trashing Shakespeare

nittany ram wrote:

Well, to be clear I understand that fantasy/sci-fi/horror represent three different genres but that doesn’t mean they don’t have things in common. One of those things they have in common is that they are often story driven as opposed to character driven. The authors of all three of those genres also use words strung together in sentence form according to the rules of a given language to convey the meaning of the stories. All three genres are also written by authors that are human and they are often but not always given money in exchange for their writings. Actually, when you think of it there really is very little difference between them.

Well except the things you describe in terms of what they have in common defines an umbrella that also includes tv commercials and comic strips, among other things.

It’s tricky but there are differences.

Just for convenience sake the wiki will do on this.

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wiki

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that uses magic or other supernatural elements as a main plot element, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic and magical creatures are common. Fantasy is generally distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of scientific and deliberately shocking themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap among the three, all of which are subgenres of speculative fiction. Essentially, fantasy follows rules of its own making, allowing magic and other fantastic devices to be used and still be internally cohesive. The history of modern fantasy literature is usually said to begin with George MacDonald, the Scottish author of such novels as The Princess and the Goblin and Phantastes (1858), the latter of which is widely considered to be the first fantasy novel ever written for adults.

In popular culture, the fantasy genre is predominantly of the medievalist form.

The Gothic tradition blossomed into the genre modern readers call horror literature in the 19th century. Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten, scare, disgust, or startle their readers or viewers by inducing feelings of horror and terror. In horror, these are not just episodic elements of the work, but the work’s central, coherent purpose and the defining characteristic of its overall narrative. Horror can often, but does not have to, include the supernatural.

nittany ram wrote:

zn wrote:

In terms of character driven works in fantasy, that would include Martin. Arguably he was actually making up for a deficiency he saw in Tolkien.

Along with Martin’s GOT, Donaldson’s ‘The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant’ and Rothfuss’ ‘Kingkiller Chronicles’ have a lot of character development as does the ‘Shannara’ series by Terry Brooks. Of course, Those
books also have great storylines. Like anything else, the best fantasy has some of both I suppose.

I thought of Covenant, too, when you wrote that fantasy is usually plot-driven rather than character-driven. Covenant is a hell of a character. I am surprised nobody has made movies of the Covenant Chronicles. I read somewhere that there had been a couple of false starts. Somebody owns the rights, but it’s just never got underway for some reason. I don’t know what the problem is, but there are hundreds of millions of dollars lying there waiting for somebody to pick them up.

Covenant is also darker. He starts off by raping a 15 or 16 year old girl. Pietten (is that his name?) licks the blood of his parents off his hands. The giant triplets(?) murder all the giants. I mean…these aren’t just orcs, and goblins, and shit that is all a safe moral distance away.