Coping With Romantasy
53 min
We’ve always loved a happily ever after, but in the past few years Romantasy has gone from niche subgenre to full-blown cultural phenomenon – and the arrival of the latest ACOTAR instalment, A Court of Splintered Harmony, has lured even the least likely readers into its magical realms. This week, Alice Griffin and Jannah Anderson unpack the unique appeal of Romantasy – with help from author Olivia O’Flynn – and explore what stories of fated mates, magical kingdoms and all-consuming love reveal about modern life. From yearning, desire and book boyfriends to escapism, larping and the increasingly blurred lines between fantasy and reality, they ask whether Romantasy simply is a distraction from the real world, or a way of making sense of it. ☆ Thanks to Skin Studio for collaborating with us on our A Court of Splintered Harmony celebration at Coping Studio! Check out their official ACOTAR collection here. ☆ Follow: Olivia O’Flynn on Instagram Read: Olivia O’Flynn’s Ever Cursed series Read: A Court Of Thorns And Roses series by Sarah J. Maas They Can’t Get Enough of the Queen of Fairy Smut by Alexandra Alter, New York Times Those Books of Smut and Wonder by Honor Jones in The Atlantic Sometimes Smut Is Too Good by Michelle Santiago Cortés, The Cut Falling for a Minotaur by Emily Gould, The Cut Escape Artists: Romantasy at the End of the World, by Daniel Yadin in The Drift Read: A Natural History of the Romance Novel by Pamela Regis How Romantasy Seduces Its Readers in The New Yorker podcast: Critics at Large The Healing and Empowering Influence of Romantasy by Suzanne Bender M.D, Psychology Today Read: On Fairy-Stories by J.R.R. Tolkien Love, Power and Fantasy in the Age of AI Companions, NYU Can two worlds bleed? How live action role-play affects your life, University of Sydney ‘Reality bleed’, and the blurred lines of live-action role-playing by Davide Orazi, Monash Lens Want to support our show? We'd be so grateful if you hit 'follow' or left us a 5-star review so we...