Back in Australia, somewhat jetlagged, somewhat mobbed by grandchildren. I’ve been struck by just how niche their interests are. Yes, they follow peer groups (they’re little kids – to be expected) but something that falls outside that niche is simply not even to be considered, in the one child’s case. Peppa big is everything to one, Bluey to the other, and neither of the other camp’s choice is even to be tolerated. Of course, the same is true of many adults and their entertainment or book tastes.
The thing I’ve noticed over years is how these have fragmented faster than African states. Now, many African states fragmented because they were never real ‘entities’ in the first place, sharing any real commonalities. They were just a piece of geography held together by a thin patina of colonial settlement. The people in that piece of geography might come from any number of tribes, speak any number of languages, have wildly different cultures and religions (This was true, of course, regardless of who the colonizer was, unless they conquered and killed all the males, and merely took the women, as was the norm in many cases.)
Remove the thin patina, and they really have no reason, or desire, to be part of the same nation. The only reason for staying together — in many cases — for doing so, is that the dominant — usually largest — group, don’t want to give up control of any of that lump of geography. There is sometimes the reality that minority groups or tribes are well aware that they’re simply too weak and small to stand alone. They put up with the others because there is no effective way out.
It’s equally true of reading. Fiction has fragmented. When my mother was young, there were romances and everything else, and even those two blended into each other. By the time I came along Genre-niches were pretty well established. They were big niches, sf and Fantasy basically being a niche.
By now, there are niches, and niches within niches, and micro-niches within that. I’ve met people who only read fantasy, but only litRPG fantasy, and then some subset of that (don’t ask. They lost me. Some sort of ?farming LitRPG). And there apparently subsets in that too.
I’ve no problem with this. I want people to read, I am not there to praise or belittle their choices. But, given that this is a natural tendency… where does it reach a commercial viability endpoint?
6 responses to “Fragments”
it’s a matter of dicoverability.
the days of needing to appeal to a huge number of people to get put into a bookstore are mostly gone. a writer can make a living feedng a niche (although a bigger living if they can make their book appeal across multiple niches)
Dicoverability is hard and far from a solved problem.
The Farming fantasy, I believe, was from people enjoying “Beware of Chicken” (Progression), and “Battle Mage Farmer” (LitRPG), and searching for more stuff like them.
A guy decided he wants no part in power struggles, and sets off to build himself a homestead somewhere isolated. And he does. Gaining some found family along the way. But now that he’s got his own little slice of paradise, he’s got to protect it from any threats that loom. And old acquaintances come calling, bringing news and complications. And rivals decide that even though he’s done with them, they’re not done with him. And a distant bureaucrat is furious he didn’t ask their permission. And harvest is coming…
It’s a pretty good setup for web serials
It’s also a revival of the ancient tradition of idylls and pastorals.
(I go on at tiresome length here:
https://writingandreflections.substack.com/p/a-fantastically-ordinary-day-in-the
)
Yes, I should totally have mentioned the mythic resonance.
😉 In my defense, I was trying to bait our host into Tuckerizing his tormentors.
Beware of Chicken is also full of jokes, presented in a deadpan style.
Oh yes. You don’t have to know the genre to laugh a lot. Like watching Kung-Fu Hustle. Knowing the in-jokes helps, but it’s still a funny movie.