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Originally Posted by Katsunami
Books that were originally in Dutch, obviously; the only people *I* know who read fantasy in Dutch are people who are close to or over 50, and started in the 70's; the people for whom English is not a second language. (I've read a few paragraphs of Fantasy in Dutch today, and it's utterly atrocious. It reads as if a 12 year old is trying to make a writing assignment look good. Dutch isn't suitable for writing fantasy in, but that's maybe only my skewed opinion...)
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The question is still how many want to read those books originally written in Dutch? The enormous number of titles produced in English and the enormous range of topics covered may mean that the native Dutch speaker fluent in English doesn't need a title originally written in Dutch to have something they want to read.
I suspect you
could write effective fantasy in Dutch, but I'm not sure why anyone would make the effort.
Along that line, I had a go around electronically years back with a chap in Quebec. His people spoke a dialect of French since they descended from French settlers as well as speaking English. He was watching what seemed to be the gradual dissolution of his culture. Younger folks among his people had no particular interest in learning to speak/read/write Quebecois. Everything they were interested in and wanted to do was done in English. Why bother to learn a dialect of French? I understood his feelings, but didn't see the trend changing.
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I don't know if it's still the case, but when I was in high-school in the 90's, English was a *required* subject to be passed in final exam, along with Dutch. It was impossible to graduate if you didn't pass English.
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I'd be surprised if it wasn't still the case. English is the de facto international language, and the Netherlands has always been active in international business and trade. (Once upon a time, New York City was Nieuw Amsterdam when the Dutch originally settled there. As far as I can tell, there was no friction when the English took over. As long as the Dutch settlers could continue to do business, the regulations didn't change dramatically, and the taxes stayed within reason, who nominally governed the area was a matter of indifference to them.
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Therefore everybody in my generation speaks, writes and understands at least basic English (if they kept it up at least a little bit). With people one generation older or younger, English can be quite sketchy sometimes.
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The older generation wasn't force fed it. The newer generation is still learning. But basic fluency in English is likely a necessity.
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Dennis