ll all be aware of all of it: where we are in fact, and how we vary in fancy. The facts and the fancies are all real elements of the scene and the knowledge of this is more real than any one aspect of it. Therefore the stories that embrace more of that experience are more real, or, that is to say, they remind us of more of our real experience and real potential, and the real things that are to be discovered, enjoyed, puzzled over, wondered at in the real world, which is beyond real comprehension.
The Fantasy/Romance crossover seems even more appropriate to me when I think that love may be exactly what it takes to save the world.