Words from a Wide Reader of Fantasy
I have always been a reader of fantasy, especially young adult fantasy works. For me, something about a world where magic and non-human beings exist is extremely appealing. My love of fantasy is possibly why I am discouraged when I hear people saying that they do not understand the difference between fantasy and science fiction. They both take place in fantastical alternate worlds that couldn’t exist, right?
To better define the differences between science fiction and fantasy, Orson Scott Card says, “if the story is set in a universe that follows the same rules as our own, it’s science fiction. If it’s set in a universe that doesn’t follow our rules, it’s fantasy” (Card 22). In other words, if the world uses some kind of magic or includes fantastical beasts other than aliens, it is fantasy. If it uses the laws of physics and general mechanics to create a world that could be plausible if science were to advance more, it is science fiction.
Unfortunately, many people do not tend to consider fantasy to be a viable literary genre to study. I can’t count the number of times I have heard people explaining that they couldn’t understand any of that “fantasy stuff,” dismissing it by saying that they read “real” literature. To this, I have to ask, what makes other genres more viable forms of literature than fantasy? I suspect that it is all in how a person evaluates what they read.
In middle and high school, we all read and discuss many different works of fiction, some which have no genre aside from fiction, and works like Lord of the Flies that fall under categories such as Dystopian literature. We learn how to evaluate these based on elements of plot structure, character development, symbols, and even writing conventions. For some, it may be difficult to imagine evaluating fantasy works in this same manner.
In Young Adult Literature: Exploration, Evaluation, and Appreciation, Katherine Bucher and M. Lee Manning discuss elements that can be used to evaluate fantasy works in much the same way as the canonical and general fiction works that commonly surface in classroom environments.
Bucher and Manning suggest evaluating things like whether the rules in the world remain consistent throughout the work; whether the descriptions are clear and vivid enough to create a world that could arguably exist; whether or not the work is original, or just another cardboard cutout; if the realism in the descriptions roots the fantasy in human nature; and whether there are worth-while themes such as good vs. evil, coming of age, and heroism (Bucher and Manning 67).
Bucher and Manning go on to suggest that fantasy can even be used as a tool to explore the depth of characters or social systems and how they operate within a book. In their example, they create a semantic map of the relationships between characters from Harry Potter, starting with broad labels such as “Dursley family” and “fellow students,” and narrowing it down to specific characters from there (Bucher and Manning 68). There are teachers out there who actively use fantasy literature for in-class exploration of various themes, literary concepts, and ideas.
Not only is it important to recognize that fantasy has its uses in academic settings, but also to recognize that when it comes to literature, young adults like to read works that they can connect with. Looking at popular young adult works like Looking for Alaska, by John Green, or Stephen Chbosky's Perks of Being a Wallflower, young adults like reading books that relate to them in some way. Many popular young adult novels focus on young adult main characters for this reason, and themes like school, drugs, sex, coming of age, first love, and bullying come up in quite a few because these are elements that young adults may be encountering in their lives.
Fantasy is no exception to this need for connection within a story. Something that is strikingly lacking in many lists of popular young adult literature are works which include elements of diversity. This doesn't mean that young adults within niches of diversity do not read, but rather might suggest that there are not many books for them to connect with. For young adult fantasy to reach a wide audience, it is important to include works with diversity in them in order to extend a welcoming hand to young readers of color, physical or neurological difference or disability, of the GLBTQI spectrum, or any number of other diversities. These readers deserve to feel as represented in every genre of literature as anybody else.
The purpose of the following essays is to further explore the literary value of young adult fantasy literature by taking a look at how some of these works represent or display diversity.
