Subverting the genre?

[Talisman]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Barry Arrowsmith" 
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:
>
>If she really intends to subvert the fantasy genre she'll do the 
exact opposite. Harry loses, Voldemort wins, evil triumphs.
>A bit like the end of '1984'. That really would break the mould of 
>the fantasy ethic.


Talisman:
Nope.  That's the problem with *Fantasy,* it's barely 
distinguishable from so many other forms that with one little change 
you simply switch to another genre--with the small *g.*

A work that employs  *organic* supernatural powers in a world that 
looks to the past is probably Fantasy. 

Remove the action to the planet Xenon, or the year 3510, and give 
the planetary inhabitants the *organic* ability to read minds and 
levitate objects and you've slipped into Science Fiction.  
Especially if you toss in a bit of hi-tech.


A *Fantasy* where the *dark forces* win, is merely a work of the 
*Horror* genre.   Interview with the Vampire?  Frankenstein? Turn of 
the Screw?  Etc. 

`Course it all depends on whose side you're on. Perhaps, like me, 
you root for the vampire. Frankenstein's monster is a victim, so I'm 
rooting for him, too.  Still, a lot on nice people snuff it and you 
can't deny being left at the end in a blasted landscape.  But, Henry 
James' little tale really is a nasty piece of work. 

Talisman, noting that her mother always warned that there is no rest 
for the wicked, and wondering if she'll ever come to be so at 
leisure as to bloom into her full measure of vice. ::sigh::