It’s snowing. A lot. Seven inches doesn’t sound so bad at first. It’s almost joyful. Perfect for sledding. Then you get to shovel it. So you multiply those seven inches deep by square feet of sidewalk and windchill. My fingers still burn. However, it’s perfect time for curling up with a good book and hot chocolate.
I’m an uncloseted fantasy reader. (And I mean more than Harry Potter, but him, too. Of course. Duh.)
Having finished The Gathering Storm (see Wheel of Time Continuance on The List), I’m fighting (not really a battle, I submit so willingly) my way through Towers of Midnight. I remember how much I love this stuff. I spent about 70% of my cruise through the Bahamas reading. It was my vacation, and I did what I wanted. Sunbathing on the beach with a ten pound book was so worth it.
I feel like it comes with an unwarranted stigma. “Only nerds do that.” Well, maybe I’m a nerd. That’s cool. But non-nerds should loosen up and enjoy a good book. There’s nothing wrong with having an imagination–I’m sure there’s a scientific study that says imaginations can make you happier. Sounds logical enough to me. Just because some of us fantasy readers enjoy video/card games…no reason to hate. Really, you don’t know what you’re missing.
Fantasy isn’t really a guilty pleasure for me. I feel no guilt whatsoever, despite its stigma within academia. I fricking love it, and without it, I probably wouldn’t be who/where I am today. I needed escapes when I was younger. Hell, I need escapes now. So I found them in books, any kind of book, but had a special place in my heart for the things I couldn’t do in ‘the real world.’ I wanted sword-swinging, hammer-smashing, magic-casting fantasy with creatures I could barely pronounce the names of. I wanted so badly to live in these worlds that I started writing them. It was the closest I could get.
I consulted with a professor about my desires for grad school and how at least half of my writing was fantasy, and he told me under no circumstances should I curtail that if that is where my inspiration stems from, because ‘inspiration’ is hard enough to come by when you aren’t throwing it away. I’m taking him to heart and looking for schools that allow more…flexibility in the form students’ stories take. It seems that the caveat is to create ‘literary’ fantasy. Whatever the hell that is. I mean, Tolkein and Lewis (that’s Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia respectively, for those who aren’t familiar) are chock full of metaphors and who-knows-what-literary-means. And of course, no one beats the Fathers, but other fantasy authors certainly make you think. Joe Abercrombie, for example, has done fascinating things to turn some fantasy conventions upside down (and Gods, that man has a voice!!).
So there’s definitely a field to make new openings in. And it would certainly be an uphill dance, I think. But there are relevant things to consider in fantasy, just as in other ‘literature’ (actually, I have another point I’ll discuss about ‘literature’ studies later). There are certain extremely popular conventions–why? That’s worth exploring. What’s the role of women in these fictions? (That’s one of my favourite and what I’d like to give some time to–because there are definitely trends.) Lesbian fantasy (and the ever popular Amazon who I’m sometimes quite sketch about)?
Dear fantasy,
I love you and don’t think you’re the lesser bastard child of literature. I even have a few new ideas I’ll start working on while I’m snowed in.
Ever devoted,
CLC
Changing Shapes 