like, this should not be hard! for instance, I personally am bored to tears by purely real-world stories about Angst and Society! one could be gorgeously written and it would still really struggle to move my personal needle because I’d be going against the grain of my own taste!
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but on the rare occasion when I DO enjoy an IRL Angst and Society story, my enjoyment doesn’t therefore mean that story has ~transcended the genre~ - it just did something else that I, specifically, enjoyed so much that it offset or removed the source of my usual reservations
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real talk: this criticism also applies to critics who say they love diverse stories, but seek it in genres they otherwise dislike w/out examining this. they’ll claim wanting to support diversity, but all their reviews pan the actual genre content, with “diversity” as the lone pro
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this isn’t always malicious - a lot of these reviewers don’t realise what they’re doing. they think they’re being proactive in broadening their horizons, but the mistake is thinking of diversity as a GENRE rather than a thing that ENRICHES genre.
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for ex: I was stoked to hear about a nonbinary actor playing a nonbinary character on Billions, but as that show in no other way ticks the boxes for Things I Enjoy, it would be poor criticism for me to watch for the nb character, praise their inclusion & trash everything else
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just. really think this is something a lot of privileged SFF reviewers should consider before asking to review books *solely* b/c of diversity, thinking they’re being Saviours Of The Diverse by giving promo, when it actually sets them up to pan stuff they were never going to like
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- which, of course, ends up having the *exact opposite effect* like, to be clear: it’s still good to push the boundaries of your taste and try new things! but to do that, you first need to be honest about what your existing taste is or isn’t
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"This not for me" =/= "This is not good"
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I know a guy who once wrote "there are no bad genres, only bad examples."
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Can they also please stop saying something “transcends genre” just because they happen to like it despite not generally being a fan of that genre or not even being familiar with the genre
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Looking meaningful at every critic who gushed over Girl With a Dragon Tattoo while trashing other mysteries/thrillers, thus showing they don’t know about all the actual significantly better books in that genre
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