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Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Land of Fable

Tagged: Theme.

Lands of Fable can be found somewhere between the identifiable real world – in which all Supernatural Fiction and many kinds of fantasy are set (see Contemporary Fantasy, Fantasies of History, Instauration Fantasy, Slick Fantasy, Urban Fantasy) – and impossible worlds, which are described in this Encyclopedia under various headings including Faerie, Fantasyland, Otherworld, Secondary World and Wonderland. A Land of Fable always has its roots in this world, but in at least some aspects is an impossible one. For instance, the Middle East featured in much Arabian Fantasy is clearly an impossible realm. What distinguishes the Land of Fable from a full-blown Alternate Reality or Alternate World is the fact that the reality-status of the Land of Fable, or its relationship to our world, is not examined. The Land of Fable, usually quasi-historical, stands to this world as Fantasyland stands to the fully developed Secondary World: it is a Template of the real world, designed to operate as a backdrop for adventures. If an author creates a territory which appears to be a Land of Fable, but then proceeds to suggest reasons for its having diverged in some way from our real world, s/he has created an alternate world; if s/he suggests that the characters' Perceptions of their world are somehow intrinsic to its reality, then s/he has created an Alternate Reality.

Heroic Fantasies are often set in Land of Fable versions of the prehistoric world; the same relationship prevails between fantasies about Native Americans and pre-Columbian America, fantasies derived from Saga and Scandinavia, Celtic Fantasies/Arthur tales and Britain, tales of the Greek Gods and ancient Greece, Chinoiserie and China, etc. The Land of Fable has all the colour of the full-fantasy venue, but not the confrontational, Metamorphosis-prone substance. It is only the unexamined Land of Fable which is worth living. [JC]



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