by Stephen Carter

Created on: September 11, 2007

In fantasy writing the range of plausible human behaviors available to the writer are subject to fairly severe limitations. For example, the full gamut of psycho-sexual intrigue that occur in real life are largely absent.

'The Iliad', minus Achilles' bisexuality (and hence much of the motivation which that brings into the story), can be seen as the story-archetype of the fantasy genre. Indeed, until the discovery of the ruins of a real Troy the academic community believed 'Troy' existed only as a fictive element in ancient Greek literature. Also, the Iliad is heroic military adventure from start to finish.

All literature is 'partial' in its worldview; every genre defines itself by what it excludes (through its conventions). We tend to be dismissive of the genre because it excludes too much, and 'what' it excludes is deemed important by modern sensibilities.

Other such elements excluded in fantasy are character developmental growth, decision-making as the basis of character action, with psychological motivation behind much of the decision-making, and noticeable large-scale economic activity.

The fantasy 'world' is an idealized one. In a sense all the excluded elements are supplanted by a very robust portrayal of magic and the occult. Much of the genre's appeal lies in the positive power exercised by the wielders of magic.

Indeed, the writer of fantasy has to get that element right above most others - the use of magical powers by both sides in the story's conflict, and the triumph of the 'good' side partly because of magic.

Overall, then, writers need to be respectfully aware of fantasy's limitations - that fantasy writing is politically utopian, sociologically and psychologically static, and morally reductivist as to what is defined as 'the good'. Needless to say, such writers need to be captivated by the kind of idealized world these very limitations produce. It is a genre well worth making a contribution to.

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