Teacher's Bad Rowling Advice

[Hookbill the Goomba]

I wonder if the situation is changing though?

Erm... I don't think so, really. Fantasy and Fairy tales are still generally seen as lower or less relevant than some of the so called 'higher' genres. I have had many debates with my lecturers on my Creative Writing course about how Fantasy should be recognized as a 'higher' genre because it requires so much more effort in order to do well. History lore and future all play much larger parts in a fantasy tale than most other genres and it takes a real mind to pull together all the elements necessary to create a true fantasy or fairy tale that is, well, not on the same tree as, but in the same forest as Tolkien.

I personally have come into conflict with those (even teachers and lecturers) who have discouraged me from writing anything fantastical or faerie in orientation or style. This is probably down to literary snobbery. Fairies and myths are seen as the thing that the primitives and children and those of lower intelligence go into, where as things like Jane Austine* are seen as the higher areas because it is 'cultural' and 'normal'. Since fantasy delves into the abnormal and the things that the eyes do not (often) see, touching on the inexplicable and down right unbelievable, some people are scared off. It is one thing, I suppose, to imagine a dragon, but to meet one, even in a book, can be an unnerving thing. Faeries also have their perils. As Tolkien so rightly said, of the realm of Faerie:

[There is] Both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords

This sort of thing is not generally seen in some of the other genres one finds. There is something of the essence of life in Fantasy and mythology, the desire of epic quests and long forgotten treasure. The strangeness and wonder one finds on the path into Faerie is a powerful thing. When one meets it face to face, some will be inspired, some will run away and some will go mad.

But one cannot blame those who fear to treat those paths. For the realm of Faërie is a perilous one; a man may count himself fortunate to have wandered there, but it is dangerous for him to ask too many questions, lest the gates be shut and the keys be lost. This realm is also wide and high and filled with many things; shore-less seas, stars uncounted, beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever present peril. Both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords, and all manner of birds and beasts, and especially, the Dragon.

* *Stabs it with fork*