In Defense of Crapsack Worlds.

This article on dark fantasy has started a discussion Ive been avoiding, since most people on my friendslist who have been discussing it have had very different opinions than my own -- between the article and some of the other commentary, they seemed to be describing a genre that was very different from the one I am familiar with.  Generally, people are tired of cynicism and grittiness being painted as inherently more realistic and valuable than sense of wonder -- and that's a criticism I can get behind, because I've had it myself, in reference to superhero comics, where I think the  lesson learned from Watchmen is the opposite of the lesson intended.  Of course, I have also argued for more realism in superhero comics, in my Comics Theses 95 posts (and did I ever actually post my reaction to that reaction, where I wanted to go in the opposite direction and express my sense of wonder in comics?  I sure composed the Hell out of it in my head...)

In any case, the following was my initial reaction and defense of darkness in fantasy, posted as a comment in sartorias 's comment threads -- so if there are bits that seem out of context, it's because this was not originally composed as a stand-alone post.

( Crapsack Worlds and Violence Porn as seen in Joe Abercrombie's First Law books )