Amanita
Maester
I’ve been reading the two recent articles on the main page and I think quite a few things in there are worthy of discussion but maybe the comment section isn’t the right place for this.
Both articles talk about the ”ždeath of fantasy“ but is fantasy really a genre which is terminally ill?
There are the extremely popular YA stories like Harry Potter and Twilight with some others which are quite popular as well, there are popular ”žtraditional works“ like those of Jordan, Goodkind or Paolini even though the quality of the latter might be up to debate and there are well-known series of darker and more realistic fantasy written by Abercrombie or Martin. These are only the most popular works and in my opinion they’re already covering a vast range of different interests and there’s much more around.
Therefore my question: Why are you so worried about the future of fantasy? At least to me it rather seems as if the whole genre with its various facets had grown way more popular in recent times.
To comment on another point raised: Does brain matter splattering across the page really make a book better or does it need this kind of thing to be suitable for adults? Personally, I don’t think so. Often, it doesn’t even make much sense with the chosen view-point. Would a soldier really stay and watch the details of his enemy’s gruesome death rather than turning to the next enemy? Why should we as the readers?
As strange as it sounds, but I tend to get quickly bored with long-winded descriptions of violence. One example I really hate is the mad torturer who sees breaking his victim’s bones one by one as an art and tells us about it delightedly.
Where are the rational torturers who do what they’re doing to achieve their goals? And where are the consequences of the torture in the surviving victim? This is a matter hardly ever explored in fantasy, the only crime that might have consequences for the victim is rape. (Maybe because the victims in this case tend to be women and not The Hero
)
I like many of the stories featuring and being geared at young people and I also like many of the others, especially if they’re covering an interesting subject. My ideas also go into both directions and I see nothing wrong with both kinds of books being published.
The fact that authors who try to make their books accessible for as many people as possible sell more books than those who exclude large groups of possible readers to tend to other people’s pride seems rather obvious to me. That doesn’t mean that the others don’t sell their books, but it may mean that they don’t make it to the front pages of the news.
Other commenters as visible a few threads below actually fear that too many dark and cruel books are the death of fantasy, which I’m not afraid of either.
Both articles talk about the ”ždeath of fantasy“ but is fantasy really a genre which is terminally ill?
There are the extremely popular YA stories like Harry Potter and Twilight with some others which are quite popular as well, there are popular ”žtraditional works“ like those of Jordan, Goodkind or Paolini even though the quality of the latter might be up to debate and there are well-known series of darker and more realistic fantasy written by Abercrombie or Martin. These are only the most popular works and in my opinion they’re already covering a vast range of different interests and there’s much more around.
Therefore my question: Why are you so worried about the future of fantasy? At least to me it rather seems as if the whole genre with its various facets had grown way more popular in recent times.
To comment on another point raised: Does brain matter splattering across the page really make a book better or does it need this kind of thing to be suitable for adults? Personally, I don’t think so. Often, it doesn’t even make much sense with the chosen view-point. Would a soldier really stay and watch the details of his enemy’s gruesome death rather than turning to the next enemy? Why should we as the readers?
As strange as it sounds, but I tend to get quickly bored with long-winded descriptions of violence. One example I really hate is the mad torturer who sees breaking his victim’s bones one by one as an art and tells us about it delightedly.
Where are the rational torturers who do what they’re doing to achieve their goals? And where are the consequences of the torture in the surviving victim? This is a matter hardly ever explored in fantasy, the only crime that might have consequences for the victim is rape. (Maybe because the victims in this case tend to be women and not The Hero
)I like many of the stories featuring and being geared at young people and I also like many of the others, especially if they’re covering an interesting subject. My ideas also go into both directions and I see nothing wrong with both kinds of books being published.
The fact that authors who try to make their books accessible for as many people as possible sell more books than those who exclude large groups of possible readers to tend to other people’s pride seems rather obvious to me. That doesn’t mean that the others don’t sell their books, but it may mean that they don’t make it to the front pages of the news.
Other commenters as visible a few threads below actually fear that too many dark and cruel books are the death of fantasy, which I’m not afraid of either.
Sage
Vala
Scribe
