Fantasy I

The more I think about fiction genres, the more I get confused about why they are divided the way they are. There’s the Romance section, with their bulging pectorals, antebellum lace and unrequited lust. Thrillers have their busty femmes fatal, unknown viruses and protagonists with names every bit as improbable as their authors’. Then there are Mysteries, solvable only by those with the curious cross section of knowledge concerning entomology, braille, and the method for discovering where magnetic north was on November 26^th, 1978 (which our detective fortunately has). Science Fiction has its warp drives, blasters and androids and for some reason it's always hyphenated with the oddly named Fantasy genre.

Most of these genres have to do with expectations of plot and sometimes character. Romance, for example, is centered on love. This love is typically heterosexual involving at least one idealized male. All other elements are up for grabs; it can be in virtually any setting with any number of supporting characters, and can have any number of plot twists and outcomes including happily or tragically ever after, but there must be love, otherwise it is not Romance. Mysteries also have plot requirements, though very different ones. A mystery must have a problem to which the reader is curious to learn the resolution, usually centered on a murder. The protagonist is typically unusually apt at solving such cases, and if the author is any good, there are enough clues sprinkled throughout the narrative that the reader may figure out the answer just one or two paragraphs before the big reveal, so they can feel smart (it was either the butler, or the “victim” faked their death and is living it up in Monte Carlo having cashed in on their own life insurance). Science Fiction is essentially speculation based on a theoretical technological, societal, or environmental change or changes. This can often lead to outlandish settings, but does not specifically call for it. In fact, pure or “hard” sci-fi settings are typically nearly identical to our own, using our own physics, and most of our existing technology. Fantasy, however, is purely based on setting. You could have a heterosexual relationship involving an idealized male, but if it takes place in Discworld the narrative is Fantasy, not Romance*. You may have a plot that follows all of the classic hallmarks of a Mystery, but if the murdered party was an elf, the narrative is Fantasy.

This is curious to me for two reasons. The first is in the name. Isn’t all fiction a fantasy to some extent? Escapism is inherent in fiction, which is obvious when we use Patterson to help dull the boredom of Boston to Denver with a layover in Atlanta, but even the boring stuff is an escape. Fiction is what we read and write when reality won’t do the job, whatever that job may be. Charles Dickens, Ian Fleming, Upton Sinclair, Ernest Hemingway, Arthur Conan Doyle, each of these authors experienced enough of real life to write nothing but pure truth, but they thought they could do a better job with a few well-placed embellishments than with a straight journalistic essay or a biographical case study. From Seuss to Steinbeck it’s all fantasy, so why is there a genre that specifically names itself as such?

The answer is, of course, that Fantasy offers an escapist experience above and beyond the normal fare. While Harper Lee is telling us about killing metaphorical mockingbirds, Larry Coreia tells us about killing actual monsters. The difference is that no one is perusing Monster Hunter Vendetta to pick out the symbolism and contemporary themes. That doesn’t mean those things aren’t there, it’s just that we assume that this particular novel was written to entertain, not to call attention to social inequality or the moral crisis of a godless age or relativism or any of the other pretentiously contrived objectives that literary novels have. When you think about it, though, this is a strange assumption to have. There are ample opportunities for symbolism in Fantasy, in fact, one could argue that the flexibility afforded by this genre allows for even more double and triple meanings and sneaky significance than “normal” settings do. C.S. Lewis certainly seemed to believe so, and storytellers have been using fantastic elements to make their point for centuries. Consider Aesop’s talking animals, or Grimm’s witches and fairy godmothers, or Scheherazade’s djinns. Fantasy appears to be the perfect genre for literary writers and readers, but is typically only used for children. I’ve already alluded to TheChronicles of Narnia but there are many other children’s Fantasy books that are considered good literature; Peter Pan, A Wrinkle in Time, and Harry Potter are just a few, but something happens when we get older. Around the period the writing industry calls “Young Adult,” Fantasy starts to lose its literary legitimacy and I have only vague, accusatory guesses as to why.

Regardless of the reasons that Fantasy becomes pariah to literary fiction aficionados, non-literary readers seem to enjoy it immensely. I have said before that all fiction is an escape to some degree, but if escape is the reader’s primary objective than there is no greater distance a person can put themselves from the aggravating, tedious, demoralizing and disappointing harshness of reality than a Fantasy world. How else do we explain the success of Lewis Caroll’s Wonderland, and Frank L. Baum’s Oz series? There are those that believe these were intended to have profound metaphorical significance but the message flew right over our heads because Wonderland and Oz are whimsically whacky places to be. Instead of rubbing our chins and quietly commenting on the deft comparison of the Cowardly Lion to Britain’s royal house, we giggled uncontrollably and said, “more of this in my entertainment please,” and the market delivered. Now we have a full section in each and every bookstore and library labeled “Sci-Fi/Fantasy,” for no other apparent reason than blasters and necromancy are fun to read about. 

This leads me to the second reason that Fantasy’s existence as a separate genre from the rest puzzles me; why is this extreme variation of escapism in such high demand? 

To Be Continued...

 *knowing Terry Pratchett, the romance would be hilariously subverted anyway