(no subject)
Saturday, February 27th, 2010 10:36 amSo, anent the current kerfuffle about Why are there no Jewish fantasy writers? or rather, why are there no Jewish Tolkiens and Lewises--
I was a bit startled that Weingrad thought Narnia was High Fantasy when AFAI'mC Narnia is a children's series. Yes, it's fantasy, but all it has in common with High Fantasy is a general northern European and specifically English cultural background. Otherwise-- well, its focus by me is other than dragons and derring-do. Talking animals, guy, are a staple of British kidslit. Or possibly you haven't read The Wind in the Willows (full disclosure: neither have I) or Winnie-the-Pooh. (Should note that when I was a kid, which was when Narnia was written, most fantasy was to be found in children's books, and not much elsewhere. E Nesbit, Edward Eager, Hilda Lewis, Philippa Pearce, Allison Uttley, and a little later Susan Cooper. It was the late 60s before anything else started coming out, and the first stuff still came from English authors.)
For me Tolkien was succeeded not by any of the Tolkien D&D clones, but by Moorcock, who had the virtue of doing far away and not-earth and occasionally not-human. Moorcock was succeeded in quick order by Fritz Leiber, with his city settings, and Leiber by Avram Davison, et voila. Three degrees of separation merely and we hit a major Jewish fantasist. And one could make an argument for Leiber's mindset being as much Jewish as Christian, because in western terms, once you're into cityscapes you're into Jewish territory.
( Gold in them thar hills )
I was a bit startled that Weingrad thought Narnia was High Fantasy when AFAI'mC Narnia is a children's series. Yes, it's fantasy, but all it has in common with High Fantasy is a general northern European and specifically English cultural background. Otherwise-- well, its focus by me is other than dragons and derring-do. Talking animals, guy, are a staple of British kidslit. Or possibly you haven't read The Wind in the Willows (full disclosure: neither have I) or Winnie-the-Pooh. (Should note that when I was a kid, which was when Narnia was written, most fantasy was to be found in children's books, and not much elsewhere. E Nesbit, Edward Eager, Hilda Lewis, Philippa Pearce, Allison Uttley, and a little later Susan Cooper. It was the late 60s before anything else started coming out, and the first stuff still came from English authors.)
For me Tolkien was succeeded not by any of the Tolkien D&D clones, but by Moorcock, who had the virtue of doing far away and not-earth and occasionally not-human. Moorcock was succeeded in quick order by Fritz Leiber, with his city settings, and Leiber by Avram Davison, et voila. Three degrees of separation merely and we hit a major Jewish fantasist. And one could make an argument for Leiber's mindset being as much Jewish as Christian, because in western terms, once you're into cityscapes you're into Jewish territory.
( Gold in them thar hills )
