Mad Swede
Auror
I'm not sure I agree with you. That was why I suggested that the idea of fantasy as a genre is modern.
There's been a tendency over the last thirty years or so to try to classifiy things and people, to give them an overt identity. Fantasy as a genre is an example. But the best works don't fit that neatly. Take the Discworld books about the Watch as an example. Are they fantasy? Are they police procedurals? Are they satire or some form of social commentary? Or are they all of these?
Or, to turn the question around slightly. Joe Abercrombie's books are fantasy only in terms of their setting. The rest is noir fiction, their plots driven by a very cynical view of humanity and how people manipulate one another and deceive themselves. You could take any of the works by Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett and transpose them into that setting and they'd work. No need for any other element of fantasy. So are Joe Abercombie's books fantasy?
I'm not always sure we need to classify literature by genre, and I'm not sure it always helps us as authors.
There's been a tendency over the last thirty years or so to try to classifiy things and people, to give them an overt identity. Fantasy as a genre is an example. But the best works don't fit that neatly. Take the Discworld books about the Watch as an example. Are they fantasy? Are they police procedurals? Are they satire or some form of social commentary? Or are they all of these?
Or, to turn the question around slightly. Joe Abercrombie's books are fantasy only in terms of their setting. The rest is noir fiction, their plots driven by a very cynical view of humanity and how people manipulate one another and deceive themselves. You could take any of the works by Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett and transpose them into that setting and they'd work. No need for any other element of fantasy. So are Joe Abercombie's books fantasy?
I'm not always sure we need to classify literature by genre, and I'm not sure it always helps us as authors.