What is Fantasy Fiction?If you think fantasy is just something nerds read, you're only partially right. Fantasy fiction (or at least fiction with fantastic elements) is one of the oldest forms of literature, encompassing all of the situations, possibilities, worlds and universes that we can imagine but don't actually exist. Even if you think you're not a fan of modern fantasy, you've probably read some things that could be classified in the genre. Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey certainly qualify. Shakespeare's The Tempest or A Midsummer Night's Dream should be on the lists. The ghosts in Hamlet probably qualify, too. The list goes on and on. Grimm's fairy tales, and so on. Much of this early literature was tied to mythology--or at least, to things that people actually believed in. Modern fantasy is distinguished by the acknowledgement--among both reader and author--that the work is make-believe. Children's literature is rife with fantasy. Think of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are or Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth, or even Dr. Seuss. Those of us who are fans of fantasy fiction probably grew up reading things books like those, or having them read to us. In some ways, reading fantasy fiction feeds our imagination with the same sense of wonder we experienced reading those books as children. Reading fantasy fiction keeps at least a part of our soul from growing up. Many people confuse fantasy and science fiction--with good reason. See my article on science fiction for a more detailed discussion.
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