Taking Notes: 'The City Fantastic' (2008) by Nanette Wargo Donohue

Library Journal 網站六月一日刊登了一篇介紹 Urban Fantasy 次類型的短文。稍微瀏覽一下，發現重點都提到了，文末還附上推薦書單。雖然以該主題為賣點的 anthology Paper Cities 已經入手，不過短期內應該排不進閱讀檔期，於是就先拿這篇當點心。

閱讀出處：
Nanette Wargo Donohue, "The City Fantastic", in Library Journal.com

劃重點：
paragraph 1:
先用《奇幻百科全書》的定義來介紹 urban fantasy：

...... Today, this fascination exists in the current boom in urban fantasy, a genre defined by John Clute and John Grant in their Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997) as “texts where fantasy and the mundane world interact, intersect, and interweave throughout a tale which is significantly about a real city.”

paragraph 2:
本段介紹 urban fantasy 的源起：

Urban fantasy's roots date back to the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Charles de Lint published his first short story collection about the fictional city of Newford, Dreams Underfoot, and the first volumes of the groundbreaking Borderlands shared-world anthologies, based on a world created by well-known fantasy author Terri Windling, were released. These works introduced readers to the possibility of supernatural, fantastic beings in modern settings, and other authors who contributed to the development of what is now identified as “traditional urban fantasy” included Emma Bull, Neil Gaiman, and Mercedes Lackey.

paragraph 3:
傳統的 urban fantasy 受 folklore 與 fairy tale 的影響甚深，甚至可以被視為 modern folklore/fairy tale：

Traditional urban fantasy is highly influenced by folklore and fairy tales and often has the feel of a modern folk or fairy tale. The prose style tends toward the lyrical, the locales are modern urban environments, and the distinctions between good and evil are often subtle. ......

paragraph 4:
名詞比較── mythic fantasy：

Closely related to (and, in many cases, overlapping with) traditional urban fantasy is the broader category of mythic fiction, a term believed to have been coined by de Lint and Windling and often used to categorize historical fantasy and literary fiction where the supernatural coexists with the mundane. Like traditional urban fantasies, these novels, which include such recent popular titles as Keith Donoghue's The Stolen Child and Susannah Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell, are affected by mythology, folklore, fairy tales, medieval ballads, and other traditional storytelling forms. ......

paragraph 5:
開始從 pop-culture 加料，妖魔鬼怪通通來，成為一種變體：

The branch of urban fantasy currently skyrocketing in popularity is “contemporary urban fantasy,” which plays on themes drawn from popular culture, including horror movies, TV shows like cult classic Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and lore about such paranormal creatures as vampires and werewolves. This is what your patrons are looking for when they request “urban fantasy.” Common characteristics include tough female protagonists (often with supernatural powers or superhuman strength), stronger distinctions between good and evil, grittier urban landscapes, first-person narration, and sexual tension, often between the female protagonist and a male character who toes the line between good and evil. A pioneer in this subgenre is Laurell K. Hamilton, whose “Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter” novels were among the first to play on these themes.

paragraph 6, 7:
同樣免不了跨類型的命運，通常和 horror、romance 和 mystery 結合。範例請看原文。

之後是選書指南，就不多摘錄。