- Honestly, do you believe that the fantasy genre will ever come to be recognized as veritable literature? Truth be told, in my opinion there has never been this many good books/series as we have right now, and yet there is still very little respect (not to say none) associated with the genre.
The lion's share of old-school literature IS fantasy, they just pretend it isn't. The Odyssey is full of gods and spells. Oedipus Rex has a sphinx and a prophecy. There are witches in Macbeth, faeries in Midsummer Night's Dream, and a ghost in Hamlet. Dante's Inferno? Beowulf? All looks like fantasy to me....
I think a lot of people read and respect fantasy storytelling. A lot of the more forward-thinking colleges offer classes studying it, though they usually call it speculative fiction or magical realism to make themselves feel better. We all know the truth though: it's fantasy.
As far as having my book recognized as literature? [Pat shrugs] Why would I want that? I mean, have you read Great Expectations? Gech. Why would I want to invited into their little club? Give me Tim Powers and Phillip K dike. Give me Le Guin, Gaiman, and Pratchett. Give me McKillip and Whedon. These are the storytellers. These are our modern mythmakers. Our oracles. Our dreamers. I want to be on that team.
The lion's share of old-school literature IS fantasy, they just pretend it isn't. The Odyssey is full of gods and spells. Oedipus Rex has a sphinx and a prophecy. There are witches in Macbeth, faeries in Midsummer Night's Dream, and a ghost in Hamlet. Dante's Inferno? Beowulf? All looks like fantasy to me....
I think a lot of people read and respect fantasy storytelling. A lot of the more forward-thinking colleges offer classes studying it, though they usually call it speculative fiction or magical realism to make themselves feel better. We all know the truth though: it's fantasy.
As far as having my book recognized as literature? [Pat shrugs] Why would I want that? I mean, have you read Great Expectations? Gech. Why would I want to invited into their little club? Give me Tim Powers and Phillip K dike. Give me Le Guin, Gaiman, and Pratchett. Give me McKillip and Whedon. These are the storytellers. These are our modern mythmakers. Our oracles. Our dreamers. I want to be on that team.
I find Rothfuss answer to be reasonable here: He doesn't aim to be "veritable" litterature and that's fine. What draws my attention is the interviewers way of expressing it, and from there I'd like to start:
Should fantasy receive more respect from the litterature community than it does?
I'll start by saying I love fantasy myself (which I suspect most of us do; this is still the TES forums in my head). HOWEVER, I've never considered it to be veritable litterature (I should add that I'm not really sure how to express the distinction in english, so I'll use the article's expression). It's not dikeens, Dostoevsky, Kafka, Salinger, Orwell etc. Why?
Let's use The Name of the Wind as an example. It's a story. An awesome story even, which I enjoyed immensly. But like almost all fantasy, it remains a modernized fairy tale. There's a hero, the story about this hero and how he became to be, there's magic, intrigue, love, adventure etc. But it somehow remains superficial. There's no deep delving into the human mind, no well-constructed critique of society, no philosophical thought experiments. It's just entertainment.
In contrast, I recently read "The World According to Garp" by John Irving (which I definitely recommend for everyone!). It's a completely different experience, the way I see it. It's a story that leaves you thinking; about death, sixuality/gender, relations, life in general. Unlike "The Name of the Wind", it engages me to a whole different degree than fantasy books have ever made. That said, "The World According to Garp" didn't hypnotize me into staying up later than I could handle just to read a few more pages. Rothfuss managed that though.
There are exceptions of course. Terry Pratchett's books are orgies of references and in the humor there's a depth that, just like with "veritable litterature", keeps you thinking afterwards. I'll also agree to the fact that a lot of the veritable litterature is mind-numbingly dull, and it's hard to spread your message if people won't read your book

I feel like fantasy could be so much more. There's nothing saying that a fantasy story has to be modernized fairy tales, but it seems to be what most writers pump out. At the same time, I don't see anything wrong with books "just" being entertainment. But if it's only entertainment, why try to convince people into believing fantasy is something it's not (yet)?
Do you think fantasy deserve more recognition from the litterature community?
If you agree that fantasy is "just" entertainment and modernized fairy tales, should it be considered positive if the genre tried to evolve?
Is the opinion I've just shared something everyone agrees on and I've gotten a crooked view from reading odd opinions online? :unsure:
TL;DR: See the fat, large text. It shouldn't be hard to miss.