Bittercon: Steal the Past, Build the Future: New Histories for Fantasy Fiction

[attackfish]

Fantasy settings have historically harkened back to the past.  Medieval European settings for fantasy are so ubiquitous that for many people in the west (and for many people outside the west who have absorbed western European fantasy literature) the first thing that comes to mind when they hear the word “fantasy” is a medieval castle and a bunch of people with swords.

Other historical settings find their way into fantasy as well, from Classical India to Imperial Rome, to Muslim Spain, to the American West.  Adding a spark of magic to a historical or nearly historical setting has become what fantasy is to many people.

Even Urban Fantasy, while most often taking place in a contemporary setting finds itself constrained to historical tradition. Medieval Europe makes a frequent appearance there too, albet in a modified form.  The creatures that find their way into Urban Fantasy, vampires, werewolves, fairies, assorted mythological creatures from all over the world almost always have medieval or classical origins.  Creatures made up from whole cloth are almost unheard of in Urban Fantasy.  Urban Fantasy is all about the past, the mythological past’s encroachment on the modern.

The more like medieval Europe the fantasy setting, the more likely it is to be idealized and the less relation it tends to bare to real history.  Is there a responsibility when portraying historical setting sin fantasy to be accurate?  Or be accurate on certain issues, and if so which?  Are fantasy worlds made of a mix of many historical periods ore entirely out of the writers’ own heads a different genre all together?  And as diversity is increasingly obvious as an issue in fantasy, is writing standard medieval history somehow irresponsible?  Do some periods of history require a greater accuracy than others?  What is the duty of Contemporary and Urban Fantasy towards history?  And what role does alternate history get to play in fantasy with historical settings and inspirations?

Written for bittercon the online convention for those of us who can't make it to any other kind, on a topic stolen from a panel at the 2010 Worldcon.

Comments

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Part of it is that the "explorer from Medieval-Europe-Land arrives in Pre-Columbian-Central-America-Land and is ... wait for it ... greeted by the natives as their white-skinned savior god." and then "helps them defeat their hereditary enemies and fulfills his expected role with grace, good humor, and a fair amount of self-reflective humility." This spanks of "what these people need is a honky!" They can't fix their problems on their own. They need this white man to come in and fix all their troubles. These sorts of stories are written by white people to assuage. They don't reflect reality and deny agency to the people represented in the non-European fantasy counterpart cultures.

[gamiel.livejournal.com]

I hope that this dose not come out offensive and I have really no right to comment since I have not read the book but I believe that if the explorer have more or just different technological and/or tactical knowledge than it is a bit justified that he can help the indigenous people but I still see your point

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

It's just that it's done over and over and over again, and as I said, it denies the agency of the nonwhite characters. It's like the damsel in distress motif. One girl get's rescued, fine. Girls are the ones designated for being rescued and boys for doing the rescuing, bad. It's a pattern that makes it bad.

[gamiel.livejournal.com]

I understand your point but I guess I don't read as much of that kind of literature as you seams to be doing and I'm right now studding history so from my perspective it is nice to have pseudo-european characters not acting like the all to often did in our history.
Also a question - would the above scenario be more acceptable, from your perspective, if the character was from a pseudo-asian or pseudo-african culture?

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

I'd have to read the treatment of it, because there are plenty of ways to make that go way wrong too, mostly because it can be read as an argument that "Well, if Asians or Africans discovered America, the world would be all puppies and kittens, and they're so much better and more moral than white people" which isn't any better.

Mostly, I like seeing my rebellions come from within and my fictional race relations to be a lot more complicated.

[gamiel.livejournal.com]

Good answer.
Who ever believes that asians or africans are more moral than europeans has not studied history.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

So very true. We humans are a screwed up bunch.