Fantasy Rants

[mothwing]

I discovered something awesome today: Fantasy rants by limyaael on InsaneJournal, and I find myself nodding emphatically while reading a lot.

The collection of IJ memories above is a collection of essays and rants on this my favourite genre, in which she shares some of my main gripes - for example the fact that all queer couples must angst and end in tragedy, the fact that in gender equal societies, males and females both just so happen to take on our traditional gender roles and that things domestic are just not considered to be as important as warfare, the stereotypical, boring use of music in Fantasy, a plea for making heroines more human 3D, or the typical problems which arise when writing about oppression and oppressive socieites (she also includes a part on race and class).

There are a plethora of interesting topics she addresses, this is just a random selection of things that immediately struck me.

Comments

[fennyfen.livejournal.com]

Read all of those and a bit more. Those are amazing - well-written and thought-provoking. She brought up a lot of points that I've thought of but have been unable to phrase coherently, and a lot of new ones I hadn't considered. Fascinating read. When I have some more spare time, I have no doubt I'll be back. xD

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what you mean! I'm half through with her rants, and I am sure that I'll read the rest of them later at some point.

It's really good to see someone else who's studied literature examine Fantasy that way- it's usually treated like a sort of guilty pleasure by most Profs at my uni, and reading it and admitting it is like admitting that you read porn by most professors I know. XD

[fourthage.livejournal.com]

Aren't they great? I keep hoping she'll start up again.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

They are! I wish she'd have kept it up, too, there'd be more to look forward to.

[krakelwok.livejournal.com]

98,9999% of all modern fantasy is just authors rearranging mythological motifs. Bad authors will also weave in popular movie and literature clichés. looking at it like that, Rowling would technically qualify as a bad author, I guess. The trick must be to find out what makes her better than hacks like Stephenie Meyer nonetheless.