what is your literature weakness or soft spot?

we all have a soft spot or a weakness in literature.
mine is humour followed by humour. nothing beats a good laugh out loud when reading.

what is yours?

Me too - humour. Also I love a good love story. :)

Satire.

My inability to stand on my hands and pee toward the sky to take a bath.

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Originally Posted by Shevek

Satire.

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great word. does satire relate to sarcasm?

Tragedy.

Satire refers to the use of sarcasm. It will show the targeted subject's short comings strange behavior. Satire also uses humor and exaggeration. A satire is also a genre name for books or movies that use satire.

Forgewright

Dystopia

Stylistic prowess. Just finished Lolita. It's all downhill from here :biggrin5:

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Originally Posted by Dark Muse

Dystopia

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Mine is utopian lit. Although, I like dystopian as well because it does just as good a job at describing what the world should be like!

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Originally Posted by hypatia_

Mine is utopian lit. Although, I like dystopian as well because it does just as good a job at describing what the world should be like!

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I have always found the thought of a utopian existence to be incredibly boring. I like dystopia becasue I enjoy being distrubed.

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Originally Posted by Dark Muse

I have always found the thought of a utopian existence to be incredibly boring. I like dystopia becasue I enjoy being distrubed.

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What about those cases when it is difficult to tell whether the setting is utopian or dystopian? Isn't the interesting thing about a utopia the fact that it is so prone to becoming a dystopia?

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Originally Posted by Dark Muse

I have always found the thought of a utopian existence to be incredibly boring. I like dystopia becasue I enjoy being distrubed.

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why do you enjoy being disturbed Dark Muse?

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Originally Posted by Shevek

What about those cases when it is difficult to tell whether the setting is utopian or dystopian? Isn't the interesting thing about a utopia the fact that it is so prone to becoming a dystopia?

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so are you saying that they interlude and therefore the two extremes are similar?

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Originally Posted by cacian

so are you saying that they interlude and therefore the two extremes are similar?

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Particularly in a utopia there is the looming possibility that it might become a dystopia - that the ideals the utopia is based on might be abandoned. The hippie movement attempted to achieve utopian ideals in practice, but in some cases created more internal restrictions and controls on adherents (especially women). This is something a few people within the movement recognized. Science fiction is very good at addressing this problem, but I guess the most popular example of this would be Animal Farm where a dystopia is already emerging from the promise of utopia.

In other cases the utopia/dystopia binary is less clear. In Brave New World, it is ambiguous whether the seemingly utopian world is actually dystopian.

I don't know of any intellectuals or movements (fictional or otherwise) that envisioned utopia for its own sake, without the undertone that humanity (or at least some segment of it) is doomed unless a utopian course is pursued.