Old School

[danalwyn]

So, as may be surmised by previous posts, I have more books. One of them is a novel I've been thinking about buying for a while. It's got a setup I think of as almost cliche now, a group of men living in a corrupt empire are forced by different circumstances to become outlaws and flee their former lives. Endowed with magical powers and supernatural fighting skills they slowly make a name for themselves and eventually, through their skills, their trickery, and some plain old-fashioned good luck, make a name for themselves as heroes.

I'm having trouble describing it to other people. From the setting and summary alone I would normally refer to it as fantasy, but I'm not sure it really is. After all, if fantasy is old school if it pre-dates Tolkien, what do you call it when it pre-dates Shakespeare?

Comments

[silverjackal]

Oh, but Chinese literature was already very mature by the time those were written. Most folklore is bits and pieces, with the same story retold different ways, etc. Quite literally things like Water Margin are more akin to a modern novelization of of an epic folkloric cycle than the myths themselves. Quite coincidentally I'm reading Journey to the West myself at the moment. Just slowly, and interspersed with other things.