[Ads-l] Word: Romantasy - literary genre blending romance and fantasy (with eroticism)

[Nancy Friedman]

“Romantasy” was on Oxford's shortlist for 2024 word of the year.
https://corp.oup.com/word-of-the-year/

Nancy Friedman
Chief Wordworker
https://wordworking.com
https://fritinancy.substack.com

tel 510 652-4159
cel 510 304-3953
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On Thu, Jan 9, 2025, 4:55 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> The romantasy genre is achieving new heights of popularity. This
> portmanteau word appeared in the following recent article:
>
> Website The New Yorker newyorker.com
> Article: Did a Best-Selling Romantasy Novelist Steal Another Writer’s
> Story?
> Author: Katy Waldman
> Date: January 6, 2025
>
> https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/01/13/did-a-best-selling-romantasy-novelist-steal-another-writers-story
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> In 2020, Maas's publishers changed up their marketing strategy,
> causing the series to be rehomed in the adult section. "It birthed
> this genre of romantasy," Cassandra Clare, the author of the
> best-selling fantasy series "The Mortal Instruments," told me, "which
> to me is books that contain a lot of the tropes that make Y.A. popular
> but also have explicit sex in them."
> [End excerpt]
>
> I searched x-twitter to find early instances. I found different
> meanings assigned to the word. For example:
>
> X-Twitter handle: Mike Thomas Kelly @ramablahblah
> Timestamp: 6:55 PM, Sep 21, 2008
> https://x.com/ramablahblah/status/929753548
>
> [Begin tweet]
> Romantasy.2nd rate sex shop? Or roman costume store?
> [End tweet]
>
> The earliest tweet I saw which corresponded to a literary genre was this:
>
> X-Twitter handle: Sybil @redwyne
> Timestamp: 5:15 PM, Apr 10, 2008
> https://x.com/redwyne/status/786736329
>
> [Begin tweet]
> New blog post: DUCKFLASH: Jean Johnson's Romantasy News
> http://tinyurl.com/6fj3f6
> [End tweet]
>
> The tweet above is ambiguous, but the link points to an article that I
> think displays the desired sense of "romantasy". The article indicates
> that "romantasy" is used as a genre label in Germany. This article is
> importing the term into English.
>
> Website: The Good, The Bad, The Unread
> Article: DUCK FLASH: Jean Johnson’s Romantasy News
> Author: BevQB
> Timestamp on website: April 10, 2008 at 4:15 pm
>
> http://goodbadandunread.com/2008/04/10/duckflash-jean-johnsons-romantasy-news/
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Anyway, for those of you who speak German, the website for the imprint
> is http://www.penhaligon.de and the website for my book in particular
> is: http://www.randomhouse.de/book_new/edition.jsp?edi=280654...and
> they've labeled it "Romantasy"...which I think is a particularly good
> way of describing the genre for the SoD series!
> [End excerpt]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Don’t you just love that label, ROMANTASY? It’s perfect for these
> surprisingly sexy Sword-and-Sorcerer-lite books. My favorite part
> about these books? The characters actually use the bathroom! In fact,
> in book 1, The Sword, Saber and Kelly bond over a mutual bout of
> raging diarrhea. No, seriously!
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org