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Daniel Lavery's avatar

this really aligns with my theory that I could convince Susanna Clarke to transition

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Mary Berman's avatar

one way to find out

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Emma Briar's avatar

This is very interesting and I think hits at a true difference in readership preference (even if its not strictly gendered). There is another article out now about narrative distance, and how many of the classics had a more distant lens where later books have a closer lens. Most of the "girl" fantasies you mentioned all have extremely close narrative distance where the "boy" fantasies don't. My gut tells me "boy" fantasy has an appeal to a more male coded readerahip bc it mimics videogames. Like appeals to like. That would have interesting applications in how we can keep young men reading books. But a true study would be fascinating to see.

Sorey, a lot of meandering here. This was an excellent artilce.

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Mary Berman's avatar

Thanks! (And I'd be interested to see the narrative distance article! That sounds like a really interesting additional lens...)

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Laura's avatar

Heh, it's kind of like shoujo manga and shonen manga.

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Mary Berman's avatar

YES!!!!!

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