Recently I read that the type of fiction that normally appeals to men is action and adventure, and what normally appeals to women is character-driven drama. I basically dismissed this as another stereotype, but then I talked to someone who also reads a lot of webcomics and found out that her tastes radically diverge from mine even though webcomics are a comparatively niche interest. One of her favourites was a short-ish comic (I forgot the title) about two guys who go on a road trip and fall in love. After I read that, I realised that out of all the webcomics I've ever read, that was the first one that has absolutely no fantastical or supernatural elements about it. It was just about those two guys and how they interact with each other and deal with the circumstances they find themselves in. Thinking about it, maybe there's something to that stereotype after all?
What I like best about fiction isn't really action and adventure, but imagination brought to life. I love nothing more than getting immersed in a fantastical world with its own natural laws, rules, and customs, where things are different than normal and put our own reality into perspective. Stories that use actual reality as a setting aren't as interesting to me. That's why comics like Dresden Codak, Rice Boy, Poppy and Paranatural are some of my favourites. QC has elements of that, with technology and AI creating a very different society, but that's not always the focus and most of the time the stories are more character-driven. Alice Grove was much more world-driven in comparison. Girl Genius is somewhat similar, but much more adventure-like.
Is this dichotomy recognisable to anyone else? Does it make more sense than adventure versus drama? And what are the types of fiction that speak to you the most?