Fantasy

[wellinghall]

camillofan has asked me:
"Is the distinguishing feature of fantasy (as opposed to other sorts of speculative fiction) Magic?"

And she has also said:
"What you need is a bracing debate on what exactly constitutes fantasy literature."

So - over to you, oh wise FList. What made a book "fantasy"?

Comments

[elegaer.livejournal.com]

Imagination. Imaginative setting or imaginative reality. I thinks that's how I'd try and define the thing in 1 sentence.

Looked up what dic.com had to say, and was somewhat surprised at the similarity:

fan·ta·sy   [fan-tuh-see, -zee] Show IPA noun, plural -sies, verb, -sied, -sy·ing.
–noun
1.
imagination, esp. when extravagant and unrestrained.
2.
the forming of mental images, esp. wondrous or strange fancies; imaginative conceptualizing.
3.
a mental image, esp. when unreal or fantastic; vision: a nightmare fantasy.
4.
Psychology . an imagined or conjured up sequence fulfilling a psychological need; daydream.
5.
a hallucination.
6.
a supposition based on no solid foundation; visionary idea; illusion: dreams of Utopias and similar fantasies.
7.
caprice; whim.
8.
an ingenious or fanciful thought, design, or invention.
9.
Also, fantasia. Literature . an imaginative or fanciful work, esp. one dealing with supernatural or unnatural events or characters: The stories of Poe are fantasies of horror.