 Fantasy: January 31, 2024 Issue [#12383] |
This week: Not Science Fiction or Horror Edited by: Annette  
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"We don't create a fantasy world to escape reality. We create it to be able to stay." ~ Lynda Barry
"There is art and beauty and power in the primal images of fantasy." ~ Guillermo del Toro |
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Not Science Fiction or Horror
As a genre within the speculative fiction category, Fantasy gets sometimes compared to Horror or Science Fiction.
One major difference between Science Fiction and Fantasy is the explanation for the things that are going on in the story. While Science Fiction often includes things that are not real, those things have a plausible explanation.
Take for instance interstellar travel. We have not reached a point in our technological developments where human space travel is possible at the Star Trek level, but we're thinking of it as a matter of "when" not as a matter of "impossible."
In fictional fantasy stories, readers have to suspend their disbelief and accept the unbelievable. The existence of a fairy realm in which time moves at a different speed and where unicorns and kelpies are used by the denizens to get around is always relegated to imagination. As a staunch supporter of fairy realms, I actually think that there is a problem with that world view. Space travel is clearly some years out, while fairies are all around us right now.
The Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs is called Science Fiction, but the Interzone is an area of his imagination in which his protagonist stumbles around, but that no science or advancement can make real.
Horror evokes fear by putting the reader into the shoes of a protagonist who is unable to overcome the antagonist. Some of those stories can feel as if they are Fantasy too. Edgar Allan Poe's stories often include elements that are unreal, but they are mostly scary.
H. P. Lovecraft scared himself witless with Mathematics, air conditioning, and Cthulhu. We all know that Mathematics and air conditioners could never exist in the real world, so we're going to have to take his word for just how scary those things could become, were they real. On the other hand, it's only a matter of time until Cthulhu makes himself know. I might have gotten some things wrong, but who's to tell what's real and what's fiction when Mathematics deal with imaginary numbers and air conditioners claim to change the very air we breathe.
As a writer, mix and match Fantasy with other genres to create compelling, believable and unbelievable stories.
Do you know examples of Fantasy & Science Fiction or Fantasy & Horror? |
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Replies to my last Fantasy newsletter "Notorious Pirates" that asked What images come to your mind when you think of pirates?
Princess Megan Snow Rose  wrote: Good newsletter. I love pirates and thanks for including my Anne Bonny item. Informative and this holds the reader's interest. Here's to pirates.
Not sure why, but pirate stories always feel super fantastical and fun.
Beholden  wrote: Thank you very much for including my short story, Pirate at Bay, among the list of Editor's Picks.
You are welcome. Thank you for writing so much variety!
BIG BAD WOLF is Merry  wrote: There's plenty of land pirates.
Like in Mad Max?
Thank you to Elfin Dragon-finally published  for going back and replying to some of my older Fantasy newsletters.
Reply to "Epic Short Story in Ten Tomes" : I love all fantasy stories. Short, long, snippets, poetry.
Reply to "Fairies" : I saw the last question...woah, dragons are fantasy? I certainly beg to differ. If dinosaurs are real then dragons can be as much a part of our scientific world as they are.
Ahem, anyway, in the case of fairies, I'm not sure I'd have one on your list. As I consider mermaids not in the fairy class since they've been their own species and away from the fae for several millennia. And Elves, well, there are at least two; if not more; classes of elves. Some are still connected to the fae and might be classified as fairy. But I'm sure that Oberon might take offence at being called a fairy.
Reply to "The Barbarian" : I actually have two favorites. Teal'c on Stargate and Gath of Baal, a character in Frank Frazetta's "Death Dealer" novels. |
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