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Artistic analysis of Fantasy and Sci-Fi?
- Erik Twice
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Any recommendations?
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Erik Twice wrote: I've been thinking a lot about gaining a deeper understanding of art, specially as far as gaming is concerned and I realized I haven't actually checked out any serious artistic analysis or books on the history of fantasy and science fiction. Sure, there are the ocassional articles here and there, the kind I can write as an amateur but what I'm looking for is for something more academic by actual literates.
Any recommendations?
Frederic Jameson's Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions
There is a small field engaging with science fiction and fantasy. I'm not terribly familiar with it, but can do more digging if you're interested.
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Erik Twice wrote: I've been thinking a lot about gaining a deeper understanding of art, specially as far as gaming is concerned and I realized I haven't actually checked out any serious artistic analysis or books on the history of fantasy and science fiction. Sure, there are the ocassional articles here and there, the kind I can write as an amateur but what I'm looking for is for something more academic by actual literates.
Any recommendations?
www.amazon.co.uk/Science-Fiction-The-Cri...science+fiction+adam
I might even have this upstairs, and I could send it to you if you want to pay for the postage. But surely you could find it cheaply over there anyway
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I went to WorldCon when it was in Glasgow. I sat in on some of the discussions. The only thing I remember is that they recommended reading The Heat Death of the Universe by Pamela Zoline.
The BBC did a series about Brittish SciFi a few years back. Here's a link. Be warned it is typical BBC discussion of books that will give away every plot twist and ending.
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The introductions in the following books are also quite interesting and contain a great deal of information. The stories contained in the books are good as well:
The Fantastic Imagination: An Anthology of High Fantasy
Masterpieces of Fantasy and Wonder
Masterpieces of Fantasy and Enchantment
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What I DO remember is being very frustrated that the only Fantays authors who ever received any critical attention were Tolkien, LeGuin, and C.S. Lewis. That was it. Those same three, over and over and over. Maybe that's changed since then though. I'd think current authors like George RR Martin, China Mieville, Neil Gaiman, and Steven Erikson are "meaty" enough to warrant some critical thought.
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- Matt Thrower
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Ultimately, fantasy writing is rooted in ancient mythology. And although it's getting on a bit now, the writings of Joseph Campbell remain the seminal analysis of overarching patterns and archetypes in mythology. There's a spanking recent reprint of his collected works called "Hero with a Thousand Faces", although I think it's hardback only at the moment.
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I found it worth reading, even if I didn't necessarily agree with much of it.
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- Erik Twice
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Basically, what I'm looking for here is an explanation on how the genre evolved, when it became cynical and thought robots would kill you and when it was optimistic and thought we would reach transcendence. Or how The Lord of the Rings impacted the genre when it was first released. I simply know nothing of the genres beyond the books, I can't place them into a timeline not do I understand how one lead to the other. So yeah, perhaps I'm more interested in the history of it instead of artistic analysis per se.
The Road to Middle Earth sounds quite awesome, though
I really appreciate the offer but as you say, it would be better for me to find a cheap copy anyways.ldsdbomber wrote: I might even have this upstairs, and I could send it to you if you want to pay for the postage. But surely you could find it cheaply over there anyway
Thank you
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