>Hi, Laurie.
>
>--- Laurie Campbell  wrote:
>
>> In most fantasy there's really nothing risked. There's no struggle,
>> there's never any feeling that what happens is real, or matters. 
>> The good guys *will* win, none of the major characters will die, 
>> and when the story is
>> done, it's done. No loose ends, no wondering about what happened
>> after the story, no sense it will go on without you or ever 
>> existed before you.
>
>Huh?  Yo no comprendre, Senora.  Most fantasy is left open-ended
>because none of the good guys die.  Their lives do go on.
>
>Now, Moorcock's fantasy is just the opposite of the first half of
>your statement, and conforms to the second half, because his main
>characters do struggle and he does kill them off his when their story
>is finished.  Elric and his Champion Eternal, for instance.

Agreed. Say is this "most fantasy"?? 
There area lot of examples in fantasy literature where the main good guys die,
and even ones where the bad guys win. I can think of several off the top of my
heard: Tanith Lee, Sheri Tepper (Hey -- read "Beauty"), even Jane
Yolen.  In my
fantasy, the main charactor dies in the third chapter ... Of course, main
charactors become revenaunts, were-cretures, souless things, and what ever.
Deamons, *icky* devels --  all show up.  In REally Godd fantasy, EVEN WHEN the
Good Guys win,there is a bitter sweet quality, as in when Peter Beagle's
Unicorn feels regret. Even Ged in "Earthsea"  doesn't get off
lightly in the
end. Thing is, is that the kind of plot you describe is, IMHO, the hallmark of
superfulous, mostly bad literature. Popcorn for the brain.  There is enough of
that going around that every genre has some Prime Horrible Examples.  Just a
thought -- Lezlie 

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