What *is* High Fantasy?

[The Procrastinator]

Almost but not quite. Sometimes it can be hard to pin something down, and easier to think about something in terms of what it isn't. What a boring world it would be - how Low - if everything could be completely defined in verbal terms.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Warren_Paul

I always considered High Fantasy to be the more far out worlds, like LOTR. Full of Elves, Orcs, Goblins, Wizards and witches, actual full blown magic. Things that defy reality and show the reader that they really aren't on Earth anymore. Plant life and animals that are nothing like reality.

It's an interesting approach, but in what way does this make it "high"? I can understand "extreme", but "high" carries a different connotation, implying loftiness (as in morality or ethics) or greatness (as in a major innovation or a paradigm shift), or both.

I can think of a number of fantasies which fit the description given above, but which are anything but "high"; some of them are, in fact, quite vulgar or low in any meaningful sense of the term. And even those which use "traditional" figures, such as elves, goblins, fairies, sprites, etc., are often low in the sense of comedic or farcical (the Pratt/de Camp Carnelian Cube and Land of Unreason come to mind here). Much as I love Moorcock's work, I would seriously hesitate putting the Elric stories in the class of "high fantasy", despite the often extreme nature of the creatures, plants, etc., involved, not to mention the sometimes staggering concepts he plays with. Even the Brak stories by John Jakes would fit the description given above, yet they are no more than potboiling, knock-off REH-style S&S, lacking any pretension to anything higher.

In other words, in order for the term "high" to have any sort of significance, it must refer to more than the incidentals of plot or the flora or fauna of the world depicted, and instead reference a seriousness or gravitas which has some larger philosophical, moral, or ethical end in view.

[Isabella Amaris]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

What high fantasy does (or attempts to do) is to startle us our of this mode of seeing the world (and ourselves) and reacquaint us with the strangeness, wonder, beauty, terror, and poignancy of it all, so that it becomes once more something we realize why we hold dear, and how precious and fragile, yet unbelievably enduring, it in truth is.

I love this, but I have to wonder if it's a definition that can be applied more to Tolkien's ideas of faerie than fantasy... I guess I'm one of those who's always tended to think of high fantasy as more along the lines of setting... ie. something which is set in a totally different world from ours, with heavy worldbuilding involved... Though I have to say, the sentiments and sensibility expressed in your definition would probably be something all writers of fantasy would wish to achieve on many levels in their work... Lovely definition...

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Isabella Amaris

I love this, but I have to wonder if it's a definition that can be applied more to Tolkien's ideas of faerie than fantasy... I guess I'm one of those who's always tended to think of high fantasy as more along the lines of setting... ie. something which is set in a totally different world from ours, with heavy worldbuilding involved... Though I have to say, the sentiments and sensibility expressed in your definition would probably be something all writers of fantasy would wish to achieve on many levels in their work... Lovely definition...

Thank you for the kind words. I cannot, however, accept credit for the thought expressed, only for its expression in this particular instance. The general thought is one I have encountered time and again from a variety of writers (not all of whom used the term fantasy, though some did). I simply compared it to any other definitions of the term and went with the one which seemed (to me, at any rate) to apply best in a wide range of writings, often called "high fantasy". Of course, this sort of approach long predates "modern" fantasy, hence has something of an advantage... of chronological priority, if nothing else....