Okay, I'm assuming that this is a fairly common interest and hope I've got the right forum.

I've been thinking over the pros and cons of historical fiction versus fantasy, and have several questions I want to pose to you guys as writers more experienced with the latter.

What are the advnatages of using fantasy rather than normal fiction or historical fiction for Christ? Drawbacks?

Why do you write and read fantasy?

For you, what's the best thing about fantasy?

I have a feeling these are old questions, and probably already discussed. If so, could someone please direct me to the topics???

Thank you!

Cassandra

I would say that Fantasy is a far more popular genre than Historical fiction therefore readers are more likely to pick up your book if it's fantasy. Very few people in my experience are really into historical fiction.
Also Fantasy has the advantage of not being held to a certain set of facts.

*pauses* *reflects*

I don't know how far I'd go saying whether or not fantasy or historical fiction are the more popular. Foremostly, because generalizations are dodgy things. And also, while I've seen a far greater interest about me in good, gutsy historical fiction rather than fantasy, that's really just the kind of circles I walk in. I really think readers focus more on what grips them rather than a certain genre... the kind of books that tie in with their personal interests and hobbies. And, of course, there is certainly no generalizing that.

But I'm talking more about drawbacks/advantages in the actual writing than what people will read (though that is by no means unimportant).

The reason I read fantasy, and what I like most about fantasy, and the biggest advantage to fantasy, is that it allows truth to be illustrated in bold, epic, and imaginative ways. The drawback is that it can be harder to illustrate theological truths in ways that readers realize are applicable to real life.

What are the advantages of using fantasy rather than normal fiction or historical fiction for Christ? Drawbacks?
With Historical Fiction, the disadvantage may be that, in order for the book to be accurate, you need to research a lot of history in the time period in which you are writing. Not that it is a bad thing to research history...just not my cup of tea. Because of this - if somebody writes historical fiction and they do not like history - we can end up with quite a few inaccurate and wrongly portrayed history books. That would be the main drawback of historical fiction.
As for advantages that it has against Fantasy...hmm...I'm a bit biased. I like Fantasy more, personally. But Imma find an advantage...
You do not have to invent anything with Historical fiction - which is actually a downside to me, but someone like my sister might appreciate such a luxury - therefore you can focus more on characters, plotting, etc. rather than the world you are building from scratch. Not only that, but the reader will know what you are writing about and already have a vague idea of what everything is, therefore, less description is needed and, once again, you can focus more on characters, plotting, etc.
I'm not entirely prejudiced, though, because I know Fantasy has it's drawbacks...I just...haven't...thought of them before.
I suppose a Fantasy drawback is Historical Fiction's strong-side. You have to invent everything from scratch, but, then again, that is what I like about Fantasy so much, so let's not use that one as an example. A better example:
Fantasy is very allegorical (usually) and (hopefully) they are well put allegories. Therefore, Fantasy can sometimes be hard to "de-code" and find the moral in. Now, some may like this - such as me - because the book makes them think and ponder on the moral, but others may not - like my sister - because you must go on a sort of "hunt" for said moral.
The advantage of Fantasy is that there are no rules. You can have a character fall one hundred feet off a cliff, hit his head, break his arm, get stabbed by a sharp spear on the way down...and come out of it entirely fine. This isn't to say that, just because it's Fantasy, you can defy the very laws of physics and blood loss...this is to say that said character was...Ohh...a dragon. Therefore, dragons are not very easily phased. This makes writing and reading Fantasy more exciting to me because falling off a cliff may not hurt the character, but - for all I know - his kryptonite could be something as pathetic as songbird. Fantasy is very unexpected and I like that. It makes it far more spontaneous to read and write.

Why do you write and read fantasy?
It has always interested me. It's allegories and creatures and uniqueness. Fantasy just has a certain mysterious aspect of "Wow! What if this was really possible?" to me that makes it so much more fun than any other kind of read or idea to write. With Fantasy, I can make a new creature out of the weird insect I saw crawling on my window, you can't do such things with any other genres ('scept may Science Fiction...but...then I have to feign technological advancement and...yeah...just..no. )

For you, what's the best thing about fantasy?
Probably the creating and the inventing of the worlds. I create a new world for every book/series that I write and there is a reason...I love making worlds. Oddly enough - though I'm not big on History - one of my favorite things to create is my world history. Though, I love Fantasy for a multitude of other reasons, quite a few being aforementioned.

All right, ramble over, bye!

Bethany Faith

1. It's easier to use symbols which may or may not be obvious. I prefer subtle symbols that affect the sub-conscious than, say, Pilgrim's Progress.

2. I don't write fantasy, I write science-fiction. I read it because realistic makes me die of boredom in most cases unless it's a war novel.

3. The fact that when you start, no rules automatically apply.

I have many friend who like Historical fiction better than fantasy. (Of course my friends are all a bunch of geeks and nerds. ) but I can tell you with out a doubt that fantasy is far the better seller right now.

Thanks Jonathan!

Wow, Bethany.... I love your rambles. Thank you!

Varon--thanks!

Bard-- I'll take your word for it *pauses* maybe

You're welcome, I'm glad you liked it.

Well if you want I'll find all the dull facts and numbers. But Historical fiction is sort of dead now a days. All I can think of at the moment that has come out and made any impression was those "Duncan war" books.

lol

No, don't bother about doing that, Bard. Ok, I concede fantasy is more popular (all I really had to do is take a moment to think about the books in the library ) but I have seen plenty of evidence that historical fiction isn't dead.

While historical fiction may not be completely dead, it has lost a lot of momentum in the last ten years or so. And Joe is right; Fantasy has grown by leaps and bounds in popularity, especially in the last 10 years. So much so, in fact, that it makes you wonder when another genre will soon take over. The only Historical Fiction that is really getting any notice right now is Amish Romances, and I’ve already stated how I feel about those, elsewhere. Personally, I think those books are horribly inaccurate, since I know some Amish and Mennonite people. But I need to get back on the subject at hand, before I rant.

Now, this is a difficult question to answer, Cassandra, for multiple reasons. But a good question to try and articulate and formulate your answer for.

What is the Advantage to reading Fantasy?

First, reading fantasy helps to develop a very healthy function of our brains, God given and God ordained. Our imagination. When you read a fantasy novel, it triggers the need for your imagination to depict places, time, and creatures that become part of the story.

Imagination is so important in our lives, because the children who have the healthiest imaginations, are often our greatest visionary adults. Imagination also is one of the tools the human mind uses to problem solve when you are in a critical situation that needs a quick solution. Science is now showing that quick thinking and an ability to problem solve is closely linked with the developed imagination of a person’s childhood.

Reading Fantasy can also help develop your writing skills. Think about it. You have to develop so much more in a Fantasy story, than Historical Fiction. By reading fantasy, you can learn about the grammatical structures, coherence between paragraphs and chapters, etc., in an entertaining way. You can learn how to make a story that attracts readers.


What are the disadvantages to reading and writing Fantasy?

Honestly, I think that, for the most part, the disadvantages to fantasy are basically the same as with any other genre, with one exception, the disadvantage I am going to expound on.

Now hang with me for a second.

Once upon a time, a lark landed on the window-sill of Princess Serenity’s bedroom in Marhashi, and told her to beware of the wicked vizier, Khanid.

Now, the immediate response that analyticals have to this sentence is “Hold it, hold it! Since when do larks talk?” The answer is quite simple. Only in our imaginations and Fantasy/Sci-fi stories. The only downfall I see to fantasy, of any significant argument, is that in fantasy people believe we tell young children such a story and give them false beliefs about reality. The idea of children believing larks can talk is harmless. After all, even if young children might initially believe that certain birds can talk, they will learn soon enough that birds can't talk in reality.

But other confusions created by fantasy stories, more subtle ones, are perhaps less easily sorted out, and remain to distort understanding. Such stories may set in place stereotypes, not just of knarly bent old women being hags, but more subtly of why people sometimes rob banks and it is okay.

Now, I don’t actually think this theory holds water when you are talking about Christian writer writing fantasy, but it is a concern I have about the genre as a whole. However, I don’t think that this can be a reasonable strike against Fantasy. After all, I’m just as choosey about my historical fiction. In fact, I’m more choosy with my historical fiction because it is based in reality. I’m a history buff. I LOVE history. There is nothing that will irritate me more, when reading HF, than seeing that someone put in their own biased, sometimes ignorant, opinions about a historical fact, and present it as gospel truth. If you think the South was all bad and the North was all good in the civil war, fine, that’s your right. However, don’t make the south these grotesque, dishonorable figures that were fighting the north because they wanted to keep slaves. That, I believe, is more dangerous than fantasy. Because we know fantasy is not real. However, people often lose some of their objective reasoning when reading HF, as opposed to Fantasy.

Another concern with fantasy, I find, that ties into the other thoughts, is how powerful Fantasy is. People discredit Fantasy in two ways. They shrug it off and say it is harmless, or they say it holds no influence for good or bad. I want you guys to seriously think about some of the things that stick with society, due to Fantasy’s power. The boggie man hides under our beds, right? That thought haunts a lot of kids. I was never scared that anything lived under my bed until a friend said something one time when I was 8. Suddenly the boogie man haunted my very active imagination at night. I was scared to go to the bathroom and had bed wetting issues because I knew his cold, clammy hands would grab my ankles and drag me under as soon as my feet hit the floor (now that was an embarrassing piece of info for you all). I know lots of kids who have never heard of the boogie man, and have no fear of something living under their beds.

This is just one example of the power that fantasy holds. A negative one, to be sure. However, Fantasy has the power to affect people positively, as well.

What is the Advantage to Writing Fantasy?

Personally, I see a lot of advantages, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing it.

One of the reasons why I love fantasy is because I find great value in allowing children/young adults/ and adult the ability to play with ideas. Fantasy, like all great things, delight and instruct; their special genius is that they do so in terms which speak directly to our minds. Fantasy stories have the additional value that they are richly suggestive of solutions: "Fairy tales leave us fantasizing whether and how to apply to ourselves what the story reveals about life and human nature. Whatever the content of, it is essentially based in fanciful elaborations of the tasks we meet with in real life, and our hopes, dreams, trials, and fears"

William Kilpatrick and Gregory and Suzanne M. Wolfe similarly emphasize the value of fantasy over real-life stories. They suggest that a child whose parents are going through a divorce does not necessarily get help from reading stories about children with divorcing parents. They quote a mother whose ten-year-old son was struggling with cancer: "At first he was very upbeat, but after several painful treatments his optimism faded. We were afraid that he was ready to give up. We were really afraid for his life. Then he came upon the story of the labors of Hercules in a book of myths, and he read it and re-read it, and it seemed to give him back his spirit". The authors go on to observe: "The story about Hercules allowed the boy to transcend his fears and to cast his personal struggle on a mythic level. He was probably fortunate that some well-meaning adult didn't hand him a book about a boy with cancer. That sort of thing often serves only to increase the depression" .

They make an important point, though I’d caution interpreting the boy's increasing spirits as being due entirely to the story. We might also bear in mind C.S. Lewis's often-repeated point that young children's taste and interest in stories is no less varied than adults', and that a sensitive story about a boy with cancer might have had a similar beneficial effect with another child, as Hercules seems to have had with this child.



Also, it was Lewis who said

One of the interesting things I have been reading about in my Fantasy research (I like facts ) is that some people are starting to look into how children feel that they can’t live up to Mother Teresa and George Washington, but they try to emulate the qualities and attributes of Superman and Cinderella. I’m still doing my own searching on that one, but it is something that piqued my interest, and I thought I’d share it.

On a less… mental side of things, fantasy is fun and freeing. You can create whatever creatures and setting you want. You are not constrained by the real word. Want your heroes to have to find their way over or through a precipitous mountain range? Draw the Misty Mountains down the middle of your map. Want a dragon to show up, breathing fire and speaking in riddles? Name him Smaug and start writing. (Actually, don't. The Misty Mountains and Smaug are Tolkien's, but you get the idea.)

So… I promise this was not meant to be a monster post, but somehow became one. These were just some of the thoughts that came to mind. I did a lot of research on fantasy before I took the plunge. I wanted to be sure I knew that this was God ordained, not just me ordained. And I came to a satisfactory conclusion. It is. These are just some of the reasons why.

Thank you for another enjoyable monster post.

And, to give you a bit of your own medicine, shouldn't that be turned into a blog post?

*snickers * Now wait a sec! I'm the only one who is exempted from practicing what she preaches! Besides, I take my blog contributors however I can get them. By sweet talking or brute force. Whichever is more effective in the moment.

But on the serious side, I may consider adding that to the list of posts that are potential for me to turn into an HW blog post. Thanks, Jonathan.

Thank you so much Airianna, I'd been hoping you'd turn up.

That--about kids feeling disheartened by tales of Mother Teresa--I found especially interesting. I'd have to wholeheartedly agree. As a little kid I used to feel that way--I know others who did too. It was more people like Eric Liddel who were discouraging, though--people whose faults weren't so obvious. (Joni Tada was always encouraging,becuase she started her life as a paraplegic so... humanly).

Just an intersting addition... I find that historical fiction is often dry, like the writers are giving fact too much precedence over creativity--even in writing style. (Facts important, I agree--loooooved facts--but too much fact kind of ruins the fiction).

Anyway, you've given me a heap to think about, Airianna.... thank you!!!

(Looking forward to the blog post )

*chuckles and winks *

Really?! Well that is an interesting tidbit to tuck into my research. I would totally agree with Jonni! I love that woman, for many reasons.

I too have found lots of historical fiction to be dry, for the very reasons you named. Facts should be accurate, but they should not compromise the delivery.

I'm glad I was able to help.