Lev Grossman vs Mainstream Television

Sometimes, writing for Fantasy-Faction, I forget the extent to which the mainstream media looks down their nose at Fantasy fiction. Although George R.R. Martin’s recent success has opened a number of doors for fantasy authors in recent years, I’m sure that any Press Officer from any publishing house will tell you it remains damned difficult to get a review in a national newspaper or interview on television.

In that respect, Lev Grossman is fortunate. As an author who moved into fantasy after gaining acclaim for his novel Codex, which was within the Thriller genre, he is seen as ‘proper’ author who is spending some time writing fantasy. He also has a fairly good reputation for his non-fiction career, writing for Time Magazine and The New York Times, which undoubtedly means he has some useful contacts in high places.

What this means is that with the release of his latest book, Grossman finds himself appearing in places that other fantasy authors would struggle to appear. It also means that he finds himself in front of presenters who have absolutely no idea about the fantasy genre and the kinds of books that are currently being written within it. Indeed, in this case it seemed as though the presenter was stunned an educated man would choose to write within fantasy when he obviously has other options:

Although I think Lev Grossman does his best in this PBS interview, and I find his thoughts on the genre fascinating, I find the interviewers questions and attitude towards fantasy quite sad and difficult to listen to. The first thing I found truly disappointing was the way the interviewer seems to suggest that The Magicians series is the first of its kind: a fantasy tale aimed at adults. I think Lev does a good job of swinging the question in a different direction: explaining that he is writing a fantasy novel in the style of Narnia / Harry Potter in a literary style. The second thing that I have heard discussed, but never seen done in person: was at around the 4 minute mark, where the interviewer asks if Lev was worried that delving into genre fiction would taint him as an artist. Really?

This piece picks up a bit later in the interview – it skips a couple of questions – but it sounds as though the interviewer was asking Lev ‘were your parents not disapointed you aren’t writing Literature’ that I don’t need to hear. Where it picks up – Lev talking about his characters, homosexuality and promiscuity, the process of writing in an animal’s POV and his surprise at the success of The Magicians series – I enjoyed. That said, it finishes, again rather disappointingly, with Lev having to defend fantasy by explaining that it isn’t literature dumb-ed down.

A big takeaway for fans of Lev Grossman will be hearing that now his Magicians trilogy is finished up he will be working on a new series that ‘isn’t fantasy, but isn’t reality either’. We’ll let you know more about it as soon as we do…

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