Fantasies for young readers really began with the fairy tales of writers such as the Brothers Grimm. Of course, all the children who grow up reading these books and tales never, at heart, really grow up at all, for such wonderful stories are forever carved in their minds. And fairy tales are as much fun to read when we are fifty, only for memorable reasons, as they are when we are children.
But it’s obvious these days that fantasies aren’t only for the little ones. In 1977, 23 years after The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien was published, Terry Brooks published his first novel, The Sword of Shannara. It became the first work of fiction ever to appear on the New York Times Trade Paperback Bestseller List, where it remained for over five months. Following the release of Tolkien’s work, earlier works of fantasy, like T．H. White’s Once and Future King and Eric Eddison’s The Mezentian Gate(in 1958) came out before The Sword of Shannara, but neither had an influence quite like The Sword of Shannara. Fantasies were truly reborn.
As the popularity of fantasies began to grow quickly, the film and television industry climbed_aboard_the_bandwagon. During the eighties, the fantasy/adventure movie was born. Conan is a classic to the eighties. Other less memorable films can still be found in video stores. The lack of really good fantasy movies in the recent past can be blamed on substandard (标准以下的) special effects. However, now, in an age of postmodern computer technology, the impossible is no longer a concern. Since the release and popularity of The Lord of the Rings, cinema screen production rights have been purchased for scores of fantasy novels, from Terry Brooks to Robert Jordan.
The future of fantasies has never looked so assured. Even children’s cinema has had its own successes through the big screen release of the Harry Potter series and the classic Peter Pan. While there remains a choice to go beyond the reality we know, there will always be fantasies.
