Can the fantasy genre exist without industry formulas? How much does it even matter? The “Golden Age of Fantasy” was probably a little less golden than most people think.
The incredible timing of The Lord of the Rings’ publication in America, the industrialization of the literary industry, and the emergence of a particularly savvy editor all worked together to poison the fantasy genre mere days after it was born.
Chapters as they are marked on the Youtube version of this video:
0:00 — Intro
1:10 — How Did We Get Here?
4:53 — 1960s Tolkien Fever
7:40 — 1970s The Del Reys
12:30 — The Formula
18:50 — Counterformula
24:22 — Counter-counterformula
27:57 — What does it matter?
