Jewish Fantasy, Jewish Authors

[chomiji]

Interesting discussion at nancylebov's about this article: Why There Is No Jewish Narnia.

To me, the author seems to be cherry-picking his examples to go along with his thesis - for him, fantasy means very specifically the Tolkien/Lewis type along with the Harry Potter books. Another post discussing the same article, this time at the LJ weirdjews

Comments

[executrix]

Thanks for the link! I didn't dive in to the discussion chez nancylebov or weirdjews, because I'm not that conversant with the fantasy genre. However, a couple of issues I didn't see raised

[etrangere]

*scratches head*
Why should there be a Jewish Narnia? I haven't read it, but is allegorical fantasy such an awesome model to follow?

Certainly, there isn't any lack of Jewish writers; though I remember feeling frustrated once at a convention, when an interviewer asked about the mythologies that influenced their childhood and Ellen Kushner talked about Celtic folklore and never even mentioned Jewish stories.

[txtriffidranch]

And this is what we call "a very honorable challenge". I, for one, would love to see fantasy going off in different directions than the standard overdone tropes, and I know that at least one writer is going to stand up and give it the best attempt possible. With luck, that best attempt will blow all our socks off.