[hildea]

Originally Posted by haertig

Don't even think about trying to learn what's represented in the LGBTRXQWZ+ group.

Mocking important parts of people's identities like gender and sexuality is unkind, and makes me think less of you.

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Yeah, but that is the vast majority of fantasy tales before Thomas Covenant (and most after). That is such a broad tag, what is the use of it, except to say 'this isn't grimdark'?

I read an article about noblebright, and found that it is both narrower and broader than I thought. It does seem to mean "not grimdark", but the article said that it's adjacent to "clean" novels (which is an icky way of describing books without explicit sex or violence), and to Christian novels. So while the term technically is very broad, it seems to me that authors who choose to put that label on their books probably aren't for me.
So this thread has resulted in me learning a bit more about a subgenre that's helpful for me when vetting books, that's good

I shared the article not because I think the labels must be wiped from use. But mostly because I think they are stupid and having a million sub-sub-subgenres stops being informative and can become a hassle. As an example, Gullstruck Island (a book currently on sale) is #94 in Teen & Young Adult Fiction about Siblings and is #258 in Teen & Young Adult Siblings Fiction.

I know those are different, but they still illustrate my point.

Heh, I don't get the difference between those two. And I'll agree that some microgenres seem silly. Cassette Futurism, for instance, does seem more like a setting than a genre (and a quick search doesn't show me anyone who's using it as a genre term, so maybe that one's made of straw).

I'm willing to admit that maybe this whole thing comes from the sub-sub-subgenres being new and me being old. I don't like them and they need to get off my lawn!

I'm getting a hint of grumpy curmudgeon in this discussion, yeah. I'll bask in my adventurous youth (I'm 54) and go seek out some hopepunk