What is it with American fiction and the 'monsters in contemporary America' meme?
You want me to analyze the psyche of an entire nation? That may be beyond even me.
Besides, the way that most Americans think is as much a mystery to me as it is to you -- the fact that George Bush was ever elected to ANYthing, even with the not-so-subtle help of the Supreme Court, stunned me, and I thought I'd already become cynical enough to believe anything.Besides, you're here on a forum devoted to a game where the player spends a lot of time killing monsters -- what's going on in Scotland that you need to slay monsters? Er, it's fun? No, that can't be it.
A friend of mine is a professional writer, and she's published 15 hard SF novels. She's now writing a trilogy of paranormal romances starring a group of succubi (succubusses?). The reason? The publishing industry has become controlled by the money men, instead of by people who love books. There are some paranormal books that have sold well, so the "market" is being flooded with them. If it's easier for a writer to sell a vampire novel than a hard SF novel, well, writers have to eat, too. But, if you want me to spin theories out of thin air as to why this might be an American phenomenon, I have an idea or two. (Great, get me to start thinking. Like I don't do that enough to drive myself crazy to begin with.
) One possibility: America was settled by pioneers, people who went into the unknown with a handful of primitive technology and a lot of hope. The frontier was a good place for the wilder elements of our society: people who craved excitement or who couldn't follow rules very well or who needed to explore the unknown. But the frontier is full now. Google Earth will give you a map of anyplace in the country, and there is no place that's all that far away from civilization. But an awful lot of folks still need what the frontier used to offer. Those who are both financially well off and physically fit go water-skiing or hang-gliding or something like that, but most of our people lack either the physical or the financial resources to pull that off. So people turn to all sorts of other things, one of which is books about vampires, werewolves, and other such things.Another idea: There isn't a whole lot of mystery left in the world. The weather reports have gotten a LOT more reliable in the 50 years I've been alive, science has explained an awful lot of things, religion -- although it still has a grip on more of my fellow citizens than I would like -- is much less pervasive than it was during the era when EVERYbody went to church. Our money-obsessed culture reduces everything to dollars and cents, so unquantifiable things like the amount of misery caused by a hurricane are expressed as "Hurricane Katrina caused damage costing $2,000,000,000." An awful lot of things either are or seem to be known, quantified, filed, and reduced to a statistic. There isn't much romance left in the world, and I don't mean the relationship kind. Books about vampires and whatnot make the world less mundane for a time.I personally like the Anita books because she's a tough woman who really knows how to kick a s s. There are lots of books, movies, etc. for men about tough men, but stories about tough women are harder to come by. Anita is basically a superhero, and reading about her feeds something in me that longs for a world where women are strong and powerful. And the fact that she's 5' 3" only makes it better, because it makes her seem more ordinary. She didn't get bitten by a radioactive spider, she's not from another planet, she's not a wealthy inventor who can make all sorts of helpful items. She gets by on guts and determination, and I really like her. The last few books have started seeming sort of soap-operaish, but even in the latest one, the person who is kidnapped by the bad guys is her boyfriend, and the one who escapes her confinement and guns down the bad guys is Anita. The fact that she managed to get out of confinement because the bad guys didn't think a woman was any threat, so they weren't very careful with her, only makes it better. Underestimate us and get it right between the eyes! Er, ahem. We now return you to your regularly civilized Corylea.
