How do modern fantasy authors approach diversity differently than previous generations?
Last Updated: 28.06.2025 18:01
I feel like the 90’s and 00’s were really the last decade we cared about “literature” in formal script.
In the past 5 years, yes, I’ve read my fair share of US and English authors, but now there’s authors from Africa and East Asia popping up on my lists of have read and my list of recommendations. Netflix has a fantasy series based on an Eastern European writer’s books, and a scifi show based on a Chinese writer’s books.
Part of me hates it, part of me understands it, having grown up reading my mother’s Harlequin Romances alongside 50’s era pulp fiction featuring brawny men with women baring bosoms to them on every adventure.
AUTHORS….
I’m kinda interested to see what the next 20–30 years ends up showing.
(We had our women writers writing fantasy porn then too, with Anne Rice, and the author of that Anita-whatever series and that OTHER vampire series set in the South with IIRC, her name was Sookie… Now that I think about it, it’s been werewolves and vampires for AGES….)
When it comes to urban fantasy, I think this is most evident, but in traditional fantasy, there IS a bit more of a tendency to carry those sorts of values over more.
What MORE interesting, is that outside of the smut factories mention above, you’re also starting to see a more global market developing.
The more globalism has shaped our world, and the more multicultural the world has become, the more people of other cultures and ethnicities become your neighbors… And as such, they become more a part of the stories.
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It’s more interesting.
Actual scifi literature though……….
Just want to clarify that we’re talking AUTHORS here, not TV/Film/etc.
When it comes to the porn-y stuff, it’s honestly the same as always: both men and women are MORE than happy to portray a diverse cast of lovers in every ethnicity imaginable. Ethnicities are just another category of fetish after all… And that goes for both men and women writers and male and female harems, (and yes, there are male harems.)
Unfortunately, most of the “return to books” seems to be within YA and “romantasy”. which….both are basically the breeding grounds for steamy X rated fanfics featuring the author’s OC’s.
Authors are a bit strange when it comes to media. Books in general are in a very weird state.
After decades of readership declining, it feels like there’s a revival occurring.
And this… this might be worth noting, because it means that there’s more diversity in cultures being represented, and with it, our stories are becoming more diverse, if not only in the cast of characters, but also in the inspiration they draw from.