The Death of Fantasy

Gollancz Author: Marcus - December 8th, 2011
AJ Dalton, Author Post, Fantasy

AJ Dalton is the author of Empire of the Saviours, the first book in a new fantasy trilogy, coming from Gollancz in May 2012.

An interesting question was asked from the audience at this year’s FantasyCon in Brighton: ‘Why is there less magic appearing in the fantasy that’s currently being published?’ The illustrious panel of authors (Joe Abercrombie, Juliet E McKenna, Tom Lloyd and Adrian Tchaikovsky) pondered deeply and wasn’t too sure! The general feeling, however, was that today’s world is a bit too cynical and disillusioned to believe in magic anymore, what with the global recession, politicians found guilty of corruption and newspapers found guilty of phone-hacking, and so on and so forth. Magic is dead. There are no heroes left to save us. They all died on a battlefield in foreign parts.

The point was made that the fantasy of the 1980s and 90s was typified by noble kings and a ‘chosen one’ who had magic at his or her fingertips. They would invariably save the world. We no longer believe that those at the top of society are either noble or deserve to be there. The kings are being overthrown (the subject of Juliet E McKenna’s latest work), or at least the attempt is being made, whether in the UK riots or some other civil war. The only chosen ones that exist now are those that we are jealous of – for winning the lottery, for being born in the right place at the right time – those we would like to replace or see undone. Today’s fantasy is dark and twisted, a twilight world of the undead.

Where lies magic then? Where has its transformative power gone? Must we fight in the muck in the midst of brutal battle forever more? Is fantasy itself dead? If all is turned to ash… then where is the phoenix?
What do I reckon? Well, I would say that a new and more relevant conception of magic is required, one where there is far more democratic access to it, or one where everyone is denied it equally. It’s that sort of dynamic that inspired my new book Empire of the Saviours (release date: 17 May 2012), which is an epic fantasy with philosophical and political themes. Of course, things can start out all fair and democratic, but, inevitably, we start to get the old trope of ‘All animals are equal… but some are more equal than others’ beginning to creep back in. The devil whispering in our ear. The cycle starts again. Birth, death and rebirth. Perhaps magic isn’t dead then. Perhaps it’s simply entering a new incarnation, with brave new avatars. Human existence as the ‘ever-widening gyre’ (a cod quote from Yeats – sorry).

What do you think?

Tags: AJ Dalton, Author Post, Empire of the Saviours, Fantasy

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the death of fantasy? « Metaphysical Fantasy says:

December 8, 2011 at 4:05 pm

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James Holder says:

December 9, 2011 at 4:01 pm

I think it depends on what one reads. Perhaps the seeming absence of magic can be traced to writers wanting to use it in reserve (like George R. R. Martin)? Magic is alive and well in fantasy, depending where you go to find it.
That said, I do think that new systems/ forms of magic may be needed.

Cymru says:

December 9, 2011 at 5:34 pm

Oh, come now. Let’s not pretend that recession, corrupt politicians, and criminally obnoxious news reporters are anything new. We really can’t blame them for the seeming lack of magic in fantasy. With the advent of different mediums through which fantasy stories are published, there is an unprecedented glut of literature out there. Some good, some bad, some just plain wtf? And we have discovered that there is truly nothing new under the sun. In recent years, fantasy has occasionally suffered under the weight of too much reality. Oh, we know such a lot nowadays, we soon don’t believe in fairies. Indeed, the huge marketing successes of incredibly long series of massive tomes, which are geared toward adults hungering for epic, bloody political landscapes, make no room for the kind of magic you see in fairytales. But there is a lot of fantasy out there that still evoke real magic and fill the reader with childlike wonder. The great thing about fantasy, though, is that it has room for all kinds of stories–the fairytales, the massive tomes, and everything in between.

Mike Ranson says:

December 9, 2011 at 7:01 pm

Fantasy was, arguably, at its height during the latter stages of the Cold War when the world was clearly demarcated between a savage, unholy ‘Them’ and a worthy, heroic ‘Us’; a time when belief in the righteousness of Western democratic ideals was practically mandatory… barring a few hiccups like Vietnam. Tony Blair’s policy of ‘enlightened intervensionism’ was the last hurrah of this mindset, and it’s no surprise that it was cooked up in concert with a Bush administration largely composed of people whose focus during their training had been the Cold War… and no surprise at all that it has led us into one of the stickiest military and social quagmires of our times.

Where am I going with this?

The intrinsically superior hero who uses magic (or fights against magic) as a means of demonstrating his innate worth and bringing the light of Right and Good to the world is a product of such times. These days, in the aftermath (often bloody and frequently nuanced) of the Cold War, we are less certain of what is Right and what is Good and our fiction choices reflect this mood.

Fantasy is not dead. Fantasy is moving with the times.

Sam M-B says:

December 10, 2011 at 5:48 pm

In 2011 alone there’s: The Magician King (Lev Grossman), Zoo City (Lauren Beukes), The Night Circus (Erin Morgenstern), Inheritance (Paolini), Spellbound (Charlton), The Wise Man’s Fear (Rothfuss), The Alloy of Law (Sanderson), …

A J Dalton says:

December 12, 2011 at 6:48 pm

For me, the comments identify how fantasy tends to reflect the dominant politics and values of the day. Fantasy therefore isn’t ‘away with the fairies’ and just plain ‘silly’ as some non-readers of fantasy that I know like to suggest. I tend to think of fantasy as potentially a bit more philosophical than that – although Warhammer and so on (which I do enjoy a bit of it every now and then) doesn’t bother trying to push that particular boat out too much.

December 12, 2011 at 7:24 pm

Indeed. We’ve all encountered the perception among many that Fantasy is just dungeons & dragons, or hormonal teenager fodder with naked maids being rescued by Conan the Barbarian types. Interestingly, these complaints would sound familiar to the ears of science fiction authors, also, as this is a genre which is often disregarded for much the same reasons. Science Fiction isn’t just space cowboys and Star Trek. It’s the genre that invented satellites and genetics decades before the real world thought of them! And began considering how human beings would be changed by them. Replace satellites and genetics with ‘magic’ and, broadly speaking, you’ve got fantasy (to paraphrase Arthur C Clark).

These two speculative genres are the only real forum for philosophical thought in a fictional, or story, form. The Greeks were hot on philosophy delivered via story, but why aren’t we in the modern world? I’ll end on a quote by Isaac Asimov which could apply equally well to both genres…

‘Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today — but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation, if we are to be saved at all.’

Tom J. says:

January 10, 2012 at 8:06 pm

I think the death of magic is the best thing to happen to fantasy. I wish magic in the genre were truly dead. Why? Because it is an intellectually bankrupt concept. It’s a literary shortcut. More importantly in my view, it’s an idea detrimental to our own education. Embracing magic encourages one to believe in all manners of bullshit and pseudoscience.

Modernism is the death of fantasy, not just recent cynicism. I think that’s a good thing.

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April 30, 2012 at 3:39 am

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