As a USAian of Irish/English/Welsh/French heritage forced in the latter years of my print career to write fantasy with "girl protagonists" set in a narrow range of northern Europe (Britain and France, and please no "exotic" characters or settings), I think at least some of the pushback lately comes from market saturation on this side of the Pond. I was told in so many words that "if you want to sell in this market (ca. 2003), you have to write only about northern Europe. Nobody wants to hear about any other setting or culture or characters."
It's like any other market-driven pronunciamentum--true only until the market maxes out on it. Then it's utterly false and we've all moved on and buh-bye.
I have this perhaps totally naive belief that a really well-written work can breathe new life into old settings and tropes and make them wonderful again. Maybe not popular, but by this point does that matter? It did, intensely, just a couple of years ago, when no one had any choice but to write what publishers would buy. Now? The options are expanding again.
And I am glad there's this maybe overstated emphasis right now on fantasy that isn't based exclusively on Britain and France. Because they have dominated for so long, and become so standardized, and drowned out other voices so thoroughly, that I can understand why there's a bit of a reaction going on.
Same argument as the one about men's voices drowning out women's. Coming from many of the same people. It's all part of a process of opening up minds and markets--with missteps and misunderstandings, but I believe it's a good thing overall.
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As a USAian of Irish/English/Welsh/French heritage forced in the latter years of my print career to write fantasy with "girl protagonists" set in a narrow range of northern Europe (Britain and France, and please no "exotic" characters or settings), I think at least some of the pushback lately comes from market saturation on this side of the Pond. I was told in so many words that "if you want to sell in this market (ca. 2003), you have to write only about northern Europe. Nobody wants to hear about any other setting or culture or characters."
It's like any other market-driven pronunciamentum--true only until the market maxes out on it. Then it's utterly false and we've all moved on and buh-bye.
I have this perhaps totally naive belief that a really well-written work can breathe new life into old settings and tropes and make them wonderful again. Maybe not popular, but by this point does that matter? It did, intensely, just a couple of years ago, when no one had any choice but to write what publishers would buy. Now? The options are expanding again.
And I am glad there's this maybe overstated emphasis right now on fantasy that isn't based exclusively on Britain and France. Because they have dominated for so long, and become so standardized, and drowned out other voices so thoroughly, that I can understand why there's a bit of a reaction going on.
Same argument as the one about men's voices drowning out women's. Coming from many of the same people. It's all part of a process of opening up minds and markets--with missteps and misunderstandings, but I believe it's a good thing overall.