I recently attended
Mythcon 41, which was a real change from the kind of
conventions and conferences I usually go to. This was more of an academic
conference, sponsored by the
Mythopoeic Society. The focus of this organization is on
mythopoeic literature, or transformative mythology, which is the incorporation
or transformation of mythology into other stories. The society particularly
studies the work of
J.R.R. Tolkien,
C.S. Lewis,
Charles Williams and other members of the Inklings group at Oxford
University. The conference included a variety of academic paper presentations,
as well as some panel discussions, and I was invited as a guest author to speak
on some of the panels about writing fantasy fiction. The attendees seemed to be
a mix of academics, fantasy fiction fans, writers and people who enjoy this
topic as a personal interest.
I was on one
panel with authors
A. Lee
Martinez (author of
DIVINE MISFORTUNE) and
Tim Powers (author of
THE ANUBIS GATES and
THREE DAYS TO NEVER),
discussing the topic of whether fantasy fiction should be realistic. The initial
response from many of us was "Huh?" because realism and fantasy don't seem to go
together. But as we discussed, we came to the conclusion that there has to be
some realism in even the most fantastic fantasy story, because if everything is
magical, then nothing really is. You need the contrast between what's "real" and
what's "magical" for the magical to seem all that different or wonderful.
Of
course, it depends on the kind of story being told. As
A. Lee Martinez pointed
out, in a comic book world you may not want too much realism. You don't want to
think too much about the body count and damage you'd really get if a
supervillain and a superhero were battling it out. On the other hand, in books
like mine, where the fantasy action takes place in the "real" world, the story
works better if the real world parts are grounded in reality. The chick-lit-
like stories where the twenty-something heroine works as an administrative
assistant and manages to live in a nice New York apartment and dresses in head-
to-toe designer labels are their own kind of fantasy novel, and it probably
wouldn't work to mix that fantasy with the kind of fantasy that involves magic,
wizards and fairies. As Tim Powers put it, you can only ask your readers to
suspend disbelief for so much. You don't want to waste that on the less-
fantastic parts of your story.
This discussion also brought up the issue of how often the adjective "gritty" is
used to modify "reality," as though it's not realistic if it isn't gritty. It's
not considered by some critics as authentic if things end happily, with the good
guys winning and people finding true love, even though that does happen in the
real world. Urban fantasy, in particular, tends to see the urban setting as a
dark and miserable place, but not all cities are like that, and not all parts of
cities are like that. There is more conflict in a grittier setting, which makes
it easier to write, but a skilled author can create an interesting story without
all the grimness.
We also got into an interesting discussion about fantasy fiction as social
commentary, but that will have to wait for next month.
Shanna Swendson writes "Fairy Tales for Modern Times" and is the
author of the Enchanted, Inc. series about a Texan in New York City, a
magical NYC. Visit her
website or blog
for more information.
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