In attempting to find fan sites for each of these, I Googled "[subgenre] fan sites" or if I got too few hits, "[subgenre] fan". For "Sword and sorcery fan sites," I got way too many hints for usability. Changing "fan sites" into "fansites" helped a little.
I found a good fansite (or fan site) for the Red Sonja character (so memorably and miserably played by Brigitte Nielsen way back in '85), http://www.boomvavavoom.com/redsonja1.html, that goes into nearly all imaginable Red Sonja incarnations. (Pun intended).
Finding more general fan sites (or fansites) was more difficult. This particular subgenre is rift with fan-boys and cosplayers so those things need to be filtered out. I realized that to do this more efficiently, I needed to be in a reading site. Hmmm, if only there was a place where readers of all genres might share their reviews, one that was easily searched by subjects or "tags," if you will. If only someone would come up with something like that ....
So I went to the old reliable Goodreads.
Sadly (?), Goodreads doesn't use the phrase "Sword and sorcery." Instead thtere are slightly broader subgenres of fantasy such as High, Low, Dark and Epic. All of these contain some elements of what Herzberg called "Sword and sorcery," so I'm going with Epic, which seems closest (the only Fantasy I've read religiously is Tolkien, which also fits into several of these subgenres).
Also sadly, Goodreads method of using tags is voluntary to the point that many people may not use them at all (depending on how they use their Goodreads account). And there's just not anything there I can find that leads outside Goodreads itself into the wild and wooly world of Fan Sites.
Second attempt: Following a suggestion from a colleague, I'm going in by individual author's name. Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian, is probably the single biggest purveyor if Sword and Sorcerism, and Googling "Robert E. Howard fan site" gave me what seems to be the be-all and end-all, the Alpha and the Omega if you will, of Conan-related sites: The Newcomer's Guide to Robert E. Howard. But it's not really a fansite (it IS, but not in the way the assignment expects a fan site to be.)
 |
| I am no longer Conan. I am no longer The Terminator. |
Perhaps more what was in mind is REHupa, the Robert E. Howard United Press Association. A warning: both the Newcomer's Guide and REHupa are like gateway drugs into the weird and semi-dark world of Robert E. Howard and The Hyborian Age. Another example: an ad-ridden Angelfire site (open at your own risk), by a certain Joe Marek.
I'm done with "Sword and Sorcery."
*****
Paranormal Horror. This oughta be somewhat easier -- the subgenre itself seems more current and popular (though again, as a non-reader of any of these subgenres ... what do I know, apart from what I've learned professionally?). We'll see ....
***
[moments later ....]
Most of the subgenres I looked into are not widely used as such. On Goodreads, there's a genre of Horror, but no subgenre of Paranormal Horror, Under Paranormal, there's no Paranormal Horror. Grrrr .....
*****
Westerns -> Pioneer families? Should I even bother looking?
*****
Part Three, Subsection B
Three authors in each sub-genre (and a representative title or two)
The Godfather of Sword and Sorcery, as I stated above, is Robert E. Howard, who published the first Conan story, "People of the Dark" in Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror, a pulp magazine of the time, June 1932.
Fritz Lieber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser was published in 1939 and seems to have begun the tradition of Making the Place Names All But Unpronounceable.
Charles Saunders published Imaro in 1981, which is noteworthy as the first S & S to feature a black protagonist.
Appeal factors for Sword and Sorcery include simple characters (usually savage and primitive and somewhat Rousseauan), exotic setting (otherworldly but not too alien), and action-packed plots. The plot and setting seem paramount.
Paranormal horror is typified by the vampire novel -- and as we all know, Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) was both the first and (arguably) the best of the lot, combining a modern (at the time of publication!) setting, an ancient villain, and romantic, Byronic plotting. The most important single factor is probably the setting (as the characters, apart from the Count himself, are fairly one-dimensional, and the plot is pretty predictable).
Anne Rice worked major miracles with the classic vampire with her Vampire Chronicles, beginning with Interview With the Vampire (1976), adding strong characters and more complex plotting, along with wonderfully realized backstories and histories for all the major players, and the whole realm of the Undead.
Then along came Stephanie Meyer, who somehow caught the apparently vapid imagination of a generation with her retrograde Twilight series. Again, the drippy and dripping setting of Washington State's forested regions are a major attraction, along with a romantic plot, with a little sappy teen romance and terrible characterization.
The movies? Let's just say Kristen Stewart does a more than capable job playing the undead Bella. Oh, you say she's not undead? My mistake.
Of course the king of Paranormal horror is ... naw, that's a too-easy pun. It's Stephen King. His Carrie (1976) put him on the map and he had a good run through The Shining, The Dead Zone, and The Stand. Then, as each little piece of dreck with his name on it continued to earn major profits for his publishers, his writing went more and more astray until he has become a self-indulgent, self-important word-spewer. If an infinite number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of typewriters typed for an infinite number of years, eventually they'd come up with Shakespeare -- is that how it goes? If you took a hundred monkeys and set them typing for a week, you'd get a Stephen King novel, circa 1990. His short stores, generally better written (disclaimer: IMHO), might take a year each.
King's appeal factors include violent and bloody action and wonderfully creepy settings.
I do look forward to Doctor Sleep, as I said in a previous post, but I'm prepared to be disappointed.
The subgenre of Pioneer Families was pretty much begun by Bess Streeter Aldrich. Her A Lantern in Hand (1928) preceded Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods by three years, though Wilder's book is more firmly rooted in reality -- her family really were Minnesota (and elsewhere) pioneers, and Aldrich was at least one generation removed from "Pioneer Life." Setting in a foreign, "untamed" (meaning by European-based civilizations) land is the major appeal, along with the descriptions of pioneer privations and the resulting feeling in the reader of "well, my life is rough, but at least we've just about got this bed-bug-thing licked."
There's a whole sub-subgenre of Pioneer Families, Mormon Pioneer Families, typified by Gerald Lund's many books. Fire of the Covenant (1999) is one. These appeal to the reader for the same reasons as above, but with the added aegis of that sect's reputation for adherence to its rather strict rules of governance and, to a "Gentile," or outsider, its unusual belief system.
Part Three, Subsection C
Mashups
Some books may fit into one of more subgenres. Describe two titles, not identified by Herzberg, and rationalize your choices.
I read Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, by Seth Grahame-Smith (2010 -- he also wrote what may the kick-off title of this sub-sub-subgenre of "literary zombie fiction," Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, usually credited to Jane Austen and Grahame-Smith, and catalogued in most public libraries under Austen) when it was first published, and enjoyed it immensely. Being a huge 16th-President fan, I could easily see where Lincoln's life story ended and the fantasy-horror elements began. It's a great story, fairly well-told and not badly written. It combines Lincoln's actual life with the zombie idea in a way that's both entertaining and satisfying. It's really a mashup of biography, pioneer history, horror, alternative history, and ... well, there must be at least one more thing there ... but I'll let you figure it out. It's much more fun than the movie adaptation.
Also in the vein of Presidential mockrography is The Remarkable Millard Fillmore: the Unbelievable Life of a Forgotten President, by George Prendle (2007). This is pure nonsense, a highly fictionalised and humorified biography of one of our least remarkable presidents -- when this came out, there hadn't been a "real" biography of Filllmore in about fifty years -- since then, there's at least one legitimate one, which is not nearly as fun as this. Prendle takes the basic facts of Fillmore life and makes him into a Paul Bunyan/Davy Crockett-esque, larger-than-life figure, which is pretty much the opposite of what the real 13th President was like, apparently. Its subgenre must me something like "humorous biography/tall tale." I recommend it whenever I get the chance. But please, kids, do not cite it in a serious research paper.
Whew! On to Week Seven! Glory be.
*****
Part Three, Subsection B
Three authors in each sub-genre (and a representative title or two)
The Godfather of Sword and Sorcery, as I stated above, is Robert E. Howard, who published the first Conan story, "People of the Dark" in Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror, a pulp magazine of the time, June 1932.
Fritz Lieber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser was published in 1939 and seems to have begun the tradition of Making the Place Names All But Unpronounceable.
Charles Saunders published Imaro in 1981, which is noteworthy as the first S & S to feature a black protagonist.
Appeal factors for Sword and Sorcery include simple characters (usually savage and primitive and somewhat Rousseauan), exotic setting (otherworldly but not too alien), and action-packed plots. The plot and setting seem paramount.
***
Paranormal horror is typified by the vampire novel -- and as we all know, Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) was both the first and (arguably) the best of the lot, combining a modern (at the time of publication!) setting, an ancient villain, and romantic, Byronic plotting. The most important single factor is probably the setting (as the characters, apart from the Count himself, are fairly one-dimensional, and the plot is pretty predictable).
Anne Rice worked major miracles with the classic vampire with her Vampire Chronicles, beginning with Interview With the Vampire (1976), adding strong characters and more complex plotting, along with wonderfully realized backstories and histories for all the major players, and the whole realm of the Undead.
Then along came Stephanie Meyer, who somehow caught the apparently vapid imagination of a generation with her retrograde Twilight series. Again, the drippy and dripping setting of Washington State's forested regions are a major attraction, along with a romantic plot, with a little sappy teen romance and terrible characterization.
The movies? Let's just say Kristen Stewart does a more than capable job playing the undead Bella. Oh, you say she's not undead? My mistake.
 |
| Leave me alone, I'm trying to act! |
Of course the king of Paranormal horror is ... naw, that's a too-easy pun. It's Stephen King. His Carrie (1976) put him on the map and he had a good run through The Shining, The Dead Zone, and The Stand. Then, as each little piece of dreck with his name on it continued to earn major profits for his publishers, his writing went more and more astray until he has become a self-indulgent, self-important word-spewer. If an infinite number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of typewriters typed for an infinite number of years, eventually they'd come up with Shakespeare -- is that how it goes? If you took a hundred monkeys and set them typing for a week, you'd get a Stephen King novel, circa 1990. His short stores, generally better written (disclaimer: IMHO), might take a year each.
King's appeal factors include violent and bloody action and wonderfully creepy settings.
I do look forward to Doctor Sleep, as I said in a previous post, but I'm prepared to be disappointed.
***
The subgenre of Pioneer Families was pretty much begun by Bess Streeter Aldrich. Her A Lantern in Hand (1928) preceded Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods by three years, though Wilder's book is more firmly rooted in reality -- her family really were Minnesota (and elsewhere) pioneers, and Aldrich was at least one generation removed from "Pioneer Life." Setting in a foreign, "untamed" (meaning by European-based civilizations) land is the major appeal, along with the descriptions of pioneer privations and the resulting feeling in the reader of "well, my life is rough, but at least we've just about got this bed-bug-thing licked."
There's a whole sub-subgenre of Pioneer Families, Mormon Pioneer Families, typified by Gerald Lund's many books. Fire of the Covenant (1999) is one. These appeal to the reader for the same reasons as above, but with the added aegis of that sect's reputation for adherence to its rather strict rules of governance and, to a "Gentile," or outsider, its unusual belief system.
*****
Part Three, Subsection C
Mashups
Some books may fit into one of more subgenres. Describe two titles, not identified by Herzberg, and rationalize your choices.
I read Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, by Seth Grahame-Smith (2010 -- he also wrote what may the kick-off title of this sub-sub-subgenre of "literary zombie fiction," Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, usually credited to Jane Austen and Grahame-Smith, and catalogued in most public libraries under Austen) when it was first published, and enjoyed it immensely. Being a huge 16th-President fan, I could easily see where Lincoln's life story ended and the fantasy-horror elements began. It's a great story, fairly well-told and not badly written. It combines Lincoln's actual life with the zombie idea in a way that's both entertaining and satisfying. It's really a mashup of biography, pioneer history, horror, alternative history, and ... well, there must be at least one more thing there ... but I'll let you figure it out. It's much more fun than the movie adaptation.
*****
Whew! On to Week Seven! Glory be.
Bryce: Don't give up! The next assignment is more interesting:) YA! How do you feel about YA? Do you still read it? What type of genre in YA do you like? Sue
ReplyDeleteEverything I've read in YA so far I've enjoyed, in all genres, even the teen-zombie-romance ones! It's a dynamic genre and I think it appeals to adults because a), they're generally quick reads and b), the well-done ones can really help you feel like some kind of a teenager again -- undead or not
DeleteHi Bryce! It's your LinkedIn friend! I started BMB late but I'm finally on the same week as everyone else. This assigment was tough and by tough I mean, it took awhile to find fan sites for subgenres. I think it did for quite a few of us. It was also a long one!
ReplyDeleteYes, this was definately the toughest one! Glad you're aboard and earning those CEUs!
DeleteEVERYbody has said this has been the toughest assignment yet! It took me about three hours or so, and I hadn't budgeted that much time for it -- which is why I only finished it this week! On to Week Seven ....
ReplyDeleteBryce, as you know, I have problems with that Fiction genre schematic chart. It looks like something designed for a Library School class rather than something particularly useful--especially when it comes to Fantasy.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to Sword & Sorcery, I know you are not crazy about Robert E. Howard, but you might want to take a look at the Fafhrd & Grey Mouser saga tales by Fritz Leiber. "Ill Met in Lankhmar" won a WOrld Fantasy Award when it was released, and many of those tales are still available SOMEWHERE in Pb. Another interesting author of that genre is Roger Zelazny, who wrote "Nine Princes in Amber" et al. Amber is an alternate world in which gunpowder does not ignite. These books are worth a look.
-Monty
I suspect if I tried him, I'd like Robert Howard -- I like that era and the whole concept of "pulp fiction." Hammett and Chandler and Cain wrote for Black Mask and other mystery magazines, analogous to Howard's Strange Tales. I'm big fans of theirs!
ReplyDelete