There are many more or less recognised subgenres to fantasy. On the bookshelves of Waterstones, steampunk jostles alongside urban and high fantasy. On social media people argue about what is and isn’t grimdark while some of the authors most acclaimed for writing grimdark cry out that it is so ill-defined they don’t even know what the subgenre is. Some academic commentators can be disparaging about genre writing in general and fantasy/sci-fi in particular.  Speculative fiction is seen as somehow less worthy, a veritable McDonald’s of fast-fiction gastronomy against the Michelin-starred Fat Duck of literary fiction (lit-fic). But in her book … Continue reading The 4 Categories of Fantasy: Applying Some Ideas From RHETORICS OF FANTASY by Farah Mendlesohn