Why don’t Jews write fantasy?

by Will on March 2, 2010

Via First Thoughts, here’s a great essay on Jewish faith and fantasy writing. One of the authors featured, Lev Grossman, was interviewed by our very own E.D. Kain not too long ago.

Tagged as: fantasy, Judaism, Lev Grossman

Will writes from Washington, D.C. (well, Arlington, Virginia). You can reach him at willblogcorrespondence at gmail dot com.

{ 3 comments }

1 Mike Schilling March 2, 2010 at 6:31 pm

Some Jewish fantasy writers:

Neil Gaiman, Michael Chabon, Peter Beagle, Avram Davidson, Michael Moorcock, Guy Gavriel Kay, Robert Silverberg, Charlie Stross, Jane Yolen, Harry Turtledove, Lev Grossman, William Goldman, Steven Brust.

And let’s not leave out Richard Perle’s predictions for Gulf War 2.

2 Nob Akimoto March 3, 2010 at 12:22 am

Well played, sir.

3 JosephFM March 4, 2010 at 6:49 am

Actually, if you read the First Thoughts link, the point is less a lack of Jewish fantasy writers and more the lack of an epic and detailed fantasy universe that expresses Judaism the way Narnia expresses Christianity – but of course, then points out that superhero comics are exactly that (which was of course also one of the themes of Chabon’s most famous work).

Gaiman is a perfect example. I had no idea he was Jewish, it doesn’t really show in his stories.

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