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Does anyone know where the lines are draw between fantasy, dark fantasy, and horror? I think I have an idea where horror is, but sometimes I see that magazines don't want dark fatnasy, only fantasy, and I'm just not really sure whether I'm writing that or not.
Posts: 3567 | Registered: May 2003
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quote:Dark fantasy is fiction about ghosts, Satan, vampires and other frightening supernatural creatures. High fantasy builds a world from our dreams; dark fantasy creates one from our nightmares.
posted
I think there is a distinction between horror & "dark urban fantasy", to extend the genre naming a little. For instance, I would place Dracula in the former category, and Anne Rice's vampire chronicles in the latter, despite the subject matter being largely similar.
The difference is in the style of writing -- horror writing generally involves creating large amounts of suspense, usually by placing the main characters in a very dangerous situation. Horror is very much a "what happens next" genre, possibly closest in nature to the action thriller, if you want to compare it to other genres. Fantasy can have some of this, but it is primarily driven by the desire to see the characters work out some form of conflict, rather than simply survive. It also often has a large degree of "how did we get here?" mystery to it.
At least, that's the way I see it. Other people probably draw the line elsewhere
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I think it has a great deal to do with the tone. I have a story filled with Vampires and monsters, but I wouldn't call it dark. because it's not scary that they are vampires. (although it is to the chars, not to the reader.) I find dragons far more scary than anything I've seen in horror.
Posts: 1895 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
The key distinction between horror and dark fantasy is that horror fiction strives to terrify the reader. If the horror writer doesn't scare his reader, then the horror writer has failed.
Now, in marketing, you'll find horror fiction in other genres, such as Thomas Harris' Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs, which you'll find in the thriller section. You'll also find non-horror "dark fantasy" in the horror genre, such as Anne Rice's vampire stories.
What I've found is that the suspense/thriller story is more or less the off-spring of the horror tale. (This goes back to Robert Block's Psycho, which is kind of the father of the modern suspense story.) That's because the horror tale is a sub-category of fantasy. Unfortunately, it's hard to draw the line between "horror" and "dark fantasy." For example, I don't find H. P. Lovecraft much of a horror writer--that is, his stories aren't very scary. He's an excellent writer of dark fantasy--sometimes even dark science fantasy--but you'll always find him in the horror section. And I'm not sure too many people would agree with my assessment of Lovecraft.
But this isn't really your quesiton. Your question is, What is the distinction between fantasy and dark fantasy? If I wrote something with a fantastic element that a lot of people would call a horror story (based on contemporary marketing), then I'd call my fantasy a dark fantasy.
[This message has been edited by Balthasar (edited May 29, 2004).]
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My personal dividing line between horror and fantasy is the level of jeopardy: one family or town or school in danger=horor, one world/kingdom/way of life/galaxy in danger=fantasy. On a presentational level, at least-- I feel like the world can be in danger in horror if we're made to care about that primarily through one small group of people. (Which is part of why I read a lot of dark fantasy but rarely horror-- I can deal with *big* jeopardy because it seems unreal on some level even in the best fantasy, but convincing jeopardy on the small scale is much more upsetting, and if the jeopardy isn't convincing, then it's probably not good enough of a book to bother with. Small stakes are more convincing, and more upsetting. And then too some fantasy doesn't use jeopardy so much while horror thrives on it, but that's another story.) If it's fantasy but there's something that would creep people out after sunset specifically, I call it dark fantasy. It's not a great way to divy things up, but it seems to work.
Posts: 253 | Registered: Jan 2004
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