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I was thinking about what "Fantasy" as a setting/genre actually means to me and why I would include some works and not include others. In my mind there are roughly five types of fiction: Realist, Speculative, Fantasy, Metafictional, and Surrealist. They can be thought of as a scale from most grounded in reality to least, but the lines are not always that clear cut. Realist fiction covers stories that are explicitly set in a world that is identical to "real life", or at least a world that differs form real life in ways that can be fully explained by a little artistic license or a lack of research. Speculative fiction means it is set in a world that is assumed to be like real life except when it's explicitly not. Fantasy means the world operates on very different metaphysical rules and diverges sharply with anything that can be thought of as realistic. Metafictional fiction means the story is it's self about and based of the rules of a story. Surrealist fiction means there are hardly any rules and most things are purely symbolic, random, and/or just look cool. There is overlap between these categories of course, but for the most part a lot of things labeled "fantasy" can fit snugly in other categories. A lot of fantasy I would count as more speculative or just surreal. It's a hard balance to make sometimes. Too over the top and nonsensical and it seems more like surrealist fiction. Too grounded in reality and focusing on building a realistic world with some odd elements that change things up and it seems more like speculative fiction. Also, to me there is a difference from plain old fantasy and real capital F "Fantasy". Real capital F "Fantasy" means a setting that is based around the "fantastical". The classic example of "Fantasy" is the works of J. R. R. Tolkien such as The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. However, I don't really think most of his imitators really fall into capital F "Fantasy". Why? Because they tend to stick with a set formula. Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs do not make a story into capital F "Fantasy". Tolkien included and defined Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs as fantastical and original elements in his stories without any common formula to fall back on, even if they were named based on myths. The element of the fantastical requires a lack of formulas and preexisting rules. Oddly another good example of real capital F "Fantasy" that I can think of is The Legend of Zelda. Now you may at first glace think it's just another Tolkien rip off, but it's really not (or if it is, the cultural barrier between the English book and the Japanese game creators has introduced enough originality to offset it). All of the races and monsters are vastly different, the way the world works is quite unique, and even as far back as the original game the setting seemed just a bit more fantastical then Generic RPG World 452. I guess the Final Fantasy series counts too, but it seemed to me to barely introduce more then a handful of original interesting elements before veering hard into over the top sci-fi surrealism so fast that I am not sure what it can be counted as now. What do you guys think? I was gonna post this as a blog but I think I would like to see some discussions about it, because I am not sure if my way is the best way to look at it or not. After all, I am always saying how much I hate to use formulas or lump things willy nilly together, but I thought I would talk about how I tend to see it.