Mass Market Is Self Help

Something Olivia shared on one of our post-GFP recordings i/r/t the Kindle market, (which is our 21st century version of mass market fiction feeding an insatiable beast)… is that (this opinion is mine) these kinds of stories are basically self-help disguised as fiction.

The thought process and insight is Olivia’s, the interpretation is mine, to be clear. And the insight is that this audience wants an inspiring stand-in PROT that has gone through the same disasters/trauma/conflicts they have (either currently experiencing or recently surfaced), but they’re more resilient, more resourceful, and more proactive about solving it, usually via a QST. What’s more, this QST is experienced via a MECH, for example, a magical means of solving their problems.

Back to my interpretation of all this:

Put another way, they are empowered in a way that reality doesn’t do it for the audience, so they therefore become inspiring stand-ins, and perhaps in their struggle (slightly removed by the MECH), the audience learns and grows. This is essentially a character that the audience can look up to as role-models. And to a degree, almost, if not outright wish-fulfillment. They are a vessel that transports them through the story. It is a VR experience. It’s also therapy in the same sense of why fairy tales work so well for children. We give them a stand-in, they experience danger, and through that danger, they learn a moral, and the story - as a safe vehicle – allows them to experience the danger, threats, and whatever.

If you look at the majority of 90s fantasy that was aimed at prepubescent and/or teenage boys like me, the PROT was a stand-in for me. And LitRPG is the modern equivalent of that. And when Olivia describes the 40-something Paranormal crowd… the BtVS/Charmed/Supernatural girls who are now 40-something women and going through midlife, divorce, and/or pre-empty-nest… they are using those PROTs as heroes.

I think this is in contrast to “literary” fiction where the character has more rough edges and more clearly defined flaws and isn’t as easy of a vessel to get into. In fact, you might feel disgust as you explore this PROT’s mind. In this sense, you’re more like a voyeur and you’re exploring what people who are extremely different from you experiences life. When we look into Humbert Humbert’s mind, we are dazzled by his wit, but also repulsed by his pedophilia.

I don’t have a conclusion to this beyond drawing the contrast.