Dark Fantasy and Satire.

[bliumchik]

mistful wrote an entry about her love of children's fantasy, and invited replies. Below is the gist of mine, because this is an interesting topic and I suppose there might be people who read my journal and not hers. Silly, silly people.

My literary interests can fluctuate quite paradoxically. On the one hand I love cynical humour, satire and parody, the summing up of the world into a simplistic anecdote and letting you laugh at it. Humour that tells you "Life's a bitch, isn't that hilarious?" and means it. Rob Grant's Incompetence, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, that sort of thing.

On the other hand I'm a sucker for dark romanticism, not in the sense of angsty romance but in the sense of archetypes, characters and plots that feel like they satisfy your need for the way the world ought to be. Not neccessarily the happy ending but the fitting ending, the one that just falls into place, that follows on naturally through some bizarre twisting pathway in your brain that tells you that heroine has to die, and this is the way the world ends. And within that, but not often associated with it, is the quirky tale - the overturning of the world order into something new and bizarre, but that has its own sense of logic to it as well. Once you twist your brain into that world it all just works, and you laugh and clap your hands in child-like delight because this is awesome.

Hence my intense love of Neil Gaiman's work. He does the romantic category brilliantly, and his forays into the humorous one rock equally. The only book I've ever read that combines the two is his and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens. Or if not the only one, then the only memorable one, because if there were another I would doubtless fangirl it just as rabidly.

What kind of things do you guys read, and why?





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Comments

[shortgeekfreak.livejournal.com]

I like Discworld and Hitchhikers for that same reason. HHGTTG seems to say "life is staggeringly unfair, but very amusing." I also like parodys so Michael Gerber's spoofs of Harry Potter (Barry Trotter) are also enjoyed for the way they amuse me. I'm not big on many other fiction books. I read what I have to for school and sometimes find something I really enjoy. My big thing are non fiction books on science or history usually. Mostly science or history of science. I also like those chick-lit-ey books but for slightly younger readers, Princess diaries and the like. And Jackie Frenche's stories for 12-14's just for something light when my brain wants to explode. I try to read some of teh stuff recomented for "older readers" but most of the time they are too serious and meaningful for me. Watching the news is already depressing so why should my leisure time be?

[maggiebloome.livejournal.com]

Lol fair enough! History books can be very interesting, yes. Have you tried historical fiction? C.S. Forester etc? I hapen to be a crazy Hornblower fangirl, but there's plenty of other stuff out there.

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[maggiebloome.livejournal.com]

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