Low fantasy

Low fantasy, or intrusion fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy fiction in which magical events intrude on an otherwise normal world.^[1]^[2] The term thus contrasts with high fantasy stories, which take place in fictional worlds that have their own sets of rules and physical laws.

Intrusion fantasy places less emphasis on elements typically associated with fantasy and sets a narrative in realistic environments with elements of the fantastical. Sometimes, there are just enough fantastical elements to make ambiguous the boundary between what is real and what is purely psychological or supernatural. The word "low" refers to refers to the familiarity of the world within which fantasy elements appear and is not a remark on the work's overall quality.

An alternative definition, common in role-playing games, rests on the story and characters being more realistic than mythic in scope. Thus, some works, like Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian series, can be high fantasy according to the first definition but low fantasy according to the second.^[3] With other works, such as the TV series Supernatural, the opposite is true.

^ A commonly-quoted definition is that low fantasy involves "nonrational happenings that are without causality or rationality because they occur in the rational world where such things are not supposed to occur" (Boyer, Robert; Zahorski, Kenneth J. (1984). Fantasists on Fantasy: A Collection of Critical Reflections. New York: Avon. Quoted in Stableford, Brian (2009). The A to Z of Fantasy Literature. Scarecrow Press. p. 256. ISBN 978-0-8108-6829-8.)
^ "Narratives in which the fantastic element intrudes on the 'real world', as opposed to fantasies set all or partially in a Secondary World" (Wolfe, Gary K. (1982). Critical Terms for Science Fiction and Fantasy: A Glossary and Guide to Scholarship. NY: Greenwood Press. p. 67. ISBN 0313229813.).
^ Herron, Don, ed. (1984). The Dark Barbarian: The Writings of Robert E. Howard: A Critical Anthology. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. p. 128. ISBN 9780313232817.

[1] A commonly-quoted definition is that low fantasy involves "nonrational happenings that are without causality or rationality because they occur in the rational world where such things are not supposed to occur" (Boyer, Robert; Zahorski, Kenneth J. (1984). Fantasists on Fantasy: A Collection of Critical Reflections. New York: Avon. Quoted in Stableford, Brian (2009). The A to Z of Fantasy Literature. Scarecrow Press. p. 256. ISBN 978-0-8108-6829-8.)

[2] "Narratives in which the fantastic element intrudes on the 'real world', as opposed to fantasies set all or partially in a Secondary World" (Wolfe, Gary K. (1982). Critical Terms for Science Fiction and Fantasy: A Glossary and Guide to Scholarship. NY: Greenwood Press. p. 67. ISBN 0313229813.).

[3] Herron, Don, ed. (1984). The Dark Barbarian: The Writings of Robert E. Howard: A Critical Anthology. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. p. 128. ISBN 9780313232817.

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