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71-539: The Arkham Sampler was an American fantasy and horror fiction magazine first published in Winter 1948. The headquarters was in Sauk City, Wisconsin . The magazine, edited by August Derleth , was the first of two magazines published by Arkham House . It was published on a quarterly basis. The cover design was prepared by Ronald Clyne and was printed in alternating colors for the eight quarterly issues. Each issue had

142-507: A neutron star ; Brian Aldiss 's Helliconia trilogy has a very long year (called the "great year"), equivalent to 2,500 Earth years, where generations live & die within one season. Fantasy worlds can also involve unique cosmologies. In Dungeons & Dragons , the physical world is referred to as the Prime Material Plane, but other planes of existence devoted to moral or elemental concepts are available for play, such as

213-461: A city in the clouds with the birds and challenges Zeus 's authority. Ovid 's Metamorphoses and Apuleius 's The Golden Ass are both works that influenced the development of the fantasy genre by taking mythic elements and weaving them into personal accounts. Both works involve complex narratives in which humans beings are transformed into animals or inanimate objects. Platonic teachings and early Christian theology are major influences on

284-690: A feudal society hindering the modernization of China. Stories of the supernatural continued to be denounced once the Communists rose to power, and mainland China experienced a revival in fantasy only after the Cultural Revolution had ended. Fantasy became a genre of pulp magazines published in the West. In 1923, the first all-fantasy fiction magazine, Weird Tales , was published. Many other similar magazines eventually followed, including The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction ; when it

355-508: A fictional world may lead to war among its people. Geography can also define ecosystems for each biome. Often, Earth-like ecology is assumed, but designers can vary drastically from this trend. For example, Isaac Asimov 's short story " The Talking Stone " features a life form based on silicon , rather than carbon. Some software programs can create random terrain using fractal algorithms. Sophisticated programs can apply geologic effects such as tectonic plate movement and erosion ;

426-475: A fictional world more accessible for an audience. Simon Provencher has stated as a 'Golden Rule' of worldbuilding that "... unless specified otherwise, everything inside your world is assumed to behave exactly as it would in the real world." Another example is Steven S. Long , a representative of the Champions role-playing game, who stated that "Everything that happened in the real world has also unfolded in

497-564: A large audience. Lord Dunsany established the genre's popularity in both the novel and the short story form. H. Rider Haggard , Rudyard Kipling , and Edgar Rice Burroughs began to write fantasy at this time. These authors, along with Abraham Merritt , established what was known as the "lost world" subgenre, which was the most popular form of fantasy in the early decades of the 20th century, although several classic children's fantasies, such as Peter Pan and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , were also published around this time. Juvenile fantasy

568-439: A lower level of detail, with description growing more general with increasing distance from the initial location. The designer can subsequently enhance the description of other areas in the world. For example, an author may create fictional currencies and refer to fictional books to add detail to their world. Terry Pratchett says "You had to start wondering how the fresh water got in and the sewage got out... World building from

639-471: A main plot element, theme , or setting . Magic, magic practitioners ( sorcerers , witches and so on) and magical creatures are common in many of these worlds. An identifying trait of fantasy is the author's use of narrative elements that do not have to rely on history or nature to be coherent. This differs from realistic fiction in that realistic fiction has to attend to the history and natural laws of reality, where fantasy does not. In writing fantasy

710-412: A new style of "fuzzy" supernatural texts. The fantastic is on the dividing line between supernatural and not supernatural, Just as during this time period the women were not respecting the boundary of inequality that had always been set for them. At the time, women's roles in society were very uncertain, just as the rules of the fantastic are never straightforward. This climate allowed for a genre similar to

781-847: A number of his novels in the Gaean Reach , a fictional region of space. A fictional universe with works by multiple authors is known as a shared world . One notable example of such is the Star Wars Expanded Universe . The term "world-building" was first used in the Edinburgh Review in December 1820 and appeared in Arthur Eddington 's Space Time and Gravitation: An Outline of the General Relativity Theory (1920) to describe

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852-483: A print run of 1,200 copies with the exception of the Winter 1949 "All Science-Fiction Issue", of which 2,000 copies were printed. The Autumn 1949 issue was the last edition of the magazine. The Arkham Sampler published fiction , poetry , reviews, letters, articles and bibliographic data. The magazine published original works by H. P. Lovecraft , Ray Bradbury , Robert E. Howard , Theodore Sturgeon , A. E. van Vogt , Robert Bloch and others. Other writers featured in

923-474: A real mythology . Later analysis of fantasy worlds in the 1960s contextualized them in the medium or the narrative of the works, offering an analysis of the stories in the world, but not the world itself. In the 2000s, worldbuilding in film has increased in popularity. When before, writers sought to create a character that could sustain multiple stories, now they create a world that can sustain multiple characters and stories. Worldbuilding can be designed from

994-454: A single small village. Worldbuilding exists in novels , tabletop role-playing games , and visual media such as films, video games and comics . Prior to 1900, most worldbuilding was conducted by novelists, who could leave imagination of the fictional setting in part to the reader. Some authors of fiction set multiple works in the same world. This is known as a fictional universe . For example, science fiction writer Jack Vance set

1065-613: A single source. The Welsh tradition has been particularly influential, due to its connection to King Arthur and its collection in a single work, the epic Mabinogion . There are many works where the boundary between fantasy and other works is not clear; the question of whether the writers believed in the possibilities of the marvels in A Midsummer Night's Dream or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight makes it difficult to distinguish when fantasy, in its modern sense, first began. Although pre-dated by John Ruskin 's The King of

1136-638: A story's action. A past war, for example, functions as a key plot point in the Shannara and Belgariad series. Examples of constructed worlds include Terry Pratchett 's Discworld , the pseudo-Earth Hyborian Age in the Conan series , the planet Arrakis in the Dune series, the continent of Tamriel in the Elder Scrolls series of games, Ursula K. Le Guin 's Earthsea universe and Hainish worlds,

1207-674: A wide audience, with the success of Robert E. Howard 's Conan the Barbarian and Fritz Leiber 's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories. However, it was the advent of high fantasy , and most of all J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings , which reached new heights of popularity in the late 1960s, that allowed fantasy to truly enter the mainstream . Several other series, such as C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia and Ursula K. Le Guin 's Earthsea books, helped cement

1278-624: Is One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) , which is a compilation of many ancient and medieval folk tales. Various characters from this epic have become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin , Sinbad and Ali Baba . Hindu mythology was an evolution of the earlier Vedic mythology and had many more fantastical stories and characters, particularly in the Indian epics . The Panchatantra ( Fables of Bidpai ), for example, used various animal fables and magical tales to illustrate

1349-726: Is also often used to refer to this genre by the Anglophone literary critics. An archaic spelling for the term is phantasy . Fantasy is distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by the absence of scientific or macabre themes, although these can occur in fantasy. In popular culture , the fantasy genre predominantly features settings that emulate Earth, but with a sense of otherness. In its broadest sense, however, fantasy consists of works by many writers, artists, filmmakers, and musicians from ancient myths and legends to many recent and popular works. Many works of fantasy use magic or other supernatural elements as

1420-405: Is not depicted in these works. Constructed worlds often have cosmologies, both in the scientific and metaphysical senses of the word. The design of science fiction worlds, especially those with spacefaring societies, usually entails creation of a star system and planets . If the designer wishes to apply real-life principles of astronomy, they may develop detailed astronomical measures for

1491-413: Is sometimes called geofiction . The physical geography of a fictional world is important in designing weather patterns and biomes such as deserts , wetlands , mountains , and forests . These physical features also affect the growth and interaction of the various societies, such as the establishment of trade routes and locations of important cities. Desire for control of natural resources in

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1562-468: Is to what degree a fictional world will be based on real-world physics compared to magic . While magic is a more common element of fantasy settings, science fiction worlds can contain magic or technological equivalents of it. For example, the Biotics in the science fiction video game series Mass Effect have abilities, described scientifically in-game, which mirror those of mages in fantasy games. In

1633-460: Is written to come to their own conclusions regarding specific details that were not provided. This is especially useful for roleplaying game settings, as individual games may require certain details to be created on a case-by-case basis for the RPG's story to function. From a game-design perspective, the goal of worldbuilding is to create the context for a story. Consistency is an important element, since

1704-632: The Epic of Gilgamesh . The ancient Babylonian creation epic, the Enûma Eliš , in which the god Marduk slays the goddess Tiamat , contains the theme of a cosmic battle between good and evil, which is characteristic of the modern fantasy genre. Genres of romantic and fantasy literature existed in ancient Egypt. The Tales of the Court of King Khufu , which is preserved in the Westcar Papyrus and

1775-521: The Elder Edda and the Younger Edda , includes such figures as Odin and his fellow Aesir , and dwarves , elves , dragons , and giants . These elements have been directly imported into various fantasy works. The separate folklore of Ireland, Wales, and Scotland has sometimes been used indiscriminately for "Celtic" fantasy, sometimes with great effect; other writers have specified the use of

1846-461: The Spelljammer setting, which provides an entirely novel fantasy astrophysical system. Some fantasy worlds feature religions. The Elder Scrolls series, for example, contains a variety of religions practiced by its world's various races. The world of the 2000 video game Summoner has a well-developed cosmology, including a creation myth . Construction of a fictional map is often one of

1917-448: The orbit of the world, and to define the physical characteristics of the other bodies in the same system; this establishes chronological parameters, such as the length of a day and the durations of seasons . Some systems are intentionally bizarre. For Larry Niven 's novels The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring , Niven designed a "freefall" environment, a gas torus ring of habitable pressure, temperature, and composition, around

1988-600: The Golden River (1841), the history of modern fantasy literature is usually said to begin with George MacDonald , the Scottish author of such novels as Phantastes (1858) and The Princess and the Goblin (1872); the former is widely considered to be the first fantasy novel ever written for adults. MacDonald was a major influence on both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis . The other major fantasy author of this era

2059-543: The RPG products sold in 2005. The science fantasy role-playing game series Final Fantasy has been an icon of the role-playing video game genre (as of 2012 it was still among the top ten best-selling video game franchises ). The first collectible card game , Magic: The Gathering , has a fantasy theme and is similarly dominant in the industry. Fantasy encompasses numerous subgenres characterized by particular themes or settings, or by an overlap with other literary genres or forms of speculative fiction. They include

2130-689: The Rings film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson , and the Harry Potter films, two of the highest-grossing film series in cinematic history. Fantasy role-playing games cross several different media. Dungeons & Dragons was the first tabletop role-playing game and remains the most successful and influential. According to a 1999 survey in the United States , 6% of 12- to 35-year-olds have played role-playing games. Of those who play regularly, two thirds play D&D . Products branded Dungeons & Dragons made up over fifty percent of

2201-668: The Subcontinent of Hayao Miyazaki 's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind , Arda , the location of J. R. R. Tolkien 's Middle-earth , in The Lord of the Rings . Constructed worlds are not always limited to one type of story. Lawrence Watt-Evans and Steven Brust created Ethshar and Dragaera , respectively, for role-playing games before using them as settings for novels. M. A. R. Barker originally designed Tékumel well before

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2272-476: The Supernatural in the 1890s and 1920s , Lizzie Harris McCormick, Jennifer Mitchell, and Rebecca Soares describe how the social climate in the 1890s and 1920s allowed for a new era of "fantastic" literature to grow. Women were finally exploring the new freedoms given to them and were quickly becoming equals in society. The fear of the new women in society, paired with their growing roles, allowed them to create

2343-533: The advent of role-playing games, but many gamers , including Barker himself, have used it as a setting for such games. A shared universe is a fictional universe that can be used by different authors. Examples of shared universes include the Star Wars expanded universe , the Arrowverse and campaign settings developed specifically for role-playing games. One of the oldest of these is Oerth , developed for

2414-505: The air of uncertainty in its narratives as described by Todorov. Jackson also introduces the idea of reading the fantastic through a psychoanalytical lens, referring primarily to Freud's theory of the unconscious, which she believes is integral to understanding the fantastic's connection to the human psyche. There are however additional ways to view the fantastic, and often these differing perspectives come from differing social climates. In their introduction to The Female Fantastic: Gender and

2485-413: The art of play-writing: "Very little about trees as trees can be got into a play." Constructed worlds may sometimes shift away from storytelling, narrative, characters and figures, and may explore "trees as trees" or aspects of the world in-and-of-themselves. Tolkien sought to make his constructed world seem real by paying careful attention to framing his world with narrators and versions of stories, like

2556-473: The article's talk page . Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction which involves themes of the supernatural , magic , and imaginary worlds and creatures . Its roots are in oral traditions, which became fantasy literature and drama. From the twentieth century, it has expanded further into various media, including film , television , graphic novels , manga , animations , and video games . The expression fantastic literature

2627-438: The author uses worldbuilding to create characters, situations, and settings that may not be possible in reality. Many fantasy authors use real-world folklore and mythology as inspiration; and although another defining characteristic of the fantasy genre is the inclusion of supernatural elements, such as magic, this does not have to be the case. Fantasy has often been compared to science fiction and horror because they are

2698-440: The bottom up, to use a happy phrase, is more fruitful than world building from top-down." This approach provides for almost immediate applicability of the setting, with details pertinent to a certain story or situation. The approach can yield a world plagued with inconsistencies , however. By combining the top-down and bottom-up approaches, a designer can enjoy the benefits of both. This is very hard to accomplish, however, because

2769-591: The central Indian principles of political science . Chinese traditions have been particularly influential in the vein of fantasy known as Chinoiserie , including such writers as Ernest Bramah and Barry Hughart . Beowulf is among the best known of the Old English tales in the English speaking world, and has had deep influence on the fantasy genre; several fantasy works have retold the tale, such as John Gardner 's Grendel . Norse mythology , as found in

2840-644: The circular effect that all fantasy works, even the later The Lord of the Rings , were therefore classified as children's literature . Political and social trends can affect a society's reception towards fantasy. In the early 20th century, the New Culture Movement 's enthusiasm for Westernization and science in China compelled them to condemn the fantastical shenmo genre of traditional Chinese literature. The spells and magical creatures of these novels were viewed as superstitious and backward, products of

2911-646: The convention. The first WFC was held in 1975 and it has occurred every year since. The convention is held at a different city each year. Additionally, many science fiction conventions, such as Florida's FX Show and MegaCon , cater to fantasy and horror fans. Anime conventions, such as Ohayocon or Anime Expo frequently feature showings of fantasy, science fantasy, and dark fantasy series and films, such as Majutsushi Orphen (fantasy), Sailor Moon (urban fantasy), Berserk (dark fantasy), and Spirited Away (fantasy). Many science fiction/fantasy and anime conventions also strongly feature or cater to one or more of

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2982-469: The difference of critical traditions of each country have led to controversies such as the one led by Stanislaw Lem . Rosemary Jackson builds onto and challenges as well Todorov's definition of the fantastic in her 1981 nonfiction book Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion . Jackson rejects the notion of the fantastic genre as a simple vessel for wish fulfillment that transcends human reality in worlds presented as superior to our own, instead positing that

3053-635: The exact same way in the Champions Universe." This means any past wars, elections, and technological advancements in our world occurred the same way in the Champions Universe unless explained otherwise. Creating a cohesive alien culture can be a distinct challenge. Some designers have also looked to human civilizations for inspiration in doing so, such as Star Trek ' s Romulans , whose society resembles that of ancient Rome . The fictional world's history can explain past and present relationships between different societies, which can introduce

3124-514: The fantastic is a liminal space , characterized by the intrusion of supernatural elements into the realistic framework of a story, accompanied by uncertainty about their existence. However, this precise definition is not the predominant one in English critical literature, and the French term fantastique is used to differentiate the French concept from the broader English term of fantastic, synonym of fantasy. The restrictive definition of Todorov and

3195-429: The fantastic represents the unspoken desire for greater societal change. Jackson criticizes Todorov's theory as being too limited in scope, examining only the literary function of the fantastic, and expands his structuralist theory to fit a more cultural study of the genre—which, incidentally, she proposes is not a genre at all, but a mode that draws upon literary elements of both realistic and supernatural fiction to create

3266-554: The fantasy publisher Tor Books , men outnumber women by 67% to 33% among writers of historical, epic or high fantasy. But among writers of urban fantasy or paranormal romance, 57% are women and 43% are men. Fantasy is studied in a number of disciplines including English and other language studies, cultural studies , comparative literature , history and medieval studies . Some works make political, historical and literary connections between medievalism and popular culture. French literature theorists as Tzvetan Todorov argues that

3337-476: The first tasks of worldbuilding. Maps can lay out a world's basic terrain features and significant civilizations present. A clear, concise map that displays the locations of key points in the story can be a helpful tool for developers and audiences alike. Finished creative products, such as books, may contain published versions of development maps; many editions of The Lord of the Rings , for example, include maps of Middle-earth . Cartography of fictional worlds

3408-478: The first time, women started to possess more masculine or queer qualities without it becoming as much of an issue. The fantastic during this time period reflects these new ideas by breaking parallel boundaries in the supernatural. The fantastic breaks this boundary by having the readers never truly know whether or not the story is supernatural. Worldbuilding The world could encompass different planets spanning vast distances of space or be limited in scope to

3479-536: The following: In her 2008 book Rhetorics of Fantasy , Farah Mendlesohn proposes the following taxonomy of fantasy, as "determined by the means by which the fantastic enters the narrated world", while noting that there are fantasies that fit none of the patterns: Publishers, editors, authors, artists, and scholars with interest in the fantasy genre get together yearly at the World Fantasy Convention . The World Fantasy Awards are presented at

3550-528: The genre is inseparable from real life, particularly the social and cultural contexts within which each work of the fantastic is produced. She writes that the "unreal" elements of fantastic literature are created only in direct contrast to the boundaries set by its time period's "cultural order", acting to illuminate the unseen limitations of said boundaries by undoing and recompiling the very structures which define society into something "strange" and "apparently new". In subverting these societal norms, Jackson claims,

3621-633: The genre's popularity. The popularity of the fantasy genre has continued to increase in the 21st century, as evidenced by the best-selling status of J. K. Rowling 's Harry Potter series, Robert Jordan 's The Wheel of Time series, George R. R. Martin 's Song of Ice and Fire series, Steven Erikson 's Malazan Book of the Fallen sweeping epic, Brandon Sanderson 's The Stormlight Archive series and Mistborn series, and A. Sapkowski 's The Witcher saga. Several fantasy film adaptations have achieved blockbuster status, most notably The Lord of

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3692-546: The magazine include Anthony Boucher , Everett F. Bleiler , Martin Gardner , Carl Jacobi , David H. Keller , Fritz Leiber , Frank Belknap Long , E. Hoffmann Price , Vincent Starrett, Jules Verne and H. Russell Wakefield . This article about a literary magazine published in the US is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . See tips for writing articles about magazines . Further suggestions might be found on

3763-415: The major categories of speculative fiction . Fantasy is distinguished from science fiction by the plausibility of the narrative elements. A science fiction narrative is unlikely, though seemingly possible through logical scientific or technological extrapolation, where fantasy narratives do not need to be scientifically possible. Authors have to rely on the readers' suspension of disbelief , an acceptance of

3834-407: The majority of constructed worlds have one or more sapient species . These species can have constructed cultures and constructed languages . Designers in hard science fiction may design flora and fauna towards the end of the worldbuilding process, thus creating lifeforms with environmental adaptations to scientifically novel situations. Perhaps the most basic consideration of worldbuilding

3905-510: The modern fantasy genre. Plato used allegories to convey many of his teachings, and early Christian writers interpreted both the Old and New Testaments as employing parables to relay spiritual truths. This ability to find meaning in a story that is not literally true became the foundation that allowed the modern fantasy genre to develop. The most well known fiction from the Islamic world

3976-444: The need to start from both sides creates twice as much work, which may delay the desired product. Despite requiring considerable work to develop enough detail for a setting to be useful, not every aspect of a setting can be explored, and instead an approach called inferred worldbuilding is often used. Inferred worldbuilding is when the author provides enough detail about the various parts of a setting that readers can extrapolate on what

4047-402: The rest of the world in increasing detail. This approach might involve creation of the world's basics, followed by levels such as continents , civilizations , nations , cities , and towns . A world constructed from the top down tends to be well-integrated, with individual components fitting together appropriately. It can, however, require considerable work before enough detail is completed for

4118-464: The resulting world can be rendered in great detail, providing a degree of realism to the result. Constructed cultures, or concultures, are a typical element of worldbuilding. Worldbuilders sometimes employ past human civilizations as a model for fictional societies. The 1990 video game Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire , for example, takes place in a world full of tribes based on civilizations in early Mesoamerica and Africa. This method can make

4189-640: The science fiction novel Midnight at the Well of Souls , magic exists, but is explained scientifically. Some fictional worlds modify the real-world laws of physics ; faster-than-light travel is a common factor in much science fiction. Worldbuilding may combine physics and magic, such as in the Dark Tower series and the Star Wars franchise. One subgenre of science fiction, mundane science fiction , calls for writers to depict only scientifically plausible technology; as such, fictional faster-than-light travel

4260-456: The setting to be useful, such as in the setting of a story. With the bottom-up approach, the designer focuses on a small part of the world needed for their purposes. This location is given considerable detail, such as local geography, culture , social structure , government , politics , commerce , and history. Prominent local individuals may be described, including their relationships to each other. The surrounding areas are then described in

4331-458: The several subcultures within the main subcultures, including the cosplay subculture (in which people make or wear costumes based on existing or self-created characters, sometimes also acting out skits or plays as well), the fan fiction subculture, and the fan video or AMV subculture, as well as the large internet subculture devoted to reading and writing prose fiction or doujinshi in or related to those genres. According to 2013 statistics by

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4402-465: The social structure to emerge. The fantastic is never purely supernatural, nor can the supernatural be ruled out. Just as women were not equal yet, but they were not completely oppressed. The Female Fantastic seeks to enforce this idea that nothing is certain in the fantastic nor the gender roles of the 1920s. Many women in this time period began to blur the lines between the genders, removing the binary out of gender and allowing for many interpretations. For

4473-479: The thinking out of hypothetical worlds with different physical laws. The term has been used in science fiction and fantasy criticism since appearing in R.A. Lupoff 's Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure (1965). One of the earliest examples of a fictional world is Dante's Divine Comedy , with the BBC's Dante 2021 series describing it as "the first virtual reality". The creation of literary fictional worlds

4544-463: The top down or the bottom up , or by a combination of these approaches. The official worldbuilding guidelines for Dungeons & Dragons refer to these terms as "outside-in" and "inside-out", respectively. In the top-down approach, the designer first creates a general overview of the world, determining broad characteristics such as the world's inhabitants, technology level, major geographic features, climate , and history. From there, they develop

4615-494: The unbelievable or impossible for the sake of enjoyment, in order to write effective fantasies. Despite both genres' heavy reliance on the supernatural, fantasy and horror are distinguishable from one another. Horror primarily evokes fear through the protagonists' weaknesses or inability to deal with the antagonists. While some elements of the supernatural and the fantastic were a part of literature from its beginning, fantasy elements occur throughout ancient religious texts such as

4686-553: The world provides a foundation for the action of a story. However, J. R. R. Tolkien described the goal of worldbuilding as creating immersion, or "enchantment" as he put it, and descriptions of the world can be wholly disconnected from the story and narrative. Writers must also make the world building make sense for the story on hands-on matters concerning plot devices such as what equipment, nourishment, and modes of transportation characters use. An uninhabited world can be useful for certain purposes, especially in science fiction, but

4757-603: Was William Morris , an English poet who wrote several novels in the latter part of the century, including The Wood Beyond the World (1894) and The Well at the World's End (1896). Despite MacDonald's future influence with At the Back of the North Wind (1871), Morris's popularity with his contemporaries, and H. G. Wells 's The Wonderful Visit (1895), it was not until the 20th century that fantasy fiction began to reach

4828-483: Was considered more acceptable than fantasy intended for adults, with the effect that writers who wished to write fantasy had to fit their work into forms aimed at children. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote fantasy in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys , intended for children, although his works for adults only verged on fantasy. For many years, this and successes such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) created

4899-409: Was first examined by fantasy authors such as George MacDonald , J. R. R. Tolkien , Lord Dunsany , Dorothy L. Sayers , and C. S. Lewis . William Morris would be the first person to create the entire world of his story. Tolkien addressed the issue in his essay " On Fairy-Stories ", where he stated that the "Secondary World" or "Sub-Creation" (the constructed world) is substantially different from

4970-401: Was founded in 1949, the pulp magazine format was at the height of its popularity, and the magazine was instrumental in bringing fantasy fiction to a wide audience in both the U.S. and Britain. Such magazines were also instrumental in the rise of science fiction, and it was at this time the two genres began to be associated with each other. By 1950, " sword and sorcery " fiction had begun to find

5041-548: Was probably written in the middle of the second half of the eighteenth century BC, preserves a mixture of stories with elements of historical fiction, fantasy, and satire. Egyptian funerary texts preserve mythological tales, the most significant of which are the myths of Osiris and his son Horus . Myth with fantastic elements intended for adults were a major genre of ancient Greek literature . The comedies of Aristophanes are filled with fantastic elements, particularly his play The Birds , in which an Athenian man builds

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