Pern and Pernish observings

[deird1]

Guide to characters on Pern

Women:
- If you are a dreamy virgin until deflowered by the love of your life in a quasi-rape scene... you are GOOD.

- If you are sensual and like sex with manly men of manliness... you are EVIL.


Men:
- If you used to sleep with the evil sensual women, but grew tired of them and deflowered a virgin in a quasi-rape scene... you are GOOD.

- If you still sleep with the evil sensual women... you are EVIL... probably. But not as evil as the evil women. At best, you are a minion.


Girls:
- If you are a tomboy... you are GOOD.

- If you care about clothes and your appearance... you are EVIL.

- If you grow up and then care about your appearance... you are GOOD.

- If you grow up and then become slovenly... you are EVIL. And probably sensual.


Benden:
- If you live there... you are GOOD.

- If you like people who live there... you are GOOD.

- If you like their caves... you are GOOD.

- If you like their wine... you are GOOD.

- If you despise the people, the caves, the wine, the weather, the fashion, the food, the music, and anything and everything remotely Bendenese... you are EVIL.


Fire Lizards:
- If you like them... you are GOOD.

- If you dismiss them... you are EVIL. (Unless you're Lessa, in which case you are the BESTEST OF ALL BEST PEOPLE, and everyone who dislikes you will die horribly.)



Here endeth the lesson.

Comments

[smurasaki]

Are you sure the early Vorkosiganverse stories aren't idfic? The Warrior's Apprentice sure makes -my- id happy. (Okay, maybe they're not -her- idfic.)

Then again, depending on how we define idfic, idfic is all that appeals to me. (Though in my case, that means adventure!)

[vass]

My definition of idfic is that the author, whether unintentionally or deliberately, is letting their kinks drive the story rather than the other way around.

For instance, David Feintuch likes spanking, so every single book he has ever written[*] has a spanking scene. And they're not books about spanking. They're books about the Navy in space, or a royal succession drama in a high fantasy setting, and suddenly whoops! here's a spanking scene. Not even in a sexual context, just "the main character had to be punished, so his best friend pulled down his trousers and administered a spanking, as you do." That's idfic.

If he set out to write a book about spanking, for people who like spanking, that would not be idfic, it would just be a very specific genre.

[*] Hyperbole. I have only read two of his books. In different, unrelated series. Both contained spanking.

Or there's Mary Balogh, who writes Regency romances, so you'd expect sex scenes. What you wouldn't necessarily expect is that all of her heroes and heroines like outdoor sex. It's like the author can't conceive that not everyone does. There is guaranteed one outdoor sex scene per book.

I'm not sure liking adventure is really enough to catapult a book into idfic. It'd be like if you liked romance, or liked mysteries, or liked friendships, or liked good writing. That's just normal.

[deird1]

My definition of idfic is that the author, whether unintentionally or deliberately, is letting their kinks drive the story rather than the other way around.

Interesting. I tend to approach the definition of id-fic by how the reader will be dealing with the story...