Contemporary Urban Fantasy

Everyone knows some amount of mythology, and mythology is a vital part all of our media, new and old. The Lion King is Hamlet is The Oresteia. American Gods takes a less subtle approach, and feels like the grown-up version of the Percy Jackson series. Mythology is known as a thing of the past; contemporary myths are few and far between, and the ones we do have are widely accepted as false, i.e. Bigfoot. Religious stories are old.

Neil Gaiman masterfully blended the old gods with modern day society; I was awestruck by how creative and innovative some of these ties were. The people's relationship with gods of any culture were never simple and clean, and they didn't always make sense. The gods of American Gods feel so much more believable than Percy Jackson's, of which had little variation from their sources.

Spiritual Education

I found that the most interesting part of The Night Circus was the observation of the two student characters, Celia and Marco, and the natural comparison of the teaching styles used for them. Both magicians use approaches very specific to their own personalities and lifestyles, and project their views and expectations onto their students. Neither are ideal in morality.

Both of the magicians play as an abusive savior to their apprentices, and are given absolute power over their life. Celia and Marco are groomed to compete in the magicians' rivalry, and raised with no sense of personal importance; their childhoods and onward spent serving their mentors one way or another.

As a novel marketed for young adults, it feels as though there's an underlying lesson of how to identify such abusive relationships, by providing not one, but two exaggerated situations. These situations, while of course nestled in the world of fantasy and fiction, can be very real and very difficult to understand not only for children, but for anyone in similar situations.

The Heroic Journey

Despite my love for fantasy, I've never found The Lord of the Rings series attractive, and I couldn't ever explain why.  It was only after watching the beginning of Fellowship of the Ring that I realized it had to be the lack of women.  I hadn't ever noticed that the stories featured an all-male cast, but it didn't have a character that drew my attention; Legolas wasn't quite enough.  Investing myself in reading The Hobbit was a little difficult for me, but I did enjoy the style of writing- a mimic of oral storytelling rather than feeling 'written.'

The formulaic and predictable nature of classic fantasy is definitely present in The Hobbit, and probably every fantasy story I've ever read, watched, or played before. You even expect it in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign: how do you get this mix of adventurers to cross the threshold and leave this tavern together?