RoR: Forum

The Highlander wrote: ... fantasy was the oldest, beginning back when knowledge was little and misinformation large, where fears roamed beyond the comfort and safety of the fire - and that is where it should have stayed, with the primitivism it is a part and partial of, for no matter how euphemistic it is presented,it still remains non-real, and an affront to objective reality, and the objective knowing that if something does not exist it can have NO value...

Well, OK, then how do you, as an artist, see the "Winged Beauties" given that there is a range of finesse from the cartoons to Bouguereau. What about a remake of "Clash of the Titans" one of those old primative campfire tales. Did you happen to see The Odyssey remake from the 90s starring Armand Asante? Did Kirk Douglas have to be the only Ulysses in the movies, allowing one retelling per newly invented medium?

I agree with your main point, Robert. In fact, I agree with the assertion -- sorry, I don't remember who -- that science fiction is the true mainstream fiction of our culture and so-called mainstream fiction is only historical fiction set in the present.

But, as I claimed, the widespread beliefs in ghosts (with or without capital-G) resulted in the fading of science fiction and the ascendency of fantasy.

Post 21

Saturday, August 21, 2010 - 11:35am

I voted "Yes. The Dark Ages are coming." because it was the best of the available answers.

In actuality though, the Dark Ages are here already -- but they did leave for a while, too (making "Yes. The Dark Ages never left." a relatively bad choice). We came out of the Dark Ages in or around the 18th Century. We re-entered the Dark Ages again in or around the 20th Century -- so we had a good run of a couple hundred years there (where the Ages were Light, or enlightened).

Now it's back to square one, but this time around we have Rand. Things are looking up!

Ed

Post 22

Sunday, December 5, 2010 - 4:17am

Beats the hell out of video games. But that is a personal moral issue not an ethical one. Mystical Fiction is a realm of euphemisms, analogies, conundrums, juxtapositions, and parables. Imagine John Gallt as a surviving Gaulic trumpeter.

Post 23

Sunday, December 5, 2010 - 7:24pm

Sorry about not having posted to the questions raised [lost this thread, for one, so forgot about it]... so - techniquewise, the art is good - BUT, the subject, to me, sucks - even as allegory it in today's world, sucks, because it still refrains that old saw that something of fantasy needs be in the repertoire, else the world is somehow 'less' than it otherwise is... Clash of the Titans did not thrill me, either versions, for the same reason...

Does this mean I find nothing of fantasy enjoyable? Truth be said, wish I could say such, that only the real appeals to me,because it is real... but yes, I do enjoy the Harry Potter books and movies, Conan and the other works of Robert Howard, and the animations of Pixar are fun to see, for instance - so to that extent am tied to my era of history, like a cigarette addict... but it does not invalidate my assertion, only that it recognizes we are in a transition phase of history - we see the future, but have a tie to the primitive past, and it is in knowing this that one knows where to learn how to reach in acquiring solutions, to presenting those aspects commonly given in fantasy and presenting them in fiction with not just 'equal' but greater sense of life...

I should add that in the realm of science fiction, which I love, there is context needed so to prevent early works from being thought of as fantasy when in 'good faith' they were written otherwise - Edgar Rice Burroughs' works come to mind... and as for horror, it is, bluntly, a malevolent sense of life for its own sake - and this is not to excuse evil, for yes, evil exists, but to note the difference between Batman's Joker for instance, and the SAW, Nightmare, and Jason movies ...

Post 24

Friday, January 14, 2011 - 1:29am