As the title states, I'm curious as to what other people envision as the Isekai genre. It "used to" be considered a sub genre, but over its years of tenure has developed into a fully fleshed out section of fiction for light novels (complete with its own host of sub genres).

Typically, the agreed upon rules are that more than one "inhabitable world" must exist, and for one reason or another the main character is moved, or can move themselves, between these worlds. The question is, how rigid must that (as well as subsequent) restriction(s) be.

If there are no restrictions, series like Bleach (though not a light novel in its mainline story) can fall under the Isekai umbrella, but most people understand it to not be. My argument is for the fact that Ichigo primarily inhabits his original world. But then when you consider a work like I'm Standing On A Million Lives, or Sword Art Online (an actual isekai) the idea of boundaries becomes a little less clear.

All in all, it makes me curious as to how people might attempt to provide a concrete description for Isekai- which is an actual word in the English language (according to the Oxford Dictionary) as of March 2024. Intuitively, we seem to have a collective understanding, but I've found it interesting to try and put into words.

Is anyone else hopping on the Personal Curriculum bandwagon? If so - what subjects are you "studying" and which books are you reading to the purpose? I am fascinated by this trend!

EDIT: Forgot to include the subjects I'm personally working on! EDITEDIT: And the books I'm reading!!

HISTORY:

• Life in the British Royal Navy (Late 18th/Early 19th centuries)*

• "The Wooden World" by N.A.M. Rodger
• "Harbors and High Seas" by Dean King
• "The Illustrated Companion to Nelson's Navy" - by Nicholas Blake & Richard Lawrence

• Jane Austen's Life & Works*

• all 6 of Jane Austen's published novels (technically a re-read)
• "The Worlds of Jane Austen" by Helena Kelly
• "Jane Austen: A Life" by Claire Tomalin
• "Jane Austen's Letters" curated by Susan Coolidge

CREATIVITY:

• Writing (I'm attempting to write a novel so books on style and structure are key)*

• "The Elements of Style" by Strunk, White, & Kalman
• "On Writing" by Stephen King
• "Dreyer's English" by Benjamin Dreyer

• Drawing (I'm an aspiring digital artist too!)*

• "Figure Drawing: Design & Invention" by Michael Hampton

• Knitting (someday I will finish a project)*

• The DK Knitting Book

RELIGION:

• Still refining this subject a bit, but I would like to learn more about the world's religions generally!

I don’t know if everyone already knows this and I’m just behind the times, but I just found out that Kuang has signed a deal with HarperCollins for 4 new books, including two fantasy novels and two literary novels. She has a new book coming out next year called “Taipei Story”

As an introduction to myself: I studied English in college. Studying rhetorical devices and strategies, their impact on texts in accomplishing an author's purpose, and the impact of literature on society is what I formally studied. That's why I comment on books the way I do. I was trained and given a specific set of tools for understanding and commenting on literature.

I'm noticing that one of the words often colloquially used to describe and classify books is "trope." I'm not here to say that's wrong. But I would like to share what it means in a literary context so we can understand each other better. I know we rely on Google and search engines to find information, and I'm hoping that by sharing some of this information, it will help you in your quest to find the books you're looking for.

A trope, in the traditional sense, is a rhetorical strategy where an author uses words in ways that differ from their literal meaning. A metaphor is a trope. All kinds of irony would be tropes. Idioms are tropes. When language ceases to be literal and becomes figurative, that is a trope.

How the meaning has changed happened when certain uses of tropes became overdone. Then it came to mean 'hack behavior by a certain type of writer or artist.' Now its meaning is shifting again from something that is overdone to almost a kind of classifier. Once something is done (or overdone) enough to become a feature, people are now calling that a trope.

Language changes. I'm not a prescriptivist. I'm not here to tell you that how you're using trope is wrong. I'm here to explain how you arrived at where you are, and why there will be confusion. We've got two groups of people, both in book spaces, using the same word to mean two very different things.

So when people wanted to identify a feature in a story or a body of literature for the purposes of classifying them together, what was that called before "trope" started serving in that function?

It was (and still is) called a motif. And once a motif happens enough to become a dominant feature within a genre, it becomes a subgenre. So "found family" on its own is a motif. It can happen independently across genres. "Time Travel" has been a motif for so long, it has developed conventions and motifs of its own. It has become its own subgenre that straddles science fiction and fantasy, depending on which of those motifs are present.

Many of the subgenres you love aren't new. They have existing names from the groups who were reading them for decades (and even centuries) before you. Humans have been classifying them together, like with like, during literary movements with genre/category names of their own. Once you tap into what these subgenres are called, you can easily find more books similar to the ones you like. And the classification of subgenre is a process that still continues today. You shape them with your reading habits, with the elements of story you search for and prioritize in the exact conversations you're having.

"Cozy" I think used to be a setting and tone motif that is quickly becoming its own subgenre, especially as it crosses multiple genres (mystery and fantasy), each with their own conventions and expectations. And many of the "tropes" people look for are motifs and literary elements that are making up those new subgenres. And I think part of why "tropes" stuck for this function is that tropes can cross strict genre boundaries in ways that we might be tempted to say that subgenres can't.

But there can be infinite numbers of subgenres, and they cross genre boundaries all the time now. You can also make up your own. This is a process that doesn't just belong to academics. It belongs to the communities reading the books. And it's something I think readers today have a much better sense of now than when I was in school. And because of how connected we are, they are being created faster than ever before.

I didn't know that Iron Widow was Silkpunk, or that Emily Wilde was Epistolary Fantasy. But now that I know that, I can find other books like them. And that's really neat.

I just found out about this amazing genre! Apparently it's a mix of Chinese culture, fantasy and BL ... I think. If any of you knows more about it or have any novel suggestions, please comment!!! 😁

Whenever we talk about colonialism we tend to think about England or Spain… but what Belgium has done to Africa is unacceptable, and I feel we don’t talk about this enough, how are this countries not being held responsible for the devastation they brought, the DRC was not “independent” until 1960 and in this 65 years they have not been able to land on their feet, I’m just astonished about all this. Feeling sad ☹️

What do you think ?

Before Pagebound (and still now), I write on a little notebook my thoughts on the book when I finished it + general things like "putting it this way was really good" or "oh, the author did a great job at this". And after coming here, I tend to put all of this in writing as the review of the book. But sometimes it feels more like something I should write as the last Thoughts.

So what do you guys write as a review ? How to know what should be in thoughts and could be included in review ?

I guess it could depend and I could do as I feel but I still want to know your opinion!

Maybe i'm tired of AI everywhere in the world or maybe i've just read enough scifi that includes this trope to get really tired of it but when there's a universal translator used to get out of having characters learn new languages or sign and interpret each other its starting to really REALLY annoy me. Why do we never see the shitty real thing of a machine not being able to grasp the nuances of language and making funny or silly errors vs a person who makes the effort to learn the grammar/ culture/ etc. Not to be a cliche but that's what i loved so much about Babel (R.F Kuang) and the way it described translation as always imperfect and missing something. Anyway, anyone got some great scifi recs that engage with this trope in an interesting way or where it's avoided and characters have to do it the hard way and just LEARN?

hello I wanted to introduce myself; I got overly excited when I downloaded the app and went straight to the ratings and commentaries. I’m jenn, I’m 26 years old and these are some of my favorite things ❤️‍🔥

music: rauw alejandro, bad bunny, sabrina carpenter, tate mcrae, deftones, sade, bad gyal, bts, katesye, kaytranada & the weeknd (:

tv shows: the society, criminal minds, sex and the city, girlfriends, the vampire diaries, supernatural & abbott elementary

anime: nana, deathnote, hunter x hunter, jujutsu kaisen, solo leveling, kaiju no 8, tomo chan is a girl, spirited away, your name, apothecary diaries, not a married couple, spy family, classroom of the elite (:

kdrama: the glory, true beauty, my demon, my lovely runner, reply 1988, business proposal, weak hero class, extraordinary attorney woo, strong woman do bong soon, hotel de luna, weightlifting fairy Kim bok joo, family by choice!

Idk if it’s weird to say this but ever since this app came out I have felt a little less lonely. I guess knowing there’s a community here ready to discuss the books we hate or love is really wholesome. This app is doing wonders for my mental health (: I’d love to make more friends, I read mostly romance, fantasy, thriller & occasionally will dip into another genre for fun so feel free to follow me! excited to meet everyone 🧚🏼‍♀️