Breeds and Reads

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Audience participation post. Essay. 300 words, 2-minute read.

My favorite part of the accompanying meme is the literary ladies throwing shade from the background. In my imagination, Daniel Radcliffe flicks his cig aside and herds his heckin’ puppers over to flirt with them. I’ll bet he gets at least one phone number too. Because, sci-i is a bad boy as genres go. And the ladies often can’t resist a bad boy. Especially when there’s a cute doggo involved.

And it’s the dogs which snag my attention as well. The concept of assigning a dog breed to a sub-genre is fascinating. Which type of dog personifies (dogsonifies?) each type of speculative fiction? The memer was limited by the breeds appearing in the image with Daniel Radcliffe. But we are not. 😉

Wikipedia lists more than a dozen breeds of speculative fiction. I suspect there are a lot more. Those slackers at Wikipedia just got tired of typing them out. Here are a few, with my free-association pairing with dog breeds that represent them.

  • Space Opera – Saint Bernard
  • Hard SF – Doberman Pinscher
  • Post-Apocalyptic – The lovable, resilient mutt (probably a junkyard dog)

You may disagree. And I would encourage you to. This is an audience participation post. Comment with your own lists. Just like everyone has their favorite breeds (and reads), opinions as to this question will vary.

Perhaps it would be better to approach from the opposite direction. Which breed calls to mind which sub-genre? The shiba inu? The bloodhound? The diminutive, but feisty chihuahua?

Let’s not be parochial. The same exercise could be performed with cats. Tabbies, Persians, Maine coons, calicos, and so on.

In fact, why not throw other genres into the mix. Mysteries, cozy, hard boiled, and drawing room. Thrillers. Romances. Self-help. Cookbooks.

Now, having stirred the pot, and upset the apple cart, I’ll step back into the shadows to enjoy the show. 😈

END?

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