[HPforGrownups] Genre? Or not? (was Re: Wasted Charms & other magical devices (Time Turner))

[Jenett]

No: HPFGUIDX 32824

At 9:44 PM +0000 1/4/02, grey_wolf_c wrote:
>
>I still doubt, nonetheless, that there are many 11 year-old wizards
>going to boarding schools in modern fantasy, or simply fantasy based
>directly in the real world (coexistant, not in distant past or future
>or alternate realities) and still is excelent quality.

Let me recommend the subgenre of 'urban fantasy' to your attention, 
in that case.

If you can dig up a copy of it, one of my all time favorites is 
Pamela Dean's "Tam Lin". Or Charles de Lint's work (I'd suggest 
starting with his "Jack of Kinrowan" which is a two in one volume 
edition.) Or Emma Bull's "War for the Oaks". Gael Baudino's "Gossamer 
Axe". Tanya Huff's "Circle of Light, Gate of Darkness". In a more 
young-adult aimed one, Diane Duane's "So you want to be a wizard" 
series, or the classic Susan Cooper "The Dark is Rising" series. 
Dean, de Lint, Bull, and Duane all have the sort of clearly developed 
dual-world thing going on that the Potter books have (though you see 
less of it in some cases than in others). The others, the fantasy 
world is somewhat more removed and not nearly as accessible.

There's also a number of Mecedes Lackey novels set in 'our world' 
("Knight of Ghosts and Shadows" is the beginning of one series, "Born 
to Run" is the start of another.) Some people don't care for Lackey's 
stuff as 'excellent quality' but the others all definitely qualify in 
my mind. (I tend to think that her early stuff is substantially 
better than much of what she's written in the last 4 years or so, but 
they're still stuff I find 'fun' reading)

Pamela Dean's stuff is, IMHO, completely brilliant, as are Emma Bull 
and Charles de Lint.

All of the above are fantasy, all set directly in the modern world 
(albeit with some alterations, obviously). Some of them involve 
younger protagonists than others (erm: college, just post-colllege, 
just post-college, mostly just-post-college-age, various, middle 
school, middle school, and various in that order.)

To bring this back to Harry Potter, however, one of the reasons 
booted around in the circles I hang out in (heavy readers of a 
variety of subgenres in speculative fiction, including science 
fiction, fantasy, etc.) that they're so successful is that she's 
managed to explain a lot of the *assumptions* in fantasy writing 
without either boring people who are familiar with those conventions, 
or without confusing people who *aren't* familiar with those 
conventions.

For example, to take the invisibility cloak, which is a pretty 
standard concept - she sets it up by having Harry discover it, but 
not reallly know how it works (so we find out along with him) We 
eventuallly learn that *some* stuff can see him even without it, and 
it's pretty cleara that it doesn't muffle sound, just visibility. 
However, she also tidly reveals that they're rare, that most people 
never see them, etc... But she reveals the information in a way that 
isn't tedious to people who go "Oh, yes, invisibility cloak" - and 
which leaves a few surprises for them, too.

Ditto with learning about Fawkes and the power of the phoenix. Most 
people who read much mythology or fantasy literature might be at 
least passingly familiar with the concept - but again, she quite 
handily outlines what they do without dumping the information on an 
uniformed reader (and boring those people who sit there and go "Yes, 
duh, it's a phoenix...") and there are sufficient twists in how the 
basic information is used in her world to keep people alert even if 
they're familiar with the basic legends.

I think the *only* place I've ever felt annoyed by the 'supply 
information to the reader' stuff is the actual discussion of the 
philosopher's/sorceror's stone - and I've read enough about alchemy 
and some other related areas that I suspect I was unusually well 
aware of what one was even compared to regular readers of the fantasy 
genre.

-Jenett
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