Rhetorics

Since then, young F became aware of the BBC television series based on The Story of Tracy Beaker, so I mooched it and the other two in the same age bracket for him, and took the morning off my other reading (Rhetorics of Fantasy by Farah Mendlesohn, and Wicked by Gregory Maguire, having just reached the point where the former references the latter) to read them myself.

Three Jacqueline Wilson Books: Tracy Beaker, Double Act, Vicky Angel ias 2009

I was inspired to buy this by Farah Mendlesohn's Rhetorics of Fantasy, which ranks it as a key exemplar of one of the four modes of fantasy story-telling, the 'liminal' in which the boundary with the fantastic is hazy and uncertain; other examples being Little, Big (which I bounced off) and the first two Gormenghast books (which I remember loving as a teenager).

June Books 17) Lud-In-The-Mist, by Hope Mirrlees nwhyte 2010

Farah Mendlesohn has posted the introduction from Rhetorics of Fantasy: "In this book I argue that there are essentially four categories within the fantastic: the portal-quest, the immersive, the intrusive, and the liminal ..."

SF Tidbits for 3/26/09 2009

As a result of reading Rhetorics of Fantasy I have realised that immersive tales like this are not always for me, but this was fun.

May Books 19) Rhetorics of Fantasy, by Farah Mendlesohn nwhyte 2009

Farah Mendlesohn's Rhetorics of Fantasy is a great example of a text on how to read fantasy.

MIND MELD: Speculative Fiction Books That Should Be Assigned in School 2009

In general I tend to side with Adam Roberts in not being very fond of books that try to create taxonomies, but I love books like Farah Mendlesohn's Rhetorics of Fantasy that neatly explode the simplistic taxonomies beloved of exclusionist fans (not to mention exclusionist critics such as Suvin).

MIND MELD: The Best Genre-Related Books/Films/Shows Consumed in 2009 (Part 2) 2009

Farah Mendlesohn's Rhetorics of Fantasy is a sustained book-length argument laying out a taxonomy of fantasy stories, something that helps in organizing thoughts about particular stories and how they relate to the field overall.

MIND MELD: The Best Genre-Related Books/Films/Shows Consumed in 2009 (Part 4) 2009

Adam Roberts recently trashed Rhetorics of Fantasy, but as far as I'm aware, we are friends.

REVIEW: Green by Jay Lake 2009

Farah Mendlesohn has posted the introduction from Rhetorics of Fantasy: "In this book I argue that there are essentially four categories within the fantastic: the portal-quest, the immersive, the intrusive, and the liminal ..."

March 2009 2009

In Rhetorics of Fantasy, Farah Mendlesohn identifies four different ways in which fantasy writers engage with their book (and their readers).

May Books 19) Rhetorics of Fantasy, by Farah Mendlesohn nwhyte 2009