The Shape of Fantasy is an in-depth look at Heroic Epic Fantasy. It depicts structural and narrative patterns with models stemming from science and philosophy. Although Fantasy Fiction is generally defined by its impossibility, Fantasy Fiction not an illogical form. It is, in fact, governed by a sense of rules and structure, one that reflects our current understanding of space-time and cosmology. These models are an integral part of the structure of Heroic Epic Fantasy itself. Thus, this book introduces new ways of perceiving current productions of the Fantasy genre. In doing so, it also explores how Fantasy Fiction exhibits a conscious awareness of its own form.
The Shape of Fantasy is an in-depth look at Heroic Epic Fantasy. It depicts structural and narrative patterns with models stemming from science and philosophy. Although Fantasy Fiction is generally defined by its impossibility, Fantasy Fiction not an illogical form. It is, in fact, governed by a sense of rules and structure, one that reflects our current understanding of space-time and cosmology. These models are an integral part of the structure of Heroic Epic Fantasy itself. Thus, this book introduces new ways of perceiving current productions of the Fantasy genre. In doing so, it also explores how Fantasy Fiction exhibits a conscious awareness of its own form.
Fiction. Drama. Literary Nonfiction. Film. Asian & Asian American Studies. Women's Studies. Part exegesis on Nobuhiko Obayashi's film HOUSE and part meditation on the ineffable specters that inhabit homes and ancestral histories, FANTASY is a daughter's story of her Vietnamese mother and their twin journeys towards belonging with one another and in the world. Where exilic, inherited memory encounters its limits, FANTASY reaches towards cult cinematic atmospheres, irreverent flowers, pop culture, and photographs with no images, making for a reading experience like no other. "Schreiber uses the fabric of cinema and horror to quasi-measure the length and width of her pre-adolescent and adolescent consciousness. It's a GORGEOUS dress that the ghost in her psyche demands that it wears before falling into ash. Here, in these immolatable, scriptive dialogues with all of her consanguineous, anecdotal, exegetical selves ('who become shoes without feet that walk back and forth' in a house that eats like hungry ghosts), her psyche is cut, recut, uncut, though not forgotten, un-linearly and nonchalantly and numerously, by her relationship to film and her relationship with her Vietnamese mother, surrogated mother in grandmother(s) and auntie(s). ... As Kim-Anh Schreiber seeks closure with the uncloseable, we see an acutely talented scholar and inventive memoirist." --Vi Khi Nao. "'Schreiber, the daughter of a Vietnamese refugee and a German immigrant, combines recognizable modes--memoir, criticism, dramatic play script--into something as uncategorizable as the film she deploys throughout the book as muse and foil: Nobuhiko Obayashi's 1977 post-Hiroshima 'horror-comedy' HOUSE, in which generations of women are trapped together in a haunted house. Beginning with extended considerations of the instability of memory ('an evocative curator'), of the 'impossible problem of drawing a picture,' and of the pull to use projection and doubling as bridges across gaps in experience and understanding, FANTASY finally resolves into a flickering, unstable but vivid portrait of a mother and daughter both separated and bonded by history, violence, human fallibility, and love." --Anna Moschovakis
In Cold War-era Baltimore, a government research facility receives an amphibious man captured in the Amazon, and a stirring romance unfolds between him and a mute janitor who uses sign language to communicate.
The Shape of My Name by Nino Cipri is a time travel story about what it means to truly claim yourself. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Grotesques, angels, Beast-Man, and the Medusa are among the marvelous cast of characters analyzed in this volume. Originally presented at the 7th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts held in 1986, these essays are stimulating responses by scholars to a range of creative works by Mark Strand, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Kafka, Tolkein, Henry James, Julio Cortazar, Sherwood Anderson, Ursula Le Guin, I.B. Singer, Joyce, and others. Examining both mainstream and fantasy literature from many nations, the authors zero-in on the myriad shapes of the fantastic and study the world of SF and film. Five sections treat the fantastic from various enlightening perspectives and seven figures illustrate the essays' provocative theses. In Part I, Discovery and Interpretation, five authors sleuth out surprising elements of fantasy in poetry, short fiction, and a neo-Romantic fairy tale. Also in Part I, an inquiry is made of fantasy in the post-modernist movement. The Inexplicable Reality of Part II refers to deaths that are anything but terminal and four essays chronicle fantastic occurrences whose scientific rationale is tenuous at best. The fifth article traces the elusiveness of fantasy in a number of authors and works. Beast-Man, angels, the Medusa, and other Marvelous Beings are the subject of six essays in Part III. In Part IV, Fantasy in Symbiosis with other Forms, six essays consider the combination of fantasy with murder mystery, with taoism, with the symbolism of the tarot, with Freudian dreams, and with other genres. In the final section, From Fantasy to Science Fiction: Critical Considerations, essays address fantasy and Science Fiction in film, present a discussion between 2 critics of science fiction, and view the history and development of the contemporary SF novel. Series Editor Marshall B. Tymn's selected bibliography of criticism on the fantastic supplements the bibliographies that follow each essay and completes this remarkable work: fascinating reading for generalists; a necessity for students and scholars, aestheticians and critics of the fantasy and SF genres in literature, film, and art.
Worlds can exist without stories, but fantasy stories cannot exist without a vibrant and enthralling world. But what makes a good fantasy world? Be you a top-down planner, a bottom-up pantser, or a fantasy fan experiencing the worldbuilding from the inside-out, this comprehensive guide has you covered. Adopting a "tools not rules" approach, you will discover dozens of worldbuilding strategies, including: Ineffective, effective, and inspired worldbuilding. Designing comprehensive magic systems. The four Cs of worldbuilding and how to use them. The ins and outs of immersion. Enhancing the audience experience with fantasy conceits. Also featuring: Case studies from famous worldbuilders. Map design 101. Survey results showing what audiences want. Answers to these questions and more were once scattered throughout the realms, but have finally been compiled and synthesized for fantasy fans and authors alike.
FEATURING GREG EGAN * YOON HA LEE * NEIL GAIMAN * E LILY YU * K J PARKER * GEOFF RYMAN * M BENNARDO * RAMEZ NAAM * TED CHIANG * PRIYA SHARMA * RICHARD PARKS * LAVIE TIDHAR * THOMAS OLDE HEUVELT * BENJANUN SRIDUANGKAEW * ELEANOR ARNASON * IAN R MACLEOD * SOFIA SAMATAR * AN OWOMOYELA * KARIN TIDBECK * MADELINE ASHBY * CAITLÍN R KIERNAN * ROBERT REED * IAN MCDONALD * VAL NOLAN From the inner realms of humanity to the far reaches of space, these are the science fiction and fantasy tales that are shaping the genre and the way we think about the future. Multi-award winning editor Jonathan Strahan continues to shine a light on the very best writing, featuring both established authors and exciting new talents. Within you will find twenty-eight incredible tales, showing the ever growing depth and diversity that science fiction and fantasy continues to enjoy. These are the brightest stars in our firmament, lighting the way to a future filled with astonishing stories about the way we are, and the way we could be.
First in-depth study of the use of landscape in fantasy literature Winner of the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Myth and Fantasy Studies (2016) Fantasy worlds are never mere backdrops. They are an integral part of the work, and refuse to remain separate from other elements. These worlds combine landscape with narrative logic by incorporating alternative rules about cause and effect or physical transformation. They become actors in the drama—interacting with the characters, offering assistance or hindrance, and making ethical demands. In Here Be Dragons, Stefan Ekman provides a wide-ranging survey of the ubiquitous fantasy map as the point of departure for an in-depth discussion of what such maps can tell us about what is important in the fictional worlds and the stories that take place there. With particular focus on J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Ekman shows how fantasy settings deserve serious attention from both readers and critics. Includes insightful readings of works by Steven Brust, Garth Nix, Robert Holdstock, Terry Pratchett, Charles de Lint, China Miéville, Patricia McKillip, Tim Powers, Lisa Goldstein, Steven R. Donaldson, Robert Jordan, and Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess.
