[Gary Wassner]

In the past, as sign of credibility in literature was being on the shelves of your local library. Does your library carry a good representation of fantasy or do you need to request them to acquire it when there is something you want to read?

How many of you look to your library for the books you want to read? The fantasy books?

[KatG]

It was impossible for libraries to carry much adult fantasy or sf for a long time because almost all the titles were published only in mass market paperback. Libraries vary in how many mass market paperbacks they carry, preferring to buy hardcovers or at best, trade paperbacks. Most of the fantasy available in hardcover for awhile was children's fantasy. But when I was a kid/teen in the seventies and eighties, in Maryland, the public libraries did make a concerted effort to carry fantasy and sf in both the children's and adult sections, including paperbacks. I think a lot of the time, they didn't read it and didn't know what was in it, because I read quite a lot of YA fantasy that had sexual and other themes not real appropriate for ten year olds back then. And I went over to the adult section and got adult fantasy and sf titles and no one ever asked me a thing about it.

In the nineties, the genre publishers started using the deliberate strategy of giving a lot of titles a small hardcover printing, to get it book reviews, but also purposefully, to get the titles into libraries in bigger numbers. And this strategy may have greatly helped expand the fan base, because the libraries went along with it and got a lot more friendly toward sf/f in general.

Still, the amount of sf/f you see in a library, in hardcover or paperback, continues to vary depending on the library's financing and the community population. When I lived in San Diego way back, they had very tiny sf/f sections and a handful of paperbacks in the local libraries. When I lived in Vermont, they had a really tiny library which didn't separate out any categories and had only a small amount of sf/f. In Texas, the local library had a pretty large selection as the genres had grown, kept in a separate section but also among other fiction, and a very poor selection of paperbacks. In Virginia, they had an enormous section of sf/f, lots of paperbacks, and I was almost always able to find the books I wanted. Where I am now, they mix the sf/f with the other fiction, they have a very small selection of paperbacks and almost no sf/f in them, but a pretty large selection of sf/f adult hardcovers. Still, it's been harder to find stuff. I suppose I could request titles, but I haven't bothered to do so.

Genre fantasy in public libraries is a sign of mainstream acceptance, but the real sign of literary designation is academics and students studying genre fantasy writers at colleges and universities. The more classes you have that include or are about sf/f literature, the more respect you get, essentially. Whereas libraries tend to go with what people request them to carry, be it romance, sf/f, horror or graphic novels.

[Gary Wassner]

I would love to see a survey of how many college courses actually have fantasy books on their curriculum. I am sure that Tolkien is read at many schools, and I am sure as well that there are some courses taught on the Christian elements of fantasy i.e. Lewis. But I wonder if there are any courses in the literature departments that deal with fantasy.

[Erfael]

I had a course in Fantasy when I was working on my undergrad. The list, as best I can recall was:

Tolkien- Hobbit (This may or may not have been in the fantasy course, as well--may have been something I did on my own with the northern mythology course, but fairly certain it was in the fantasy course)
Burroughs - Tarzan 1
King - Misery
Hambly - Dragonbane
Lewis - Lion, Witch, etc.
Datlow/Windling - Years Best F&H, #?
Rowling - Sorcerer's Stone
Le Guin - Wizard of Earthsea
Beagle - Last Unicorn
Garner - The Owl Service (This may have been in a Northern Mythology course with the same professor...can't remember)

That's all I can remember offhand. There may have been another one or two in there. There were also strong recommendations for other authors, especially Donaldson, Gaiman, and some others.

[Archren]

I was lucky enough that in our Honors Dept. as an undergrad they let a couple of the professors teach a class solely on Tolkein and LOTR. It was really great,they brought a lot of interesting additional material to bear on in that was very broadening. One of the professors was a bit of a nut, but all in all it was a great little class.

[Gary Wassner]

What was the perspective? Was it philosophical in nature or did you study the books strictly from a literary perspective?

[Archren]

Mostly philosophical, a little historical. Not much from the literary side, I'm afraid.

Many mentions of Bentham (Panopticon & the two Towers) and Foucault. A little gender criticism, but not too much. And of course some biographical material on Tolkein that helped put a lot of things into perspective.

[Gary Wassner]

I am glad to hear at least that it is considered worthy of a course subject. Were you able to get the books from the university bookstore? Or the university library?

[Archren]

I never looked for them in the library. I already had my own copies, but I also bought the boxed set on offer from the University bookstore since I figured it's a good way to keep them all in one place, and I'll have backups for when I read my current set to death (which was only a year or two later :D ). I've still got those copies.

[Erfael]

I am glad to hear at least that it is considered worthy of a course subject. Were you able to get the books from the university bookstore? Or the university library?

For our course, the university book store carried copies of everything on the list.