Fantasy outside of the genre

[Fried Egg]

Wasn't somebody supposed to be starting a thread about great fantasy not normally classed or catagorised as fantasy? I guess I mean authors/works broadly accepted into the mainstream literary canon but still contain fantastic aspects or themes that might well appeal to those who normally confine themselves to within the genre?

I guess I mean people like me...

I would love to hear some recommendations.

[GOLLUM]

That may have been me to be honest.....

As you probably know I've been collecting a lot of World Literature with a fantasy or fantastical element in recent years as I expand my horizons above and beyond pure SFF.

To this end, thank you for posting this thread. It will actually prove helpful I think when I post threads specific to geographical regions that will include short reviews etc..

I have many, many authors I could recommend to you but here are some to get the ball rolling and I'm sure others will expand upon this list...you probably know several of these but here goes. I'll just list names at this stage and go back later to fill in further details or let others chime in OK?

Hope this helps.....

*NB Pretty much all of these writers feature fantastical elements in a lot of their writing if not all.

Latin America:
Jorge Louis Borges (probably at the top of the list/my personal list)
Pablo Neruda (primarily a poet and the pre-eminent one for South American lit)
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (another of which I have all their translated works)
Frederico Garcia Lorca (a great South American dramatist)
Julio Cortazar (pure genius, read him or perish as they say in S. America)
Carlos Fuentes (fantastic writer)
Isabelle Allende (possibly a little more "commercial" but still worth a look, House Of Spirits, one of her famous books translated onto celluloid)
Jose Saramago (have all of his work in English, the recent movie Blindness was based on his book)
Camilo Jose Celo
Roberto Bolano (my current favourite, I have all of his works so far translated into English)
Juan Calros Onetti

Europe/North America:
Italo Calvino (great, great writer who should have received the nobel prize)
Umberto Eco (par excellence)
Tommas Landolfi (a gifted writer and hero to Calvino)
A. S. Byatt (fantastic writer, multiple award winner)
Margaret Atwood
Jeanette Winterston
Joyce Carol Oates
Angela Carter (one of the MOST underrated/little known/not recognised yet best female writers of "literature" with a fantastical bent)
Peter Hoeg (features the relationship of time in several of his works)
Bruno Schutlz
Max Ernst
Mikhail Bulgakov
Carlos Louis Zafon ...to an extent

Asia/Middle East/Africa:
Naguib Mahfouz
Haruki Murakami (another of whom I've collected all of his written work)
Salman Rushdie ( " " )
Ben Okri ( " " )
Yukinawa Kawabata.....to an extent
Natsume Soseki
Gao Xingjian

OK, that's only a very brief list I have time to post at the moment. Others will add to it no doubt as will I.

[Fried Egg]

That's great gollum, just what I'm looking for. It would also be helpful to see a recommendation for a good place to start with each author.

I know I ask for a lot...

[GOLLUM]

I can help there...probably with their better known or frankly better works that feature a fantastic element or three....

Unfortunately I don't have time until tomorrow/Friday to do that justice, so keep your eyes open for other folk who may land here and post their thoughts.

I'm sure this thread will get some attention.

Q) Do you want short story collection vs. Novel as a way to get to know an author's style or don't really care which entry point you choose?

Cheers.

[Fried Egg]

Originally Posted by GOLLUM

Q) Do you want short story collection vs. Novel as a way to get to know an author's style or don't really care which entry point you choose?

Personally I don't mind either. I would welcome both, i.e. a novel and collection recommendations.

I'm really keen to broaden my fantasy horizons as I've gotten a little bored with the common fantasy tropes. I'm still heavilly drawn towards the fantastic. I want to feel the awe and wonder that any good fantasy should evoke but I want to explore the fringes of the genre, to read something different.

[GOLLUM]

Well I hope I can be of some help to you then and it will be interesting to read other people's posts on this topic.

When talking about about the fringes of the genre and away from fantasy tropes, we can also include some SFF writers who do push the envelope yes? I'm thinking of writers like Jeff Vandermeer, China Mieville, Michael Swanwick, M John Harrison, Alan Moore (graphic novels) that sort of thing...

Most of the authors I've listed and am now collecting are recognised as great writers within the literary community shall we say .e.g. nobel prize winners etc. but write with a fantastical element.

It also depends upon whether you want more subtle references to fantasy elements or more in your face? Several of these writers aren't necessarily in your face whilst others are moreso.

Sorry it's very late here...so no idea how much sense I'm making right now.... I just wanted to give you a better idea of where I'm coming from on this.

Cheerio for now.

[rai]

I like to think of Moby DIck as fantasy.

Yes it's set in the real world, but the actual whale Moby Dick is a hellspawn.

I mean he was a mean son of a gun getting even with people for slaughtering other whales. What he did was not possible in the real world.

He in not a fantasy creature like a fire breathing dragon or a sand worm, but he is bigger badder version of the real thing so some people would not call it strict fantasy.

[Connavar]

I did read Mikhail Bulgakov in A Country Doctor's Notebook a collection if his first written short stories before he wrote his novels.

The stories was about a young doctor send away to small villages. Semi autographical since thats what Bulgakov did as young doctor. The first story was about cutting of a beautiful girl's leg. It had a very nice sense wry humour that makes a chuckle a few times for a dark story like that.

A very talented writer that i must read more of very soon.

[thepaladin]

The Picture of Dorian Gray always pops into my mind. The classics that are admitted to be fantasy (usually called "fanciful") are Frankenstein and Dracula. There's also Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde which gets lots of ink on it's depth but commenters fall all over themselves not to call a fantasy. Dickens of course delves into fantasy in some of his works (besides the Christmas Carol I mean) such as Bleak House.

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by Connavar

I did read Mikhail Bulgakov in A Country Doctor's Notebook a collection if his first written short stories before he wrote his novels.

You must read his masterpiece The Master and Margarita......where the devil comes to Moscow. Highly recommended.

Several others worth reading include: Dead Man's Memoir, Heart of a Dog and The Fatal Eggs.

The White Guard is an historical based fiction revolving around the Russian revolution but I have not read that one, although it is supposed to be quite good.

Ive not read A Country Doctor's Notebook, so that sounds worth pursuing.

I'll try to post notes about some of those other authors I've raised over the weekend.

[dask]

WATERSHIP DOWN, possibly? Or DOCTOR RAT by William Kotzwinkle?

[GOLLUM]

Yes 2 good nominations I would say. I've got Doctor Rat of course but I have to confess to not having read it yet. Watership Down I have the book and film.

[Fried Egg]

~ Eagerly awaits Gollum's recommendations ~

[GOLLUM]

I'll definitely post something useful tomorrow (Dec 22) to keep you going w.r.t. several of the authors listed, so check back then.

Things can be a bit hectic around Christmas as I'm sure you know....

A more comprehensive appraisal of World Lit will be forthcoming in Jan 2010, probably with some specific threads.

[Fried Egg]

Sorry to nag, it's not like I need to rush out and buy some more books because I'm about to run out...

What about Franz Kafka?