Fantasy
This genre is defined by conflicts caused by physical laws, or characters’ understanding of physical laws, which differ from or augment reality’s laws of physics (a.k.a. fantastic elements). Protagonist succeeds or fails depending on whether they can or can’t understand or adapt to the nature of the conflict. Sub-genres: SciFi, Supernatural Horror, Witches/Wizards/Demigods & Magical Creatures, Alternate Universes.
SciFi The fantastic elements are scientific phenomena, new technologies or discoveries, which, once in play, threaten the equilibrium of characters’ realities. The climaxes and conflict resolutions hinge upon the protagonists’ ability to scientifically explain the phenomena in time to prevent permanent damage. Distinct from other fantasy in that the fantastic element always has a scientific explanation that is technically plausible according to real scientific theories.
|
Authors |
Books |
|
Arthur C. Clarke |
2001: A Space Odyssey 2010: Odyssey Two 2061: Odyssey Three 3001: The Final Odyssey Earthlight Rendezvous with Rama Reach for Tomorrow Childhood’s End Tales from the White Hart The Other Side of the Sky |
| Kurt Vonnegut |
Slaughter House V |
| Isaac Asimov |
I, Robot Caves of Steel Robot City 1, 2, & 3 (written by others under his name) |
| H.G. Wells |
The Time Machine |
| Michael Crichton |
The Andromeda Strain |
Supernatural Horror The fantastic element is a supernatural phenomena which threatens equilibrium such as demonic possession, haunted houses, poltergeists, fairytale monsters, the undead, occult knowledge; and pretty much any subject matter that may appeal to any culture’s superstitions, fear of death, bodily harm, or eternal punishment. Often very idealistic or pessimistic. Resolution usually depends upon characters overcoming accepting evil through will, faith, cunning, or luck/fate.
|
Authors |
Books |
| Clive Barker | The Hellbound Heart |
| Stephen King | Pet Cemetery
Night Shift |
| H.P. Lovecraft | The Call of Cthulhu
The Whisperer in Darkness The Dunwich Horror The Shadow over Innsmouth At The Mountains of Madness The Color out of Space Herbert West: Reanimator The Thing on the Doorstep From Beyond The Dreams in the Witch House |
| Robert W. Chambers | The King in Yellow |
| Alvin Schwartz | Scary Storie to Tell in the Dark
In a Dark Dark Room |
| Assorted Authors | American Supernatural Tales |
Witches, Wizards, Demigods, and Magical Creatures & Alternate Universes Fantastic elements take the form of creatures and/or humans imbued with supernatural powers, existing unseen in beside the human population in reality. Story arcs are usually sprung with the protagonists discovering the existence of such things, often accompanied by the epiphany they are supernatural themselves. Some stories incorporate, or are explicitly continuations of religious myths or other fantastic fictions. Some stories are set in entirely fictitious universes inhabited by magical beings. Conflicts and resolutions hinge upon charcters mastering the magic.
|
Authors |
Books |
| Neil Gaiman | American Gods
Anansi Boys The Monarch of The Glen Stardust Coraline Fragile Things |
| J.K. Rowling | Harry Potter and the…
Sorcerer’s Stone Chamber of Secrets Prisoner of Azkaban Goblet of Fire Order of the Phoenix Half Blood Prince Deathly Hallows |
| C.S. Lewis | The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s
Nephew |
| Mary Pope Osborne | The Magic Tree House Series |
| Chris Van Allsburg | The Polar Express |
| Ronald Dahl | James and the Giant Peech |
| James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim | Into the Woods |
| The Brothers Grimms | Grimm’s Fairytales (the wussy classic English translations) |
| Jonathan Swift | Gulliver’s Travels |
| Homer, Trans. Robert Fagles | The Iliad
The Odyssey |
| Sophocles, Trans. Robert Fagles | Three Theban Plays
Oedipus Rex Antigone Oedipus at Colonus |
| Virgil | The Aeneid |
| J.F. Bierlein | Parallel Myths |
| Eoin Colfer | Artemis Fowl
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident The Eternity Code |
| John Ronald Raul Tolkein | The Silmarillion
The Hobbit The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring The Two Towers The Return of the King An Atlas of Middle Earth (compiled from above texts) |
Unfinished Fantasies:
|
Authors |
Books |
| Neil Gaiman | American Gods
Anansi Boys The Monarch of The Glen Stardust Coraline Fragile Things |
| J.K. Rowling | Harry Potter and the…
Sorcerer’s Stone Chamber of Secrets Prisoner of Azkaban Goblet of Fire Order of the Phoenix Half Blood Prince Deathly Hallows |
| C.S. Lewis | The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s
Nephew |
| Mary Pope Osborne | The Magic Tree House Series |
| Chris Van Allsburg | The Polar Express |
| Ronald Dahl | James and the Giant Peech |
| James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim | Into the Woods |
| The Brothers Grimms | Grimm’s Fairytales (the wussy classic English translations) |
| Jonathan Swift | Gulliver’s Travels |
| Homer, Trans. Robert Fagles | The Iliad
The Odyssey |
| Sophocles, Trans. Robert Fagles | Three Theban Plays
Oedipus Rex Antigone Oedipus at Colonus |
| Virgil | The Aeneid |
| J.F. Bierlein | Parallel Myths |
| Eoin Colfer | Artemis Fowl
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident The Eternity Code |
| John Ronald Raul Tolkein | The Silmarillion
The Hobbit The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring The Two Towers The Return of the King An Atlas of Middle Earth (compiled from above texts) |
Realism
Everything is plausible. Stories are constructed from successful combinations of real events, character traits, images, and themes, combinations which win the readers’ empathy. Stories are often character driven and the subject is often based on characters’ thoughts or emotions rather than on the action itself. Sub-genres include Modernism, Historical Fiction, Fantastic Realism, Psychological Horror, War, and the contemporary poems written on all of those subjects. Climax resolution hinges upon characters realizing their place in the ever changing world, or simply dying.
Modernism Stories have little action, strong focus on characters’ thoughts and feelings. Nihilism, conflict is often character’s struggle to accept their role in society or their perception of reality.
|
Author |
Books |
| J.D. Salinger | The Catcher in the Rye
Nine Stories Franny and Zooey |
| Eudora Welty | A Curtain of Green |
| Flannery O’Connor | Collected Stories |
| Evelyn Waugh | A Handful of Dust |
| James Joyce | Dubliners |
| T.S. Eliot | The Wasteland
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock |
| F. Scot Fitzgerald | The Great Gatsby
Collected Stories |
| Earnest Hemingway | In Our Time |
| Joseph Conrad | Heart of Darkness |
| Lemony Snicket | A Series of Unfortunate Events |
Psychological Horror Stories are usually in first person narrative and the narrator is insane or suffering from some severe obsession or fear. The reader is privy to the narrator’s mad thoughts, hallucinations, delusions and whims. The climax hinges upon whether or not the narrators’ mental distress manifests in self-destructive physical action and how they survive their demons.
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Authors |
Books |
| Edgar Allan Poe | Collected Tales and Poems |
| Hunter S. Thompson | Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas |
| Herman Hesse | Demian |
| H.P. Lovecraft | Polaris
The Vault |
Fantastic Realism Stories contain fantastic elements, but the fantastic parts function only as setting, while the focus of the subject are emotion, dialogue, and character interaction. Narrators and characters speak of and deal with the fantastic elements very matter of factly
Stories: All New Tales, Ass. Authors, Edited Neil Gaiman & Al Sarantonio
New Jersey Noire, Assorted Authors, Edited Joyce Carol Oates
Crackpot Palace, Geoffrey Ford
Decent of Man, T.C. Boyle
Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
War Wilfred Owen writes “English poetry is not yet fit to speak of [anything] except war.” Therefore, if a story’s subject is war, it is because no other element of plot but war has more weight. Stories about war attempt to organize the thoughts and images of war into something meaning, but they can only attempt.
Collected Poems, Wilfred Owen
The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien
The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane
Reflection
First, I find it worthy to note that I omitted from my inventory nearly all novels I was assigned to read in middle and high schools. The only thing I read for in those books was the poor literary taste of those responsible for the curriculum. The Giver, The Light in the Forest, Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird. All are very disturbing novels which shouldn’t be forced on children. I read about scalping and infant euthanasia at twelve, but when I acted out at fourteen, my parents blamed Marilyn Manson’s blasphemy and alien blood in Halo. No one in charge stopped to think that books have more influence than uncensored music and movies. Recently, I spoke with a New Jersey seventh grade English teacher at an elope-ception. She elucidated to me that middle school reading assignments were chosen based on whether or not they reenforced themes from a specific set of vague values, such as “morality” or “community.” I couldn’t come up with a worse way to go about a literary education even if I tried.
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling is the first book series I really got into. Mostly, my cousin started reading it and my grandparents were impressed to see him reading such thick volumes. So of course my mother stopped buying Captain Underpants and introduced me to Harry. My mother first read The Chamber of Secrets to me aloud; although it’s the second book, I didn’t mind, since it’s the best book in the series. The first five books in the series are gold, elements of plot, character, setting, time, conflict, are clearly defined with controlling ideas and counter ideas which are clearly emphasized; mix in just a little suspense and you have some great novels. However, they started making movies. I became disillusioned with the books, as it seemed that Rowling began to write the books to the movie goer, not to the reader. The Halfblood Prince and The Deathly Hallows are overly graphic and overly romantic compared to the first five books.
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler) showed me how much fun it can be to have a second-person narrator tell a story in third person, telling the reader directly on the back that it will end sadly and they should put the book down. Oh the irony.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger taught me that I can downright hate a novel, yet still respect the author’s indelible literary prowess. I hate Catcher because I empathize so deeply with Holden’s internal monologues–because who doesn’t think like that?–and so I relate to him deeply. However, in scenes such as when Holden asks a cabbie where the ducks go during winter, we learn that Holden is not a bright, misunderstood young man, but a basic “moron,” who made it to sixteen years old remaining ignorant to the annual mass migration of millions birds across the entire planets. Despite attending elite prep schools, Holden is as dumb as the cab-driver, who also doesn’t know where the ducks go. In other words, Holden’s head is so far up his ass that he hardly ever sees the sky, and in the previous chapter I thought him a kindred spirit. A testament to Salinger’s genius.
The same thing occurred when I picked up Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, but in this case my empathy proved catastrophic to my reading. I read a passage and nod in agreement with Humbert Humbert, “Yes, I have also noticed a woman’s knees, or thought of her cheeks as roses.” However, the next paragraph always reminds me that those feelings of lust I just felt were conjured from descriptions of a girl not even thirteen! The disgust I felt was unbearable and I gave up reading half way through. Once again, effective writing, uncomfortable reading.
Solemé, by Oscar Wilde is my favorite play to read. With some elements of Greek Tragedy, but not enough to limit it, it is a stirring adaption of a biblical episode, highlighting that the Bible isn’t always black and white, didactic and idealic.
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