Q for the LJ-mind...

[lagilman]

Preparing to give a workshop tomorrow on blending genres. Trying to find sterling examples of blendings that work (romcoms, SF adventure, etc) and more importantly perhaps, ones that don't.

[note: I'm well read/viewed int he fireld, but I'm looking for stuff that I might be overlooking, or not thinking of as a 'blend' per se. And yes, 3-genre blends are okay but after that it becomes more of a stew than a specific blend...)


Anyone got suggestions to toss into the hat? Books preferred, but movies are good, too.

Comments

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Well, for me the obvious question is whether you consider Star Wars SF or Science Fantasy.

[lagilman]

I consider it SF/adventure -- a Western in space.

[and yes, we can argue endlessly over what tropes come from where, but that's not what I need for this workshop, right now]

[windrose.livejournal.com]

Would you consider The Princess Bride romance, fantasy, comedy or all of the above?

The first POTC film is another ones than blends fantasy, action-adventure and comedy.

What about magical realism? Like Water For Chocolate is one of my favorite films, ever. It's a romance, a fantasy, a drama and a tragedy.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wasn't going to do that. I just figured that you might as well shoot for the elephant in the room first.

The original Star Trek was conceived in the same vein (Western in Space), now that I think about it.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Ooo. The Princess Bride is a great example of all three. Not that much of a shock that comedy would sneak in there, Rob Reiner being the director and all- but fantasy and romance work together seamlessly.

The book is less romance and more fantasy, but it still holds up as a blend of fantasy and comedy as well.

[greatsword.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit unsure where you draw lines, but I'll throw a few out:

Cook's Garret fantasy detective series (Sweet Silver Blues and it's sequels)

Steven Gould: Blind Waves (Detective SF)

Wrede/Stevermer: Sorcery and Cecelia

All of those work for me.

Stardoc (Romance/SF) didn't work as well for me, but works for some. For me it failed on basic physics, just as the Honor Harrington series often does. (Perhaps another exmple of somethign that both works and fails.)

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Oh, Mike Resnick's Stalking the Unicorn blends the hardboiled detective with fantasy. Not so original now, but about twenty years ago it sure seemed like it.

[roseaponi.livejournal.com]

The Time Traveler's Wife - I haven't seen the movie yet, but the book is mainstream bestseller/romance/science fiction. It gave me hope for the reading public :)

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series is detective/fantasy. Most urban fantasy books, for that matter, are fantasy/romance and/or detective/adventure/mystery.

Dune - SF/F, because it's SF, but the whole story on Arrakis is the typical Chosen One epic fantasy story, complete with an Emperor that must be overthrown, etc.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

I second this one.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Adam-Troy Castro's Andrea Cort series--Emissaries from the Dead and The Third Claw of God--are solid, well-crafted science fiction mysteries as are Effinger's Marid Audran books, starting with When Gravity Fails.

Barry Hughart's Master Li books are fantasy mysteries.

[vcmw]

Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer's Sorcery and Cecelia?
Which is a fantasy/regency romance.

[cypherindigo.livejournal.com]

the "Nightside" books.
"Dresden Files"
Mike Resnick has a series of them too...with humor added.

OK, I have this mystery/fantasy/scifi thing going.

[infiniteviking]

Thirding The Dresden Files -- gritty urban detective/fantasy setting which works great in book form because the author did his homework, but had serious problems as a TV series (though I loved it anyway) because the detective/procedural side was scamped and inaccurate, and you can't do that nowadays when everyone's accustomed to believable law-enforcement and forensics in their shows. I'm still smarting over how much better and successful the show could have been with a little more of the worldbuilding Butcher did in the books -- can you tell?

What about Beagle's The Last Unicorn and White's The Once and Future King? I don't even know what to call them, but there are too many wonderful anachronisms for straight fantasy.

There's the Sherlock Holmes story The Creeping Man, in which Doyle seeded the spiritualistic and evolutionary ideas he'd become obsessed with in the later part of his life. You'd think things couldn't get more rational than a Holmes story, but this tale of a mad scientist devolving into a half-monkey might have been more fitted to a Professor Challenger book.

And if you really want to get the audience up in arms, there's Twilight's blend of romance, coming-of-age, and vampire and werewolf fantasy. Whether it works? A matter of highly subjective opinion. ;)

[supertailz.livejournal.com]

I don't know whether this counts because it's at least as much a satire/loving homage of these forms, but Connie Willis' To Say Nothing Of The Dog blends romance, comedy, time traveling fantasy and satire - specifically that of a certain style of victoriana literature like Three Men in a Boat. (Also one of my favourite books.)

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

I just finished reading The Unscratchables, by Cornelius KIan, the protagonist is a Dog in the murder squad, and he is hooked up with a Siamese, its a very dark noir mystery, and it has a lot of adapted cultural bits, like mentioning the actors Brad Pitt Bull and Tom Manx .. and for me this story worked.

[(Anonymous)]

I'd consider Wen Spencer's "A Brother's Price" as a mix of Fantasy / Feminist ( It puts men in a very traditional "sheltered female" role ), though I'm not sure if that's exactly what you're looking for.

PN Elrod's Jack Fleming Series mixes 30s Gangsters with Vampires

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

I second this suggestion.

[klingonguy.livejournal.com]

Preparing to give a workshop tomorrow on blending genres.

Huh. At first read, I saw that as a workshop on blending genders. Ooops. That's a different workshop.

[chaoticgoodnik.livejournal.com]

I'd throw Emma Bull's Finder into the hat - police procedural/fantasy.

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

A Bertram Chandler's Commodore Grimes books- Hornblower Saga/Space opera and Katherine Kerr's Polar City Blues - detective story/baseball story/space opera.

[allaboutm-e.livejournal.com]

John Connolly's Charlie Parker books?