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 Where once fantasy was now boredom rules |
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Once, fantasy was something made up from ones own thoughts, a dream image, something pictured by the brain, something that was not real, imagination. The word fantasy goes back to the Greek "phantasia" which means, AFAIK, "an image". But it now has become more a spitting image: the spitting image of the fantastic world of Tolkien. Fantasy, as a genre, now has rules that should be followed, paths that already have been paved and should not be left - the fans don't want anything else. It has nothing to do with wonderful dreams and fantastic thoughts and imaginations that one has - no individual dreams at least, or do we all dream the same dreams, and share the same images, of elves and magic and stuff like that? I think we do not. Some of us dream of the mediaeval world Tolkien has presented us, others dream of fantastic (!) spaceships, flying through space, exploring new worlds - the science fiction genre as a sub genre from original fantasy. So is horror, in a way. And there are people who have other dreams of the fantastic, other images. Morbid dreams, dreams that mix in with other genres, dreams of futures and pasts that have never been. People who do not feel comfortable in the "Fantasy" genre, nor in the "Science Fiction" as defined by Star Trek and Babylon 5. As the fantasy genre is worn down to prescribed elves and magic, where can they turn to? Internet is theme based. Everything needs to be tagged and sorted, otherwise it can not be classified, and what does not fit in a certain drawer, falls out of the net... in a way. Webrings dealing with Fantasy don't like the more fantastic, historical sites never look at fantasised histories, a Science Fiction forum doesn't have a corner for steampunk and if you like gothic horror you probably end up between scream queens and gore... So now there is Gothic Steam Phantastic, a forum that tries to fill the gaps. I don't know where it will be going, I don't even know where we are now. But I hope, I have this wishful image, I fantasise it will be a forum to return to original fantastic ideas, to the roots of fantasy, a forum for the fantastic, with that little gothic bite in it - a combination of steampunk, classic fantasy, gothic horror, scientific romance and a Victorian/Biedermeier feel. © Yaghish 2003 |
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