Genres as Rohrschach blots

[nancylebov]

Here's an article arguing that survival horror is a reaction to Reaganomics--the vast majority of survival horror is about being tough enough to dispose of people who can't help.

Aside from that I'm not familiar with the genre and I'd like a timeline to see if it really fits that well with Reagan, there's something dramatic which has been happening more recently: the rise of the paranormal romance.

As far as I can tell Laurel Hamilton kicked off the genre, even though Anne Rice was a clear predecessor.

Survival fiction about the threat that must be fought. Paranormal romance isn't just about falling in love with vampires, werewolves, or whatever--it's generally about integrating human and alien/occult/monstrous societies.

I'm not sure where to do with this except to say that it's suddenly become quite a popular genre and if you can read the tea leaves about survival fiction, then there's another thing going on, too. 9/11 didn't slow paranormal romance down, and now that I think about it, it may have mostly been post 9/11.

On the other hand, I have no idea why pirates, zombies, and ninjas have suddenly become so popular. Are pirates and ninjas mostly a fannish thing? Is faerie waiting in the wings?

Diskworld and Mieville's (1998) are interesting non-romance examples of integration between human and fantasy creature societies. You may not have heard of King Rat--it's a combination of gross-out horror and carefully worked out life with monsters and as a semi-human monster who remains connected to both societies.

Comments

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Paranormal romance isn't just about falling in love with vampires, werewolves, or whatever--it's generally about integrating human and alien/occult/monstrous societies.

Um, no. (That's a necessary background discourse but it's not the topic at hand.) Paranormal romance tends to be about BDSM issues -- the Other is heavily implicated in rape -- with a side-order of coming to terms with AIDS.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

For a bit of history, see this:
Jacquie Rogers, Author: Paranormal Romance, by Marilynn Byerly
Here's my version of a brief history of the PNR [paranormal romance genre]. ... The paranormal romance's roots come from the Gothic romance and science ...
jacquierogers.blogspot.com/2007/02/paranormal-romance-by-marilynn-byerly.html - 75k - Cached - Similar pages

[avram]

Let's see... Reagan was elected in 1980, took office in '81. The first example of survival horror he mentions is Alien, which was released in 1979, and probably written a year or two before that. Stephen King's The Stand came out in 1978. But the ideas behind Reaganomics may have been circulating for a few years before he was elected. Still the original Night of the Living Dead, which gave us the zombie-as-plague idea, was made in 1968, way too early to be about Reaganomics or a reaction to late '70s economic malaise.

I wonder what he thinks about Survivors, a British TV series from 1975, about the aftermath of a plague that kills off 95% of the world's population. A presentiment of Thatcherism?

Rosemary Edgill

[(Anonymous)]

She wrote at least one paranormal romance that I have read. It had nothing to do with BDSM, but with the witch trials of the 1640's. I cannot remember the title.

David Bellamy

[(Anonymous)]

A quick look at IMDB shows The Omega Man (which comes to mind because it's up for, yes, a remake) to date from 1971. If that helps in some way.

[tashadandelion.livejournal.com]

I would place Mieville's first published novel (King Rat) in the 'gritty urban fantasy' sub-genre. There are predecessors, like the wonderful Borribles series by Michael de Larrabeiti, in which semi-immortal elven-esque 'children' do battle under the streets of London with giant intelligent rats. Have you read Perdido Street Station, the next novel Mieville published after King Rat? Wonderful stuff. (Also a bit gross-out, but a gorgeously-imagined fantasy/sf world.) I'd put his third novel, the Scar, lower on my interest scale, and I couldn't get into The Iron Council.