Fantasy is fantasy. It's fiction. It's not meant to be a textbook. I don't believe in letting research overwhelm the fiction. That's a danger of science fiction in particular, as opposed to fantasy. A lot of writers forget that what they're doing is supposed to be art.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that fantasy and fiction should prioritize creativity and artistic expression over strict adherence to research and realism.
N. K. Jemisin highlights the distinction between fantasy and other genres, particularly science fiction, by arguing that fiction should remain a form of art rather than a textbook burdened by research. She warns against the tendency for writers to let scientific accuracy eclipse the imaginative and artistic aspects of storytelling, suggesting that the primary goal of fiction should be to evoke creativity and wonder.
In practice
This quote can be shared in a writing workshop to inspire authors to trust their creative instincts.
Magic is the mysteries into which not everyone is so lucky, or unlucky, as to be initiated. It can be affected by belief, the whims of the unseen, harsh language. And it is not. Supposed. To make. Sense. In fact, I think it's coolest when it doesn't.
I don't really understand why so many fantasy writers choose to focus on worlds that just seem strangely denuded. But to them, I guess it doesn't seem strange. And I guess that's their privilege. It isn't mine.
I write what feels real. I write things that are informed both by my own experience and by actual history.
Reactionary movements can't sustain themselves unless they find something new to catch and burn on.
There's a thriving field of self-published stuff in, particularly, black fiction. I don't know that other groups of people of color have that same recourse.
I've always believed that as an artist, as a writer, you need a lot of contact with other people to make your art good.
I grew up in a drive-in theater, from the time I was 8, working in a snack bar watching four features every week. It was silent theater in the sense that this was a drive-in, which meant that I often saw the films going with no sound. But I learned to tell stories through action.
I paint the way I do because I can keep on putting more and more things in - like drama, pain, anger, love, a figure, a horse, my ideas of space. It doesn't matter if it differs from mine, as long as it comes from the painting, which has its own integrity and intensity.
Great buildings that move the spirit have always been rare. In every case they are unique, poetic, products of the heart.
Fantasy is totally wide open; all you really have to do is follow the rules you've set. But if you're writing about science, you have to first learn what you're writing about.
I am increasingly attracted to restricting possibility in the poem by inflicting a form upon yourself. Once you impose some formal pattern on yourself, then the poem is pushing back. I think good poems are often the result of that kind of wrestling with the form.
Woolf wanted to say dangerous things in Orlando but she did not want to say them in the missionary position.
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