Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
Now see, everything I've heard would put Game of Thrones squarely in the Low Fantasy camp. 
I guess I've always been hung up on the terms themselves. Why "High," or why "Low"? Uptown/downtown? High Falutin? Low Born/High Born? Low Country Boil? High Cockalorum?
What about mega-magic set in the real world, or no magic in set in a fictitious world? What about elves and dwarves set in our "real" world? Epic sword & sorcery with elves, dwarves and gnomes with the fate of the real world at stake? Is there Medium/Middle Fantasy? |
I think that the High Fantasy verses Low Fantasy was more about the literary world back in the 60's and 70's than anything else. Think of it as more literature verses pulp or the LOTR verses Conan camps. Back then, SF&F was looked down on by the literary types. I suspect a lot of the High Fantasy has to have (fill in the blank) tended to be attempts to differentiate "acceptable" fantasy.
High Fantasy followed the classic story line of the hero quest which can be found in many of the old epic stories. Many of the early high fantasy writers tended to be well educated Englishmen who wrote on the side (Eddison, Morris and Tolkien) and thus presumably worthy of being considered literature. The low fantasy authors tended to be every day authors writing pulp to make a living, people like Howard, Fritz Leiber and Moorcock.
I think that for the most part we have moved past that issue now. Many books blend the two quite a bit. It's been a long time since I've read arguments about what camp a specific author or book belongs to.