Not all fantasy is like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. The fantasy genre has many subgenres one of which is urban fantasy. This subgenre is usually attributed to books such as The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones, and The Modern Faerie Tale series by Holly Black. What are the criteria for a book to be called an urban fantasy?
American Gods is probably urban fantasy. This genre is typically defined by an urban setting, small town America, the city, the suburbs, wherever, as long as it is in the real world. It is also often characterized by the supernatural such as werewolves, zombies, and vampires, though I think it is more complex than that. I recommend looking into A Short History of Fantasy. It is an excellent book. – Travis Kane10 years ago
The mortal instruments series and the Jim Butcher books both come under this title as well, dealing with supernatural elements and creatures within a city. – Tyler McPherson10 years ago
Many of us are familiar with Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade." Most people are not aware of Kipling's later poem "The Last of the Light Brigade" that talks about how these veterans have been forgotten. I would like to look at what these two poems (and other by Kipling and maybe Melville) can tell us about war.
I suggest an article examining how racism has evolved in American Literature and what we can learn from it. My hypothesis is that we cannot understand tolerance until we understand racism and that literature is the way to do that. This would heavily focus on Huck Finn.
Interesting topic. A comprehensive history of how literature deals with the theme of racism across different periods would be essential. A few classics come to mind - Great Gatsby, The Bluest Eye and all Toni Morrison book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Heart of Darkness, colonial/post-colonial novels (Things Fall Apart) . It would be interesting to go all the way up to medieval literature and see how minorities were depicted too. And even maybe tackle dystopia and fantasy, how racism has been projected onto fantasy worlds as well - we can think about the Muggles and the half-bloods in Harry Potter. This topic is very very large though so it might be useful to narrow it down to a certain continent or genre or minority. – Rachel Elfassy Bitoun10 years ago
Didn't realise it only focused on America so some examples above are irrelevant. But could still be interesting as preliminary research :) – Rachel Elfassy Bitoun10 years ago
What I don't understand is how you propose to understand "new racism" in America without analyzing new or contemporary fiction. – T. Palomino2 years ago
This Middle Earth created by him is so well detailed and so well documented that it's obvious it could have very well existed at one time. The ocean region North of Scotland used to be land several thousand years ago during the ice age and it's only reasonable that that's where Middle Earth used to be.
The existence of Middle Earth as well as all traces of it's existence eventually disappeared under the flooding waves. It was totally lost to history until Elrond and the Lady Galadriel, over in the "Undying Lands" used their Elvish power to transmit stories about it into Tolkien's dreams while he slept.
It would be interesting finding archaeological evidence of Middle Earth. The ruins of the ancient city of Minas Tirith must still be laying there at the bottom of the ocean floor.
Tolkien used Norse and similar mythologies to create a new world. He was part of the same writing group as C. S. Lewis, hence the similarities in their stories. There is no historical precedent here, but a look at Troy might be fruitful. – orenhammerquist10 years ago
I seriously doubt that Middle Earth actually existed, but maybe you could look at ancient cities that might have been inspirations for the locations in the books? Might be too hypothetical though. – Arlinka Larissa10 years ago
Which books written in the last 50 years will hold up as classics for generations to come? We have those authors and books that we mark with each decade, so which authors and novel will mark our generation? Stephen King and J. K. Rowling are two that jump to mind.
I don't know that Stephen King can be considered a "future" classic, considering many of his early short stories are already widely anthologized. However, I suspect there are a number of authors available to consider, and would recommend perusing graphical novels, such as "Fun Home" by Allison Bechdel. They haven't been prolific in past days, but are receiving a fair bit of respect from relevant critics and deserve a little more public attention. – Christopher Vance10 years ago
Look to Pulitzer Prize winners. I recommend "The Pecan Man" and I am certain that "The Alchemist" will make that list as well. – orenhammerquist10 years ago
Maybe some of the works of Neil Gaiman? – Arlinka Larissa10 years ago
Ursula K. Le Guin is an author that should be remembered in my view. – Travis Kane10 years ago
What are some religious books that would appeal to readers in general? For example, lots of people read stories and proverbs of the Bible, Pilgram's Progress, etc. in school to look at the historical or analytical context. What are religious writings that would appeal to someone not wanting to become part of the faith, but just read for context.
This is a fine topic, but it'd require a lot of broad reading, perhaps more than the average writer would want. For example, I'd say that it'd be just as vital to read religious analytical works that are written by prominent theologians (e.g. C.S. Lewis for Christianity and Rabbi Harold Kushner for Judaism) as well as fictional works that deal with religion as a facet of the story's characters (e.g. Milton Steinberg's As a Driven Leaf or Chaim Potok's The Chosen). Then there'd be the option of expanding the religions that are being addressed. Were I to write this article, I'd probably concentrate on Judeo-Christian novels since that is what I'm most versed in, but supposing someone wants to talk about Buddhism, or Hinduism, or Islam? No matter what, it'd be necessary to find works that praise religions excellence, not its superiority, to other world views, or in other words, books that aren't preachy (and I hope I did a good job of supplying works that aren't). This is certainly a worthy topic to write about, but the person who accepts the responsibility should know full well that they're going to have a lot of research ahead of them. – August Merz10 years ago
Jan Karon's Mitford series is considered Christian but achieved crossover status with mainstream lit, as did Neta Jackson's Yada Yada Prayer Group series. I enjoyed both and would recommend exploring them (or reading them if you want to research). – Stephanie M.8 years ago
Fairytales are often read in one of two diametrically opposed ways: either as a light and unrealistic story of princesses and "true love," or as disturbing Freudian journeys into the dark recesses of human consciousness and behavior. While both contain aspects of the truth, a more accurate reading reveals and understanding neither so superficial nor so disturbed.
Would need to include a brief overview of the major models used by academics to analyze fairy tales: the Proppian model, certainly; the Jungian model of anima/animus/shadow; etc. Also, a very brief history of the evolution from pre-Grimm, collection/printing by the Grimms and others, Disney-specific contributions, modern 'dark' re-tellings. so forth. – Monique10 years ago
There's been a recent release of a set of Grimm fairytales that include all the, well, Grimm-ness and some history that might be beneficial to this? http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/12/grimm-brothers-fairytales-horror-new-translation – Hannah Spencer10 years ago
