Fantasy is childish!

[Coolhand]

Not that I can't do literary fiction:
Whinge whinge death. SEX whinge whinge SEX death.
See? See how mature I am? See how I can face these issues head on?

Add some drug abuse and maybe an abusive childhood and you'll be up for a major high-brow award with that one.

 

[iansales]

You'll never get people to take science fiction and fantasy seriously if you respond by slagging off literary fiction. If we want people to stop thinking the genre is childish, then we need to raise the bar. There is a lot of appalling escapist science fiction/fantasy currently being published, and the good stuff gets lost under piles of dreck.

Sadly, there are several marketing realities at play here. Media SFF is not as sophisticated as the written form... and the bulk of written SFF published is tied to the media form. Imagine if most mainstream fiction was spun-off from Emmerdale or The Bold & The Beautiful...

 

[Quokka]

Some SFF certainly is childish.... as well as repetative, unimanginative, cliched, bland, even offensive, pulp. The thing is some horror, crime, romance, "true life", historical etc is just as guilty.

You can see where I'm going here, some of it's also original, thought-provoking, joyful, engrosing, political, exploratory, humorous, hilarious and beautiful.

Ditto for movies, poetry, paintings, non-fiction (I've read some shocking research that doesn't even begin to be worthy of childishness). It's the artist that define their work not the tools and i think we can agree that SFF has had some amazing ones over the years.

And the best of all..... none of us would completely agree on what belongs in what category .

Personally I think the fans all decked out in their team colours, singing and cheering are enjoying escapism every bit as much as the kid next to them on the bus reading Harry Potter.

Sorry, I couldn't help but add some semi-coherent ramblings of my own.

 

[Cobolt]

Without Fantasy and SF there would be no escapism, no portal to release imagination through and without imagination the world would be a boring place.

Those who consider Fantasy and SF to be childish have no imagination, no desire to stretch their thoughts beyond their current life. Thank god for websites like this and those who read and write genres like Fantasy and SF for releasing dormant thoughts and making us all think of what if's. Releasing our own personal take on what our minds eye sees through each paragraph of a book or the visual splendour of a film, programme etc.

Ignore those who do not understand for they cannot be converted to our way of thinking. Leave them to suffer and wither within their own current bubble of life.

 

[GrownUp]

You'll never get people to take science fiction and fantasy seriously if you respond by slagging off literary fiction.

Oh come on. This thread started of with a load of people writing off fantasy as 'childish'. I'm not going to respond to that with reasoned arguments, no way.

C'mon then literary fiction. C'mon, put up your dukes.

 

[purple_kathryn]

Add some drug abuse and maybe an abusive childhood and you'll be up for a major high-brow award with that one.

Depressing AND dull!

 

[CarlottaVonUberwald]

all genres have childish books and fantasy is no different.. but fantasy also contains some of the most mature books around

 

[Paige Turner]

I still can't get over "childish" being used as some kind of insult. It is my greatest ambition in life to perpetuate my childish behaviour in all avenues—back me up, here; you've read my posts—until I shuffle off this mortal slinky.

 

[j d worthington]

Chrispenycate -- Remember, Borges was blind and was learning to read Tibetan the last year of his life. No, finding the new, exploring the unknown, and acquiring new skills and knowledge may be, as I said, childlike, that is, having the freshness and curiosity of a child, but not childish, that is, petulant, whiney, and expecting everything to go your own way. To me, that's the difference. Childish is self-absorbed and completely disregarding reality; childlike is having never lost the ability to marvel at the buds unfolding on a tree, or the beauty of light on a dewdrop.

And CVU -- Exactly!

As for the literary, I reiterate: most (if not all) of the greatest writers in literary history have written at least some imaginative fiction; either science fiction, fantasy or ghost stories/horror, from the easily recognized E. A. Poe to Henry James (an entire, rather large book made up strictly of his ghost stories was collected back in the 1940s: The Ghostly Tales of Henry James). Thomas Pyncheon and Saul Bellow have also written books that fall into the sf category. Edith Wharton did several ghost stories, as did Sarah Orne Jewett. And all literature is escapist to some degree. One isn't really dealing with life, one is dealing at best with an analog of life, something that is structured and has an artificial flow, a pattern that life very seldom can boast. Literature, of any sort, is out modern-day mythmaking, in order to help us cope with reality via symbols which to us have varied layers of meaning. Good imaginative literature can (and does) stand with the best of 'em.

 

[Rahl Windsong]

The funny thing is I don't feel like a child when I read Erikson, Martin, or any good fantasy author in fact I find it difficult to see how children would enjoy the two examples I have given though I am quite likely wrong in some cases.

Rahl

 

[hugo]

If fantasty is childish how millions of children and adults read Harry Potter. Many

 

[iansales]

Er, your point being?

 

[alicebandassassin]

yep i think harry potter a bad example as most readers are pre teens not all but most!

 

[Paige Turner]

yep i think harry potter a bad example as most readers are pre teens not all but most!

Of all Harry Potter books purchased, 79% were bought expressly by or for children or teens 16 and under. (Though undoubtedly many of those were subsequently read by adults in the household) A full 21% were purchased for adult consumption, including large printings of specifically "adult cover" editions.

Purchases of boxed sets are more skewed toward a young readership, with 91% of sets purchased intended for readers 16 and under.

 

[CarlottaVonUberwald]

harry potters just appaling..and therefore does not count

 

[violetann]

i second that CarlottaVonUberwald... harry potter is appalling, but that’s more personal preference.
If fantasy is childish.. how come most children cannot read most fantasy books out there.. for example the Silmarillion.. I know adults that can't read that, in fact I can’t I attempted to once but it you stop reading for a second you loose what’s happening.
also the vast amount of sex and violence in some other fantasy books excludes it from childishness I think... since some of the 18 rated games/moves out there have less of it in. but like all genders well almost all… have kid version of styles, but I think it’s more important to look at a book for the book not on if it’s for kids or not.


People who just go around saying stuff is childish, just want to enforce there ideas onto others to make them stop liking fantasy and themselves are just unimaginative and unable to cope with differences, since there doing the equitant to going up to someone in the playground and saying there cloths are uncool, just so they will dress like them just incase they person saying it is uncool so at least then they will be in a group which will make it cool.

also just because an adult reads a book of ABC's doesn’t make that book adult, so why should a child reading a adult book make it a Childs book.

 

[CarlottaVonUberwald]

harry potter annoys me because the story Isn't remotely original and the actual writing is dreadful... to call that childish is an insult to children...

 

[Paige Turner]

harry potter annoys me because the story Isn't remotely original and the actual writing is dreadful... to call that childish is an insult to children...

I think Harry Potter is quite original. An orphaned boy, whose parents were killed by a powerful evil sorcerer, raised by relatives and having no idea of his true heritage, then taken from home to learn to use mysterious magical forces, thrust into a friendship with two best mates (who end up having the hots for each other), going to exotic locations in places with strange beings, having adventures with a tall, hairy friend, and culminating with a final confrontation with evil? I don’t know how you can say Luke Skyw—I mean Harry Potter—is not an original story.

 

[CarlottaVonUberwald]

lol actually iwas going more for the worst witch esque stories crossed with the poor little orphan boy tales....well you know what i mean lol

and jk rowling pishes me off... im a single mum who diedicates my child...but i really had tto dedicate alll my time to this book..make up your mind woman

 

[alicebandassassin]

i have encouraged my children to read adult books once i have read them and find them suitable as well as childrens books, sometimes they have liked adult novels sometimes childrens. however the harry potter books are just poorly writen and predictable not childish.