Genre Police: Power Word: R.K.O
Before we begin, do me a favour: name a medium that has its own genre conventions and mythology. It also has magic items everyone wants, currently possessed by violent giants and evil vegan druids.…
About Ben Jackson-Ellery
Genre Police: Literary Genie-Us
The original One Thousand And One Nights shows a great number of literary tropes that we use and understand as part of today's literary structures and you can see at least parallels in some pillars of western literature, like The Canterbury Tales.
Genre Police: How Grim To Grimm?
It can feel at once mischievous and a throwback to what is viewed as the 'original stories'. But do we lose anything when we veer away from the recognised trope set?
Genre Police: Nowt As Strange As Folk
Let's talk about what we're actually doing when we play a roleplaying game for a minute.
Genre Police: I Believe In Father Christmas
No one knows when it began, but each year, a battle is joined over an ancient question, one that can never be answered. Scholars lock into debate over seasonal food, decrying or supporting.…
Genre Police: Actual Police
So it’s taken us a year to get to it, but genre police is going to finally look at the genre that inspired its name. The Police procedural is perhaps the most popular television genre of the last thirty years, without thinking I could list upwards of twenty shows that fit the pattern.…
Genre Police: The Spy Who Critted Me
Espionage is an instantly recognisable genre. Due to its very clearly defined tropes, everyone can remake a spy movie – just think about it now, you can already see the grand opening action sequence in your mind.…
Genre Police: Where DM’s dare
The War genre is widely variable. Depending on nation creating the media, the level of patriotism acceptable in the cultural environment and the directors intent, a ‘War Story’ can be anything from a heavily edited propaganda piece, meditation on the cost of war, a high action thriller, documentary or long running comedy that also makes you cry.…
Genre Police: Pouches & Punishment!
If you were researching comics history and you asked Wikipedia for its opinion, you’d see posits that the publication of Watchmen creates a modern, more sophisticated age of comics overnight that is still in place today.…
Genre Police: A Change Is Gonna Come
Mostly when I write a genre police story, I begin by picking the genre and then discussing the issues around the context and creation of the genre. But today we’re going to have to approach this article from a different perspective.…
