Comments on: MIRROR SWORD AND SHADOW PRINCE—the giveaway!

By: Arts Literature Genres Fantasy Authors U

Arts Literature Genres Fantasy Authors U — Mon, 30 May 2011 16:46:18 +0000

Arts Literature Genres Fantasy Authors U…

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By: Brockton Shipley

Brockton Shipley — Fri, 13 May 2011 04:42:06 +0000

Fantasy covers a huge spectrum of interpretations. Today’s fantasy is built on the mythos of medieval Europe. Just as our ancestors had legends they told around the campfire; we too now have stories we can read by book lights. European fantasy is so prevalent because it is what shaped us and where we come from. The Greeks had legends of Crete and the Romans had Troy’s aftermath. What began as a romanticized time eventually became fleshed out and increasingly complicated with writers like Tolkien and T.H White. Millions of people love wuxia and kung fu films, These films romanticize the medieval past in china when martial arts seemed to dominate fighting.
Today’s readers are lured into what they see as a reveal to a mystical lost world. Any reality has to be better than this one Right? Fantasy set in a psuedo medieval Europe is just a common reality that many want to write and read about. Fantasy offers unlimited possibilities; we are only limited by what we perceive as possible. One thing that should be noted is that even within pseudo-medieval Europe there is numerable realities and possibilities where the definitions of medieval fiction has yet to be fully explored.
Fantasy is not really the one that is dominated by this subject, Romance is, what better setting for love that Medieval Europe. Every culture has their mythos, what is available to us is our mythos, the Psuedo-Medieval Europe. I hope that fantasy continues to have settings in the psuedo-medieval Europe because hopefully I will not be considered a hack when I write my fantasies in a different setting.

By: notyan

notyan — Thu, 12 May 2011 15:08:40 +0000

I was going to write an essay about the market’s inherent laziness and how most of us equate fantasy with faux-medieval Europe because that’s all most of us had available growing up. I could have pointed out how the dragons you see in films are almost always the ones with wings, which is sad as Chinese dragons are awesome. Possibly, I may have even drawn an elegant curve to cultural preconceptions and how we limit ourselves by seeking solace in the familiar. Probably not, as English is not my native language and I lack the vocabulary to impress with my Amazing Insights, let alone do so in an elegant way.

Besides. I would have been full of shit, wouldn’t I?

Liz Williams’s Detective Inspector Chen is wonderful. Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death has been on my wish list since I first heard about it. Murakami’s whimsical stories are brilliant. Years and years of the market limiting itself isn’t so much detrimental to publishing fantasy of a different sort, but rather opening possibilities to a starving audience to look beyond its own empty plate and finally notice what delicacies it passed up until now. (Look, I even worked a metaphor in there. Possibly using a wrong preposition. I’m sorry.)

The generation that turned manga and anime into a lucrative genre is growing up. We want Real Books now. Europe isn’t cutting it anymore, not for all of us, not even in Europe. I suppose you know all that already, but you did ask for an opinion. This is mine.

By: Tion

Tion — Wed, 11 May 2011 21:12:37 +0000

Fantasy stories that are rooted in pseudo-medieval Europe have become quite popular as of late. This may explain why they are marketable and are labeled “fantasy” by publishing. However, I think that fantasy stories can take place virtually anywhere, reguardless of the time period. Most stories are inspired by folklore and myths, usually from East Asia and Europe. Nevertheless, the genre has been fused with other popular genres such as urban, sci-fi, steampunk, and horror.

To be honest, I think it all depends on what the targeted audience wants and/or what is highly demanded from other readers. That which gets labled fantasy will change due to the audience tastes. Thus, the field of what can be sucessfully published is endless. Basically, as long as there is a need, passion, disire, or strong interest for something it will be sucessful.

By: SMD

SMD — Wed, 11 May 2011 17:23:02 +0000

Excuse me. I need to correct myself. I meant to say that Rambo was popular in Southern Asia, not the South Pacific. It might be popular in the South Pacific too, but I am only familiar with its reception in Southern Asia. Pardon me for the incorrect factoid.

By: James

James — Wed, 11 May 2011 15:20:48 +0000

I think that the main reason most people think of medieval Europe when they see fantasy is simply due to the fact that most fantasy they can find *is* about medieval Europe, or a pseudo-version of it.
Most English language readers find books by English writers, foreign works are harder to find and harder to get into. Add to this the fact that different translations of the same work can completely alter the tone, with languages further dissociated from the Germanic roots often being more difficult to convey. Also, it seems that a majority of primarily English language users do not learn any other languages, since English has essentially become the international language.
Conversely, this spread of English means that many foreign markets have imported English works, whether raw or translated, thus spreading the pseudo-European fantasy stereotype even further abroad.

By: nice&toasty

nice&toasty — Wed, 11 May 2011 08:21:57 +0000

(Darn, looks like I won’t be able to make use of my margin-bloating and punctuation font size tricks in this format, heh.)

It definitely has something to do with how long the genre has been around.

This is just my personal pet/crackpot theory, but I think it has a lot to do with the invention of the printing press in Europe. This was during the late Middle Ages, so of course medieval European-esque literature got a kickstart in terms of how widespread it is.

The printing press may have technically been invented in China a couple centuries prior, but it just so happened to be perfectly incompatible with the resident writing system. It’s just not practical to have to make thousands and thousands of little stamps for every word as opposed to the twenty-some letters in the Latin alphabet. So the printing press didn’t exactly take off the way it did on the other side of the globe.

Well, back to medieval Europe. Like in any other civilization that’s been around long enough, it’s got plenty of material to draw from in terms of myths, legends, folktales, and fairy tales — in other words, “fantasy”. Because of the time period they were first written down and widely circulated in, it’s my suspicion that even the pre-Middle Ages stories were in one way or another medievalized, intentionally or not. Think King Arthur or Roland, for example. These guys were around almost a millenia before, yet medieval art tends to depict them wearing contemporary armour and such. The image seems to have stuck, because that’s how they’ve most often been depicted ever since! Plus, going even further back in time, biblical figures in medieval paintings all seem to have access to some sort of magical time-traveling wardrobe from the future (imagine a Protestant church painting frescoes featuring Moses in skinny jeans today). Likewise, when people talk about princes and princesses, the Middle Ages always come to mind, even though monarchy’s been around for thousands of years, and is still is today.

Anyway, I don’t see this as a bad thing per se, but I can certainly see how it could be considered an obstacle of sorts. But consider this: as a fan of JRPGs, I usually go into them with a certain expectations of the tropes that’ll be used. Some I like, some I love, some I hate. I’m not saying that all JRPGs are the same, but there’s definitely a tried-and-true formula being used in a lot of them. That’s just the nature of things. If it’s not one thing that’s the norm, it’s another. It may make an entire genre seem stale to some, but you can’t have fresh air if there’s no un-fresh air, you know? I’ll admit it: I enjoy certain clichés that are stereotypical of fantasy stories. Yet it’s because I like it that’s it’s so fun to have my expectations blown!

By: Susanna (SusieBookworm)

Susanna (SusieBookworm) — Tue, 10 May 2011 20:04:17 +0000

Hmmm….I’ve never run across readers who think of fantasy as taking place in pseudo-medieval Europe. Maybe it’s because I’m in high school and we stick mostly to middle grade/YA stuff, but the readers I know all assume that it takes place either in a modern setting that’s completely identical to our own (except for, you know, creatures of darkness, which the average person is somehow completely unaware of, running around and generally getting killed by the magical good guys in a bildungsroman plot with a fantasy twist) or some made-up world with elements of a variety of Earthling time periods (and still with a bildungsroman plot, because it’s middle grade/YA and we must have some type of coming-of-age story in there somewhere).

Sorry for the short answer, but I’m in the middle of finals week at school.

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Win a free copy of Mirror Sword! « Tales of Magatama — Tue, 10 May 2011 13:13:24 +0000

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By: Cliff W.

Cliff W. — Tue, 10 May 2011 00:50:51 +0000

I blame fairy tales! Kings and queens, princesses and princes, castles, knights, dragons, trolls, and, you know, fairies. Early exposure to defanged childrens’ lit versions makes readers equate the fantastic with medieval European settings. Disney abets this process. Tolkien and D&D only serve to solidify these images in readers’ minds.

So one way to broaden the definition of what constitutes fantasy is to broaden the cultural and temporal settings of childrens’ books. That’s already happening. And Disney, for all their sins, has been branching out, raiding every myth history they can get their corporate paws on. So this process (both the good and bad aspects of it) may already be producing adult readers of fantastic literature who don’t automatically think about medieval Europe when somebody mentions fantasy. To my mind, that’d be a good result, however it comes about.

On the publishing side, the popularity of Tolkien on college campuses in the 60s led the industry on the twisty path to George R. R. Martin and Brandon Sanderson. Maybe people who get early exposure to anime, manga, and books/movies/shows set in non-Western/non-medieval settings will grow up to demand more variety from adult fantasy literature.

One can only hope.