Conflation Confrontation

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Credit to Henry Hustava (@enzo74) on unsplash

The thing I love most about fantasy is that it doesn’t rely on realism. That’s the whole point of it, actually. Yet, there’s this odd notion on the rise — especially on social media — that fantasy should include historical accuracy. 

This is not entirely untrue. If someone writes a fantasy story based around historical events, that does call for accuracy! Even a reference to something historical should be checked. But there seems to be this idea that any western, medieval-style fantasy needs to be historically accurate. However, there are a few problems with this conflation of historical fiction and fantasy. 

Here are the main ones: 

  1. Fantasy does not rely on realism 

    Yes, I’m already repeating myself. This one, defining feature of fantasy basically nixes the historical accuracy argument. Since fans of fantasy — the ones who tend to bring it up — should know this tidbit about the genre, the argument shouldn’t even exist. 

    Unfortunately, there’s a very simple reason it still does. 

  2. This claim is almost never actually about historical accuracy

    Which means it isn’t even a conflation! This argument is almost always about exclusion. And I’m not talking about casts and characters that aren’t diverse. I’m talking about the ridiculous amount of gatekeeping done by fans. Or, more accurately (ha), done by straight, cis, white, male fans. 

    Often, when people make the argument about historical accuracy, it’s in relation to:

    • The presence of women

    • The presence of people of colour 

    • The presence of LGBTQ+ people

    Of course, the reality is that these arguments are made to excuse misogyny, racism, and homo- and transphobia in media. 

Misogyny 

Credit to New Line Cinema’s The Lord of the rings: the two towers

Regarding misogyny, things for women are way better now than they were in oh, say, medieval Europe. Women didn’t even exist back then! 

… Just kidding. But this is, essentially, an argument that is pushed by exclusionists. They’ll explode at the sight of a woman doing “something they didn’t do back then!” which encapsulates just about everything that makes fantasy, well, fantasy. 

The counterpoint to this is simple. Women were not invisible in medieval times. They did types of work that was typically considered “men’s work” such as helping run businesses and bringing in the yearly harvest. If a woman could do that, she could probably do anything else a man could, too — like take up a sword.

Racism

The simple answer for this one is that the claim of there being no people of colour in medieval western Europe is that it’s factually incorrect. 

There are public records, called pipe rolls, that detail black people and people from western Asia living in medieval England. If the requirement for people of colour to be in fantasy stories is that they had to live in western Europe for a fact, they get a pass! 


Homo- and Transphobia 

Lots of ‘phobes think that LGBTQ+ identities are some new-fangled thing. They’re not, of course. What’s new is that LGBTQ+ people are less afraid to be themselves and have access to widely-used labels.

Homosexuality existed in plenty of cultures around the world beyond and before medieval Europe. The book The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller is all about the romantic relationship between the Greek mythological figures Achilles and Patroclus. The nature of their relationship was not an assumption made by Miller. 

She traces the original idea back to the famous Greek philosopher Plato. He was estimated to have lived between 428 and 347 B.C.E, where medieval times are commonly believed to have started around 476 C.E. Here’s a graph to emphasize the time difference: 

Credit to Artoba tours (artobatours.com)

If that’s not enough, here are some lovely calculated statistics about how many transgender and intersex people would have been alive during 14th century France. 

I’m just going to throw this out there one more time for good measure.

Fantasy does not rely on realism. 

What is and isn’t true in a fantasy story is entirely up to the creator. If they want to write something historically accurate, there’s nothing wrong with that! But at the end of the day, fantasy is not history. To use the defence of “historical accuracy” to push a bigoted agenda is well and truly vile. It’s my sincere hope that I live to see the day when fantasy is a space that warmly welcomes us all. 

Simona Casale

Simona is an aspiring editor and fiction author. In her free time she like to crochet, play video games, and read fanfiction. If you need to find her, check the nearest restaurant that serves ahi tuna bowls — look for the girl in pink.

The Difference Between High and Low Fantasy

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Fantasy writing is a huge genre with many different subgenres. We have things like heroic fantasy, historical fantasy, and supernatural fantasy. The differences between these three aren’t very difficult to understand if you dig deep enough.

But what’s the difference between high and low fantasy?

To begin, Fantasy itself is defined as a genre of speculative fiction, set in some sort of fictional universe. Fantasy is often inspired by real life folklore, and mythology. It originated as a form of oral tradition which eventually evolved into proper literature such as books, and dramas in the form of plays.

High fantasy is defined by the epic nature of it’s setting, its characters, its themes, and its plots. Epicness is in fact one of the most beloved parts of high fantasy, huge battles between armies of good and evil, magical spells that can build, or level an entire city. All of this fits in the realm of high fantasy, and it’s the gift that keeps on giving. 

High fantasy is quite diverse in it’s worldbuilding process. This is due to the fact that this form of fantasy is also characterized by being set in an alternative, or secondary world. It is common for fantasy worlds to remain relatively consistent, however, the laws of reality in this world often differ from our own. 

Perhaps the most recognized high fantasy work is the writing of J.R.R Tolkien, such as the Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and the Silmarillion. In all of these books, the setting takes place in a world entirely different from ours, and battles between good and evil take place in epic proportions. Notably more so in the Silmarillion, which goes into great detail of how a large amount of an entire continent was destroyed during various wars.

A funny misconception is that Tolkien’s works should be low to medium fantasy due to their limitations on the usage of magic. While it is true that Tolkien limited magic to a fair degree in his works, there are still other ways we can consider Tolkien’s books high fantasy. This is mainly because the world of Arda is so different from earth, the amount of divine entities which wield incredible power, such as the Valar and Maiar. Most of all however, with the fact that despite a low amount of magic, the world is still rife with magical items and weapons. There are also creatures born of magic, such as the orcs, trolls,  and balrogs.

Low fantasy on the other hand is characterized by magical events that intrude upon an otherwise normal world, and therefore contrasts with high fantasy stories. This form of story often holds less focus upon typical elements of fantasy, and instead sets a narrative on a realistic environment, with certain elements that can be considered fantastical.

A big trend in low fantasy is a world within a world. What I mean by this is best explained by example. In the Harry Potter books, the setting takes place on planet earth, in Scotland. However, Harry Potter also has the wizarding world, which is an entirely different society and culture, living in secret from those who do not know about magic.

Good Omens is another book which has recently received a live action show (and I really suggest watching it) which also is considered low fantasy, and very much emphasizes the world within a world term. An Angel and a Demon are both attempting to halt the coming of the apocalypse, doing so because they desire for the world to keep on existing. After all, if you are enemies with someone since demons and angels first came into creation, you eventually become friends. 

High fantasy and low fantasy are two genres that can at times overlap, or the line between them can become blurred. Nonetheless, as an avid enjoyer of both genres, I can say that taking the time to indulge upon these two sides of fantasy is totally worth it. Whether you enjoy huge battles like in Lord of the Rings, or prefer a more subtle approach like the wizards in Harry Potter, there is surely to be a high or low fantasy story for you.

Conor Bruce

Conor is an aspiring professional writer. Interested in a variety of genres from fantasy, science fiction, and action. In his free time he often reads, enjoys a video game or two, and writes his various ideas on the side.