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<\/a>First thought after charting urban fantasy as a trend: "Please don't let 'Breaking Dawn' be the end \u2013 go Team Jacob!"<\/p><\/div>\n
I love a good urban fantasy story. At the same time, I don’t believe I’ve read enough to know when urban fantasy first became popular, or why, or whom might be the most significant urban fantasy authors. So I found myself charting the rise of urban fantasy as a trend before responding to my reader. It was a very enjoyable experience (click here<\/a> to comment too), but it was the concept of shifting trends that stuck with me long after I’d responded to my reader, and it occurred to me that multiple yet similarly themed trends often grow and turn into cultural movements.<\/p>\n The Renaissance spanned from the 14th to the 17th century. That too is a long time for a cultural movement!<\/p><\/div>\n A cultural movement<\/a> is \u201ca change in the way a number of different disciplines approach their work\u201d. Famous cultural movements include the Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical, Romanticism, Realism, Art Nouveau, Modernism, Postmodernism and (since 1990) Post-postmodernism.<\/p>\n Now, ‘modernism’ began for Western society in the late 19th<\/sup> century and, from what I understand, every cultural movement since has been classified according to its relation to moderism because they’ve either emerged from or reacted to it (ie. postmodernism and post-postmodernism). But doesn\u2019t the logic of that classification astound you? Surely all cultural movements emerge from and react to their preceding cultural movement! So why are we still being classified according to a cultural movement that began over a hundred years ago?<\/p>\n It also makes me sad to think we don’t have a name for our own current cultural environment. Don’t we deserve one? Isn\u2019t it time for a new age of something that doesn\u2019t have the word \u2018modernism\u2019 in it?<\/p>\n "That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet." Still, at least a rose has its own name!<\/p><\/div>\n Intrigued by the idea of having our own \u2018age of something\u2019, I’ve been trying to invent a name for us. Cultural movements usually influence all art forms, the sciences and philosophies too. I only really know about writing, so what writing trends have dominated authors over the last few years? Irrespective of the genre in which you write, adverbs are generally \u2018out\u2019, whereas their use was perfectly acceptable in the past. Indeed, writers have become quite outspoken against adverbs \u2013 Debra Adelaide, author of \u201cThe Household Guide to Dying\u201d<\/a>, recently stated in The Sydney Morning Herald\u2019s “Spectrum” magazine that:<\/p>\n \u201cadverbs should be treated like a feral species, a cane toad or Indian mynah.\u00a0 They provoke the Dalek in me.\u00a0 Total extermination is recommended.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Don't waste your readers' time!<\/p><\/div>\n Similarly frowned upon are denouements reliant upon \u2018deus ex machina<\/a>\u2019 (‘god out of the machine<\/em>\u2019, ie. using miracles\/magic\/benefactors to resolve plots), and aftermath scenes (in which characters digest what’s just happened before deciding what to do next).<\/p>\n On the other hand, dramatic chapter endings are \u2018in\u2019, all novels should commence with an \u2018inciting moment\u2019, and narrative pace is paramount. Of course trends like these are a little like rules \u2013 they\u2019re there to be broken (as long as you know how they work first, for more on this see “How to Build Worlds”<\/a> by Bothersome Words). Yet, as a film fanatic, I can see similar trends reflected in both Hollywood\/Bollywood movies and world cinema. Certainly if you watch any movie from, say, thirty or forty years ago, the action is slower and my 2011 brain has to adjust to the pace. I\u2019m used to seeing more images per second and greater stimulation. So I wonder whether we\u2019re entering \u2018the age of speed\u2019. Let\u2019s give it a fancy name though\u2026 How about \u2018The Age of Alacrity\u2019 or \u2018The Age of Expedition’?<\/p>\n Or perhaps we ought to look at subject matter rather than form? When a new cultural movement emerges, certain genres tend to suffer from attack and new genres are generated in their place. Perhaps urban fantasy has replaced an older one that has grown stale and repetitive? There\u2019s also been a growth in crime and thriller novels\/movies whose plots centre on speculative fiction elements. So maybe we\u2019re entering an age that prizes inventive difference (let’s hope so!)\u2026 \u2018The Age of Aberration” perhaps, or \u2018The Age of Divergence\u2019?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Botticelli-300x180.jpg\" "\\"Botticelli\\"")
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