Has the fantasy genre become stagnant?

Yes

3 of 20

by James Coplin

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Asking whether a genre has gone stagnant is a lot like asking how deep the river is. The answer will depend on where you crossed it.

For those who forged the fantasy river in the late 1960's and 70's the water was at flood tide. A retiring, tweed clad, pipe smoking Professor of Anglo-Saxon literature named John Ronald Ruel Tolkien had published the epic Lord of the Rings shortly after WWII and by 1965 you saw lapels with "Frodo Lives" buttons everywhere. At the same time, people were shouting "By Crom' and buying up the Lancer editions of Conan the Barbarian, King Kull and the small army of sword swinging, fist fighting adventurers penned in the 20's & 30's by pulp fiction author Robert E. Howard. H.P Lovecraft and his Cthulu Mythos, Clark Aston Smith, Otis A. Kline and scores of others were resurrected from the pulp fiction pages. Even more recognizable authors such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells were dusted off and relabeled as Fantasy Masters.

Fritz Lieber, who's tales of Fafhrd & The Gray Mouser had appeared as early as 1949, by the late 60's had obtained cult status. Then there were the relatively new fantasy authors that showed imagination and innovations - Micheal Moorcock with his Elric and Eternal Champion Saga, Poul Anderson, Fletcher Pratt, Lynn Carter. L. Sprauge DeCamp and other became familiar names to milions. There were even several books written with detailed chronologies and minute references to the characters and mythical worlds they occupied - Conan's Hyborian Age, Fafhrd & The Mouser's Lankhmar, Elric's Melniboneian Realm, Tolkien's Middle Earth and so on. A devout Fantasy Reader of that era put in as much time and study as a Rhodes scholar and there were learned and spirited disputes whenever they gathered around a bottle of Boone's Farm Wine and maybe a joint.

The major by-product of this seemed to be a search for fantasy's "Roots". Because writers like Howard grounded his sword & sorcery tales in real history and the laws of "real" magic, those that emulated him studied and did also. In doing so they discovered historical writers like Harold Lamb, Raphael Sabatini and Samuel Shellabarger who wrote truly gripping stories with real historical characters.Tolkien based Middle Earth on the Anglo-Saxon/ Norse Eddas and Welsh/Irish Folklores and they became popular reading as well. Authors such as E.R.R. Edison and his Worm Oroboros,the 19th century medieval enthusiast William Morris and Lord Dunsany were cited as "Fathers of 20th Century Fantasy" and their books reappeared. The Fantasy World actually encouraged people to take a deep look at the one they were forced to live in and convinced them that answers were perhaps more obtainable by looking back instead of forward.

It's not a coincidence that the best Science Fiction work was being offered just before and simultaneously with this explosion of Fantasy- Robert Heinlien, Robert Sheckley, Ray Bradbury, and others. Science Fiction was brilliant but didn't hold out much hope and left everyone feeling helpless in the hands of technology. A sword, a spell book and a true & stout heart seemed far more appealing just as a Quest in the name of Good - even a seemingly doomed one - was preferable to submitting to the Dark Lords.

So asking if the fantasy that followed is stagnant is asking if music today has progressed since Buddy Holly or Bo Diddley. First, a lot of the younger listeners aren't even going to know who they were. Second, every note since was at least partially built upon what they did so how can you make a comparison?

If you are asking if Fantasy today is as vibrant, as culturally an influence, as exciting as it was when it was re-discovered 40 years ago - No. It probably isn't. But very little of it was produced at that time until it discovered the example of those who wrote in the 30's and 40's periodicals such as Weird Tales - which at the time you had to hide from your mother like dirty magazines. Fantasy is now Mainstream and no matter how hard it tries it will never again be as fresh and "inside" as then.

Still, every bite is "new" to those that haven't tasted something before while the basic ingredients never change. Imagination, imagery and a good grasp of "other-world" realities will always keep Fantasy alive. Yet there's nothing wrong with "Tasting a pie like Grandma used to bake" by looking up any of the authors or sources previously mentioned. They were, after all, the ones who hand crafted the recipe.

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