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24.107.19.44
Current Version
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A very loose definition is the \
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A very loose definition is the \\\"amount of fantasy\\\" in a setting. Many cited examples DO NOT QUALIFY. Final Fantasy VII is an egregious offender since the setting bleeds with impossible technologies and magic. Bluntly speaking, these are FANTASTIC elements. It also doesn\\\'t have anything to do with it being \\\"dark\\\" or \\\"edgy.\\\" It isn\\\'t simply pessimistic for its own sake.
Along this vein, magic in low-fantasy isn\\\'t strictly of the black magic or Lovecraftian variety. And it\\\'s important to hammer home this distinction.
For example Vance\\\'s Dying Earth, doesn\\\'t treat magic as anything particularly vile so much as a lost technological legacy. This a big theme in Dying Earth as the whole point is that people have gotten complacent and largely don\\\'t care how the magic works anymore, they just know that it gives power. It\\\'s very much about vanished glories and mankind\\\'s sense of fatalism in the face of the end times.
Along this vein, magic in low-fantasy isn\\\'t strictly of the black magic or Lovecraftian variety. And it\\\'s important to hammer home this distinction.
For example Vance\\\'s Dying Earth, doesn\\\'t treat magic as anything particularly vile so much as a lost technological legacy. This a big theme in Dying Earth as the whole point is that people have gotten complacent and largely don\\\'t care how the magic works anymore, they just know that it gives power. It\\\'s very much about vanished glories and mankind\\\'s sense of fatalism in the face of the end times.
Changed line(s) 3 from:
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A very loose definition is the \
to:
A very loose definition is the \\\"amount of fantasy\\\" in a setting. Many cited examples DO NOT QUALIFY. Final Fantasy VII is an egregious offender since the setting bleeds with impossible technologies and magic. Bluntly speaking, these are FANTASTIC elements.
It also doesn\\\'t have anything to do with it being \\\"dark\\\" or \\\"edgy.\\\" It isn\\\'t simply pessimistic for its own sake.
It also doesn\\\'t have anything to do with it being \\\"dark\\\" or \\\"edgy.\\\" It isn\\\'t simply pessimistic for its own sake.
Changed line(s) 3 from:
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A very loose definition is the \
to:
A very loose definition is the \\\"amount of fantasy\\\" in a setting. Many cited examples DO NOT QUALIFY. Final Fantasy VII is an egregious offender since the setting bleeds with impossible technologies and magic. Bluntly speaking, these are FANTASTIC elements.
It also doesn\\\'t have anything to do with it being \\\"dark\\\" or \\\"edgy.\\\" It isn\\\'t simply pessimistic as it is cynical. And no, those two things are not the same either.
It also doesn\\\'t have anything to do with it being \\\"dark\\\" or \\\"edgy.\\\" It isn\\\'t simply pessimistic as it is cynical. And no, those two things are not the same either.
Changed line(s) 3 from:
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A very loose definition is the \
to:
A very loose definition is the \\\"amount of fantasy\\\" in a setting. Many cited examples DO NOT QUALIFY. Final Fantasy VII is an egregious offender since the setting bleeds with impossible technologies and magic. Bluntly speaking, these are FANTASTIC elements.
Changed line(s) 3 from:
n
A very loose definition is the \
to:
A very loose definition is the \\\"amount of fantasy\\\" in a setting. Many cited examples DO NOT QUALIFY. Final Fantasy VII is an egregious offender since the setting bleeds with impossible technologies and magic. Bluntly speaking, these are FANTASTIC elements.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his self-respect, integrity or fierce willfulness for life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
I could place Watership Down very squarely into all the classical tropes associated with low-fantasy. It\\\'s low magic. And aside from talking animals and a bit of prophecy; there is very little fantasy. Most of the conflict is struggling against external forces: Man (as Cthulhu), predators (\\\"The Thousand Enemies\\\") and even the oppression of other rabbits.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful. Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were. And it may not even be about the heroism as it may be about what it means to be a person in such a world.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. Low fantasy often likes a story about people trying to claw their way into a better life; a kind of rags-to-riches tale.
Nobody questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can.
Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the style of a classical tragedy. That would actually be showing some creativity. And the best we are stuck with is fantasy as a \\\"world building\\\" exercise. How very dull.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
Is anything I\\\'ve offered part of the textbook literary criticism definition of \\\"low fantasy\\\"? No. But why the in God\\\'s balls would anybody pedantically insist upon it? There is an obvious divergence of contemporary fantasy from earlier low-fantasy works. It\\\'s a connection that\\\'s practically disregarded.
Could LOTR be \\\"low fantasy\\\"? Well not really. I\\\'d view it as more of a transitory work that reworked prior tropes to suit the tale it wanted to tell. The idea of a \\\"high fantasy\\\" strikes me as mostly a stereotype that descended from LOTR. Once that caught on, the instant-gratification hero-porn started turning up.
Song of Fire and Ice, from all I\\\'ve heard of it, sounds more like the bastard offspring of high and low fantasy. More like a political thriller or mob-tale thrown into a feudal setting. Neither category could really be said to apply since it is no longer part of the original climate that spawned its predecessors.
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his self-respect, integrity or fierce willfulness for life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
I could place Watership Down very squarely into all the classical tropes associated with low-fantasy. It\\\'s low magic. And aside from talking animals and a bit of prophecy; there is very little fantasy. Most of the conflict is struggling against external forces: Man (as Cthulhu), predators (\\\"The Thousand Enemies\\\") and even the oppression of other rabbits.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful. Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were. And it may not even be about the heroism as it may be about what it means to be a person in such a world.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. Low fantasy often likes a story about people trying to claw their way into a better life; a kind of rags-to-riches tale.
Nobody questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can.
Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the style of a classical tragedy. That would actually be showing some creativity. And the best we are stuck with is fantasy as a \\\"world building\\\" exercise. How very dull.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
Is anything I\\\'ve offered part of the textbook literary criticism definition of \\\"low fantasy\\\"? No. But why the in God\\\'s balls would anybody pedantically insist upon it? There is an obvious divergence of contemporary fantasy from earlier low-fantasy works. It\\\'s a connection that\\\'s practically disregarded.
Could LOTR be \\\"low fantasy\\\"? Well not really. I\\\'d view it as more of a transitory work that reworked prior tropes to suit the tale it wanted to tell. The idea of a \\\"high fantasy\\\" strikes me as mostly a stereotype that descended from LOTR. Once that caught on, the instant-gratification hero-porn started turning up.
Song of Fire and Ice, from all I\\\'ve heard of it, sounds more like the bastard offspring of high and low fantasy. More like a political thriller or mob-tale thrown into a feudal setting. Neither category could really be said to apply since it is no longer part of the original climate that spawned its predecessors.
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
Changed line(s) 3 from:
n
A very loose definition is the \
to:
A very loose definition is the \\\"amount of fantasy\\\" in a setting. Many cited examples DO NOT QUALIFY. Final Fantasy VII is an egregious offender since the setting bleeds with impossible technologies and magic. Bluntly speaking, these are FANTASTIC elements.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his fighting instinct and fierce willfulness to life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
I could place Watership Down very squarely into all the classical tropes associated with low-fantasy. It\\\'s low magic. And aside from talking animals and a bit of prophecy; there is very little fantasy. Most of the conflict is struggling against external forces: Man (as Cthulhu), predators (\\\"The Thousand Enemies\\\") and even the oppression of other rabbits.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful. Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were. And it may not even be about the heroism as it may be about what it means to be a person in such a world.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. Low fantasy often likes a story about people trying to claw their way into a better life; a kind of rags-to-riches tale.
Nobody questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can.
Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the style of a classical tragedy. That would actually be showing some creativity. And the best we are stuck with is fantasy as a \\\"world building\\\" exercise. How very dull.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
Is anything I\\\'ve offered part of the textbook literary criticism definition of \\\"low fantasy\\\"? No. But why the in God\\\'s balls would anybody pedantically insist upon it? There is an obvious divergence of contemporary fantasy from earlier low-fantasy works. It\\\'s a connection that\\\'s practically disregarded.
Could LOTR be \\\"low fantasy\\\"? Well not really. I\\\'d view it as more of a transitory work that reworked prior tropes to suit the tale it wanted to tell. The idea of a \\\"high fantasy\\\" strikes me as mostly a stereotype that descended from LOTR. Once that caught on, the instant-gratification hero-porn started turning up.
Song of Fire and Ice, from all I\\\'ve heard of it, sounds more like the bastard offspring of high and low fantasy. More like a political thriller or mob-tale thrown into a feudal setting. Neither category could really be said to apply since it is no longer part of the original climate that spawned its predecessors.
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his fighting instinct and fierce willfulness to life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
I could place Watership Down very squarely into all the classical tropes associated with low-fantasy. It\\\'s low magic. And aside from talking animals and a bit of prophecy; there is very little fantasy. Most of the conflict is struggling against external forces: Man (as Cthulhu), predators (\\\"The Thousand Enemies\\\") and even the oppression of other rabbits.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful. Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were. And it may not even be about the heroism as it may be about what it means to be a person in such a world.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. Low fantasy often likes a story about people trying to claw their way into a better life; a kind of rags-to-riches tale.
Nobody questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can.
Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the style of a classical tragedy. That would actually be showing some creativity. And the best we are stuck with is fantasy as a \\\"world building\\\" exercise. How very dull.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
Is anything I\\\'ve offered part of the textbook literary criticism definition of \\\"low fantasy\\\"? No. But why the in God\\\'s balls would anybody pedantically insist upon it? There is an obvious divergence of contemporary fantasy from earlier low-fantasy works. It\\\'s a connection that\\\'s practically disregarded.
Could LOTR be \\\"low fantasy\\\"? Well not really. I\\\'d view it as more of a transitory work that reworked prior tropes to suit the tale it wanted to tell. The idea of a \\\"high fantasy\\\" strikes me as mostly a stereotype that descended from LOTR. Once that caught on, the instant-gratification hero-porn started turning up.
Song of Fire and Ice, from all I\\\'ve heard of it, sounds more like the bastard offspring of high and low fantasy. More like a political thriller or mob-tale thrown into a feudal setting. Neither category could really be said to apply since it is no longer part of the original climate that spawned its predecessors.
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
Changed line(s) 3 from:
n
A very loose definition is the \
to:
A very loose definition is the \\\"amount of fantasy\\\" in a setting. Many cited examples DO NOT QUALIFY. Final Fantasy VII is an egregious offender since the setting bleeds with impossible technologies and magic. Bluntly speaking, these are FANTASTIC elements.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his fighting instinct and fierce willfulness to life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
I could place Watership Down very squarely into all the classical tropes associated with low-fantasy. It\\\'s low magic. And aside from talking animals and a bit of prophecy; there is very little fantasy. Most of the conflict is struggling against external forces: Man (as Cthulhu), predators (\\\"The Thousand Enemies\\\") and even the oppression of other rabbits.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful. Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were. And it may not even be about the heroism as it may be about what it means to be a person in such a world.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. Low fantasy often likes a story about people trying to claw their way into a better life; a kind of rags-to-riches tale.
Nobody questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can.
Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the style of a classical tragedy. That would actually be showing some creativity. And the best we are stuck with is fantasy as a \\\"world building\\\" exercise. How very dull.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
Is anything I\\\'ve offered part of the textbook literary criticism definition of \\\"low fantasy\\\"? No. But why the in God\\\'s balls would anybody pedantically insist upon it? There is an obvious divergence of contemporary fantasy from earlier low-fantasy works. It\\\'s a connection that\\\'s practically disregarded.
Could LOTR be \\\"low fantasy\\\"? Well not really. I\\\'d view it as more of a transitory work that reworked prior tropes to suit the tale it wanted to tell. The idea of a \\\"high fantasy\\\" strikes me as mostly a stereotype that descended from LOTR. Once that caught on, the instant-gratification hero-porn started turning up.
Song of Fire and Ice, from all I\\\'ve heard of it, sounds more like the bastard offspring of high and low fantasy. More like a political thriller or mob-tale thrown into a feudal setting. Neither category could really be said to apply since it could be best described as \\\"contemporary.\\\"
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his fighting instinct and fierce willfulness to life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
I could place Watership Down very squarely into all the classical tropes associated with low-fantasy. It\\\'s low magic. And aside from talking animals and a bit of prophecy; there is very little fantasy. Most of the conflict is struggling against external forces: Man (as Cthulhu), predators (\\\"The Thousand Enemies\\\") and even the oppression of other rabbits.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful. Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were. And it may not even be about the heroism as it may be about what it means to be a person in such a world.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. Low fantasy often likes a story about people trying to claw their way into a better life; a kind of rags-to-riches tale.
Nobody questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can.
Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the style of a classical tragedy. That would actually be showing some creativity. And the best we are stuck with is fantasy as a \\\"world building\\\" exercise. How very dull.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
Is anything I\\\'ve offered part of the textbook literary criticism definition of \\\"low fantasy\\\"? No. But why the in God\\\'s balls would anybody pedantically insist upon it? There is an obvious divergence of contemporary fantasy from earlier low-fantasy works. It\\\'s a connection that\\\'s practically disregarded.
Could LOTR be \\\"low fantasy\\\"? Well not really. I\\\'d view it as more of a transitory work that reworked prior tropes to suit the tale it wanted to tell. The idea of a \\\"high fantasy\\\" strikes me as mostly a stereotype that descended from LOTR. Once that caught on, the instant-gratification hero-porn started turning up.
Song of Fire and Ice, from all I\\\'ve heard of it, sounds more like the bastard offspring of high and low fantasy. More like a political thriller or mob-tale thrown into a feudal setting. Neither category could really be said to apply since it could be best described as \\\"contemporary.\\\"
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
Changed line(s) 3 from:
n
A very loose definition is the \
to:
A very loose definition is the \\\"amount of fantasy\\\" in a setting. Many cited examples DO NOT QUALIFY. Final Fantasy VII is an egregious offender since the setting bleeds with impossible technologies and magic. Bluntly speaking, these are FANTASTIC elements.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his fighting instinct and fierce willfulness to life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
I could place Watership Down very squarely into all the classical tropes associated with low-fantasy. It\\\'s low magic. And aside from talking animals and a bit of prophecy; there is very little fantasy. Most of the conflict is struggling against external forces: Man (as Cthulhu), predators (\\\"The Thousand Enemies\\\") and even the oppression of other rabbits.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful. Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were. And it may not even be about the heroism as it may be about what it means to be a person in such a world.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. Low fantasy often likes a story about people trying to claw their way into a better life; a kind of rags-to-riches tale.
Nobody questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can.
Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the style of a classical tragedy. That would actually be showing some creativity. And the best we are stuck with is fantasy as a \\\"world building\\\" exercise. How very dull.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
Is anything I\\\'ve offered part of the textbook literary criticism definition of \\\"low fantasy\\\"? No. But why the in God\\\'s balls would anybody pedantically insist upon it? There is an obvious divergence of contemporary fantasy from earlier low-fantasy works. It\\\'s a connection that\\\'s practically disregarded.
Could LOTR be \\\"low fantasy\\\"? Well not really. I\\\'d view it as more of a transitory work that reworked prior tropes to suit the tale it wanted to tell. The idea of a \\\"high fantasy\\\" strikes me as mostly a stereotype that descended from LOTR. Once that caught on, the instant-gratification hero-porn started turning up.
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his fighting instinct and fierce willfulness to life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
I could place Watership Down very squarely into all the classical tropes associated with low-fantasy. It\\\'s low magic. And aside from talking animals and a bit of prophecy; there is very little fantasy. Most of the conflict is struggling against external forces: Man (as Cthulhu), predators (\\\"The Thousand Enemies\\\") and even the oppression of other rabbits.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful. Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were. And it may not even be about the heroism as it may be about what it means to be a person in such a world.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. Low fantasy often likes a story about people trying to claw their way into a better life; a kind of rags-to-riches tale.
Nobody questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can.
Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the style of a classical tragedy. That would actually be showing some creativity. And the best we are stuck with is fantasy as a \\\"world building\\\" exercise. How very dull.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
Is anything I\\\'ve offered part of the textbook literary criticism definition of \\\"low fantasy\\\"? No. But why the in God\\\'s balls would anybody pedantically insist upon it? There is an obvious divergence of contemporary fantasy from earlier low-fantasy works. It\\\'s a connection that\\\'s practically disregarded.
Could LOTR be \\\"low fantasy\\\"? Well not really. I\\\'d view it as more of a transitory work that reworked prior tropes to suit the tale it wanted to tell. The idea of a \\\"high fantasy\\\" strikes me as mostly a stereotype that descended from LOTR. Once that caught on, the instant-gratification hero-porn started turning up.
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
Changed line(s) 3 from:
n
A very loose definition is the \
to:
A very loose definition is the \\\"amount of fantasy\\\" in a setting. Many cited examples DO NOT QUALIFY. Final Fantasy VII is an egregious offender since the setting bleeds with impossible technologies and magic. Bluntly speaking, these are FANTASTIC elements.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his fighting instinct and fierce willfulness to life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
I could place Watership Down very squarely into all the classical tropes associated with low-fantasy. It\\\'s low magic. And aside from talking animals and a bit of prophecy; there is very little fantasy. Most of the conflict is struggling against external forces: Man (as Cthulhu), predators (\\\"The Thousand Enemies\\\") and even the oppression of other rabbits.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful. Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were. And it may not even be about the heroism as it may be about what it means to be a person in such a world.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. Low fantasy often likes a story about people trying to claw their way into a better life; a kind of rags-to-riches tale.
Nobody questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can.
Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the style of a classical tragedy. That would actually be showing some creativity. And the best we are stuck with is fantasy as a \\\"world building\\\" exercise. How very dull.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
Is anything I\\\'ve offered part of the textbook literary criticism definition of \\\"low fantasy\\\"? No. But why the in God\\\'s balls would anybody pedantically insist upon it? There is an obvious divergence of contemporary fantasy from earlier low-fantasy works. It\\\'s a connection that\\\'s practically disregarded.
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his fighting instinct and fierce willfulness to life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
I could place Watership Down very squarely into all the classical tropes associated with low-fantasy. It\\\'s low magic. And aside from talking animals and a bit of prophecy; there is very little fantasy. Most of the conflict is struggling against external forces: Man (as Cthulhu), predators (\\\"The Thousand Enemies\\\") and even the oppression of other rabbits.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful. Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were. And it may not even be about the heroism as it may be about what it means to be a person in such a world.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. Low fantasy often likes a story about people trying to claw their way into a better life; a kind of rags-to-riches tale.
Nobody questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can.
Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the style of a classical tragedy. That would actually be showing some creativity. And the best we are stuck with is fantasy as a \\\"world building\\\" exercise. How very dull.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
Is anything I\\\'ve offered part of the textbook literary criticism definition of \\\"low fantasy\\\"? No. But why the in God\\\'s balls would anybody pedantically insist upon it? There is an obvious divergence of contemporary fantasy from earlier low-fantasy works. It\\\'s a connection that\\\'s practically disregarded.
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
Changed line(s) 3 from:
n
A very loose definition is the \
to:
A very loose definition is the \\\"amount of fantasy\\\" in a setting. Many cited examples DO NOT QUALIFY. Final Fantasy VII is an egregious offender since the setting bleeds with impossible technologies and magic. Bluntly speaking, these are FANTASTIC elements.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his fighting instinct and fierce willfulness to life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
I could place Watership Down very squarely into all the classical tropes associated with low-fantasy. It\\\'s low magic. And aside from talking animals and a bit of prophecy; there is very little fantasy. Most of the conflict is struggling against external forces: Man (as Cthulhu), predators (\\\"The Thousand Enemies\\\") and even the oppression of other rabbits.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful. Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were. And it may not even be about the heroism as it may be about what it means to be a person in such a world.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. Low fantasy often likes a story about people trying to claw their way into a better life; a kind of rags-to-riches tale.
Nobody questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can.
Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the style of a classical tragedy. That would actually be showing some creativity. And the best we are stuck with is fantasy as a \\\"world building\\\" exercise. How very dull.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
Is anything I\\\'ve offered part of the classic literary definition of \\\"low fantasy\\\"? No. But why the in God\\\'s balls would anybody pedantically insist upon it?
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his fighting instinct and fierce willfulness to life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
I could place Watership Down very squarely into all the classical tropes associated with low-fantasy. It\\\'s low magic. And aside from talking animals and a bit of prophecy; there is very little fantasy. Most of the conflict is struggling against external forces: Man (as Cthulhu), predators (\\\"The Thousand Enemies\\\") and even the oppression of other rabbits.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful. Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were. And it may not even be about the heroism as it may be about what it means to be a person in such a world.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. Low fantasy often likes a story about people trying to claw their way into a better life; a kind of rags-to-riches tale.
Nobody questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can.
Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the style of a classical tragedy. That would actually be showing some creativity. And the best we are stuck with is fantasy as a \\\"world building\\\" exercise. How very dull.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
Is anything I\\\'ve offered part of the classic literary definition of \\\"low fantasy\\\"? No. But why the in God\\\'s balls would anybody pedantically insist upon it?
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
Changed line(s) 3 from:
n
A very loose definition is the \
to:
A very loose definition is the \\\"amount of fantasy\\\" in a setting. Many cited examples DO NOT QUALIFY. Final Fantasy VII is an egregious offender since the setting bleeds with impossible technologies and magic. Bluntly speaking, these are FANTASTIC elements.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his fighting instinct and fierce willfulness to life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful. Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were. And it may not even be about the heroism as it may be about what it means to be a person in such a world.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. Low fantasy often likes a story about people trying to claw their way into a better life; a kind of rags-to-riches tale.
Nobody questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can.
Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the style of a classical tragedy. That would actually be showing some creativity. And the best we are stuck with is fantasy as a \\\"world building\\\" exercise. How very dull.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his fighting instinct and fierce willfulness to life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful. Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were. And it may not even be about the heroism as it may be about what it means to be a person in such a world.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. Low fantasy often likes a story about people trying to claw their way into a better life; a kind of rags-to-riches tale.
Nobody questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can.
Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the style of a classical tragedy. That would actually be showing some creativity. And the best we are stuck with is fantasy as a \\\"world building\\\" exercise. How very dull.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
Changed line(s) 3 from:
n
A very loose definition is the \
to:
A very loose definition is the \\\"amount of fantasy\\\" in a setting. Many cited examples DO NOT QUALIFY. Final Fantasy VII is an egregious offender since the setting bleeds with impossible technologies and magic. Bluntly speaking, these are FANTASTIC elements.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his fighting instinct and fierce willfulness to life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful. Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were. And it may not even be about the heroism as it may be about what it means to be a person in such a world.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. Low fantasy often likes a story about people trying to claw their way into a better life; a kind of rags-to-riches tale.
*Nobody* questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can.
Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the style of a classical tragedy. That would actually be showing some creativity. And the best we are stuck with is fantasy as a \\\"world building\\\" exercise. How very dull.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his fighting instinct and fierce willfulness to life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful. Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were. And it may not even be about the heroism as it may be about what it means to be a person in such a world.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. Low fantasy often likes a story about people trying to claw their way into a better life; a kind of rags-to-riches tale.
*Nobody* questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can.
Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the style of a classical tragedy. That would actually be showing some creativity. And the best we are stuck with is fantasy as a \\\"world building\\\" exercise. How very dull.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
Changed line(s) 3 from:
n
A very loose definition is the \
to:
A very loose definition is the \\\"amount of fantasy\\\" in a setting. Many cited examples DO NOT QUALIFY. Final Fantasy VII is an egregious offender since the setting bleeds with impossible technologies and magic. Bluntly speaking, these are FANTASTIC elements.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his fighting instinct and fierce willfulness to life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful.
Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. *Nobody* questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can.
Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the style of a classical tragedy. That would actually be showing some creativity. And the best we are stuck with is fantasy as a \\\"world building\\\" exercise. How very dull.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his fighting instinct and fierce willfulness to life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful.
Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. *Nobody* questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can.
Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the style of a classical tragedy. That would actually be showing some creativity. And the best we are stuck with is fantasy as a \\\"world building\\\" exercise. How very dull.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
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A very loose definition is the \\\"amount of fantasy\\\" in a setting. Many cited examples DO NOT QUALIFY. Final Fantasy VII is an egregious offender since the setting bleeds with impossible technologies and magic. Bluntly speaking, these are FANTASTIC elements.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his fighting instinct and fierce willfulness to life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful.
Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. *Nobody* questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can. Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the classical tragedy sense. That would actually be a writer being innovative for a change.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
But my problems go further than that. Since people seem to think pessimism is also a common denominator. That it is merely \\\"dark and edgy.\\\" Bioware and their fans have not helped this at all, since they dismiss the idea of coherent low fantasy as a nonsense-category without any sort of tradition or early merit.
But the fans of low fantasy are not fans of it because of a slavish adherence to low-magic, realism or pessimism. It has more to do with sensibilities that acted as the forerunner of the fantasy genre and that still gets heavily borrowed-from. It reflects an entirely different sensibility about fantasy long before we came to our Final Fantasies, our Tolkien rip-offs, Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.
The key thing to understand is that later authors have revised and remixed prior tropes to their liking and to the kind of story they wanted to accommodate; and low-fantasy often borrowed tropes from one another as well. And many of these classic \\\"mixes\\\" should be respected for what they are.
Robert E. Conan very rarely had a tale that didn\\\'t have magic or some fantastic event occur as its main feature. The attitude of magic in it, is that magic is a Lovecraftian force. Not always evil, but definitely alien and intrusive upon the limited scope and understanding of man. This fits the theme because Conan is a hero who manfully struggles against the hostile forces outside or from within the world which would limit or harm a man. (Big emphasis on manliness.) Conan\\\'s character evolves from vagabond to king; because it reflects his unwillingness to compromise his fighting instinct and fierce willfulness to life.
Vance\\\'s Dying Earth is very much a existential meditation on the transience of human accomplishments, which is also a recurring theme in Conan. There are dead and buried civilizations that had their time under the sun and the lapsed into forgetfulness. In this setting, magic is more heavily the artifact of past human accomplishments, when men knew enough about it to deem it science. But now, it they are merely tricks used by cynical and power-hungry men who care more for personal gain rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Men have grown complacent and fatalistic now that the earth wanes in its last hours.
And this is a common tone in low fantasy. It\\\'s not pessimistic per se, but it\\\'s a less idealized depiction of reality where heroism is possible but it is not the inevitable winner in every fight. It makes the heroism all the more existentially meaningful.
Hell, I\\\'d place Watership Down as very near to this low-fantasy sort of sensibility. It\\\'s a more pragmatic sensibility about the struggle against hostile external forces. Life isn\\\'t fair. But heroism wouldn\\\'t be possible if it were.
The blog Grognardia explores early D&D and why certain conventions we take for granted in RPG\\\'s are very much influenced by low-fantasy tropes. Among these is the idea of mercenary advancement; which is why every RPG incessantly features kleptomania killers who live on the fringe of respectable society. *Nobody* questions why RPG\\\'s are this way; even when it\\\'s completely inappropriate to the high-fantasy tone of finding the Four Damn Widgets That Uphold the World. D&D did it. So of course IT IS WRIT IN STONE AND MUST ALWAYS BE DONE THAT WAY. The nobles of LOTR didn\\\'t go adventuring because they wanted treasure or prowess; they already had all that.
And really, I find contemporary fantasy writers *boring.* Most often because they never manipulate elements to suit a coherent story or theme; but just because they are tasteless imitators who must steal as many old tropes as they can. Oh no, Dragon Age couldn\\\'t have been about a protagonist who spins into his own downfall in the classical tragedy sense. That would actually be a writer being innovative for a change.
And every treatment of magic must treat it like some sort of modern technological convenience; whose principles are well-understood and communicated throughout a peer-reviewed college of wizardy. Either that or it\\\'s a stand-in for New Age woo or some crib-notes postmodernism about the power of belief.
Because most fantasy we have around is shake-and-bake fantasy. And the abuse that low-fantasy gets is clear proof that people have no appreciation for what the tropes actually mean and how they\\\'re used.
I could give a more exhaustive treatment, I\\\'m sure, but the hour grows late over here.
