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Message: <blockquote data-quote="PaulKemp" data-source="post: 2458196" data-attributes="member: 2809">It's no more or less  "much ado about nothing" than is virtually every other thread on ENWorld. I found the article interesting because it made me wonder if people who read little fantasy (which would include no one reading this post) thought about the genre in the same way as did the interviewer -- namely, that it's conservative, idealized, and romanticized.  If so, I regard that as unfortunate.  The genre has much more breadth than that.  Some fantasy *is* conservative and idealized, but lots of fantasy (IMO, the best of it) is not  -- Mieville, Martin, Cook, Stover, and Moorcock are a few names that come to mind.  I also found puzzling the interviewer's claim that the HP stories do not "buy into the basic cliches of the genre."  Of course they do, and there isn't anything wrong with that.  But to claim otherwise is silly.  Now, I liked the single HP book I read, so this is neither a knock on Rowling or fans of the series.  I write fantasy novels, so I'm pleased as punch that a fantasy series is doing this well.  I was just disappointed by the interviewer's sweeping statement, which IMO evidenced a good deal of ignorance of the genre.</blockquote>