Just back from the post office, where I picked up an early birthday gift from my friend Colin, in Toronto: a copy of The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, by John Clute and John Grant. It's the companion text to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, which I purchased several years ago.
Sadly, I lacked the foresight (and the extra cash) to buy them both at once, and when I decided that it was time to fill the gap in my little reference library, both the books had gone out of print. Colin managed to hunt down a copy of the missing volume online, and as such deserves a large vote of gratitude.
It's always a good sign when you open a book at random - I'm sorry, it's a reference text, I don't plan to sit down and read my Concise Oxford Dictionary from the start either - and the first thing you read makes you laugh out loud. The entry in question dealt with "quest coupons", which is a not terribly flattering but sadly accurate description of a certain approach to writing fantasy novels. It's also pretty much the entire raison d'être for World of Warcraft - go here, get this item, and that will allow you to go there and get that item, and so on. I was also amused to see that Monty Python deserved an entry - but, ignoring the surreal nature of the TV shows, what is Monty Python and the Holy Grail but an Arthurian fantasy?* Not to mention much of Terry Gilliam's oeuvre...
But I digress. I haven't discussed fantasy very much on here, so perhaps I'll take advantage of this opportunity and do a few posts on the topic. And Colin? Thanks again. Your choice of gifts was, well, fantastic.
- Sid
* I recall when the movie first came out, Baird Searles, the movie reviewer for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, commented that in terms of art direction and style, Holy Grail would be a marvellous fantasy film - except for the coconut shells and so on.
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