I don't know if this has been discussed before, so sorry if I opened another thread about it. What's the essential difference between a work of fiction and fantasy? I know that fantasy is considered a sub genre of fiction, and that fantasy usually is fiction, but in practice, this is not so clear. It's also generally accepted that fantasy uses supernatural elements, that is, magic and supernatural beings. So, if my work, for example, has no supernatural beings (such as dragons, orcs, etc) and no magic, but is set in a fictional world (a la Tolkien) should it be considered just fiction or fantasy too?
This is an issue with my WIP. Normal humans. Normal laws of physics. Completely invented world. There might be a thread of supernatural, or it might just be self-delusion and drugs. I'm calling it fantasy, and I think it is fantasy, but I still feel the desire for a sub-genre term.
I think that a fiction work with (some) elements of fantasy should not automatically be considered fantasy. Science fiction genre has no such problem, it's clearly defined. For example, we also have the Epic fiction genre, but sometimes it's called High fantasy... very vague.
Genres are primarily a marketing tool, really. You can't expect it to be perfectly descriptive. I try to not stress too much over what counts as what genre, because it can really come down to one editor's decision what something ends up marketed as. That said, yeah, fantasy is a subset of fiction, and it has many many many subsets underneath it. If you don't have orcs or magic, etc, but you've got a pseudo-medieval setting, maybe it's more of an adventure novel. Maybe it's a political thriller in that pseudo-medieval setting, or a murder mystery, or whatever. One of my WIPs has a low-fantasy setting, but the plot is more mystery- and romance-influenced - it misses a lot of the usual qualifying fantasy tropes. That's the kind of thing you have to look at, I suppose.
You're right. It's a pseudo-medieval setting with elements of horror and dark fantasy maybe. My intention was to create a novel set in a fictional environment, but with a focus on investigating social fabric of society and how it influences characters and the way they interact with each other. I deliberately try to avoid classic fantasy elements and focus on society and politics.
For me, fantasy just means that the story takes place in a world other than our own, not in the sense of land masses and such, but in the sense that it's outside the laws and/or reality of our world (example: The Lord of the Rings has magic, goblins, etc., which the real world does not have) Fiction, on the other hand takes place in our world, or within the laws of our world, but never actually happened. (This is just my opinion, the actual definitions of said genres may be completely different then what I've said, so take it as a grain of salt if you wish )
Tolkien stated that he imagined Middle Earth as the history of our own world, and not some place on another planet. In a sense, it was a fictional mythology/history of our own world. Most works of fantasy/fiction that I've read functioned under normal laws of physics and reality, and merely substituted real history/geography, etc, for an invented one. This doesn't mean they've escaped the fundamental principles that function in a "real" world.
Yes, I know Tolkien said that Middle Earth was a history of our own world (I'm quite a big Tolkien fan myself ) but the thing that, in my opinion, makes it "fantasy" is the magic, orcs, elves and everything else that doesn't/never did exist in the real world.
True, though, Tolkien borrowed heavily from folk tales and Nordic (and partly Celtic) lore. His works are definitively fantasy, I agree. Nowadays, when I hear the word 'fantasy' I always imagine YA books, orcs, dragons and leather wearing heroes... Of course, it's way more than that, but I've developed a certain distaste of the genre because of it.
Yes, I can definitely see what you mean. Many people think for a book to be "fantasy" it has to have many of the popular fantasy tropes (such as elves, orcs, dragons, knights, etc.) which is just not true*. As I stated before, I believe "fantasy" just means it takes place outside of our world or outside the laws/rules of our world. Another thing I think many people mistake about fantasy is that it must take place int he past, or in a time/world without technology, which is not the case in my opinion. *Although I do love a good classic fantasy story, and I don't mind many of the popular tropes either
