Comments on: The 7 Most Essential Genre Conventions

By: David Jordan

David Jordan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:33:13 +0000

This piece is excellent. Further to the additions ttl listed, I’d like to add:

– the poorly guarded prison. This is a place wherein elite ‘opposition’ members, captured by elite ‘heroes’ can manage to break free with relatively little trouble, provided there’s minimal help from the outside.

By: Ellen

Ellen — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:45:02 +0000

And here I thought that I would never finish that ole novel o’mine but now I have the perfect crib sheet to successfully get the job done, thank you, Dan Swensen!

By: ttl

ttl — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 08:32:12 +0000

Very fun piece. A couple that come to mind for me:

- The maniacal villain who will stop at nothing I mean nothing―― save for giving into a remotely sensible way of dispatching the one person who can stop him.

- The infinitely more advanced yet rigidly monocultural alien race.

- The brilliant yet thoughtless scientist / entrepreneur / maniacal villain who stumbles onto technology or scientific knowledge humans aren’t capable of handling and whose God-playing unleashes hell on Earth.

By: Dr. Pete

Dr. Pete — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:20:50 +0000

Your article has deeply offended me, sir. My former lover was a sexy, bitchy, orphaned, former-starchild Latin scholar who was spoken of in the Great Prophecy. Our love was eternal until she turned into a vampire and was killed by a sexy ambulatory eyeball.

By: ace

ace — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:30:28 +0000

“erotic humanoid eggplant” May be amongst the funniest lines ever concocted in the human language.

Also, the name of a ’90s folk-metal band that really never went anywhere.