[Ads-l] Word: Romantasy - literary genre blending romance and fantasy (with eroticism)

[Jesse Sheidlower]

Thanks for the very kind words.

I did in fact publish the _romantasy_ entry today; people can see it here:

https://sfdictionary.com/view/2940/romantasy

I note that in my previous message (quoted below), I erroneously referred to Jean Johnson's "2010" examples that Garson found; I meant "2008". They are correctly quoted in HDSF.

Jesse Sheidlower

On Mon, Feb 10, 2025 at 11:39:01AM -0500, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
> Publishing an entry about "romantasy" is a lovely idea for Valentine's
> day, Jesse.  Thanks to you (and numerous contributors) for
> constructing and continuing to update the wondrous Historical
> Dictionary of Science Fiction.  Garson
> 
> On Mon, Feb 10, 2025 at 8:06 AM Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, Jan 09, 2025 at 03:26:15PM -0500, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
> > > Here are two citations from Newspapers.com.
> >
> > [...]
> >
> > > The second citation in 1940 is an advertisement which uses "romantasy"
> > > to describe a novel. I am not sure whether this novel fits into the
> > > fantasy genre in the modern sense.
> > >
> > > Date: August 25, 1940
> > > Newspaper: The Observer
> > > Newspaper Location: London, England
> > > Article: (Advertisement for the book "When the cat's away" by Gerald Bullett)
> > > Quote Page 2, Column 6
> > > Database: Newspapers.com
> > > https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-observer-romantasy/162649070/
> > >
> > > [Begin excerpt]
> > > The holiday novel of the year
> > > Bullett versus bombs!
> > >
> > > Are we light-hearted? Yes if we counter warning - weariness by reading
> > > Gerald Bullett's romantasy:
> > >
> > > When the cat's away
> > > GERALD BULLETT
> > >
> > > 'It is the lightest of frolics: a delightfully absurd plot, a peer,
> > > and a girl who runs away from home, a few eccentrics, and a cat--and
> > > frivolous and charmingly witty it all is.'--RALPH STRAUS.
> > > [End excerpt]
> >
> > Coming back to this a month later (I plan to publish _romantasy_ as an HDSF entry in time for Valentines Day). I have not yet been able to examine _When the Cat's Away_, the book in question. However, while Gerald Bullett did write several stories or books having fantasy or supernatural elements, it would appear that this is not one of them; at least, it is not mentioned in his entry in the Encyclopedia of Fantasy (https://sf-encyclopedia.com/fe/bullett_gerald). This suggests that any "fantasy" in the book is in a broader sense, and that this 1940 quot. should be placed in brackets. This would make the 2010 examples that Garson supplied in an earlier message, quoting Jean Johnson in reference to German translations of her work, the earliest.
> >
> > Jesse Sheidlower
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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