Aged in Oaken Heroes: Heroic Fantasy and Imagined History - James Enge

Anyway, it is widely agreed that heroic fantasy is set in some age before we learned that “digital watches were a pretty neat idea”, a period frequently described as the Middle Ages. And this is almost perfectly dumb. For one thing, not every age without highly developed machines is medieval. How about Hawaii before the Europeans got there? How about a post-machine age (apocalyptic or otherwise)? How about the pre-medieval world? In any case, magic is itself a kind of science and/or technology, and it may pervade the world of a heroic fantasy. No technology in heroic fantasy? Morlock is skeptical. Then there’s the question of what the Middle Ages are, anyway. Broadly, they are a chunk of time in western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire and before the Renaissance. 3.5 out of 5 http://jamesenge.com/2012/10/10/aged-in-oaken-heroes-heroic-fantasy-imagined-history/

Exclusive Q & A with - James Enge

"But fantasies would no doubt be better if they had a richer political ecology. We wouldn't get so many chosen ones who were prophesied in the beforetime to do all that stuff that chosen ones always do. I've tried to mix it up a little in the earlier Morlock novels, having him run afoul of bureaucracies and timocracies and theocracies. And the Wardlands were always supposed to be a little different--a kind of utopia, that Morlock was cast out of. What's the ideal government for free people, after all? No government at all--no restraints on personal autonomy except respect for others' autonomy." 3.5 out of 5 http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Dwarves-vs-Dragons--Exclusive-Q---A-with-James-Enge-.html?soid=1101630309567&aid=oarze_S59qI

Passing Through Each Other: A Round-Table Discussion of Speculative Fiction and Academia - Jeremy L. C. Jones

"my sword-and-sorcery. Most of my colleagues at my university were unaware of my fantasy-writing until I was nominated for the World Fantasy Award a year or two ago. And a lot of people were genuinely, I think, excited by it. My novels are now proudly on display in the faculty publications display case, alongside much more serious work. Sometimes I sense some—I don't know what to call it—anti-snobbery from the other direction. When someone at a con learns that I teach college, they may get anxious, as if I'm about to assign them homework or give them a failing grade in Somethingorother 101. And often I see fans waxing hysterical online about academia and its lack of respect for genre. It's clear to me that those guys don't have the faintest clue what they're talking about. I would give them an A in Strawman-Fighting and an F in Reality-Dealing, if I had the power to do so." 3.5 out of 5 http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/academia_interview/