Magen Cubed and B.E.C. Syndrome
This article was originally written in March of 2025 and Magen Cubed didn’t like it. Since I’m blocked and she’s off eating some more crackers (presumably), it is being re-published now.
Author Dorian Dawes, a horror writer who describes their short stories and novels as “profoundly unpublishable” (same hat) wrote an essay for Issue 5 of Typebar Magazine in which they critique the SciFi/Fantasy genre’s current obsession with the concept of “cozy” taken up as part of its genre. “Cozy” generally describes a story that presents a low-stakes narrative in which the characters exist without having to do things like save the world or take their place as the chosen one in order to bring some grand Hero’s Journey archetype to a satisfying resolution. Sometimes it’s easier to illustrate something by giving an example of something it is not, so here is where I give an example of a fantasy story that is fun, comedic, family friendly (for the most part) and not “cozy.” Willow. Packed full of laughs, Willow is far too high-stakes and uncomfortable to be considered “cozy” by any means with side character deaths, an Evil Queen bent on ruling the world, and the looming threat of ritual infanticide. The narrative isn’t “cozy” because we’re right in the middle of the action and the action is gritty even if we get moments of levity here and there. Let’s juxtapose this next to a piece of media considered to be the quintessential example of “cozy:” Stardew Valley.
Dorian Dawes specifically does not criticize Stardew Valley despite that it embodies the concept of “cozy.” Why? Well, a lot of people miss a whole heckin’ lot that’s going on in Stardew and it’s to their own detriment because there’s a big lesson to be learned that we lose when we lose sight of why things are cozy. The game’s premise is that you work for a Wal-Mart/Amazon-esque company that’s slowly draining the life out of you until you inherit your grandfather’s old farm—a tract of land in the middle of nowhere that you clear and work while existing within the environment of Pelican Town and within the lives of its inhabitants. Part of the reason it’s considered “cozy” is because it seems very low-stakes. The in-game challenges help to bring the community center in town back to life, help reinvigorate the environment and the small plant-loving spirits (Junimos) who can eventually live on your farm with you. Your interactions with the townspeople help them in their day to day lives and aid them to become a more cohesive community even if you can’t solve every single problem they have.
The other part of the “cozy” in Stardew is the backdrop. This is what a lot of folks are missing when it comes to how the narrative develops and why Stardew is an escape not just for the player but the player character as well. The valley is a peaceful respite within the Ferngill Republic, a nation in a current and on-going war with another nation across the Gem Sea: the Gotoro Empire. The Valley, naturally cut off from the rest of the Republic due to its geographical location is suffering from the effects of being located in a food desert and relies heavily on their Joja Mart (Wal-Mart) which holds a monopoly and a chokehold on their local economy. These are big political issues and allegories for what people in the real world in real places experience every single day in small out of the way places across the world. The stakes are far higher than they seem when we recontextualize the role the farmer plays in bringing local produce to Pierre’s shop and developing a thriving export industry to the valley which leads to its independence from the influence of the unscrupulous Joja Mart. From NPC Kent’s experiences in a Gotoro Prison Camp to Mayor Louis’ apparent corruption, Stardew Valley doesn’t shy away from the concepts of evils far greater than ourselves or of an individual’s impact within the context of their abilities within or beside greater atrocities. What makes it cozy is that we do what we can do to make a difference and each small gesture counts to create a better world, even if that world is small and our reach is limited and it feels like we’re wasting our time fishing while a war wages on off-screen.
How does this have anything to do with Magen Cubed? It’s so far-flung, the digression is too great, isn’t it? Well, this bitch ate crackers.
Dorian’s essay was a critique of how “cozy” has morphed into what amounts to a comfortable inaction which lauds nonviolence to serve the causes of those who benefit most from a peace-loving audience of readers. What does that mean? It means that there’s a reason Lockheed Martin really likes SciFi/Fantasy and that Raytheon was a special guest at one of the Hugo Award events. If you convince your everyday citizens to prioritize comfort over rebellion, they will sacrifice anything to keep it…or at least some aspects of it. The example Dorian used was Travis Baldree’s popular story Legends & Lattes in which they examine how the message of the story seems to be “Violence is bad, but money obtained through violence is good.” Dorian also points out the story’s probably inadvertent promotion of “Liberal inaction enshrined as virtue” in its lazy suggestion that one solve their own problems and leave everyone else to be victimized as long as your own comfort (and profit) remain intact. This essay was the cracker. Magen, seeing the waves of indignant fury arising from the publication of this critique on the degradation of the “cozy” premise, (rightfully) defended Dorian’s essay. The audacity.
Magen skeeted the following on March 25th, 2025: “You know, seeing people’s responses to [Dorian Dawes]’s essay really makes me want to withdraw further from writers/readers online on the whole … Just please don’t follow me. Don’t engage with my work. I’m one essay away from being your gleeful punching bag, so just go the other way.” On a personal note, this is relatively relatable, as I often have unpopular opinions and make morally dubious art and writings so being canceled (again) is always on the table when it comes to my online experience. I have looked into the abyss of morons and begged them not to follow me too. For whatever this was worth, Magen’s plea went ignored and in fact the sharks descended…or perhaps one shark in particular did.
User pnictogen-wing, utilizing several sock-puppet accounts, began writing pedantic pseudo-professorial type skeets about the “irrational” nature of Dorian’s essay, explaining that “It’s silly to demand, in an essay, that cosy literature have some pain in it.” [sic] while also implying that they did not actually read the essay, merely going on vibes and the title of the essay itself. pnictogen then suggests (out of the blue) that both Dorian and Magen are colluding to drum up some kind of SocMed outrage in order to sell more of their books, despite that Magen consistently tells people not to engage and some folks, myself included, have taken her up on the suggestion. The harassment from this user and their many sock-puppets became so egregious that Magen, for a short while, must have deactivated her BlueSky account, as several other accounts asked “What happened to Magen Cubed?!” (philbybear) while Dorian tried to explain the situation and lamented in a skeet: “I think some of you have pathologized pain to the point you’re no longer capable of feeling empathy. Actual demons. Harassing a friend of mine off the internet cause I talked shit about your fantasy books.” [sic]
Now I’m not blaming pnictogen with all of the vitriol, since it seems as though there were quite a few folks who were annoyed, upset, or downright raging against Dorian’s critique, telling him to read something else and leave their genre alone. Some folks just missed the point entirely with one unhelpfully suggesting: “My man, have you considered your problem with the gay orc barista book is less about not having enough arbitrary suffering and more about your definition of cozy?” (Morderay 3/26/25) while another, kristalmoonhand (with an apt display name of Kristal, Bitch Queen of Fuck Mountain) angrily complained, “I did read it and it's pretentious shit. ‘Why is this genre not another genre? I liked the way this story told these beats, but not this other story.’ Bitch, that's personal taste, shut the fuck up. Sometimes I wanna read something where the stakes are low.” Because Magen Cubed committed the horrific sin of defending Dorian’s essay, she was fair game for vitriol, a torrent of exhausting, missing-the-point bad-take reactions to a simple opinion in an online magazine tumbling down over someone who didn’t even write it.
Advice? For Magen? Nothing. She’s a grown ass woman and she doesn’t need my fart sniffing opinions on what she should do. My advice here is based on all those getting bent out of shape over the cozy genre: Quit being so goddamn pathetic. You can have your cozy, nobody is taking it away from you. Not everyone has to love it. You don’t have to give up your cozy faves because some rando online said they’re missing some spice. Maybe cilantro tastes like soap to you, who knows. Go be wrong somewhere else.
Jesus.
How dare that bitch eat crackers.
