Taking Fantasy Seriously

An exciting discussion of fantasy and its contents and discontents is going on at The Genre Files. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the future of the genre -- especially those who have become weary of the typical elves/dwarves/dragons sort of thing.

I also strongly recommend a new SFF review site called Scalpel Magazine. Its reviews are more akin to what you'd find in The New York Review of Books, if that periodical took fantasy and science fiction seriously, than to the typical internet SFF review site that basically merely gives you thumbs up or thumbs down, along with a plot summary. It's for people who take this stuff seriously. I've found myself inspired and excited by it.

The Genre Files

That was a very impressive discussion at the link you posted to The Genre Files. Quite sophisticated readers. Don't really have time at the moment to delve in more deeply (I'm stealing time from other chores as it is). Remember JimH from Counsel Connect? He used to say that one can learn a lot more about the preoccupations of a society by studying its genre fiction than by studying its "Great Works."

Good Discussion, But....

That kind of discussion needs to happen more often. Unfortunately, though, Scalpel Magazine, which was to have been a forum for such discussion, folded after only a single issue.

No reason this blog site can't be the scene for further such talk, though!

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