Alternate Genres

Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror are three genres that have been enduringly popular in both the movies and books. Others, like the Western, wax and wane, and at times seem in danger of dying out. Can anyone imagine a different genre becoming as popular as the first three mentioned? Under what circumstances?
 
My local library also had, for a while, some of the fiction separated out into a 'Sea Stories' section: Let Britannia still rule the waves and maybe that would be a larger genre?
 
Also there is the Mystery genre.

The problem is that most genres that one's can think of (Cyberpunk, Noir, Western, Paranormal Romance, Supernatural, Space Opera, Crime) could to be considerated a subgenre or a hybrid of one of the Main Genres (Action/Adventure, Romance, Drama, Mystery/Detective, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror).
 
I don't know the circumstances that would lead to its success, but a good deal of fantasy is vaguely medieval in tone and style. Strip out the fantastic elements and you have medieval fiction, which could retain much of the same purpose and readership, while appealing more to people whose tolerance for the unrealistic is low. Much like the Western, which is primarily drama within a particular setting, the Medieval would draw from some of the overarching genres of fiction, primarily drama and romance stories. I wouldn't expect a great deal of comedy or horror in there.
 
I don't know the circumstances that would lead to its success, but a good deal of fantasy is vaguely medieval in tone and style. Strip out the fantastic elements and you have medieval fiction, which could retain much of the same purpose and readership, while appealing more to people whose tolerance for the unrealistic is low. Much like the Western, which is primarily drama within a particular setting, the Medieval would draw from some of the overarching genres of fiction, primarily drama and romance stories. I wouldn't expect a great deal of comedy or horror in there.
Medieval fiction already exists, as part of the wider 'Historical' genre... and with Medieval/Detective crossovers such as the Cadfael series.

(Are you American? Maybe the existence of this sub-genre is more of a British thing, because we've actually got Medieval history of our own about which to write...)
 
Spy stories and technothrillers were a lot more popular during the Cold War. (Young readers, ask your parents. :) )

Actual alternate genres would likely seem weird or silly to us, since we're not from the ATL they occur in.

Example: the Atrocity Account. Popular in an alt-US after a left-wing revolution, these consist of lurid stories--with pictures--about terrible things America did to Native Americans, slaves, factory workers, and the like before the People's Revolution. These claim to be based on actual historical accounts, but historical accuracy is much less of a requirement for the genre than proper political education. (Though Atrocity Accounts based on true stories are more highly regarded.)

They're ostensibly high-minded efforts to educate people about the terrible world they've been liberated from; but distressingly to some critics, seem to be more popular the more sex and violence is included.

Atrocity Accounts take the place of OTL's action, horror, and porn genres, only with pseudo-Marxist political lecturing as an integral part of the genre.
 
I don't know the circumstances that would lead to its success, but a good deal of fantasy is vaguely medieval in tone and style. Strip out the fantastic elements and you have medieval fiction, which could retain much of the same purpose and readership, while appealing more to people whose tolerance for the unrealistic is low. Much like the Western, which is primarily drama within a particular setting, the Medieval would draw from some of the overarching genres of fiction, primarily drama and romance stories. I wouldn't expect a great deal of comedy or horror in there.

I think in the American South they used to have a thing about Walter Scott and Ivanhoe. Perhaps a Southern victory in the Civil War might lead to that kind of medieval adventure story becoming a whole genre unto itself.
 
And Then Some

How about Hypernatural?:confused:
This would take a simple scene, a series of actions over the course of a day, and go into every minute detail behind every thing done and why, the background of every implement used, who made it and where and when and how and why. The Ub-example (apologies if I'm not getting it right) is the making of Achilles' sheild, of the blacksmith and of the many many minutia of its details, every bit described before the hero even saw it, even if it did not save him.
"Hypernatural" literature would do this with every item the protagonist touches, explain to several degrees every person in the story and why they do what they do. In practice it would describe but a day, or a few hours, or even less than an hour, in a person's life, but it would do so in the most thorough manner known.
 
Medieval fiction already exists, as part of the wider 'Historical' genre... and with Medieval/Detective crossovers such as the Cadfael series.

(Are you American? Maybe the existence of this sub-genre is more of a British thing, because we've actually got Medieval history of our own about which to write...)

I am American indeed, and we don't have quite so much of that stuff here. I've heard of Cadfael, but only because my uncle did his doctoral work at Bradford, and maintained his interest in BBC shows when he got back here. (My tastes run more towards Doctor Who and the panel game shows, personally.)

I know there are some stories of this nature being written; I'm thinking more in terms of it becoming a full-fledged genre separate from "Historical Fiction," in the way "Western" has.
 
For an alternate Brazil we could have an enduring Indianism, a romantic style which emulated the chivalric tales of Europe (like Ivanhoe) with the indians (native brazilians, on this case) as the heroes. They were patriotical in nature.

I could see it persisting on a more jingoistic/nationalist Brazil. I guess it would get somewhat wasted after a while, so i think it would evolve into a more generical fantasy style.

If we had an Indianist revival today, i'm guessing it'd feature american orcs. :p
 
For an alternate Brazil we could have an enduring Indianism, a romantic style which emulated the chivalric tales of Europe (like Ivanhoe) with the indians (native brazilians, on this case) as the heroes. They were patriotical in nature.

I could see it persisting on a more jingoistic/nationalist Brazil. I guess it would get somewhat wasted after a while, so i think it would evolve into a more generical fantasy style.

If we had an Indianist revival today, i'm guessing it'd feature american orcs. :p

Which would be odd, since Brazil was colonized by Portugal. :p
 
Way back...

Aristotle defined the fundamental genres of Tragedy and Comedy - always wondered why not History. I suppose everything textual and dramatic today is pretty much a subset of one of these three or some blend thereof. He also gave us the Satyr Play, which we'd now call pornography.
 
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