{"id":5,"date":"2011-03-10T10:44:32","date_gmt":"2011-03-09T23:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/?p=5"},"modified":"2021-08-30T16:42:49","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T06:42:49","slug":"times-have-changed-for-fantasy-writers-or-have-they","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/times-have-changed-for-fantasy-writers-or-have-they\/","title":{"rendered":"Times have changed for fantasy writers\u2026 or have they?"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPOILER ALERT:
\nJennifer Byrne Presents “Fantasy Panel Special” will not air until 12 July 2011.<\/em><\/p>\n

Last week, I watched a live recording of \u201cJennifer Byrne Presents<\/a>\u201d with Lev Grossman<\/a>, Matthew Reilly<\/a>, Jennifer Rowe<\/a> and Fiona McIntosh<\/a>. They were discussing the recent marginalisation of fantasy from mainstream fiction, \u2018recent\u2019 since bookshops became so large as to require the differentiation. Prior to that, all fiction was\u2026 well, fantasy. After all, those great stories that began our love affair with fiction would, if published today, all be classified as fantasy \u2013 Beowulf<\/em><\/a>, King Arthur<\/a>, Homer\u2019s Oydssey<\/em><\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

Their discussion took me back to my days as an undergrad at Uni, and a seminar in English Literature when we talked about the \u2018rise of the novel\u2019 in the eighteenth century, when authors had to pretend their works were biographies just to publish them. I\u2019m thinking of Defoe, Richardson and Fielding, Robinson Crusoe<\/a>, Pamela<\/a>, Joseph Andrews<\/a>\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Fictionalising autobiographies just to publish: Robinson Crusoe<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jennifer Byrne\u2019s panel asked themselves whether today\u2019s 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\u2019s The Time Traveller\u2019s Wife<\/em><\/a>, Stephenie Meyer\u2019s Twilight<\/em><\/a>, J. K. Rowling\u2019s Harry Potter<\/em><\/a>, J. R. R. Tolkien\u2019s Lord of the Rings<\/em><\/a>, Diana Gabaldon\u2019s Outlander<\/a> <\/em>or Cross Stitch<\/em>, Margaret Atwood\u2019s The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em><\/a> and C. S. Lewis\u2019 The Chronicles of Narnia<\/a><\/em> to name but a few.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

But in the end, the panel concluded that writers should only be proud of a fantasy label, because it\u2019s the best genre in the world. It certainly is, if but for the sales figures alone. And yet I couldn\u2019t help but think how little times have changed since that rise of the novel centuries ago.<\/p>\n

Back then, authors struggled with genre-restraints, but in the end just wanted to get their beautiful stories into the hands of readers.<\/p>\n

Today authors still struggle against genre-restraints\u2026 yet all we really want is to get our beautiful stories into the hands of our readers. Don’t you agree?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SPOILER ALERT: Jennifer Byrne Presents “Fantasy Panel Special” will not air until 12 July 2011. Last week, I watched a live recording of \u201cJennifer Byrne Presents\u201d with Lev Grossman, Matthew Reilly, Jennifer Rowe and Fiona McIntosh. They were discussing the recent marginalisation of fantasy from mainstream fiction, \u2018recent\u2019 since bookshops\u2026<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[53,91,98,171,209,219,221,230,238,309,311,376,393,399,412,419,451,519,523,541,554,588,661],"class_list":["post-5","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australian-authors","category-writer-advice","tag-atwood","tag-bookshops","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-defoe","tag-fantasy","tag-fielding","tag-fiona-mcintosh","tag-gabaldon","tag-genre","tag-jennifer-byrne","tag-jennifer-rowe","tag-lev-grossman","tag-mainstream-fiction","tag-marginalisation","tag-matthew-reilly","tag-meyer","tag-niffenegger","tag-richardson","tag-rise-of-the-novel","tag-rowling","tag-science-fiction","tag-speculative-fiction","tag-tolkien"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14257,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions\/14257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}