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Humor and comfort in fantasy literature
Jan. 4th, 2025 11:09 pmMy reading preferences are more similar to my mother's than I would like to think.
My mom has read pretty much every piece of SFF literature available in the Russian language, including translated classic American stuff like Harry Harrison and Zelazny. Since the invention of the web serial, she's mostly been reading those, also in Russian but otherwise very similar in subject matter, tone and quality to SFF webnovels from East Asia or the US. (The main difference is that Russian portal fantasies don't usually involve dying and reincarnation, afaik. Her favorite is one called "the elf bull.")
She doesn't like anything too bleak, grim or depressing. She likes funny books with quotable lines that she then reads out loud to me hoping I'll share in her mirth. The word she uses to describe her preference is стёб, a word which the internet tells me means "banter" but my mother explains as "a kind of sarcastic, self-critical sense of humor". Мне нравится стёбные книжки, she says. She's the one who introduced me to the Discworld series when I was in middle school.
I find the term "cozy fantasy" deeply and profoundly grating, even when I like a book and then find out other people categorize as "cozy fantasy" (Howl's Moving Castle, which??? I GUESS???). Part of this is probably my inherent contrarian hater nature. But I also don't really understand it as an emerging genre. A lot of the more recent books I've seen categorized as such seem to hinge on the protagonist actively leaving a distinctly uncozy scenario, such as a war or revolution in which they are a principal figure, to run a small business in the countryside, a scenario I also find uncozy due to my not great experience as an employee of an Independent Bookstore Everyone In Town Fucking Loves Because They Don't Know How Badly The Staff is Treated (it's fine. I'm fine). (I am thinking of the plot summaries I've read for Legends and Lattes, Can't Spell Treason Without Tea, the Spellshop and like five other things I just opened in a new tab from this Goodreads list of cozy fantasy titles.) I guess for some people that element of escape is relatable, and the catharsis of leaving something dramatically horrible to then arrive somewhere peaceful is something that appeals to them? But for me these kinds of stories are not interesting or likeable and in fact kind of annoying. It's like... I don't like it when I can feel the author trying to make me feel a specific emotion, but I don't mind it when the author is trying to make me laugh if it works.
I don't read to be comforted. I read to be entertained. Like my mom, I want to read things that are funny, maybe even funny in a kind of mean way. Even though I make a point to read a variety of genres, the books that tend to hit best for me are the funny books. The стёбные книжки.
When I was pitching my new idea (a workplace comedy set in a fantasy bookstore based on my very real bookstore experiences) for the upcoming webtoon contest to my friends, a few of them were like "oh that sounds like a super cozy fantasy slice of life", and I immediately went like "no no way I don't want to do that". Besides my reflexive haterism of Cozy Fantasy, plotless slice of life is way harder for me than comedy as a genre.
I have a lot of respect for good slice of life media. Hirayasumi was one of my best reads of last year. A good slice of life makes small things (e.g. buying groceries) seem bigger and more entertaining without making it melodramatic, and to do it well you need to understand realism and character very very deeply. It's so easy to make slice of life feel boring or shallow.
Personally, I am very shallow, and also, I love jokes that make me laugh for real.
So as soon as I mentally reframed my new comic idea as a "fantasy workplace comedy", the story ideas for it started flowing and wouldn't stop. A workplace comedy means my characters can be mean to each other if it's funny. A workplace comedy means things are allowed to go poorly if it's funnier that way. A fantasy workplace comedy means people can end their days covered in slime. I'm drawn to imbalance and toxicity in my comics in a way my prose usually avoids. I think the pictures let me access a part of my subconscious words alone don't.
I don't wanna do a cozy bookshop story. I wanna do It's Always Sunny in Barnes & Noble: Ankh-Morpork location. Wait no: God's Blessing On This Wonderful Barnes & Noble. I haven't watched IASIP or Konosuba I am going off vibes and will also probably tone down the awfulness a little bit.
Really I wanna do Shortpacked! with wizards and jokes about whatever the latest booktok discourse is instead of transformers jokes. I've been rereading Shortpacked! to get a better idea of how to structure a workplace comedy webcomic and it's still great even if I don't understand the transformers references lol.
My mom has read pretty much every piece of SFF literature available in the Russian language, including translated classic American stuff like Harry Harrison and Zelazny. Since the invention of the web serial, she's mostly been reading those, also in Russian but otherwise very similar in subject matter, tone and quality to SFF webnovels from East Asia or the US. (The main difference is that Russian portal fantasies don't usually involve dying and reincarnation, afaik. Her favorite is one called "the elf bull.")
She doesn't like anything too bleak, grim or depressing. She likes funny books with quotable lines that she then reads out loud to me hoping I'll share in her mirth. The word she uses to describe her preference is стёб, a word which the internet tells me means "banter" but my mother explains as "a kind of sarcastic, self-critical sense of humor". Мне нравится стёбные книжки, she says. She's the one who introduced me to the Discworld series when I was in middle school.
I find the term "cozy fantasy" deeply and profoundly grating, even when I like a book and then find out other people categorize as "cozy fantasy" (Howl's Moving Castle, which??? I GUESS???). Part of this is probably my inherent contrarian hater nature. But I also don't really understand it as an emerging genre. A lot of the more recent books I've seen categorized as such seem to hinge on the protagonist actively leaving a distinctly uncozy scenario, such as a war or revolution in which they are a principal figure, to run a small business in the countryside, a scenario I also find uncozy due to my not great experience as an employee of an Independent Bookstore Everyone In Town Fucking Loves Because They Don't Know How Badly The Staff is Treated (it's fine. I'm fine). (I am thinking of the plot summaries I've read for Legends and Lattes, Can't Spell Treason Without Tea, the Spellshop and like five other things I just opened in a new tab from this Goodreads list of cozy fantasy titles.) I guess for some people that element of escape is relatable, and the catharsis of leaving something dramatically horrible to then arrive somewhere peaceful is something that appeals to them? But for me these kinds of stories are not interesting or likeable and in fact kind of annoying. It's like... I don't like it when I can feel the author trying to make me feel a specific emotion, but I don't mind it when the author is trying to make me laugh if it works.
I don't read to be comforted. I read to be entertained. Like my mom, I want to read things that are funny, maybe even funny in a kind of mean way. Even though I make a point to read a variety of genres, the books that tend to hit best for me are the funny books. The стёбные книжки.
When I was pitching my new idea (a workplace comedy set in a fantasy bookstore based on my very real bookstore experiences) for the upcoming webtoon contest to my friends, a few of them were like "oh that sounds like a super cozy fantasy slice of life", and I immediately went like "no no way I don't want to do that". Besides my reflexive haterism of Cozy Fantasy, plotless slice of life is way harder for me than comedy as a genre.
I have a lot of respect for good slice of life media. Hirayasumi was one of my best reads of last year. A good slice of life makes small things (e.g. buying groceries) seem bigger and more entertaining without making it melodramatic, and to do it well you need to understand realism and character very very deeply. It's so easy to make slice of life feel boring or shallow.
Personally, I am very shallow, and also, I love jokes that make me laugh for real.
So as soon as I mentally reframed my new comic idea as a "fantasy workplace comedy", the story ideas for it started flowing and wouldn't stop. A workplace comedy means my characters can be mean to each other if it's funny. A workplace comedy means things are allowed to go poorly if it's funnier that way. A fantasy workplace comedy means people can end their days covered in slime. I'm drawn to imbalance and toxicity in my comics in a way my prose usually avoids. I think the pictures let me access a part of my subconscious words alone don't.
I don't wanna do a cozy bookshop story. I wanna do It's Always Sunny in Barnes & Noble: Ankh-Morpork location. Wait no: God's Blessing On This Wonderful Barnes & Noble. I haven't watched IASIP or Konosuba I am going off vibes and will also probably tone down the awfulness a little bit.
Really I wanna do Shortpacked! with wizards and jokes about whatever the latest booktok discourse is instead of transformers jokes. I've been rereading Shortpacked! to get a better idea of how to structure a workplace comedy webcomic and it's still great even if I don't understand the transformers references lol.
