I agree with Matthew about the Encyclopedia of Fantasy:
>
>I am also a great admirer of John Clute and John Grant's Encyclopedia of
>Fantasy. Much more than a reference book, a source book for literary ideas,
>with its entries on woods and borderlands and the changed time-frames of
>people who've been kidnapped by fairies. The only problem with it is that I
>don't altogether trust their verdict on the authors they've written about -
>and I must admit that sword-and-sorceror stuff strikes me as incredibly
>naff. So I'm always on the lookout for good literature of the fantastic that
>doesn't overstretch my credulity. Any suggestions?
but then I like straight fantasy a lot, myself. I think the volume is
especially interesting for its many new terms & ideas. I'd recommend
Patricia McKillip's works, which are otherworld fantasies but always
steeped in fairy tale, & with a style that makes wonder's defamiliarization
felt in the senses. I also think Guy Gavriel Kay has created a new sense of
historical fantasy with his other worlds & their histories, & little if any
'magic' but rather a politics, religions, art etc...
& there are some interesting feminist restructurings of fantasy modes that
prove very intriguing...
(not to mention the amazing Neil Gaiman & his Sandman comics among others!)
Douglas Barbour
Department of English
University of Alberta
Edmonton Alberta Canada T6G 2E5
(h) [780] 436 3320 (b) [780] 492 0521
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
not random, these
crystalline structures, these
non-reversible orders, this
camera forming tendencies, this
edge of greater length, this
lyric forever error, this
something embarrassingly clear, this
language we come up against
Kathleen Fraser
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