On the types of novels

The word "fantasy" in fantasy novel (or fantasy literature) is translated from the English word "fantasy". This translation was decided by Zhu, the head of Taiwan Province Fantasy Culture and Art Foundation, who opened a * * * one-and-a-half-year "Fantasy Library" column in Software World, an old monthly magazine in Taiwan Province Province (1992, the 200th issue was closed at the end of 2005, and it was reissued by quarterly magazine in the summer of 2006).

In literature, fantasy novel includes novels, short stories, role-playing games and movies. According to cultural background, it can be divided into fantasy novel in the East and fantasy novel in the West. The story structure is based on myths, religions and ancient legends, so it has its own unique world outlook. Fantasy novel's story either takes place in the "second world" which is contrary to the laws of the real world, or adds supernatural factors to the real earth. Fantasy novel's theme is not only related to science fiction and horror novels, but also different. These three schools play an important role in fantasy. They are all based on reality or speculate on what reality used to be and what it should be. Fantasy novels are characterized by bold imagination and exploration.

The difference between fantasy novel and science fiction lies in that it is usually biased towards non-100% rational or unpredictable world structure (including magic, sword, gods, demons and prophets), and it is distinguished in chronological order. Fantasy novel is biased towards the past, that is, seeking background or similarity in history, while science fiction is biased towards the continuation of existing technology and the strengthening of imagination.

history

Fantasy novel has a long and outstanding history, and its origin can be traced back to Greek mythology and Roman mythology (especially Homer's Odyssey), Nordic mythology (Germanic mythology) epics such as Beowulf. The wide spread of medieval knight literature and modern Gothic literature laid a solid foundation for the rise of fantasy literature. Arthurian legend provides another important theme for contemporary fantasy novels. Magician Merlin, Knights of the Round Table, Equestrian, romantic but well-defined moral issues present different faces in many authors' works.

In the19th century and the early 20th century, many fantasy novels and science fiction novels were published in the same magazine (usually by the same author). In the middle of the 20th century, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and the Adventures of The Lord of the Rings, C.S. Lewis's The Legend of Narnia and Ursula Livorno's Earthsea were very popular, and fantasy novels were reborn. Later works mostly imitate these successful works, from myths, epics and medieval romantic literature.

These fantasy novels gave birth to role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons, and then produced more novels. Game companies issue fantasy novel according to their fictional game world, such as Chronicle of Dragon Gun, Forgotten Country and Mecha.

Fantasy element

Like other novel categories, the so-called fantasy novel may be just a strategy for booksellers to put it on the shelves, and there may not be a clear definition to prevent a novel from being accidentally kicked out or being classified into this category. In other words, there is a big fuzzy zone.

A clear indicator can let you know that a novel may be closer or farther away from this category, which is the so-called "established element". When readers repeatedly see these elements, they tend to think that they belong to this category, no matter how critical or critical the academic school is, or the author himself hates being classified into this category.

Overhead world

Fiction of a world with the Lord of the Rings as the stage has become fantasy novel's modus operandi. But before that, some of these worlds seemed to communicate with the earth through mirrors or tree holes. In order to prove the author's imagination, it is not uncommon for the world to be carried on the back of a tortoise shell or an elephant. It is no longer a novel idea to arrange continuous waterfalls on the outer edge of the world to make anything that falls disappear forever.

You can simply let the world sit in a huge bubble at the bottom of the sea, or let all intelligent creatures in the world above have the ability to fly or float and nest in the bottomless atmosphere. There must be more cool and cool ideas.

An inhuman intelligent creature/race

A creature or abiotic who is obviously not human, trying or naturally communicating with the characters in the story is often the beginning for us to judge that a novel belongs to fantasy novel ... Oh, unless they immediately mention in their self-introduction that they are from Andromeda or a core cluster.

In some novels classified as serious fantasy, such a race may have its own specialties, society, culture and even evolutionary branches, such as goblins and dwarves; In other works, it may just be a talking playing card. In any case, they grew up in this way, or are described in this way, mostly to perform something that humans can't do in the story, such as opening their mouths to breathe fire, performing magic or playing a stud game without external props.

In addition to aliens, we need to be more careful about some inhuman intelligent creatures in the story, such as they are called or call themselves angels, demons or gods. Sometimes this undoubtedly proves that it is a fantasy novel, but there are also many times when the story is completed from serious religious propaganda motives. Remember, for believers, these creatures that do not seem to exist in reality, but may be hard to find, are undoubtedly human-like or superhuman wisdom, and are by no means impossible. As long as the religion they believe in claims so.

The strange religious system of God's Word

The more famous the work, the more you will try your best to avoid the trouble that alluding to religion may bring to the author in reality. So when he touched on issues related to faith, whether it was science fiction or fantasy novel, a fabricated myth and religious system came into being.

Of course, sometimes fictional gods appear not only for such noble reasons, but simply because a group of more powerful guys will make irreplaceable and important contributions to the dramatic development of the story.

A task force with its own responsibilities

There are few writers in fantasy novel who don't use some peculiar profession to symbolize the culture he fabricated in his own overhead world. The most common example is that when there is magic in a world, there are bound to be some people called wizards. This kind of thing is rare in science fiction, but similar examples are familiar, such as the Jedi in Star Wars.

Red flowers must also have green leaves, and the most important thing to reflect the particularity of this professional identity is the existence of comparators, and it is better to have more than one, so the task force was born, such as Gandalf, a mage with an extraordinary position among Frodo, Aragon and other mortals.

The appearance of role-playing games undoubtedly strengthened this component of fantasy novel, and Tolkien in later generations had no need to worry about which trick the mage would use to defeat the enemy when writing novels. Even if they have this hobby, their ideas are hardly better than those of countless game production teams

Mysterious evil forces

Intelligence agencies and media in major countries in the world pay close attention to the sources of funds and supporters behind Al Qaeda activities. Don't worry about such things in fantasy novel.

An interesting phenomenon is that many special civilizations in fantasy novel, such as magic, are "verifiable", that is, they are very scientific. However, even the setters with the deepest foundation of mathematical logic can hardly deny that when an evil energy orb has the power to organize an overwhelming army, it is very convenient for the development of the plot, even simpler than making up those gods.

When we see the orcs in The Lord of the Rings movie who are said to have somehow synthesized goblins and elves, we guess that they may already know that countless evil creatures who have been slaughtered by heroes will be mass-produced in a similar mysterious way.

classify

Popular fantasy novels in the 20th century are usually divided into several branches:

A serious fantasy

Sword and some magic

Modern fantasy

science fiction

A relaxed fantasy

Romantic fantasy

Steampunk (steampunk)

Fantasy movies (different from science fiction movies)

Heroic fantasy-closer to the category of mixed science fiction elements.

Fantasy award

Due to the natural connection between fantasy literature and science fiction literature, many science fiction awards also accept the nomination of fantasy works at the same time or gradually. For example, Hugo Award and Xingyun Award were originally pure science fiction awards, and later fantasy works were accepted as pan-fantasy awards. Other more important awards are:

Locus award: The annual sci-fi fantasy award voted by readers of Locus Science Fiction magazine in the United States.

World Fantasy Award: The fantasy award awarded by the jury from 65438 to 0975 is presented during the annual World Fantasy Conference.

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award: An annual award focusing on suggestive fantasy works.

British Fantasy Association: British Writers' Fantasy Award of the Year.