@bar1scorpio @KaliYuga1984 @BrianNiemeier The year you pick is depending on the point you want to make. But 1980-- wow, such a case can be made for that as a watershed moment. In reviewing the literary antecedents for the D&D game, the most striking thing about them was their depth, their breadth, and the heterogeneity.
@bar1scorpio @KaliYuga1984 @BrianNiemeier Everybody read ALL KINDS OF STUFF. Further. there was a very broad consensus about what was in the sff canon. Dunsany was considered the bedrock of fantasy, not Tolkien. Burroughs was the most influential author bar none. Vance and Zelazny were the next step forward in the genre.
@bar1scorpio @KaliYuga1984 @BrianNiemeier And you could get it all at the corner drug store for next to nothing. "Best of" collections of the pulp masters best short stories. The deep classics and precursor works of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series. Also the fantasy magazines didn't completely suck yet.
@bar1scorpio @KaliYuga1984 @BrianNiemeier But everything was sunshine and roses. The convention scene and some BIG NAME authors were involved in some very dark stuff. The sff field had a rotten core even though it was still producing a lot of fruit. And many pushed a grossly anti-Christian ethos wherever they could.
@bar1scorpio @KaliYuga1984 @BrianNiemeier On the other hand Christian authors had not yet been completely purged from the field yet. There was a war going on. And they way each faction framed it makes it clear what the stakes were and what preceded them. Even if no one agreed, their reference points were consistent.
@bar1scorpio @KaliYuga1984 @BrianNiemeier All of that stopped after 1980. A new type of fantasy and science fiction emerged by editorial fiat-- one which was no longer in conversation with the roots of the field, one which was produced (in many cases) by people that couldn't even finish a story.
@bar1scorpio @KaliYuga1984 @BrianNiemeier Whether you're into that stuff or not, one thing is clear: something big happened in 1980. Something changed. Something was lost. Something was erased. Something really exciting stopped. DON'T READ ANYTHING AFTER 1980!
