The State of Fantasy

25 May 1996
Wendy E. Betts

I was thinking about the recent comment that many students think fantasy novels are really silly. The interesting thing is that I, who grew up absolutely adoring them, often tend to agree. Many of the most popular fantasies of the last ten years or so strike me as being so tedious! I was thrilled to just review a new book called _Enchanter's Glass_ that I really thought was magical--and perhaps more importantly, felt strongly that I would've also have found it magical when I was a child.

I think the trend towards "fracturing" fantasy has lead to some of the most tiresome books...although admittedly, also to some very interesting ones. I know I'm in a minority here, but I wonder if perhaps I could offer some insight into why fantasy is losing its popularity. Which books, specifically, are seen as too silly?

Wendy wonders if the "fracturing" of fantasy is part of the reason it is not so popular today. I'm a bit unsure what you mean by "fracturing", Wendy --as in Fractured Fairytales on "Rocky and Bullwinkle", i.e., spoofs of fantasy? Or are you referring to some sort of splintering of the fantasy genre, in which case I'd like more detail about what you mean.

This topic, interestingly, intersects with another recent topic on yet another e-list, where there was quite a heated argument going on for awhile about the death of adult fantasy novels. Not everyone agreed, but the majority seemed to feel that every novel in the last ten years was the same -old,same-old sword and sorcery stuff, often poorly written and badly plotted, appealing more to teens than to thinking adults. Where, the fans of fantasy bemoaned, was the new Tolkien?

The British, it has often been noted, both write more and read more fantasy . There just aren't that many American fantasists, and if you cruise the bookshelves at a big bookstore, the YA section is filled with so-called realistic books. Maybe Americans prefer to read "realism" that is so unrealistic it passes for fantasy? I'm thinking of series books here, esp., things like "Babysitters Club" and so on. Maybe Americans are more pragmatic and practical? Less imaginative? Less playful? Hmm. We've certainly never developed anything to rival Monty Python, that's for sure. :)

My college students also generally dislike fantasy, particularly high fantasy. They have a tough time with "The Wizard of Earthsea" or "The Dark is Rising," but surprisingly, a much less tough time w. "Wrinkle in Time." L'Engle still seems to speak to these kids, perhaps because she seems more like science fiction than fantasy?

My other late-night thought is that perhaps the fantasy genre has been overtaken, for some cultural reason or other, by the horror genre. Certainly kids have no trouble w. "Goosebumps," or , as they get older, with Stephen King, and most HS students I know love Poe.

More questions here than answers, I'm afraid. I loved fantasy as a kid, but was picky about it: I disliked the Narnia books because they struck me (and still do) as inconsistent: I don't like running across satyrs and trolls and wicked witches all in the same story. Makes it harder for me to suspend disbelief. But I loved "Wind in the Willows," L'Engle, various SF writers, Tolkien, and so on. Kids today are v. resistant to "Wind", alas, and like their books both realistic and contemporary. I'm re-reading "To Kill a Mockingbird" (for the 1st time in maybe 25 years) in preparation for teaching it, and I'm already uneasy about how the students will react to this: it might as well take place in the dark ages, the world of that novel is so alien from theirs. But the emotional core of it should strike home with them, I hope.

On May 25, Daphne Kutzer wrote:
"Wendy wonders if the "fracturing" of fantasy is part of the reason it is not so popular today. I'm a bit unsure what you mean by "fracturing", Wendy --as in Fractured Fairytales on "Rocky and Bullwinkle", i.e., spoofs of fantasy? Or are you referring to some sort of splintering of the fantasy genre, in which case I'd like more detail about what you mean."

That's not exactly what I meant...my point was that I tend to find a lot of books whose main purpose is to humorously play with fantasy conventions to be very tedious. (Those with *serious* intent are usually a lot more interesting.) But if it's high fantasy that students are having trouble with, my thought falls completely to pieces. ;-)

"What's the matter with kids today"...isn't that a song in a 50s musical? Anyway, fantasy literature in education is one of my areas of interest (Book plug here: mine for Scholastic Professional Books, "Fantasy Literature in the Classroom".) First of all, I'd be careful about generalizing about the reading of fantasy literature. I think it has always been a very specialized taste and not just in this country. Both C.S. Lewis and Tolkien wrote wonderful essays defending the fantasy genre in the face of criticism. (See "Fantasists on Fantasy" for a great bunch of critical essays by everyone from Chesterton to Cooper, unfortunately out of print.) There have always been those who were fiercely against fairy tales and the like. There are those who fear kids will escape into fantasy, those who are concerned for religious reasons, those who just think realism is better (and I question the idea of 'realistic ficiton" anyway - I think it sort of an oxymoron) and even some of the most influential educators: Lucy Calkins, a language arts guru at Teachers College Columbia, is very hostile to fantasy - feels kids need to be immersed in realistic, poetic, and historical genres and not fantasy. I wrote my book because there was such a dearth of material available for educators. And the kids aren't going to jump to the genre if the general sentiment is against it.

There is actually a tremendous interest in fantasy in popular culture - MUDS and MOOS, video games, television shows like "Third Rock from the Sun" and "The X-Files", movies like "Jurassic Park" -all fantasy, in my view. Low fantasy books like E.B. White's tend to be better liked, perhaps because of the sense of realism and nostalgia (the Arable's farm is pure Americana - I wonder if such a farm ever existed, even in Maine near White!) Students also like fantasy with children like themselves in the story - somehow, Eager has a touch that speaks to them better than Nesbit - the Victorian children just seem too alien for most. Coville seems to overlap fantasy and horror and kids like him. I think high fantasy has always been a very specialized interest. I wouldn't call "A Wrinkle in Time" high fantasy since part of it takes place in a world like ours which is what makes it appealing still. Tolkien is demanding as is even older sci-fi. I just don't think that many readers ever can lose themselves in a book that is totally situated in another world. Kids seem to like Brian Jacques work (I don't, actually, find it tedious) and that is high fantasy a la "Wind in the Willows."

Enjoying fantasy literature requires a certain imaginative thinking and I think we do very little to cultivate the imagination in our teaching. Right now I'm beginning work on a book about the teaching and learning of history. In my research I came across Kieran Egan who writes on imagination (See his book, "Romantic Understanding : The Development of Rationality and Imagination, Ages 8-15".) Unfortunately, there are many different ideas about the purpose of education. I think it is to be a thinker, imaginative and creative. Others think it is to create people who can work collaboratively in a corporation, who can read, write, and compute just enough to do what someone else has in mind for them. If that is one's view then fantasy certainly doesn't fit in at all.

In regard to the discussion on kids' reaction to fantasy--I'd agree with Monica Edinger that there is a very high proportion of fantasy in popular culture, and I'd also point out that scifi like Star Trek with its endless spinoffs includes strong fantasy elements and siphons off fantasy talent to a large extent; look at what's happened to Diane Duane, whose _So You Want to be a Wizard_ is to my mind one of the better children's fantasies of the last two decades. But she's done more writing for Star Trek, I think, than anything else; and while that's raised the level of Star Trek writing it's left children's literature (and, for that matter, adult fantasy) the poorer.

I'd like to ask whether some students' resistance to high fantasy could have to do with the fact that so many of the classics (not to mention the trashier works) of high fantasy are so sexist. (That might at least help to explain why Daphne Kutzer's students liked _A Wrinkle in Time_ better than _The Wizard of Earthsea_ or _The Dark is Rising_.) At an adult level, after all, feminist fantasy is one of the livelier genres in American literature at any rate--Lackey (though her writing can be dreadful at times) and M.Z. Bradley sell very well; and I suspect a lot of children are simply tapping into the "adult fantasy" field early on (certainly any ardent reader over 10 can cope with Lackey easily). But the urban fantasy novels by Lackey et al. are often very silly (Emma Bull's _War for the Oaks_ and Gael Baudino's _Gossamer Axe_ are the only real exceptions I know), and this may help to give readers the negative impression of fantasy as "silly."

However, I'm inclined to think that many still view fantasy and fairytale as "childish"--let's not forget that it wasn't till the 1960s that Ballantyne started reprinting the classic adult fantasies and publishing new ones, and a generation is a short time in which to change the way people see a whole genre. Students are often terrified of seeming childish.

26 May 1996
Janni Lee Simner

I wonder how many of the education students who can't relate to fantasy would make more sense of it if it were somehow presented in terms of its relevance to and building on mythology, which they might see as more respectable and important. Just a thought.

I agree that the idea of people who don't see the importance of imagination making up so many of our teachers is a bit disturbing, though perhaps not surprising.

The British do appear to write more fantasy for adults. I suspect that in the US, many of the writers who have the same type of imagination, i.e. people who like building entire worlds, write science fiction instead.

Has anyone used books by Orson Scott Card in their classes? He writes both sci-fi and fantasy, and has an astounding imagination. Many of his main characters are children, usually the classic child of destiny who has to learn what his part is in saving the world. One of his series, the Tales of Alvin Maker, is a sort of alternative history of 19th century America, where people are born with magical talents known as knacks. He sprinkles in historical figures, and writes from a strong moral stance, but doesn't preach. Imagine a cross between Huck Finn and The Once and Future King.

I've been very interested in the fantasy thread on this list the last few days. I've had experiences similar to those of some of the other writers. I find that many of my students have never read any fantasy or science fiction (yes, I know; science fiction IS fantasy, but I consider it a special subgenre) and they are resistant to anything labeled one or the other of those. I find that the women in my children's lit and adolescent lit classes (and female students make up about 85-90 per cent of my children's lit students and probably 75 per cent of my adolescent lit students) are rather suspicious of anything called fantasy and even more suspicious of anything called science fiction. I don't know why women are particularly cool to those areas of reading. I used to teach an introduction to fiction class in science fiction and I found that the overwhelming majority of the students in the class would be men. If I had 35 students enrolled in the class, 30 would be men. That was almost a reversal of the enrollments in a general course. I think the sexism of science fiction DOES have something to do with this. I find the absence of credible female characters, especially in older, so-called classic sci fi, is an obvious problem. Women may have problems finding anyone to identify with in those stories. (Always assuming that identification is desirable, I guess.) In fact, I once did a paper on the sexist roles of women in science fiction, particularly early sci fi. I do find that I make a few converts every time I include a fantasy/science fiction novel in my classes, though, and I keep pushing it. My theory is that teachers need some familiarity with a wide variety of reading materials, and I keep including it (even in the face of the religious right students who flame L'Engle's _Wrinkle in Time_ every semester). I'm particularly interested in this topic at this moment since I'm teaching a course this fall titled "Fantasy and the Nature of Reality" which is geared to look at what we fantasize about and why we do that. It should be interesting, and I'm curious about how the students will approach it. Any input will be gratefully accepted. I wanted to use Alberto Manguel's _Blackwater_as my anthology, but it's out of print, worse luck. Other suggestions would help.

Just a comment regarding June's distressing finding that women in her "adolescent lit classes.... are rather suspicious of anything called fantasy and even more suspicious of anything called science fiction."

I got to have lunch with Ray Bradbury last year. I've always counted him as one of my favorite authors. There were four of us- my husband, a scientist, Bradbury and myself. There is no doubt that he is not only a wonderful writer but also a visionary. I was impressed BUT DISTRESSED at his take on who science fiction is written FOR. "It's written for boys,"he said,"because boys NEED it in for their development." I tried not to bristle too much when I told him how much I enjoyed his books when I first read them as a child. He dismissed the comment with a wave of his hand. I think he didn't believe me, actually. "It's not IMPORTANT that you liked it...." And on and on.... So we know that at least in one case, the targeted audience was boys only! Hmph!

On Tue, 28 May 1996, June Harris wrote:
"I think the sexism of science fiction DOES have something to do with this. I find the absence of credible female characters, especially in older, so-called classic sci fi, is an obvious problem."

Is the problem perhaps with "classic" rather than with "sci fi?" Certainly a lot of science fiction is sexist; a lot of fiction is sexist, and I don't think it's a surprise to anyone that the process of canon formation has been skewed in favor of the men.

In _How to Supress Women's Writing_, Joanna Russ discusses how one of the ways women's writing is marginalized is by assigning it to tangential genres: sci-fi, mystery, children's lit. Even within the sci-fi canon, women's writing gets downplayed. Veer off from the "classics," and you'll find plenty of vibrant female characters.

I think the reason female students don't read fantasy and sci-fi goes back to the deeper problem of "boy's books" vs. "girl's books," and the socialization process that lets each gender know very early on which books they're supposed to read and which one's they're not. (I'm saddened to see that Ray Bradbury apparently buys into this).

"In _How to Supress Women's Writing_, Joanna Russ discusses how one of the ways women's writing is marginalized is by assigning it to tangential genres: sci-fi, mystery, children's lit. Even within the sci-fi canon, women's writing gets downplayed. Veer off from the "classics," and you'll find plenty of vibrant female characters."

This is a wonderful and infuriating book. Highly recommended. Also, there is at least one web site devoted to feminist sf. Anne McCaffery's Pern books are sf with a fantasy "feel" and often appeal to women.

Hmmm. Well, Ray Bradbury was a favorite writer of mine, too, but let's face it -- he's an old man. And who cares what he *says*? Pshaw! What he writes, that's what important! :->

I think there's LOTS of very high-quality female-oriented sf and fantasy. Now, that is -- and particularly for YAs. Authors that spring to mind are: Sheri Tepper, Lois M. Bujold, Diane Duane, Anne McCaffrey (already mentioned -- check out her new BLACK HORSES FOR THE KING), Patricia Wrede, Robin McKinley, Diana Wynne Jones, Cynthia Voigt, Joan Aiken. Probably lots more. There are also lots of male writers whose work appeals to girls (they use female protagonists, for example): Peter Dickinson, Philip Pullman (his new fantasy, THE GOLDEN COMPASS)... I'm sure that list goes on as well.

Of course, a good book is a good book, no matter the gender of the reader or the book's protagonists or even the prejudices of its author.

Obviously the old guard was male, and believed its audience the same, but I think this has long since changed, and that girls and women just discovering sf and fantasy have a pleasant surprise ahead of them.