Students’ Opinions on the Fantasy Genre
Wizards, dwarves, elves, and dragons; an evil force seeking to disrupt the peace; a heroic figure to rise and fight against it; a long journey with plenty of action, adventure, and romance; magic.
All of these are familiar tropes in the fantasy genre. Although there have been myriad variations of these motifs, fantasy typically adheres to these conventions. If one picks up a fantasy novel, one can get a general idea of what the plot consists of purely from its label.
So why do Sequoyah students enjoy reading fantasy? Owen Hawxhurst ’27, a student who has been reading fantasy for many years, explained, “I like [fantasy] so much because it’s escapism, but it’s also weird because the better ones always seem to be grounded in some way.” Hawxhurst elaborated on the meaning of “grounded,” saying, “A lot of the time characters will have real struggles; if you have two people that are in some weird friendship that they’re getting annoyed at one other, something that’s kind of normal, that’s what would be defined as grounded—but they’re also arguing in the backdrop of trying to punch a dragon.” In other words, Hawxhurst likes a mix of realism and fantasy.
Gibson Buffa ’27 and Shanti Moran ’26 enjoy fantasy for a very different reason, however. Buffa connects history with fantasy, noting “I read a lot of history, and I think the correlation between the two is that they both kind of explain events in third-person perspective.” Finding the correlation between history and fantasy and how the two influence one another was very interesting for Buffa. To any reader who enjoys doing the same, Buffa recommends J.R.R. Tolkien, explaining that “His depth is really good. A lot of people connect it to actual history; there are tons of arguments to be made for World War Two and how [Lord of the Rings] is an allegory for that… It's still very interesting to make parallels like that to the real world.” Moran likes the endless possibilities that can be found in the fantasy genre: “I like how there’s just a lot of variety; there’s magics, there’s different types of power scaling, there’s medieval fantasy, or present day fantasy—and there’s just a lot of potential I feel in fantasy books to intrigue the readers.”
Both Hawxhurst and Moran recommended Brandon Sanderson, praising his innovative use of traditional fantasy tropes. In the words of Hawxhurst, “[For] Brandon Sanderson, he doesn't use tropes, or he uses tropes, but he doesn't ever use the overused ones, or he changes them in some way where they’re not repetitive.” Hawxhurst also echoed Buffa’s recommendations of J.R.R. Tolkien, explaining that he didn’t mind the traditional fantasy tropes due to Tolkien creating the genre. Moran also noted that Patrick Rothfuss and Robert Jordan created excellent novels, with characters that “you get really attached to.”
Above all, fantasy is a fun genre to read. Good and evil are (often) clearly defined. There is an obvious character to root for and a clear villain. You can enjoy a simple, action-packed story with compelling characters, fierce battles, and intriguing magic and power systems–a world in which complicated moral quandaries are (generally) not a point of contention. A world where everything is black-and-white is only a fantasy, after all.