Why Fantasy?

It’s an interesting question to ask about any genre, especially if it is one you read a lot of, but why do you read fantasy? Why do you write fantasy? I tend to consider high fantasy when using the word ‘fantasy’ but the definition does expand to include novels like the ‘Harry Potter’ series and even ‘Twilight’ and its many spawns, as well as writings by the likes of China Mieville which are treated by academics under the pseudonym ‘speculative fiction’ because the word fantasy is too un-academic. Trust me – I’ve studied literature at a university and this is what they believe.

Fantasy is a genre unlike any other. This is what leads to its broad categorisation and the fuzzy lines between fantasy and non-fantasy. Whereas genres such as crime, romance, thriller, historical fiction, etc. are all genres defined by their form and the narrative focus defines the genre, fantasy is a style based on setting. You can place whatever characters or stories you like in a fantasy world as long as it is not exactly that of the world we live in (or have lived in). To this extent, science fiction does fall into this category, which is why they are often grouped together, but I will disregard them for this discussion, though the ideology still applies.

Fantasy gives the writer an uncompromisingly large canvas to begin with. In fact it is only limited by the imagination. This allows absolute freedom to express whatever he/she wishes. If that freedom is to simply tell a story about a wizard and a dragon then that is fine and what many unfamiliar with the genre expect, but while often the pull is towards a Tolkein clone, there is much more that you could do. It could be a family of sea creatures where one adult raises one child and they swim through dark caves their entire lives. An awful interesting concept, but despite all that exploration of the new world, you get to show your readers a relationship between a single parent and their child, without descending into preaching, or even (for some) without the reader even realising that this is what they are being taught. Fantasy allows you to subtly critique or explore ideas, and exploring ideas is what art is about.

Tolkein’s masterpieces are clearly critical of the over-industrialisation and of greed. Feist’s ‘Magician’ gives a very complex look at the issues of foreign cultures and their collisions in a way that is not possible in any other medium, because we know at least something about the major cultures in our world and how they have interacted. Feist was given a clean slate with which to pit a civilisation similar to our western past against a force not just unknown to them, but to us as the reader; an unparalleled freedom and ability. Sure it became clear that the Tsurani are based from eastern cultural influences, particularly Japan, but I challenge you to find a non-fantasy which can give such a complete sense of ‘the other’. I friend today said, and I agree, that Game of Thrones can boil down to an exploration of narrative form – going against expected narrative lines in dramatic fashion than has never been done so extensively in any other genre.

I’m sorry if I’m in academic mode, but I have just returned to study, so it’s seeping in to my everyday discourse again, but that was a little bit about why I am passionate about fantasy and what it offers, however I will not disregard the reason many love the genre and why I was drawn to it initially: Escapism. The writer enters into an agreement with the reader that she will give a deep world to explore if he invests in it, and the relationship is unparalleled. A crime writer shows you a detective he created and displays his cleverness in crafting a twisting plot and a literary writer displays her remarkable grasp of the English language, but a fantasy writer allows you deep into their soul, into the depths of their imagination where you know that everything you see through the writing is borne from the writer’s creativity. It is intensely personal, powerful and undervalued.