Fantasy in Film, Television and Literature
I have extensively covered Science Fiction in two other genres including (but not limited to):
Romance (aka 'chick lit', which can also cross arbitrary boundaries). I will not attempt to discuss this genre mostly because I don't know anything about it. Partly because my personal experience in that regard did not lead to the required happy endings. Mostly due to my own ignorance in terms of this subject: reading Playboy under the covers was not much in the way of sex education, growing up. My Quaker mother was opposed to all matters sexual, alas (this cannot be generalized about Quakers, however). So I had to learn about it in the back seats of cars (or front seats, for that matter) as a rebellious teenager--a real life Rebel Without a Cause. But without Natalie Wood.
I managed (barely) to graduate from high school, went to a liberal arts college in the Midwest, pined for my h.s. girlfriend, transferred to a big university back East to be closer, got ditched by my h.s. girlfriend, and so on. Later on one marriage plus one marriage = two divorces. Not a good yarn: more of a cautionary tale, in my case. Except I did manage to raise a son, mostly as a single parent, without inflicting too much damage. He was a good son, and now--grown up and living and working in I.T. in San Francisco with an Indian g.f.--he offers evidence that I at least did one thing right, post-divorce.
Actually, in my further self defense, both of my exes (and their respective daughters--not mine) and I have remained friends.
So, with apologies, moving on to another genre (with numerous sub-genres once again) I offer Fantasy. Fantasy, interestingly (at least to me) had it's roots in romance. It began with the Arthurian legend, with Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (c.1408–1471). Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726) was at least partial fantasy (the dwarves who captured him were not exactly realistic).
The Age of Enlightenment (aka The Age of Reason) began in the 18th Century, oddly with the Gothic novel.
George MacDonald's Phantastes (1858) was considered the first modern fantasy novel written for adults. Other early fantasy novels include The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) and Peter Pan (1911).
Nothing, however, could compare to J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
The Hobbit, written in 1937, was a massive success with not only it's targeted children's audience, but with adults as well (including yours truly, although not until much later).
This was a fantasy lover's wet dream, with lusty warriors, fair maidens, ships and cannons, and of course, fire-breathing dragons. Never pleasant, to say the least (except to brave trainers, such as the aforementioned fair maiden).
Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, essentially picking up where The Hobbit left off would be his masterpiece work--a trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring, then The Two Towers, and climatically, The Return of the King.
Tolkien has been accused of a dearth of strong female characters, but there are two: a faerie princess, who is leader of her clan, and I royal princess, who will marry the king when he returns, and goes out to join the battle to bring him home against the amassed armies of Sauron.
The Game of Thrones series has been a smash hit on HBO, along with several film adaptations of fantasy novels such as The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia.
Lord of the Rings, which took Tolkien until 1954 to complete, was again greeted with huge success. (On a visit to the British Library a few years ago, literally the first thing a visitor saw, emblazoned on the wall, was a quote from Lord of the Rings: Not all who wander are lost.
The 1990's started off with a crash and a bang with George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (the basis of the American fantasy drama television series Game of Thrones).
Another huge series arrived in the late '90's, with J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, which have become the best selling book series of all time. And the Harry Potter series has been another huge success on film with the Harry Potter film series). I suspect J.K. Rowling knew what she was doing and planned it that way (and to think she was on welfare in Edinburgh when she submitted her first manuscript to a publisher--the rest being history, of course).
E.C.
Romance (aka 'chick lit', which can also cross arbitrary boundaries). I will not attempt to discuss this genre mostly because I don't know anything about it. Partly because my personal experience in that regard did not lead to the required happy endings. Mostly due to my own ignorance in terms of this subject: reading Playboy under the covers was not much in the way of sex education, growing up. My Quaker mother was opposed to all matters sexual, alas (this cannot be generalized about Quakers, however). So I had to learn about it in the back seats of cars (or front seats, for that matter) as a rebellious teenager--a real life Rebel Without a Cause. But without Natalie Wood.
I managed (barely) to graduate from high school, went to a liberal arts college in the Midwest, pined for my h.s. girlfriend, transferred to a big university back East to be closer, got ditched by my h.s. girlfriend, and so on. Later on one marriage plus one marriage = two divorces. Not a good yarn: more of a cautionary tale, in my case. Except I did manage to raise a son, mostly as a single parent, without inflicting too much damage. He was a good son, and now--grown up and living and working in I.T. in San Francisco with an Indian g.f.--he offers evidence that I at least did one thing right, post-divorce.
Actually, in my further self defense, both of my exes (and their respective daughters--not mine) and I have remained friends.
So, with apologies, moving on to another genre (with numerous sub-genres once again) I offer Fantasy. Fantasy, interestingly (at least to me) had it's roots in romance. It began with the Arthurian legend, with Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (c.1408–1471). Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726) was at least partial fantasy (the dwarves who captured him were not exactly realistic).
The Age of Enlightenment (aka The Age of Reason) began in the 18th Century, oddly with the Gothic novel.
George MacDonald's Phantastes (1858) was considered the first modern fantasy novel written for adults. Other early fantasy novels include The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) and Peter Pan (1911).
Nothing, however, could compare to J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
The Hobbit, written in 1937, was a massive success with not only it's targeted children's audience, but with adults as well (including yours truly, although not until much later).
This was a fantasy lover's wet dream, with lusty warriors, fair maidens, ships and cannons, and of course, fire-breathing dragons. Never pleasant, to say the least (except to brave trainers, such as the aforementioned fair maiden).
Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, essentially picking up where The Hobbit left off would be his masterpiece work--a trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring, then The Two Towers, and climatically, The Return of the King.
Tolkien has been accused of a dearth of strong female characters, but there are two: a faerie princess, who is leader of her clan, and I royal princess, who will marry the king when he returns, and goes out to join the battle to bring him home against the amassed armies of Sauron.
The Game of Thrones series has been a smash hit on HBO, along with several film adaptations of fantasy novels such as The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia.
Lord of the Rings, which took Tolkien until 1954 to complete, was again greeted with huge success. (On a visit to the British Library a few years ago, literally the first thing a visitor saw, emblazoned on the wall, was a quote from Lord of the Rings: Not all who wander are lost.
The 1990's started off with a crash and a bang with George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (the basis of the American fantasy drama television series Game of Thrones).
Another huge series arrived in the late '90's, with J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, which have become the best selling book series of all time. And the Harry Potter series has been another huge success on film with the Harry Potter film series). I suspect J.K. Rowling knew what she was doing and planned it that way (and to think she was on welfare in Edinburgh when she submitted her first manuscript to a publisher--the rest being history, of course).
E.C.
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