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Fantasists on Fantasy: A collection of Critical Reflections by Eighteen Masters of the Art
Eighteen of the finest fantasy writers share the secrets of their craft in essays, excerpts, and letters. Candid, controversial, often highly personal, here is a unique glimpse into the author's singular imagination, as the real experts in the field explore the theory, technique, and aesthetics of fantasy literature." Contents include: Intro / The Fantastic Imagination by George Mac Donald / Fairy Tales by K. Chesterton / Intro to "Supernatural Horror in Literature" by H. P. Lovecraft / Fantasy (Fancy) by Sir Herbert Read / The Wizard of Chitenango by James Thurber / Tempest in a Looking Glass by James Thurber / Fantasy by J. R. R. Tolkien / "To W. H. Auden" by J. R. R. Tolkien / The Fantastic Story by August Derleth / Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What's to Be Said by C. S. Lewis / Tell Me a Story by Felix Marti-Ibanez / Tolkien's Magic Ring by Peter S. Beagle / Wishful Thinking - or Hopeful Dreaming? by Lloyd Alexander / On Writing Fantasy by Andre Norton / The Weak Place in the Cloth by Jane Langton / Dreams Must Explain Themselves by Ursula K. Le Guin / From Elfland to Poughkeepsie by Ursula K. Le Guin / One World by Mollie Hunter / Interview Essay - Katherine Kurtz / Wit and Humour in Fantasy by Michael Moorcock / Escaping into Ourselves by Susan Cooper
287 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1984
About the author
Robert H. Boyer
10 books23 followersBob Boyer, A Mercifully Brief Introduction:
I have recently completed work on the second and enhanced edition of THE MAGIC NECKLACE OF AL-ANDALUS. It will be out in 2021. The following biography highlights my personal and professional background from which this novel and my earlier work spring.
Reading, writing, traveling, and teaching Have always attracted me. Being a teacher has enabled me to combine all four activities, with my first love being teaching. When I was a freshman at La Salle High School in my hometown of Philadelphia, I decided that I would be a teacher. I have never looked back.
I retired in 2005, after forty-four years of teaching: four years in high school, three years as a graduate teaching assistant, and the last thirty-six years teaching English at St. Norbert College in Northeastern Wisconsin. I still enjoy teaching occasionally, most recently in the Learning for Life Program at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay. I remain connected with St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin.
Teaching has afforded me opportunities for travel, often with my family. I have taught in Canton, Ohio, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in Phoenix, Arizona, in Philadelphia, and in Northeastern, Wisconsin. I was fortunate to earn a fellowship to study at Oxford University in England, with my wife and four children along. Later on, courses that I taught, or research that I did, took me to Nicaragua (during their civil war), to El Salvador (just after their civil war), twice to Spain, and six times to the Philippines. I spent two sabbatical semesters in Spain (my thanks to St. Norbert College), and I was a Visiting Professor in Manila, the Philippines, for a memorable semester. A friend referred to me as “an adventurer.”
The teaching and travel have resulted in a number of books. Prior to THE MAGIC NECKLACE OF AL-ANDALUS, my most recent book was SUNDAYS IN MANILA, a travel memoir based on my experiences in the Philippines. That country and the many friends and acquaintances I have made there keeps drawing me back. I also write a monthly column for “VIA TIMES Newsmagazine,” a Philippine-American publication out of Chicago. You can find me, including a recent picture, on their web site (www.viatimes.com). All of my earlier books are edited collections of Fantasy Literature or are about Fantasy Literature and some of the people who write it. You can find many of these books listed in my Goodreads Author Profile.
THE MAGIC NECKLACE OF AL-ANDALUS is my first original work of fiction. It is a Historical Fantasy Novel set primarily in medieval Spain during the height of the Arab Ascendancy there from the 10th through the 12th Centuries. The story has been percolating in my mind and imagination ever since I was a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania and studied Medieval European Literature, which then covered mainly British literature and its Italian and French influences.
I continued to enjoy and later to teach medieval literature but with a growing sense of uneasiness with its antisemitism and bitter crusades against Islam. The antisemitism was more disturbing to me than the conflict with Islam; Islam was a foe, sometimes even cast as a noble foe in a war in which its heroes could occasionally be victorious. Once, in a moment of perhaps guilty frustration about these matters, I visited a medieval history friend and colleague and asked him, "was there ever a time when Jews, Muslims, and Christians actually got along together?" His answer: "Yes, medieval Spain during the Arab Ascendancy. You should go there." I did, and THE MAGIC NECKLACE OF AL-ANDALUS is the result.
Finally I owe whatever success I have achieved as teacher and writer to my family, especially my wife of 56 years, who has been my best audience, inspiration, and critic.
I have recently completed work on the second and enhanced edition of THE MAGIC NECKLACE OF AL-ANDALUS. It will be out in 2021. The following biography highlights my personal and professional background from which this novel and my earlier work spring.
Reading, writing, traveling, and teaching Have always attracted me. Being a teacher has enabled me to combine all four activities, with my first love being teaching. When I was a freshman at La Salle High School in my hometown of Philadelphia, I decided that I would be a teacher. I have never looked back.
I retired in 2005, after forty-four years of teaching: four years in high school, three years as a graduate teaching assistant, and the last thirty-six years teaching English at St. Norbert College in Northeastern Wisconsin. I still enjoy teaching occasionally, most recently in the Learning for Life Program at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay. I remain connected with St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin.
Teaching has afforded me opportunities for travel, often with my family. I have taught in Canton, Ohio, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in Phoenix, Arizona, in Philadelphia, and in Northeastern, Wisconsin. I was fortunate to earn a fellowship to study at Oxford University in England, with my wife and four children along. Later on, courses that I taught, or research that I did, took me to Nicaragua (during their civil war), to El Salvador (just after their civil war), twice to Spain, and six times to the Philippines. I spent two sabbatical semesters in Spain (my thanks to St. Norbert College), and I was a Visiting Professor in Manila, the Philippines, for a memorable semester. A friend referred to me as “an adventurer.”
The teaching and travel have resulted in a number of books. Prior to THE MAGIC NECKLACE OF AL-ANDALUS, my most recent book was SUNDAYS IN MANILA, a travel memoir based on my experiences in the Philippines. That country and the many friends and acquaintances I have made there keeps drawing me back. I also write a monthly column for “VIA TIMES Newsmagazine,” a Philippine-American publication out of Chicago. You can find me, including a recent picture, on their web site (www.viatimes.com). All of my earlier books are edited collections of Fantasy Literature or are about Fantasy Literature and some of the people who write it. You can find many of these books listed in my Goodreads Author Profile.
THE MAGIC NECKLACE OF AL-ANDALUS is my first original work of fiction. It is a Historical Fantasy Novel set primarily in medieval Spain during the height of the Arab Ascendancy there from the 10th through the 12th Centuries. The story has been percolating in my mind and imagination ever since I was a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania and studied Medieval European Literature, which then covered mainly British literature and its Italian and French influences.
I continued to enjoy and later to teach medieval literature but with a growing sense of uneasiness with its antisemitism and bitter crusades against Islam. The antisemitism was more disturbing to me than the conflict with Islam; Islam was a foe, sometimes even cast as a noble foe in a war in which its heroes could occasionally be victorious. Once, in a moment of perhaps guilty frustration about these matters, I visited a medieval history friend and colleague and asked him, "was there ever a time when Jews, Muslims, and Christians actually got along together?" His answer: "Yes, medieval Spain during the Arab Ascendancy. You should go there." I did, and THE MAGIC NECKLACE OF AL-ANDALUS is the result.
Finally I owe whatever success I have achieved as teacher and writer to my family, especially my wife of 56 years, who has been my best audience, inspiration, and critic.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 28, 2020
Very good compilation of essays, letters, other kinds of pieces by fantasy writers about fantasy writing. Some of the notes sounded seem to reverberate between writers -- some of what George MacDonald says seems echoed in the included pieces by Ursula Le Guin, some whose points can be found in pieces by Susan Cooper. And so on. Other writers include Tolkein, G. K. Chesterton, Katherine Kurtz, James Thurber, Lloyd Alexander, Andre Norton, and Peter Beagle.
Did Not Finish
March 13, 2017On my second attempt, I got further than the first time - it's unfortunate that it's in chronological order, so the very dullest, most overwritten essays are at the front. But even once I got to the good stuff around Lewis and Tolkien, it didn't grab me enough to read all the way through.
February 21, 2020
Fascinating and unpretentious discourse on Fantasy Fiction by the writers who write it. I used it as reference material for a critical study I was working on as it contained material written by authors who were pathing the way for modern fantasy. I wouldn't say it is comprehensive but it certainly covers enough ground as a taster reference. Nice to see Moorcock included.
April 7, 2013
My friends, if you are a fantasy writer this is a must read! This essay collection is absolutely fantastic! So, so helpful. And if you love fantasy and are academically minded, you will enjoy it, as well. It really gets into what fantasy is, what it does to us as readers, and how individual works in the genre build on one another. A gem!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews