Hello, All;

28 Dec 04 16:56, Kay Shapero wrote to Robert Bull:

 RB>> Elliott still didn't answer another puzzle.  Why are so many
 RB>> American fantasy authors, all of them presumably firm believers
 RB>> in democracy, apparently so obsessed by hereditary kingship?

 KS> I think it's partly due to the prevalence of kingdoms in fairy tales,
 KS> coupled with the influence of JRR Tolkien.  I agree it lacks
 KS> imagination.

Someone in the Patricia McKillip mailing list asked what did people think 
were "classic" fantasy novels.  She actually mentioned David
Eddings.  I've 
never heard anyone else say much that was very good about Eddings, but it 
set me wondering what "classic" meant.  I thought there might be two 
categories:

1) Seminal works
   Works which have defined, redefined, or otherwise profoundly influenced 
   the genre

2) Classics
   Works which may or may not be "seminal" but which have been read with 
   respect and some level of admiration, if with greater or lesser 
   pleasure, by generations of readers, and which you have to read yourself 
   to be up with the genre

You can argue about "generations;" given that this is part of popular 
culture, maybe that should be as short as ten years?  As for seminal works, 
I'd only list three off the top of my head:

J.R.R. Tolkien's LORD OF THE RINGS, for more or less obvious reasons; but 
as Kay sort of observed, it became something close to a straightjacket

Mervyn Peake's GORMENGHAST trilogy, for taking a completely different 
approach to fantasy

C.S. Lewis' NARNIA books, for so many people the ur-fantasy and often the 
ur-book of childhood, which thereby sets a lifelong interest in and 
acceptance of fantasy.

Classics are much more numerous.

     Regards,

              Robert.

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