My definition of fantasy

I define myself as a fantasy writer. What do I mean by that?

A writer

What is writing in the world in which communication is evolving rapidly and away from the neat categories like written communication, spoken communication, and visual communication? If one looks at the written messages on this page, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that I’m a writer. In this blog, however, I combine messages created by the rules of three different modes of communication: written language, picture, and hypertext. I’ve created also the picture of the feather. I’ve given it the color, I’ve given it the size, and I’ve situated it in the page the background color of which I selected. Is that writing? Most likely, you shake your head “no”. Nevertheless, the picture is a part of a page in which, as a carrier of messages, the written language is in the most prominent role. Who am I: a writer or an illustrator?

I already have given the answer: I’m a writer. I use the term writer in the meaning: the creator of a message. In that sense, I’m a writer that creates messages in any modes of communication that I deem useful. The something that turns me into a writer is the message that I want to communicate–not the technique that I choose to use.

Fantasy

The different readers and writers of fantasy define the genre in different ways. My definition is based on my experiences as a reader. I’ve read about one thousand fantasy books from various authors. In addition to fantasy books, I’ve read other genres and general literature. The number of non-fantasy books that I’ve read is about four thousand. I’ve created a criterion that puts one book into fantasy pile and another to the non-fantasy pile. The classification is easy: there’s one factor that decides where a book goes.

As far as I’m concerned, every book that contains a fantastical element is a fantasy book.What do I mean by a fantastical element? My answer to this question is very simple: if the element does not have reference in the real world, then it’s a fantastical element. That includes advanced technology as well as magic. In my definition, science fiction and horror are sub-genres of fantasy.

You may wonder where in my definition is speculative fiction. That concept, even though I find it an interesting one, in my thinking is unnecessary. To me, the two concepts mean exactly the same. Since fantasy as a label is more descriptive, I use it.

After that the classification of fantasy gets fuzzy. While I admit to the idea that there are sub-genres in fantasy, I don’t see a strict line between any of those sub-genres. By many readers and writers, science fiction is seen as distinctively different from other kinds of fantasy. I don’t think so. The scientific speculation on which science fiction is based is every bit as fantastical as any mythic beast or magic ring. Until such speculation has been brought to existence, it’s fantastical.

On what I so far have told you, you might come to the conclusion that I don’t care much about sub-genres of fantasy. If so, you’ve got it right. I don’t need a pigeon hole that the majority of the readers can agree upon for my fantasy stories. I need to know how my story differs from other stories and in which it’s similar to them. Any sub-genre is too closed a class to help me with that. As a reader, I have preferences among the sub-genres and some on them I don’t read at all, but as a writer, I take features from any sub-genre of fantasy. The only deciding factor is the story: any feature I choose has to fit with the story, not the other way around.

A fantasy writer

As a fantasy writer, I’m a creator of messages that contain fantastical elements. Let’s stop for a moment and think. What does it mean that a message contains a fantastical element?

First, it means that there is at least one fantastical element. For example, the message “a blue apple eats ghosts” has three fantastical elements. With the fantastic element there might be something that isn’t fantastical, too. For example, “a blue apple is the key that will unlock the door to the secret of time”.

Second, it means that there is at least one message.

Which is more important: the message or the fantastical element? Let’s take a closer look at the first message, “a blue apple eats ghosts”. What is the significance of that message? It has none. I wouldn’t be interested in a fantasy story that would do nothing but carry that one message.

Without something real in the fantasy, the fantasy cannot tell anything meaningful. The message “a blue apple eats ghosts that are hoxtuesing the mowjongs” doesn’t mean anything. The blue, ghost-eating apple gains significance only if there is a reference to our world: for example “a blue apple eats ghosts that are bothering the thieves”. Even if the story is played out in a fictitious world, there has to be enough of references to the real world in which the readers live.

Thereby, fantasy as a genre gives a natural rise for allegories. It is my experience and my opinion, that the best fantasy stories take advantage of that slant. Such writers as Ursula Le Guin, Robert Silverberg, Octavia E. Butler, and C.J. Cherryh have created very impressive allegories of the human societies by that method. Some writers choose to leave the possibility of making a comment on the human condition untouched. Personally, as reader, I don’t enjoy such fantasy stories. In my mind, such stories read either as adventures or as escape from reality. As a writer, I try to make comments about our own world by creating allegories.