Of course, mythology is a part of religion. And, for that matter, virtually all of fantasy literature is based on defunct religious mythology. As for slipstream and other mixtures of genres, I really do not see much need for the term slipstream at all. There are overlaps between and among any of the various genres. To take a couple that are generally considered to be distinct, there is romance and spy stories. Most spy stories have elements of romance in them. I can't say that most romance novels have elements of the spy story in them, but there are those that do. Yet, you can still tell the difference. You can tell if a story is a spy novel with romance elements or a romance novel with elements of the spy story. If the overlap is so great that you really cannot tell the difference then it is both. In this example it would be both a romance novel and a spy novel. If elements of many genres are present in a story then, again, you will likely be able to tell which it is, but if the overlap and mixture is so great that you can't then it is just plain fiction and further classification is not necessary.
On 12/23/2014 11:27 PM, Kim Friedman wrote:
Hi Judy, I’d class fairy and folk tales as a division of fantasy because fantasy can spring from fairy or folk tales and mythology. Now we get into something interesting because is mythology fantasy? A lot of times when one says “myth” nowadays one means something which is false or misleading, but if one is using the term in its original sense, then a myth is an explanation of origins, i.e., the creation of the world, hence mythology are stories relating to the origins of beliefs and cultures. So is mythology part of religion? See how one gets a continuum where one bleeds into another. I know we have a list member who bemoans science fiction being lumped with fantasy, and I really do see his point. Though I certainly understand it, and I’d like to see fantasy having its own category, I’m reminded of those authors who write both science fiction and fantasy. Then we have that little type of fiction which some classify as slipstream. We have stories which take tropes from alternate universes, engineering, and fantasy, or an amalgamation of science fiction and fantasy. Then we have magical realism to muck up the whole megillah. ‘What is a categorizer to do? Regards, Kim Friedman.*From:*bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Judy s.*Sent:* Tuesday, December 23, 2014 6:28 PM *To:* bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx *Subject:* [bksvol-discuss] Fairy tales versus FantasyAny thoughts about how to classify a book as to type if it is a child's fairy tale? It's obviously a children's book, and it's literature and fiction, but would you consider a fairy tale, like Little Red Riding Hood, a fantasy novel as well?-- Judy s.Follow me on Twitter at QuackersNCheese <https://twitter.com/QuackersNCheese>
