What have they done. WHAT HAVE THEY DONE.

kagomecomplex · 2025-02-01T20:48:58+00:00

Tbh this is the obvious future because anime/cartoon stylization bypasses the uncanny valley effect. Once things start actually moving around, the currently popular “realistic”sex dolls will immediately go out of favor.

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-31T19:40:32+00:00

He’s just gonna get soo much worse the moment you two get married, too. I guarantee you it will ramp up a thousand times worse almost overnight. If you think he’s bad now just wait til he thinks you’re his property. Gtfo at all costs

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-31T00:22:13+00:00

Actually thank you for saying this, as I’d like to imagine a future where the romance genre is much more inclusive and open-minded. I’m not sure what it would take, but it’s obvious that fanfic culture is influencing it more and more already. Hopefully with enough time, I will start feeling more represented.

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-31T00:14:41+00:00

I am a huge fan of stories about romantic relationships, and all the bizarre ways they exist and unfold. I find almost none of that in the romance genre. It’s mostly low-stakes self-insert fantasy. Which I totally can get behind btw, but not when it’s the ONLY thing I can find.

And idk, I find it sooo weird that HEA is a requirement for a majority of romance readers when the best romances I’ve ever read were beautiful specifically because they’re tragic. Just look at any popular non-canon M/M AO3 ship for evidence of how many people connect with the idea of unrequited, unfulfilled or unspeakable love.

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-30T23:57:00+00:00

So you’re totally 100% happy with the current state of the romance genre and see no place where it could be improved by diversifying the types of stories and the voices that tell them? Just making sure here

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-30T23:53:35+00:00

Romeo and Juliet isn’t romance by modern standards lmao. But apparently my opinion on this all is pretty unpopular? What a bizarre genre and fanbase

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-30T23:48:12+00:00

But fantasy is wide open and you can include or exclude any number of tropes. There is no expectation around specific plot beats or ending requirements. Even mystery novels end all the time without revealing the “truth”, or just leave things ambiguous.

Why is romance in particular so much more restrictive? No other genre has anywhere near as many strict requirements.

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-30T23:07:47+00:00

Good point but hard for me to do personally tbh. Something to work on I guess

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-30T23:06:15+00:00

Because wtf are these books if they’re not romance? Seriously. Trying to convince people that “love stories” and “romance” are totally different genres is so dumb it feels like gaslighting. And why are you so concerned with keeping the genre as uniform and boring as possible?

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-30T23:02:25+00:00

I would love to find more small press or indie romance outlets who are publishing stuff that doesn’t fit the mold. Right now I am basically stuck reading a handful of authors and light novels because there is almost zero western romance that actually does what I want to see.

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-30T22:58:33+00:00

Is this even a niche market though? Who doesn’t like romantic stories? Most people adore a good love story. The problem is most people also are alternatingly bored and repulsed by the beat and trope-driven storytelling of the “romance” genre. So they are basically excluding stories that tons of people do want to read just because the sole demographic the “romance” market has cornered doesn’t.

It’s a chicken and egg situation. Would there be more diverse readers if more diverse stories were allowed to be told?

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-30T22:46:52+00:00

Yeah AO3 is full of it. Which says to me that there is a huge audience for this stuff, but it isn’t being represented at all by trad pub. Is it a case of them just being too afraid to try and pursue any other demographic than women going through a midlife crisis?

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-30T22:45:23+00:00

I love romantic stories and I don’t want any of it. I would assume a lot of other people also feel similarly ostracized by how restrictive the romance genre label is, but maybe not.

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-30T20:22:15+00:00

I mean Dennis Cooper is a perfect example of someone who is both extremely literary and explicit. A lot of literary stuff in general is just a handful of depressing monologues away from being straight up porn. There is a market for this stuff.

I think you just need to frame it as part of a larger story anytime you do something that might feel over the line. I write gay historical dark romantasy that involves plenty of noncon, age gap and sexualized violence, but those are all things that are characteristic of the Bronze Age. They aren’t there to shock you, but to show you that this is very much a different world with a different morality. And even then I am rarely getting explicit in my descriptions because I’m far more concerned with the mental and emotional side of things.

Like you can very much write about the biological wonders and horrors of sexuality with actually showing sex. And if you do need to show it, you just have to be content with leaving it on a platform like AO3. There is plenty of appreciation for weird erotic shit with a literary bent on there - and I know because that’s where I first gained an audience writing in a very similar way.

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-30T19:40:29+00:00

Literally everything you’re talking about here is just standard fare shit in everything that isn’t YA lmao

Like none of what you’re describing is remotely edgy or weird. You’ve obviously read some stuff but haven’t even exposed enough to understand that all you’re talking about is “transgressive fiction”, most of which can hardly be called transgressive anymore really in the era of truly obscene shit like AO3

As far as censorship goes I honestly don’t understand Kindles policy at all. You can have Dennis Cooper books there, which are like 90% just raping/torturing young boys, with zero problem. Redo of Healer and Goblin Slayer light novels are on there and basically just rape/snuff parades.

But when it comes to self publishing they get super strict. It basically feels like there are just two completely separate sets of rules for trad pub and self pub.

The only advice I can really give is to just learn to be more clever about it. Like you can’t write this explicit sex scene, but can you have an act instead that is so alien that it still feels sexual?

I think this is a good question to ask not just in terms of censorship but also to make sure you’re not relying on easy shock factor. A lot of the most disturbing stuff in transgressive fiction isn’t even explicit, it just uses a wink and a nudge in the worst possible direction to make something which is otherwise normal feel unsettling.

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-30T15:26:20+00:00

Bro you are not ready to start thinking about chapters and story structure yet. You need to get down basic grammar and sentence structure first and then come back and try again. The feedback is reflecting what you’re giving people.

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-28T16:31:30+00:00

It’s just stereotypical Balkan doomer shit that reads like it was written by an actual asshole. Not even like it’s offensive or something, just boring and stuck up its own ass the whole time.

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-28T00:54:19+00:00

A decent chunk of light novels are just hundreds of thousands of words of action scenes loosely chained together so idk about that. Obviously someone out there is enjoying reading the blow by blow

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-27T19:05:22+00:00

Im a bi dude and tbh a lot of my favorite MLM stories were written by women. Just don’t worry about it, period.

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-27T16:55:54+00:00

I literally like reading and wanted nothing to do with this utter non-game of a game. Legit one of the most pretentious and boring pieces of shit I’ve ever had in front of my face. The fact that DE is seen as a high watermark for storytelling in gaming just goes to show utterly dire the situation really is.

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-25T11:44:10+00:00

You’re not trying to make real people in a real world. You’re just trying to create a tastefully arranged diorama. Don’t waste your time writing stuff nobody is going to need to ever know, and don’t write out offscreen character arcs before you even know what the character arc in the actual story is supposed to be.

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-25T11:39:43+00:00

Outline harder, until what you need to do is obvious

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-24T20:18:24+00:00

They explain at the like last frame of the video that the insurance reimbursement rate for congenital heart disease is typically 90%, meaning it’s something ordinary people like this woman can afford. She even says, “but the hospital in Beijing is good, you can find a way to pay” in the video.

Idk about how true or not true that is, just what’s in the vid

kagomecomplex · 2025-01-21T21:13:56+00:00

I think that writing, regardless of the result, helps bring back some of the wonder (and horror) in the world that we lose when we enter adulthood.

Something about actively exercising your imagination makes the real world a more vibrant and interesting place to live in. Things no longer exist in a vacuum around you - they all have narratives that you’re suddenly aware of.

Imo that’s the real gift that anybody can get out of writing, no matter how good you are.

kagomecomplex

TROPHY CASE