Judaism and Fantasy

[wilperegrine]

 I'd like to recommend this article, "Why there is no Jewish Narnia," for all speculative fiction aficionados out there.  A good read, some interesting food for thought.

Although it might seem unlikely that anyone would wonder whether the author of The Lord of the Rings was Jewish, the Nazis took no chances. When the publishing firm of Ruetten &

Comments

[llennhoff]

I don't find the author's thesis very convincing. He excludes a lot of Jewish fantasy arbitrarily by calling it 'supernatural fiction'. He doesn't seem to have heard of He, She, and It Amazon<. He doesn't mention the two volumes of Wandering Stars, which contain both SF and Fantasy.

He ignores alternate histories such as Roma Eterna in which the failure of the Exodus leads to a Roman Empire that persists until the 20th Century (without developing Christianity, either). He ignores allegories of Jewish History such as The Lions of al-Rassan, which is strongly based on the Reconquest of Spain with magic(In Al Rassan there are the star worshipers, the sun worshipers, and the small ethnic minority who worship the twin moons. The last group,called the Kindrath, is persecuted by both the others - a common saying is 'Whichever way the wind blows the rain falls on the Kindrath

[sethg_prime]

Yeah... if you narrowly define “fantasy” to mean, in effect, “fiction suffused with nostalgia for an idealized Christian or pagan feudal Europe”, then the question “why don’t more Jews write fantasy” sort of answers itself.

[wilperegrine]

But how much Jewish high fantasy can you name? Sounds like everything you've mentioned is either urban fantasy or alternate history.

[jerel]

Going with sethg_prime"'s definition--which is usually what most of the public would define as fantasy:

Perhaps Judaism doesn't make for good fantasy. Christianity is founded on the idea that G-d's promise of deliverance from the darkness has already been fulfilled. Just as in high fantasy, the capital-B-Bad Guy has already been defeated. The Ultimate Light (G-d) has conquered the Ultimate Dark (eternal death). In high fantasy, the hero (light) always wins.

In Judaism, we're still waiting. We can't reminisce about the triumph of light over darkness because it hasn't happened yet.

[llennhoff]

What do you mean as High Fantasy? Elves, dwarves, and Tzadikim? Jews going off on a quest to find the lost ark?

I suspect The Tsaddik of the seven wonders ( doesn't count. Review

[wilperegrine]

High fantasy is basically the stuff that takes place on another world. Urban fantasy is the "magical stuff suddenly taking place on Earth" stuff. Judaism and urban fantasy mix well. I don't know of much Jewish high fantasy.