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"fantasy" versus "supernatural ghost story" |
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moshi 
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 Topic: "fantasy" versus "supernatural ghost story"Posted: 20 Jul 2007 at 7:49am |
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Is there a difference here? Is one subsumed in the other? |
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ABEAR111
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Posted: 20 Jul 2007 at 7:55am |
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When I think "fantasy", I think pixies and faries and minataurs and Alice in Wonderland, yada yada yada.
Supernatural ghost story leans more toward horror in my mind, though it wouldn't necessarily have to be horror. I think a lot of the genres cross over. Which one do you have? |
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aurora68
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Posted: 20 Jul 2007 at 8:06am |
Well, a ghost story has to have a ghost! 
Fantasy just has to contain some sort of magical element. It can be intimidating to think about, if you're thinking you have to re-create Middle Earth. It's important to remember that you don't have to do that. Any kind of magical element will do. Sure, fairies and minotaurs will work. But so will wishes that come true (Big, Liar Liar), magical objects (The Indian in the Cupboard), mythical creatures (Splash), and tons of other things. |
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moshi
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Posted: 20 Jul 2007 at 8:09am |
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Do you think that having a fantastical element, not a ghost, but a soul or spirit....is coming so close to ghost story that it may be disqualified for breaking genre?
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aurora68
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Posted: 20 Jul 2007 at 8:20am |
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So I'm guessing you have "ghost story" as a genre? I would think a soul or a spirit could qualify. Ultimately you just have to use your best judgment, but since a ghost is typically believed to be the soul of someone who's died, I would guess that would be fine.
Good luck! |
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moshi
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Posted: 20 Jul 2007 at 8:27am |
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No I have fantasy as a genre :).
Normally, I wouldn't have any issue with my piece, but the fact that NYCMidnight chooses to define "Ghost story" as it's own genre worries me. I would assume that Ghost story would be a subgenre of Horror, or Thriller, or Fantasy...but because it's separate, it worries me in terms of automatic disqualification :). Edited by moshi - 20 Jul 2007 at 8:32am |
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aurora68
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Posted: 20 Jul 2007 at 8:35am |
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In that case, I think it's fine. They do have several genres that are really subgenres -- Slasher, Monster Movie and Ghost Story are all subgenres of Horror. Suspense is a Thriller subgenre. Romantic Comedy is a comedy subgenre, and so on.
I think that as long as you have some sort of supernatural and/or fantastic element -- and if you have a spirit, you do -- you should be fine. |
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GeneD
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Posted: 20 Jul 2007 at 8:57am |
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I wouldn't categorize a ghost story as a fantasy, and I can see why they would put it in its own category. In most stories, when people die, they are dead and that's the end of it. Because they have to or there's nothing at stake for anyone. Ghost stories are their own category because they violate the one law-- perhaps the most important law-- that no other story would or should violate.
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http://www.nycmidnight.com/forums/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=802
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aurora68
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Posted: 20 Jul 2007 at 9:04am |
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I agree, up to a point. I think there are certain stories that are clearly ghost stories -- like The Others, for example. Other stories can have ghosts or spirits (in a non-horror setting) and be considered a fantasy. An example would be Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones, which is being filmed by Peter Jackson. The entire story is narrated by a spirit, but in no way would I call it a ghost story.
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GeneD
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Posted: 20 Jul 2007 at 9:13am |
I suppose, but in The Lovely Bones and in American Beauty (which did the same thing, only one didn't know [Spoiler] Spacey's character was dead until the end) a narrative device was being employed. The audience's relationship with the story is artificial already, and having someone who was a part of the story but is no longer-- for whatever reason-- narrate is a hoary device that turns up all over the place. The narrator isn't really part of the story itself, and thus the story does not hinge upon a ghost, and therefore it is not a ghost story.
If you took the ghost narrator out of The Lovely Bones you'd still have a story. If you took the ghosts out of The Others, you would not. That's the difference. Edited by GeneD - 20 Jul 2007 at 9:14am |
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http://www.nycmidnight.com/forums/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=802
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moshi wrote: