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Strongly feeling that this was in response to what I said earlier, haha.
Now, i'm a huge history buff. What i want is a fantasy based on Vietnamese history. (I'm reading about it in history and there is some truly awesome stuff in there.) A fantasy infused with Appalachian history and heritage. Inuit mythology is awesome and why isn't anyone doing it?? Why isn't there Ice Age era fantasy? Pre-Columbian American fantasy? I will admit that i find French and English history really, really, REALLY boring. All those kings! All those wars! Kill me now! But what about vikings? What about the black death? and all those people that AREN'T French or English? They have stories worth telling too. I'm obsessed with alternate history. Recs would be appreciated.
Anyway--my posts were about fantasy in general being generally confined to a small range of inspirations. When something is done and overdone constantly, it starts to be generic. I realize now that it isn't accurate to say 'European' to mean that, since european history itself is so diverse, but...I think Tolkien set a precedent that continues to define fantasy. A very narrow and (at least to me) boring precedent. It's just so frustrating that people don't step outside of it when they have literally infinite freedom. There are so many books i wish someone would write.
Well, if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself...right?
Well I'm vegan so I'm not a fan of anything with cheese (I know, the horror) But back to the actual discussion. I don't feel like this is necessarily true. Dragons, wizards, and farm boys have been staples of fantasy for a long time but people aren't getting tired of them (except the farm boys but I would argue the reason people hate that trope has less to do with the fact its overdone and more to do with the fact that it causes some serious believably issues)
A lot of people now days find elves and dwarves to be cliche, but are they really or is it just that people too often write them poorly without giving them much development and culture of their own? The same can be said, I think, for European fantasy. I honestly don't read a lot of it because a lot of it is quite generic so I understand what I rebel against is the notion that its inherent of the genre.
I like to think that nowadays when people write non-European fantasy, they do so with the intention of doing those cultures justice and representing them well. I wish more people would take the same mindset when writing European fantasy because it doesn't have to be the same thing over and over again.
First of all, I am very impressed by your incredible restraint. Teach me how to be able to not crave cheese.
Maybe you're right, it might just be that I love history, but then I find it hard to fathom fantasy fans who don't love history. I mean I'd always assumed what drew people to fantasy was the complicated, in-depth worldbuilding full of richly imagined history, but maybe that's just me. Maybe its really all about the epic battles and dragon riding (nothing wrong with that).
Maybe you're right, it might just be that I love history, but then I find it hard to fathom fantasy fans who don't love history. I mean I'd always assumed what drew people to fantasy was the complicated, in-depth worldbuilding full of richly imagined history, but maybe that's just me. Maybe its really all about the epic battles and dragon riding (nothing wrong with that).
blood-sucking hummingbird androids that infect their victims with a mysterious plague?
What i mean by restraints and possibilities is, why use elves and dwarves, trying to put a new spin on them eternally, when you can make up your own fantasy races? Why use medieval Europe as an inspiration when 60% of other fantasy stories do as well and medieval Europe is .01% of the cultures and times out there you could use as inspiration? Why have vampires when you can have blood-sucking hummingbird androids that infect their victims with a mysterious plague? When there are so many ideas and possibilities that could be conceived, why repeat and repeat and repeat the same vanishingly small percentage of them ad nauseum?
+ 1. There are certain ingredients that make up genre. You wouldn't prepare cake batter without eggs and oil (sorry vegans, just for simplicity's sake). In the same way you wouldn't write a fantasy genre story without magic, wizards who practice that magic, and mythological creatures.You could say the same thing about Manga and Anime having too many "Asian" samurai stories that glorify the Edo Period. Might as well say that Sci-Fi has too many aliens, spaceships and too much advanced technology.