#spanish fantasy

[mask131]

Fantasy throughout the world

On top of having an article centered around the French fantasy specifically, the "Modern Success" issue of the BNF Fantasy series also has an article (again written by Anne Besson) covering the topic of "Fantasy throughout the world". Here is, once again, a rough translation by your humble servant:

While heavily dominated by an English-speaking production, fantasy literature found its place in numerous European countries, and managed to cross several continents.

Born in England, grown in parallel on the two sides of the Atlantic oceans, and becoming a mass-phenomenon in the United-States, fantasy is without a doubt an anglophone genre. Even today the fantasy market has a MASSIVE unbalance, and the modern fantasy successes prove that the mondialization of the imaginations is dominated by the cultural superpower of the USA. But ever since the 1970s, as the translations of Tolkien spread across the world and role-playing games conquered the heart of teenagers, "native fantasies" started to appear in various European languages.

German fantasy is a good example of one of those "local takes" - it does help that Germany has a literary background including the Romantic movement, and the brothers Grimm fairytales. After the enormous success of Michael Ende's Never-Ending Story in 1979, the German fantasy did not stop. Many successful authors appeared. Wolfgang Hohlbein gained an internal fame, with his 1982 Märchenmond or his 1999's Chronicles of the Immortals. Cornelia Funke was a famous German youth author, with her trilogy "Inkworld" in 2003. Kai Meyer reworked Germanic legends in his 1998's Loreley or his 2001's Nibelungengold. Walter Moers created the continent of Zamonia, and popularized the character of Captain Blue-Bear (hero of a 1993's children television show, of two novels, and of a 1999's movie).

But very often, international fame only latches on one specific author that is well-known outside of their country's frontiers. In Poland, this author would be Andrzej Sapkowski with his 1986's Witcher series, adapted in 2007 as a video game, and in 2019 as a television series). In Spain, it would be Javier Negrete with his 2003's Tramorea.

Crossing the continents, it becomes very tempting to mix together the magic of fantasy literature with specifically cultural supernatural domains - the Hindu pantheon, the Chinese ghost stories, the kami and the yokai of Japan, the witchcraft of Africa or the Caribbean Isles...

South-America is rich of a literary tradition that in France we compare to our own "fantastique": the short stories of Argentina's authors Jose Luis Borges or Adolfo Bioy Casares in the 40s, the magical realism of Alejo Carpentier in Cuba (The Century of Lights, 1962), of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in Columbia (A Hundred Years of Solitude, 1967) or Carlos Fuenta in Mexico (Terra Nostra, 1975).

On the side of the African continent, The Road of Hunger, in 1991, by Nigerian author Ben Okri, is also part of this more "legitimate" current, a form of fantasy much closer to "general literature", but there is a new African generation, dominated by English-speaking women (Nnedi Okorakor, Nisi Shaw, Lauren Beukes) that fully appropriate and absorb the fantasy genre.

Up until a very recent date, it was considered more respectful to not assimilate these works, born of very different cultures, with a genre that is both modern and Anglo-Saxon. However, the numeric world and the mondialized economy have today destroyed a lot of cultural frontiers, and today we assist to a true "meeting of the imaginations" mixing various cultures together. The author of this article mentions as an example several works coming from East-Asia: the Japanese manga Full Metal Alchemist by Arakawa Hirowu, the other Japanese manga Witch Hat Atelier, or the Sino-American movie The Great Wall (2016).

[adilovers]

Bad legs, good footwear

[xaoca]

L’ Amour de Pierrot, 1920 by Salvador Dalí

[constanzarte]

August Malmström, Dancing Fairies

[thefugitivesaint]

Esteban Maroto, ''Heavy Metal'', Vol. 8, #3, June 1984 Source

[eirene]

Reclining nude, 1879

Luis Ricardo Falero

[the-evil-clergyman]

The Moon Nymph by Luis Ricardo Falero (1883)

[ladyvictoriart]

The Guaxa, also called the Guajona, has often been seen wandering the forests of northern Spain, where she has made her home. She appears mostly human but can be distinguished by her bird feet and single long tooth with which she punctures the veins of her victims so as to feast on their blood.

[chio-chan2artbox]

Commission for @erizumon 🤩

Alchemist Doof from the fic “Encantado de conocerte” by El_Erizo_Que_Escribe (Fantasy!AU)

[katabay]

THE JETSET LIFE IS GONNA KILL YOU, ERIC CARTER!

my laptop charger uhhhhhh. met its end in a very permanent, very fire hazardy kind of way last week. while waiting for a replacement I decided to try and get some work done at the library and was asking around for some urban fantasy (extra points for a mystery plot of some kind) recommendations to check out while I was there

the eric carter series was mentioned a couple of times, AND had the added bonus of having a necromancer for a main character. I love necromancers. someday I'm gonna play one in a game instead of immediately defaulting to vampires.

Fire Season, Stephen Blackmoore

[illustratus]

Night of the Three Kings by Julio Borrell Pla

[jeannepompadour]

Illustrations by Australian artist Norman Lindsay (1879-1696)

"Three Dresses"

'The Eighties" and 'Spanish Lady"

[anim-ttrpgs]

I noticed with the "you're okay, I'm okay" trait, a lot of people took it as a negative. (Refusing help from others to comfort themselves) I was wondering if that's the intended goal? I know a lot of names are references, so maybe that's what it is, or perhaps I'm missing something about the composure mechanic. I could see it working for a character who's *more* mentally stable as well. They can accept help from others, but they're not prone to panic when alone. Is it up to the player?

(love the game and worldbuilding, so just wanna hear anout it )

(In reference time this Trait)

You’re right a lot of the names of character Traits in Eureka are references, and so is this one. In the episode of Kolchak: The Nightstalker “The Spanish Moss Murders”, you can see the scene here. (watch from about 3:00 to about 6:55. Or just start at about 6:10 if you just want to hear the line itself)

So no it’s not supposed to be a negative Trait about ignoring help from others (although I guess you could flavor it that way), it’s supposed to represent a character with the habit or training to calm themselves down better than the average person.

[weirdlookindog]

Josep Maria Miralles (b. 1937) - Original cover painting for 'Dossier Negro' #117, 1979

[constanzarte]

Loutherbourg, L'Ouverture du deuxième sceau

[thefugitivesaint]

Enric Torres-Prat, ''1984'', #19, 1980 Source