Читать книгу Rhetorics of Fantasy - Farah Mendlesohn - Страница 9

This work has been a long time in the making. It began as an impromptu way to arrange a presentation on modern children’s fantasy at the Children’s SF and Fantasy conference organized by the Association for Research in Popular Fiction and the Science Fiction Foundation in January 2002, and I am indebted to Nickianne Moody for providing that opportunity. It continued because my audience showed immediate interest; this interest has been extended by too many other audiences to thank them all, but if you have been one of my interrogators in the past, I thank you. Every one of you has assisted in honing my thoughts. In the process of writing I rambled on to many people, but thanks are especially owed to Jon Courtenay Grimwood and Karen Traviss for their conviction that writing is a craft, to Craig Jacobsen (for his comment on “gossiping about theory”), Brian Attebery, Dave Clements, John Clute, Steve Cockayne, Stefan Ekman, Neil Gaiman, Elizabeth Hand, Nalo Hopkinson, Edward James, Greer Gilman, M. John Harrison, Roz Kaveney, Ken MacLeod, China Miéville, Justina Robson, Graham Sleight, Peter Straub, Steph Swainston, and Gary K. Wolfe—all listened to me as I tried to work out what I wanted to say, and all, at some stage, commented on some part of the work. One consequence is that this book has a great many references to conversations and e-mails. This book is intended to function as a jumping-off point for discussion; I consider it very important that the discussions that took place be adequately acknowledged, even if it is impossible for future readers to track them all.

Many people helped me in small ways: finding definitions, checking references, making suggestions for further reading, or just asking the right question. I hope I have included them all here.

Zara Baxter	Paul Billinger	Glenda Guest
Bernadette Bosky	Judith Clute	Niall Harrison
Tanya Brown	Tony Cullen	Dan Hartland
Andrew M. Butler	Neil Easterbrook	Tim Holman
Elizabeth Billinger	Richard D. Erlich	Kathryn Hume
Kari Maund	Graham Murphy	Jennifer Stevenson
Kevin McVeigh	Jess Nevens	Robert Van Osten
Clare Mendlesohn	Faye Ringel	Greer Watson
Potchka Mendlesohn	Heidi Robbins	Gary Westfahl
Cheryl Morgan	Veronica Schanoes	Shana Worthen
Stephanie Moss	Brian Stableford

And special thanks to William Senior of the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, and to David Hartwell, Kathryn Kramer, and Kevin J. Mahoney; and to the Wiscon Committee, who have all published my thoughts-in-progress as they have developed and to Suzanna Tamminemn at Wesleyan University Press.

My gratitude also to Mike Houghton and James Bloom for keeping me fit enough to write; LiveJournal friends for encouragement in the final days; the staff of the British Library who cheered me with their recognition; and all the hotel staff in various hotels in Dublin who supplied me with tea, positive support, and a power socket when I couldn’t find anywhere else to work.

Parts of this book have been published previously:

“Towards a Taxonomy of Fantasy.” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 13, no. 2 (2002): 173–187.

“Conjunctions 39 and Liminal Fantasy.” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 15, no. 3 (2005): 228–239.

An application of the ideas expressed in this book can be found in my Diana Wynne Jones: Children’s Literature and the Fantastic Tradition (New York: Routledge, 2005).