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3a4c945 "When people dis fantasy--mainstream readers and SF readers alike--they are almost always talking about one sub-genre of fantastic literature. They are talking about , and Tolkien's innumerable heirs. Call it 'epic', or 'high', or 'genre' fantasy, this is what fantasy has come to mean. Which is misleading as well as unfortunate. Tolkien is the wen on the arse of fantasy literature. His oeuvre is massive and contagious--you can't ignore it, so don't even try. The best you can do is consciously try to lance the boil. And there's a lot to dislike--his cod-Wagnerian pomposity, his boys-own-adventure glorying in war, his small-minded and reactionary love for hierarchical status-quos, his belief in absolute morality that blurs moral and political complexity. Tolkien's cliches--elves 'n' dwarfs 'n' magic rings--have spread like viruses. He wrote that the function of fantasy was 'consolation', thereby making it an article of policy that a fantasy writer should mollycoddle the reader. That is a revolting idea, and one, thankfully, that plenty of fantasists have ignored. From the Surrealists through the pulps--via and and and and and and I could go on--the best writers have used the fantastic aesthetic precisely to challenge, to alienate, to subvert and undermine expectations. Of course I'm not saying that any fan of Tolkien is no friend of mine--that would cut my social circle considerably. Nor would I claim that it's impossible to write a good fantasy book with elves and dwarfs in it--Michael Swanwick's superb gives the lie to that. But given that the pleasure of fantasy is supposed to be in its limitless creativity, why not try to come up with some different themes, as well as unconventional monsters? Why not use fantasy to challenge social and aesthetic lies? Thankfully, the alternative tradition of fantasy has never died. And it's getting stronger. , , , , literature clichés j-r-r-tolkien fantasy-fiction China Miéville
ef0e49b This book had two authors, and they were both the same person. fantasy-books jared-wheat fantasy-fiction Terry Pratchett
2f42011 Does it make you brave to stick your hand in a bear's mouth? Would you do it again just because you didn't die? death medieval fantasy-fiction Robert Jordan
6ee3e75 The best I can say, it's like this. A man's in his skin, see, like a nut in its shell ... It's hard and strong, that shell, and it's all full of him. Full of grand man-meat, man-self. And that's all. That's all there is. A woman's a different thing entirely. Who knows where a woman begins and ends? Listen mistress, I have roots, I have roots deeper than this island. Deeper than the sea, older than the raising of the lands. I go back into the dark ... I go back into the dark! Before the moon I am, what a woman is, a woman of power, a woman's power, deeper than the roots of trees, deeper than the roots of islands, older than the Making, older than the moon. Who dares ask questions of the dark? Who'll ask the dark its name? men women womanhood fantasy-fiction manhood Ursula K. Le Guin
22a4731 Yo era un liviano trozo de pelusa de diente de leon, y el era el viento que me agitaba sobre el mundo. literary-quotes fantasy-fiction Sarah J. Maas
6d2a50d I propose to speak about fairy-stories, though I am aware that this is a rash adventure. Faerie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary and dungeons for the overbold. fantasy worldbuilding fantasy-fiction J.R.R. Tolkien
e466f87 Man, Sub-creator, the refracted Light through whom is splintered from a single White to many hues, and endlessly combined in living shapes that move from mind to mind. fantasy worldbuilding fantasy-fiction J.R.R. Tolkien
33c0823 Why should their pain produce such marvelous beauty? he wonders. Or is all beauty created through pain? Is that the secret of great art, both human and Melnibonen? fantasy elric-of-melnibone fantasy-fiction Michael Moorcock
d7c212a Would you give up the craft of your hands, and the passion of your heart, and the hunger of your mind, to buy safety? fantasy fantasy-fiction passions safety Ursula K. Le Guin
781f80a "Critics and academics have been trying for forty years to bury the greatest work of imaginative fiction in English. They ignore it, they condescend to it, they stand in large groups with their backs to it - because they're afraid of it. They're afraid of dragons. They have Smaugophobia. "Oh those awful Orcs," they bleat, flocking after Edmund Wilson. They know if they acknowledge Tolkien they'll have to admit that fantasy can be literature, and that therefore they'll have to redefine what literature is. And they're too damned lazy to do it." literature fantasy-fiction Ursula K. Le Guin
f447f72 Am I supposed to feel so much awe and so on about the Godking? After all, he's just a man ... He's about fifty years old, and he's bald. And I'll bet he has to cut his toenails too like any other man. I know perfectly well he's a god, too. But what I think is, he'll be much godlier after he's dead. fantasy earthsea kings fantasy-fiction Ursula K. Le Guin
74e1728 The mind that thought of light, heavy, grey, yellow, still, swift, also conceived of magic that would make heavy things light and be able to fly, turn grey lead into yellow gold, and the still rock into a swift water. fantasy worldbuilding fantasy-fiction J.R.R. Tolkien
f3055b0 And if there is one last thing I would have you know before we reach these final pages, it's that sometimes, no matter how hard we try, no matter how hard we want it to be so, sometimes there is no such a thing as happy ending. This is my ending. This is how i burn. love tragic-love-story tragic fantasy-fiction T.J. Klune
34ad71a Can you see the power emotion has to distort out outlook? Makes you wonder, did you have a bad day, or did you make it a bad day? young-adult fiction fantasy-series fantasy-fiction Brandon Mull
af6390b Narknon put a paw on Harry's chest and began licking her face; a hunting-cat's tongue is much harsher than a housecat's. Harry thought her skin would crumble and peel off, but she didn't have the strength to push her away. fantasy-fiction Robin McKinley
97ee53d [Lying is] a betrayal to one's self. It's evidence of self-loathing. When you are so ashamed of your actions, thoughts, or intentions, you lie rather than accepting yourself for who you really are... The idea of how others see you becomes more important than the reality of you. young-adult food-for-thought makes-you-think fantasy-fiction Michael J. Sullivan
efb7acf Do not stalk your prey until you are sure it is prey fantasy-fiction Christopher Paolini
3acc391 With every fall of the sun and rise of the moon, I can hear it. The Prophecy. It echoes through the halls of time. It is written on the surface of every star. Even the sun and moon cannot withhold the news of the second coming. I hear it. And I fear it. young-adult light fiction moon epic-fantasy sun fantasy-fiction young-adult-fiction novel Brian A. McBride
a6a0a44 Would that I had the courage to depart, this place or this life, or to stand openly against the wrongness that is the world of these, my kin. To seek an existence that does not run afoul to that which I believe, and to that which I hold dear faith is truth. truth fantasy-fiction R.A. Salvatore
6515ac9 Meanwhile, the great ash would rest where she lay, and mosses would creep over her trunk, and tiny creatures make their homes her dim hollows. Even in death she was a link in the great chain of the forest's being. earth life fantasy-fiction Juliet Marillier
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