While it's available:
Fantasy Remade
China Mieville’s New Crobuzon novels
Some months ago, Jennifer Howard used a critical review of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell to argue that fantasy should be about “high seriousness,” “magic that battles for the soul of the world,” and above all, “the epic sense of Good and Evil, of things larger than ourselves, that makes the best fantasy so powerful and so necessary.” Fantasy allows us to escape the modern age for a little while: “When the news strays so far from the familiar moral contours of the struggle between Good and Evil, it’s tempting to lose ourselves in stories in which this battle is fought in clear terms and on an epic scale.”
Read more here: www.nplusonemag.com/
Fantasy Remade
China Mieville’s New Crobuzon novels
Some months ago, Jennifer Howard used a critical review of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell to argue that fantasy should be about “high seriousness,” “magic that battles for the soul of the world,” and above all, “the epic sense of Good and Evil, of things larger than ourselves, that makes the best fantasy so powerful and so necessary.” Fantasy allows us to escape the modern age for a little while: “When the news strays so far from the familiar moral contours of the struggle between Good and Evil, it’s tempting to lose ourselves in stories in which this battle is fought in clear terms and on an epic scale.”
Read more here: www.nplusonemag.com/
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Dallas
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Re: Mieville
Sun, March 26, 2006 - 10:15 AMThere is a book out which goes into this a little further, from a specifically Christian point of view, called "The Soul of the Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe" by Gene Veith. It is divided into two parts, which can each be read alone or separately. The first one is the look at CS Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia as Christian allegory, but the second one is called Fantasy Wars and goes more directly into the topic you just talked about. He claims that "His Dark Materials" is used in the same way specifically to promote Atheism, and then really stretches the boundaries of believability by claiming works like Harry Potter promote an anti-Christian message.
Mind you, I am not recommending OR decrying ANY one of these views, but it seemed a natural extension of the discussion, though obviously it treads into 'dangerous waters' for an online forum. I hope it wont degenrerate into hating, etc... feel free to delete my post if you dont like the direction it takes the discussion, Shawn.
Which, back to the discussion, I liked ALL these stories, though according to Veigh it may not be so clear to readers when stories are 'fought in clear terms'.
