SPOILER ALERT:
Jennifer Byrne Presents “Fantasy Panel Special” will not air until 12 July 2011.
Last week, I watched a live recording of “Jennifer Byrne Presents” with Lev Grossman, Matthew Reilly, Jennifer Rowe and Fiona McIntosh. They were discussing the recent marginalisation of fantasy from mainstream fiction, ‘recent’ since bookshops became so large as to require the differentiation. Prior to that, all fiction was… well, fantasy. After all, those great stories that began our love affair with fiction would, if published today, all be classified as fantasy – Beowulf, King Arthur, Homer’s Oydssey…
Their discussion took me back to my days as an undergrad at Uni, and a seminar in English Literature when we talked about the ‘rise of the novel’ in the eighteenth century, when authors had to pretend their works were biographies just to publish them. I’m thinking of Defoe, Richardson and Fielding, Robinson Crusoe, Pamela, Joseph Andrews…
Fictionalising autobiographies just to publish: Robinson Crusoe
Jennifer Byrne’s panel asked themselves whether today’s more successful fantasy novels generally had to bridge that illusive gap between mainstream and speculative fiction in order to generate their success. The implication was that if a speculative fiction novel could disguise itself as mainstream, it could appeal to a greater audience and thereby sell more units. The panel certainly listed a great many novels that had achieved popularity in crossing genres: Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveller’s Wife, Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander or Cross Stitch, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and C. S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia to name but a few.
But in the end, the panel concluded that writers should only be proud of a fantasy label, because it’s the best genre in the world. It certainly is, if but for the sales figures alone. And yet I couldn’t help but think how little times have changed since that rise of the novel centuries ago.
Back then, authors struggled with genre-restraints, but in the end just wanted to get their beautiful stories into the hands of readers.
Today authors still struggle against genre-restraints… yet all we really want is to get our beautiful stories into the hands of our readers. Don’t you agree?
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Why do you think, that the fantasy univers have changed so much since C.S Lewis, now all the storys takes place in our world?
Hi Melanie, and thank you for raising such an interesting discussion point – has the recent surge in ‘urban fantasy’ (ie. stories that take place in our world) changed the fantasy landscape so significantly that writing in the times of C S Lewis cannot be compared to writing today (at least I hope that’s a correct interpretation of your question?)?
In considering an answer, I at first thought I ought to determine (mainly for myself) what defined ‘urban fantasy’ as a genre and when it first became popular. I decided that an ‘urban fantasy’ was a story taking place primarily in an urban setting, which has at the heart of its plot an element noticeably beyond our current observable universe. Thus whilst Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and the medieval poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” are both fantasy stories whose protagonists ordinarily live in urban settings, they are not urban fantasies because the majority of the action in both cases takes place in enchanted woods. Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” has an urban setting and a ghost, but it could be argued that the ghost is not at the heart of its plot so much as Hamlet’s inner turmoil.
A number of time-honoured fairytales struck me as urban fantasies – “Cinderella”, “Sleeping Beauty” and “The Little Mermaid” – which brought me into the nineteenth century with Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm but no closer to the start of urban fantasy as we know and love it today. The comic book stories of Superman, Batman and Astro Boy brought me further towards the mid-twentieth century, but really I found myself hunting for examples until the late twentieth century with Tim Powers, Neil Gaiman, Jim Butcher and a whole host of other authors whom fans of urban fantasy would know a lot more about than little old me. And that’s when I stopped trying to chart the trend and realised that was what I was doing – charting a trend.
A trend is a prevailing style, a periodic form of behaviour, and as such trends are always coming and going. And because they’re always coming and going, writers are always faced with the challenge of either fitting in with a trend (even copying them, click to read more about the dangers of copying!) or starting a new one. And this brought me back to the issue at the heart of my blog: authors are always struggling against genre-restraints. No matter what century they write in, there is always a prevailing trend and a failing trend. That struggle is, in itself, nothing new. Do you see what I mean, at least from a writers’ point of view?
Or do you perhaps write urban fantasy yourself and feel that this struggle is different for urban fantasy authors? I’d love to know.
Or maybe you weren’t referring to the struggles writers face at all, or even the blog itself, but more generally to the landscape of fantasy as a genre? If so, what are your favourite urban fantasy novels and how do you think urban fantasies have changed the genre from a reader’s perspective? Let me know so we can continue this delectable mini-debate! Either way, thank you again for your comment. It’s been an interesting one to answer.
9.55pm – 10.25pm Tuesday 12th July ABC1… Jennifer Byrne Presents the Fantasy Panel Special that is the subject of this blog post.
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I agree completely. There is no more egregious example of this marginalisation of ‘genre’ than in writing competitions. There are a few closing shortly here in Australia and although the brief is ‘any genre’ and one of the themes in particular (‘you’re never too old to learn to read’) is WIDE open for a spec fic interpretation, I will guarantee you that not a single one of the winners or commended entries will be speculative fiction.
#angryface
I hear you! Let’s vent!
Recently I stumbled across a writing competition with the old ‘open genre’ tag and the theme inspired me immediately. The story literally jumped from me onto the page. It was an awesome story but, being speculative fiction, I knew it wouldn’t stand a chance at winning. Nevertheless the theme had really inspired me, and I was proud of that, so I gave it a go.
Was I surprised when they didn’t even shortlist it? A little, but not really. It’s the way of the writing world at the moment. Was the story actually awesome? Yes. The next day I entered it in a speculative fiction writing competition and of course it was shortlisted (placing results still to come, fingers crossed!).
But why couldn’t the first set of judges see the story’s awesomeness too? The competition was ‘open genre’! Whilst judges cannot help personal preference influencing their placing of stories in writing competitions, shouldn’t their shortlist be based on merit and writing skill?
Yeah. I don’t mind it when it’s a literary competition, but as a niche genre, they really should indicate that. The arrogance of saying ‘anything is fine’ when they mean ‘literary genre only’ is what gets me. It’s like when someone says ‘Anyone can get married’ without acknowledging that isn’t true.
He he. Yes, I don’t mind when it’s a literary competition either. I know they’re after a character focus I just won’t want to devote much of the word count to, not as much as they’d like.
What’s your solution? Do you just stick to speculative fiction writing competitions now?
STOP-PRESS: my ‘awesome’ story was indeed awesome – it was published in “A Visit from the Duchess” (Stringybark Publishing, 2011). You can order your print copy here, or your ebook version here. My story is called “Breakthrough”.
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