Fantasy author and Time book critic Lev Grossman has argued in a recent video interview with Ron Hogan that fantasy literature has entered the mainstream.
“When I was a little kid, I was a fantasy fan then, as I am now, but then I used to get beat on for it,” he says. “And the idea that they would make a movie of The Lord of the Rings, and that it would be popular, movies of the Narnia books, that a book like Harry Potter would be a massive global phenomenon, that didn’t exist.”
But not everyone agrees with Grossman, who appears to have been on somewhat of a campaign inside Time to get better recognition for fantasy books. His novel The Magicians was recently published and made it to number nine on The New York Times bestseller list, according to his web site.
In a recent podcast, fellow fantasy author Janny Wurts argued that the fantasy genre is chronically marginalised by its immature image by book critics and readers alike.
Wurts was scathing in her description of the approach of book critics and some readers to the fantasy genre, describing it as “chauvinistically slurred”. American Wurts is one of the best-loved fantasy authors currently writing. She is best known for her epic series The Wars of Light and Shadow, but also for the Empire trilogy that she co-authored with Raymond E. Feist, and her previous The Cycle of Fire trilogy.
Grossman’s latest book, by comparison, is less fantasy epic and more Harry Potter. He argues that it was British fantasy author Susanna Clarke that propelled the entire genre into the mainstream consciousness with her novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, which reached number three on The New York Times bestseller list and won the Hugo Award for that year.
Wurts’ view is that fantasy archetypes (for example swords, dragons, magic and a focus on the percieved absolute nature of good and evil) make it an easy genre for childen to pick up. But even though readers grow older and many authors move beyond the stereotypes or re-imagine them in fundamentally adult ways, the image of fantasy as an infantile genre handicaps it.
Commentary
Both authors are right. Grossman’s argument that fantasy has moved into the mainstream can be easily proved by the immense popularity of the Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Narnia books.
It’s hard to argue against pure sales numbers. And when I walk into any mainstream bookstore, the Harry Potter, Twilight and even Sookie Stackhouse novels are front and centre.
But Wurts is also right. I would characterise her work, and similar authors like George R. R. Martin and Robin Hobb as “high fantasy”. The material such authors are producing is clearly not appropriate for children; nor does it sell in the numbers that really successful best-sellers – the likes of which top The New York Times and other lists – do. This, I would argue, is a great crime.
Such books and series form what I would call the “canon” of the fantasy literature world due to their genre-defining scope and lack of populist intentions. They seem to be intrinsically percieved as harder to read than most fantasy books; but often more rewarding, in my opinion. It’s a snobby way to look at it, but I’m not sure there is a better way.
It’s the same way that many English literature graduates look at books like James Joyce‘s Ulysses.
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