In response to the thread, I find that my ideal concept of fantasy is something which takes me on a fantastic journey, something which enlivens me and thrills me with its strangeness, its freshness of storytelling, its imagination of setting... in short, something that is
original. I don't even consider most of the pulpy trash that passes for modern 'fantasy' actual fantasy, simply because the worlds in which these so-called tales take place in are so similar to each other that they are, in their own way, a real place with real conventions and steadfast rules. It's a sad state of affairs when writers are forced to comply with certain fans' expectations of the genre for fear of accidentally labeling an orc a troll or portraying an elf as anything other than a noble forest dwelling person of pure and ancient lineage.
Sure, there are some fine and worthy modern fantasy authors, but on the whole there is still a subconscious Tolkienization of most works. That's why I have gradually been reading more of the pre-Tolkien fantasies, the works of Eddison, Dunsany, Hope Hodgson... even the pulp shorts of the Weird Tales era have more vitality than many of the authors of today. For me, these guys portray the ideal fantasy period. Their writing may be clunky in places, their worlds and settings far-out, their ideals may be a little *ahem* unenlightened, but they weren't afraid of being as original and fantastic as possible.
And that for me represents ideal fantasy!
