The Fantasy Genre is More Diverse Than Ever — Here’s Why
When you think of fantasy, you tend to think of magic, adventure, fantastical creatures, and an imaginary world.
That’s a cliche image, but one that resonates in fantastical literature. It dates back to Greek mythology and literature, presumably even before then.
You might call the fantasy genre diverse in itself. After all, a fantasy author can literally conjure up anything for their story: characters, places, magic systems, etc. But, it’s only recently that I have seen fantasy novels and sagas showcase diverse casts of characters.
That’s what I want to talk about here. Some might argue that characters in fantasy are currently not diverse enough. I’m in two minds about this opinion.
On the one hand, diversity is important — representation matters to people. But on the other hand, you have to be careful. There is a real risk of shoving in different characters for the sake of diversity, at the expense of the story and the characters themselves. In my opinion, diverse characters deserve to be well-developed, not copy-pasted stereotypes.
Monocultural vs Multicultural
The fantasy genre is probably one of the best genres for exploring the human imagination. Anything is possible in fantasy, meaning that there are whole worlds of possibilities waiting to be explored.
That said, fantasy — especially older, more traditional high/epic fantasy — tends to showcase a majority of white, male characters. The Lord of the Rings is a classic example of this.
But it’s important to remember that these examples of fantasy are often a product of their time. J.R.R Tolkein was writing at a time when the view of the world was very Western-focused, and much of Middle Earth was based on the UK and Europe.
George R.R. Martin even admits to his own white-centric viewpoint in this interview. Here, he states that the primary reason that fantasy is so “monocultural” is that it has “mostly been written by white men”.
As the world has become more global and countries more multicultural, it is only natural that there has been more demand for more diverse fantasy novels written by authors from different backgrounds. And according to Martin (in the same interview as before), this is already happening.
What he also adds is that the success of these new authors depends on us — the audience. And he is right. If no one reads these new books, then they will not be successful. If books written by white men continue to be successful, this means that publishers will only publish those kinds of books.
It’s an uncomfortable truth, but we can’t demand diversity in fantasy if we won’t read those books. That’s not how it works.
Diversity in fantasy
So what is making the fantasy genre more diverse? I remember watching a video by Daniel Greene in which he said something that stuck with me.
Self-published books have launched a new advent in the fantasy genre. When self-publishing became available, it kickstarted a kind of renaissance in publishing. Anyone could publish a book, and so the previously elite world of book publishing gave way to a more diverse range of authors.
This is particularly true for fantasy. With more diverse fantasy authors comes more diverse stories, characters and worlds. This is very exciting, as the possibilities are virtually endless.
But again, the success of these self-published books largely depends on audience reception. As long as we continue to read these books, they will become more and more popular and hopefully more diverse.
Summary
So this has been my brief opinion about diversity in fantasy. The fantasy genre has become more diverse than ever, but the success of this diversity does depend on us as the audience. Overall, diverse stories and characters deserve to be well-developed and not packed with overused stereotypes.
What do you think of diversity in fantasy? Do you agree with my opinion? Let me know in the comments!
