Fairy Tales vs. Contempo Fantasy

[coughee]

So I know they're different literary forms, but would you say that old school fairy tales are still considered fantasy fiction, or that they gave rise to fantasy fiction in our modern era? Discuss....

[redwall_hp]

I think it depends on who you ask. Personally, I use "fantasy" as an all-encompassing term for books with some element of magic to them, then I use more specific terms such as "high fantasy" or "contemporary fantasy" where appropriate.

I think Lord of the Rings is probably more responsible for the rise of mainstream adult fantasy novels than traditional fairy tales, though it depends on the sub-genre really.

[coughee]

Yeah that was my main curiosity. Tolkien pretty much laid the groundwork for a lot of our current fantasy...but I was thinking in the grander scheme of things, fairy tales were probably any culture's first exposure to elements of magic or fantastical happenings. I guess modern fairy tales didn't appear until near the end of the 18th century, and Tolkien's output wasn't too long afterwards, so maybe they are almost contemporaries in a way? no?

[redwall_hp]

I don't know.

I'd still say it comes less from fairy tales, but from much more ancient legends and folklore. Fairy tales are fairly new compared to legends of figures such as Scathatch, Heracles, Merlin and Arthur, or the like. Celtic folklore especially plays a major part in modern fantasy.

P.S. I finally read the second Alchemyst book.

[coughee]

Hey cool...what'd you think?

That's a valid point with old[er] school folklore, but isn't that where fairy tales originated from? Remember the first incarnations of our Disney-fied fairy tales we have today were often violent and tragic and are traced back to far beyond their late 18th century mainstream acceptance. In the long run, ancient mythology and folklore will always pre-date, but I think fairy tales deserve their due.

[redwall_hp]

Hey cool...what'd you think?

Better than the first one. It was a little slow getting started (the plot just seemed to drag at first) but it got better. Overall I liked it, but it ended too soon. And I still want to interdimensionally kick Josh and Sophie for *still* not trusting Flamel...

That's a valid point with old[er] school folklore, but isn't that where fairy tales originated from? Remember the first incarnations of our Disney-fied fairy tales we have today were often violent and tragic and are traced back to far beyond their late 18th century mainstream acceptance. In the long run, ancient mythology and folklore will always pre-date, but I think fairy tales deserve their due.

Maybe they were more "violent and tragic," but they still were a bit cheesy (for want of a better word) and simple, weren't they? Maybe it's just me... I haven't put much time into the study of fairy tales myself, but I tend to be more interested in folklore myself. It seems to have more substance to me, and you can weave it into a story much more seamlessly.

[coughee]

Yeah they were still basically little morality plays for kids, good point. Maybe not across the board, but since we strayed to the topic of YA fantasy, certainly there you can see a more direct fairy-talish influence.

[redwall_hp]

Yeah they were still basically little morality plays for kids, good point. Maybe not across the board, but since we strayed to the topic of YA fantasy, certainly there you can see a more direct fairy-talish influence.

Umm, it depends. Maybe in some, but not so much in what I tend to read.

[coughee]

Fair enough. I linked a few titles to prove my point. Thanks for chatting.

Tithe: A Modern Fairy Tale by Holly Black
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
Feathers by Abra Ebner
The Fairy Godmother Academy by Jan Bozarth
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik