What is fantasy novel?

Fantasy fever, fantasy fever and science fiction literature

China Reading Newspaper 2005/08/03

What prompted me to write this article was a visit by Chen Lishu, a reporter from Shanghai Branch of Xinhua News Agency in February 2005. She asked me to express my opinion on the fantasy novel about the legend of the little soldier. I'm familiar with fantasy novels, but I haven't read The Legend of Little Soldiers. It is said that The Legend of Little Soldiers is one of the novels with the highest click-through rate on the Internet. So, I quickly checked the "Little Soldier Legend" from the Internet. Soon, the Shanghai Branch of Xinhua News Agency sent a telegram "Ye Yonglie comments on fantasy novels". After that, the Beijing News reporter called me again and asked me to talk about fantasy novel. On June 3rd, 2005, the report "Ye Yonglie: Fantasy is a Part of Fantasy Literature" was published. The reporters' questions made me pay attention to the "fantasy fever" and "fantasy fever" in the book market in China today. ...

Three types of fantasy novels

When I am confused, my habit is to look up Ci Hai. There are "sci-fi" entries in Ci Hai, but fantasy novel and fantasy novel are not found. This shows that "fantasy novel" and "fantasy novel" are popular new terms, but they are not included in Ci Hai.

Fantasy literature can be divided into two categories, namely fantasy novel and fairy tales. As far as fantasy novel is concerned, it can be divided into three categories, namely, science fiction, magic fiction and fantasy fiction.

Science fiction is well known, and its fantasy is based on science. The world's first science fiction novel is Frankenstein (also translated as Frankenstein) published by 18 18, written by mary shelley, the wife of the famous British poet Shelley. Since then, Verne of France, Wells of Britain, Asimov of the United States, Bjelja Tofu of the Soviet Union, Sakji Komatsu of Japan and Shinichi Hoshino have created many excellent science fiction novels and become world science fiction masters. Science fiction has a long history and has become a mature style.

The fantasy of magic novels is based on magic. With the help of wands, Lord of the Rings, magic, magic and spells, magic novels are ever-changing and full of magical charm. Harry Potter by British woman writer Rowling is one of the representative works. The mysterious "Sorcerer's Stone" in Harry Potter shows the magic of magical novels to the fullest.

Besides science fiction and magic, it is the third kind of fantasy novel with the most names and the most vague definition, but it is the most popular and popular in China today. This third kind of fantasy novel has three common names: Greater fantasy novel, fantasy novel and fantasy novel, commonly known as fantasy novel.

The origin of fantasy novels

The word "Great fantasy novel" comes from Japan and is represented by the works of Japanese woman writer Naoko An Fang. In Naoko's pen, "It's a fantastic country, a world haunted by elves, where there are windows of foxes, where all branches are covered with white parrots, where girls' souls can be heard crying ..." Some people call Naoko's Great fantasy novel a' contemporary serial'. According to this reasoning, China writer Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio seems to be regarded as the originator of "Great fantasy novel".

As far as I know, the word "fantasy novel" comes from China and Hongkong. The earliest fantasy novel I have ever seen is Huang Yi's Moon Magic published by Juxiange 1988. At that time, Juxiange was also preparing to publish my works. The publisher, Mr. Zhao Shanqi, gave me a novel by Huang Yi, a local writer. Mr. Zhao Shanqi wrote in the preface: "A brand-new variety of metaphysics, science and literature was born. This kind of novel is called' fantasy' novel. " This is the first time that the word "fantasy novel" appears and has a clear definition.

Huang Yi's fantasy novels have formed a series, all featuring a character named Ling Duyu. Ling Duyu has a legendary experience. He grew up in Tibet, and then studied in the United States, where he got two doctorates. He also studied tantric Buddhism and had superhuman spiritual perception, so he was invited to explore many supernatural mysteries in the world.

Huang Yi's series of fantasy novels, each with100000 words, were printed into a small pocket book. Because fantasy novel in Huang Yi pays attention to suspense, twists and turns in stories and shows various strange metaphysical realms, his series became popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan after being published in fantasy novel.

Huang Yi's fantasy novels claim to be "a combination of metaphysics, science and literature", but it is not clear how many scientific elements there are. However, metaphysics runs through the novel. Zhao Shanqi said, "Huang Yi is a master of metaphysics, proficient in geomantic numerology and astrology".

Of course, Huang Yi's so-called metaphysics is only the superficial "geomantic numerology astrology", not the "metaphysics" laid by the so-called "San Xuan", that is, metaphysics.

Huang Yi's fantasy novel view of "the trinity of metaphysics, science and literature" is not only inaccurate in Huang Yi's works, but also far from fantasy novel, which is popular in China today. It can be said that there is neither science nor metaphysics nor fantasy novel in China today, represented by The Legend of Little Soldiers!

I think China's fantasy novels today just follow the fantasy novel style created by Huang Yi and abandon its core. In today's fantasy novel in China, "metaphysics" no longer refers to metaphysics, but can be interpreted as metaphysics.

I really admire our ancestors for giving the word "Xuan" a magical and mysterious color. Xu Shen's Shuowen is interpreted as: "Xuan, you are far away. The word' Xuan' comes from Laozi's Tao Te Ching,' Xuan and Xuan, the door of Wan Xuan', which is deep and implicit. " It is "Xuan" that means "profound and subtle", so it also gives fantasy novel an infinite world of metaphysics!

In Ye Yonglie's comments on fantasy novel fever, I once said, "fantasy novel is newly emerging. Based on metaphysics, it emphasizes the word "metaphysics", and its content goes further than that of fantasy novel. From the creative level, fantasy novel writers are more free to create than science fiction writers, not bound by scientific basis, and have more room to play. "

In addition to the legend of Batman, the fantasy novel The Tale of Charm is also very popular on the Internet. From June 5, 2004 to 10, I attended the seminar "China Fantasy Literature Market" in Beijing. At the meeting, Oriental Publishing Center, a Chinese publishing group, suddenly launched 20 kinds of fantasy novel with the signature of "Huotianche", which shows the enthusiasm for fantasy novel.

Overview of fantasy novels

I noticed that The Legend of Little Soldiers and The Charm Story are often called "fantasy novel". The terms "fantasy novel" and "fantasy" can be used interchangeably. This shows that the word "fantasy novel" can also be interpreted as "singularity", which has nothing to do with metaphysics.

Different from fantasy novel, fantasy novel is not confined to China, but also exists abroad, and is often confused with fantasy novel. Even Harry Potter is classified as fantasy novel. People trace the history of fantasy novels back to1Greek mythology at the beginning of the 9th century or even earlier. The representative works of foreign fantasy novels are The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by British writer Tolkien. When Taiwan Province translator Zhu translated it into Chinese, he pioneered the term "fantasy novel". Since then, the term "fantasy novel" has become popular in the Chinese world. Zhu founded Taiwan Province Fantasy Culture and Art Foundation.

There is no strict definition of fantasy novel. Xu Qingwen of Taiwan Province Province wrote the opening declaration for Muse Fantasy Museum: "We need imagination, not to teach us to escape from reality and drown in nothingness, but to encourage us to change our horizons and broaden our minds. The unique mysterious nature and infinite fantasy space of fantasy stories are the source of imagination. " This passage was once thought to give a broad definition to "fantasy novel". In my opinion, fantasy novel's characteristic is "strangeness", which runs through the novel with magical, bizarre and peculiar fantasies. This fantasy has nothing to do with science.

The representative work of China's fantasy novels is Jing M.Guo's Fantasy City.

Jing M.Guo believes that the fantasy city is "a castle in people's hearts and your dream" and "the fantasy city in everyone's heart is different". Jing M. Guo's "fantasy city" is full of magical colors: the fire family and the ice family are incompatible, and the fire city is engaged in jihad with the fantasy snow empire. In the magic snow empire, "people have white crystal pupils, long white hair, a thousand years of life and a gorgeous illusion like a nightmare", "the distant fantasy about jihad is mixed with fragmented love. Fantasies from the sky, light, romantic and wild, lead you to open the mysterious door of your dreams, let your imagination roam freely, and the elves of thinking wander in the infinite world, and the scenery is infinite wherever you go. "

Cao Wenxuan, a professor and writer of Chinese Department in Peking University, pointed out when commenting on Fantasy City: "Fantasy City is mysterious. This mystery may not be the result of the author's deliberate pursuit. But this mystery has always attracted us to move forward in the dense language forest ... until the end, we saw the world clearly, and the mystery is here. "

This "mystery" is the unique and magical charm of fantasy novel.

Another book, fantasy novel and Chen Siyu's Record of Making Men Proud of the World, has been published in 26 volumes in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and is also an influential fantasy novel in recent years. This fantasy novel was first published under the pseudonym of Minmei on original websites such as Magic Sword Book League, Dragon Sky and Novel Channel, with nearly 10 million hits!

The revival of fantasy and fantasy writers

Historically, science fiction is longer than fantasy, and fantasy is longer than fantasy and fantasy novel. However, the fantasy represented by "Fantasy City" and the fantasy represented by "Little Soldier's New Biography" have far more influence than the "established" science fiction. A book review wrote: "The wave of magic books has surpassed that of science fiction. In less than three years, fantasy novels have sprung up, subverting the situation that magic novels dominate the world at an alarming rate."

A detailed analysis of freshmen's fantasies and fantasies shows that the author is younger and the readers are younger.

Jing M.Guo, 17 years old, wrote a novel full of fantasy, Fantasy City.

Chen Siyu, the author of the fantasy novel Record of Doing something, is a sophomore majoring in radio and television in the Chinese Department of Chengdu University.

The author of The Legend of Little Soldiers is not exposed by the media as frequently as Jing M Guo, so that people think that the author is a shy MM. In fact, the author is a young man, born in 1980, only two years older than Jing M Guo, who lives in Heyuan, a small town in Guangdong. He only studied in normal colleges and worked as an art teacher in middle schools. He finally found that the profession of teacher was too unsuitable for him, and I was too lazy. We all work day and night upside down, sleep during the day and get up in the morning 1 1. "He began to write. His pen name is Yuxuan, which is taken from Heaven and Earth, and the word "rain" is "because I like the feeling of rain very much".

Xuan Yu started writing fantasy novels like this: "I like reading novels since I was a child. In 2000, I had nothing to do this year, and I read several novels almost every day. I have read all the books rented from the street bookstore. When I couldn't find a book to read, I began to read it online. However, most of the complete novels on the Internet have been read, and when I was bored, I began to contact books written by online authors. This is my first time to see fantasy novel. It makes me feel completely different from martial arts novels. There are all kinds of strange worlds and adventures in the novel, which immediately makes me addicted. But what annoys me is that these good-looking novels are all unfinished and updated very slowly. While waiting, I began to fantasize about the plot in the novel in my mind and take risks in the illusory world as a master. At this time, I found that the plot in the novel was quite different from what I expected to see, so I began to try to write the plot I wanted to see. In this way, the day of typing began. "

In Beijing, I came into contact with fantasy novel's author "Huotianche" and learned that this is a writing team with an average age of only 22 years old. Many of them are women. I asked about the creation of "The Crane of Fire", and they replied in this way: a young lady with overall responsibility wrote the overall idea, designed the characters, and then recruited screenwriters online. Writers send their ideas by e-mail. These ideas were comprehensively selected by the young lady and written by the writer as fantasy novels. After being revised and polished by the lady in charge, it was published in the name of "Huotian Crane". Because of this, The Crane of Fire created fantasy novel at an amazing speed, and dozens of copies were published at once.

A few days ago, I was asked to preface the novel The Last Royal Family written by Fu Liangju, the author of Lanzhou. The author is also a young college student.

The revival of fantasy writers is also true in Taiwan Province Province. First-year girls from Songshan High School in Taiwan Province Province wrote five books "Wind" in the name of "Water Springs", which were published by Taiwan Province Spring Publishing Company.

I appreciate fantasy and the rejuvenation of fantasy writers. In fact, I am also a "young writer". 1 1 published works at the age of 20, became the main author of 100,000 whys, and wrote science fiction novel PHS roaming in the future at the age of 2 1. I know young people are full of youthful enthusiasm and strange fantasies. Fantasy and fantasy are both youth literature, so it is worth encouraging that so many young people join the creation of fantasy novel and fantasy novel. Today, with the deepening of reform and opening up, China has entered a relaxed era, and the imagination of young people has been fully released. Fantasy and fantasy are a vast world where imagination can gallop at will. Many young authors create fantasy and fantasy novels, which reflects the trend of the times.

At the same time, fantasy and fantasy are widely spread on the Internet. The main readers of online novels are teenagers, so fantasy and fantasy attract the attention of millions of teenagers in Qian Qian with the help of the infinite magic of the Internet. In addition, the novelty, fantasy and wonderful fantasy realm of fantasy novels are exactly what young readers like. Because of this, The Legend of Little Soldiers has such a high click-through rate, and Fantasy City shocked the Beijing Book Fair with a print run of100000.

Looking forward to the healthy development of fantasy and fantasy

Fantasy and fantasy works have mushroomed in China. I think such "fantasy fever" and "fantasy fever" are gratifying. In the telegram "Ye Yonglie comments on fantasy novels" issued by Shanghai Branch of Xinhua News Agency, there is such a passage: "Facing the fiery scenes in fantasy novels, Ye Yonglie bluntly said:' Fantasy novels can stimulate readers' imagination, which is exactly what China students lack. Therefore, the best-selling fantasy novels, on the whole, is something to be thankful for. ”"

The report also wrote: "Ye Yonglie pointed out that the disadvantage of fantasy novel today is' quick success and instant benefit'. I don't believe in slow work and fine work, but I don't appreciate fast writing just for business gimmicks. Novels should be based on quality. Fantasy also expects quality products. Although fantasy novel is very popular in China, as an important branch of fantasy novel, it also faces the dilemma of creation. "

I think that in the face of "fantasy fever" and "fantasy fever", the literary world should strengthen theoretical research, strengthen criticism of works, guide young writers, let "fantasy fever" and "fantasy fever" develop in the right direction, and a number of excellent works like "Fantasy City" appear.

Science fiction creation should catch up.

After all, I am a retired science fiction veteran. In the face of fantasy and fantasy creation in full swing, looking back at the oldest "big brother" science fiction, I feel backward and must catch up.

In recent years, there are a lot of science fiction novels in China, but the quality is mediocre and the business is bleak. The print run usually hovers between 5000 and 10000. China's science fiction world lacks such influential works as Fantasy City and such influential rising star as Jing M. Guo.

In fact, the level of a country's sci-fi creation is directly proportional to its scientific and technological strength, because the scientific and technological strength reflects the overall scientific quality of the people, and the level of scientific quality determines the level of sci-fi creation. I often go to the United States. In American libraries and bookstores, I can always see the whole frame of science fiction arranged there. There are always several sci-fi movies in America every year. Whether it's American science fiction movies such as Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Aliens, Jurassic Park, Five Elements, Me, Robots, etc. They have had a wide influence all over the world ... these are the manifestations of America's powerful scientific and technological strength. China's science fiction is not only different from emerging fantasy novels and fantasy novels, but also different from American science fiction.

China's science fiction should form a distinctive China style. Today's China science fiction is deeply influenced by western science fiction, which is too "westernized" and "westernized". This is also the reason why China's science fiction lacks influential new works.

However, I prefer science fiction after all. In my opinion, science fiction, after all, is based on science. It will enlighten young readers and make them have a strong interest in science, which is beyond the reach of fantasy novel and fantasy novel. I am not against fantasy novel or fantasy novel, but I hope to publish more science fiction and encourage young people to read more science fiction.