wizards, dragons, spells, necromancers, witches, elves, incantations, fairies, more dragons; zombies, werewolves, evil spirits, vampires, poltergeists, revenants, spooks, wraiths; black magic, white magic, undecided magic, magic, magic I used to love witches and dragons and knights; even helped write a book about them. But now I miss ordinary mortal humans, dogs and pigeons. Do you think writers have become so disgusted with our world that they would rather abandon reality altogether than write about it?
No. I think a lot of new writers are inspired by Harry Potter and Game of Thrones and want to build their own little magical world. I was inspired by horror and realist fiction. Coincidentally, I only write horrible realist fiction.
... Or occasionally maybe really horrible? (Sorry...) I agree with Aaron's assessment and will add that there's a massive popularity factor involved as well. The magical fantasy stories sell like hotcakes so to many young writers they seem to be the thing to do.
Fantasy is fundamentally an escapist genre, so I guess the answer is yes for those writers; or rather, they never felt like writing about the real world in the first place. I have no real desire to write about the real world, but I think that a lot of "magic systems" are overdone. I much prefer soft magic in books--it's much more fantastical that way. It deepens the sense of wonder that for me is at the root of the fantasy genre. I group fantasy and historical fiction in the same broad category, because I read them with the same desire for escape. But the great books in any genre center around mortal humans and pigeons, so to speak. It's just how the stone is set.
