Big Ass Fantasy List
Er, with comments.
Just to preserve it on the new blog. I think most of you have seen these already?
Jeff VanderMeer
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June 29, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Fantastic lists. Was glad to spy George MacDonald’s ‘Lilith’ and ‘Phantastees.’ I especially loved his ‘At the Back of the North Wind.’
‘Till We Have Faces’ is one of my favorites, too. The ancient myths are so fascinating…I remember as a boy sitting spell-bound hour upon hour reading Hawthorne’s ‘Tanglewood Tales’ and ‘A Wonder Book.’ For richness of language and quality of thought, Hawthorne is always on my list…along with a few others…Cormac McCarthy, Ursula Le Guin, Jack Vance, A.S. Byatt, John Crowley…Michael Moorcock (Oooh, how I loved Gloriana).
If only we had a longer childhood to spend reading.
June 29, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Um, is any one of those lists definitive? That is, does any list contain all the components of all the other lists combined?
Is there any similar SF list anywhere?
June 29, 2008 at 3:31 pm
On the 64 favorites list, you had two X-ed out for judging reasons. I didn’t see anywhere that you revealed those (though I admit I didn’t read through every one of the other lists). I imagine you must be free to reveal them now…
June 29, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Gawd–can’t even remember now. Probably the Bruce Holland Rodgers? I’ll check.
I dunno re SF. Re definitive–I can’t remember. The longest one. ;)
Jeff
June 29, 2008 at 5:15 pm
I remember contributing a few to that final list way back when. Perhaps it’s time for you to start it all over again, just to see which authors we’d add to the mix this time? ;)
June 29, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Oh yeah–because I have time for that. ;)
Jeff
June 29, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Well, I have a few spare weeks. Want to see if I’ll be foolhardy enough to do it? :P
June 29, 2008 at 6:11 pm
This is a great list (well, lists). I think I commented on the old blog, but it inspired me (finally) to pick up Auster, Borges, and a number of others. It broadened my idea of fantasy in a very good way.
June 29, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Looking at the comments to the original post, I see I made a prediction back in 2006:
And I know you said that you aren’t a fan of ‘instant classics,’ but I can’t wonder what many will make of Robert Bolaño’s works as they are now becoming available in English. I suspect in 10-20 years, he’ll be a posthumous legend. This, a year before The Savage Detectives was released in English translation and two years before the translation of 2666, which seems to be getting quite a bit of publicity in advance of its November release. Nice little time capsule thing. Surprised at how many on that list I had read, even though it’s still far short of 50%.
June 29, 2008 at 8:50 pm
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September 14, 2009 at 6:59 pm
[...] Ecstatic Days » Blog Archive » Big Ass Fantasy List 29 Jun 2008 … 10 Responses to “Big Ass Fantasy List”. Timblynod says: June 29, 2008 at 12:54 pm. Fantastic lists. Was glad to spy George MacDonald’s … http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2008/06/29/big-ass-fantasy-list/ – Cached – Similar [...]