So, a little while ago, someone asked me a question (not here) about pastoral fantasy. Hmm, I said, I really do not know quite what I think about this term. Sherwood Smith used the term years ago in a BVC post, no longer available; and for that matter, this is the sort of thing that Marie Brennan might write an essay about, though I don’t know if she has.
So, what is pastoral fantasy?
Well, Wikipedia says this about pastoral SF:
Pastoral science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction which uses bucolic, rural settings, like other forms of pastoral literature. Since it is a subgenre of science fiction, authors may set stories either on Earth or another habitable planet or moon, sometimes including a terraformed planet or moon. Unlike most genres of science fiction, pastoral science fiction works downplay the role of futuristic technologies. The pioneer is author Clifford Simak (1904–1988), a science fiction Grand Master whose output included stories written in the 1950s and 1960s about rural people who have contact with extraterrestrial beings who hide their alien identity. … Pastoral science fiction stories typically show a reverence for the land, its life-giving food harvests, the cycle of the seasons, and the role of the community. While fertile agrarian environments on Earth or Earth-like planets are common settings, some works may be set in ocean or desert planets or habitable moons. The rural dwellers, such as farmers and small-townspeople, are depicted sympathetically, albeit with the tendency to portray them as conservative and suspicious of change.
I think I read that story of Simak’s. That was a while ago.
Wikipedia then goes on to say:
Pastoral is a mode of literature in which the author employs various techniques to place the complex life into a simple one. Paul Alpers distinguishes pastoral as a mode rather than a genre, and he bases this distinction on the recurring attitude of power; that is to say that pastoral literature holds a humble perspective toward nature. …Terry Gifford, a prominent literary theorist, defines pastoral in three ways … The first way emphasizes the historical literary perspective of the pastoral in which authors recognize and discuss life in the country and in particular the life of a shepherd. This is summed up by Leo Marx with the phrase “No shepherd, no pastoral.” The second type of the pastoral is literature that “describes the country with an implicit or explicit contrast to the urban”. The third type of pastoral depicts the country life with derogative classifications.
And that first sentence is seriously opaque. The author “employs techniques to place the complex life into the simple one,” eh? Would you care to rephrase that into plain English? Also, the idea that if there’s no shepherd, the work isn’t pastoral, renders the term so limited as to be basically useless. I’m basically just unimpressed with that whole Wikipedia page.
I bet we can do a lot better for Pastoral Fantasy. I don’t even think it will be hard. Let’s start here, with my first rapid guess at what might characterize Pastoral Fantasy — which is to say, where it belongs when considering Fantasy subgenres. Therefore:
This, I think, is basically where I think Pastoral Fantasy appears — although I kind of left something out, actually — but I think the term “pastoral” implies:
a) A rural setting, because hello, that’s the actual meaning of “pastoral.” I’m not sure you have to have pastures, but on the other hand, I wouldn’t argue against it. Suppose the whole thing is set in a town, like The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart; can that be called “Pastoral” at that point? What do you think? How about if nearly the whole thing is set in an enchanted forest?
IMPORTANT NOTE: at the time I write this post, Wrede’s Enchanted Forest quadrilogy is just $2.99 for the whole set, so you should definitely click through and if the price is still that low, pick this up immediately. That goes triple if you haven’t read it and don’t have it. These are such delightful stories!
But are they Pastoral? I vote no, so I guess I’m leaning toward Includes Country Setting, Not Just Enchanted Forest as a thing for Pastoral.
I don’t have “rural” or “pastures” in the Venn diagram, and I kind of think at least “country setting” needs to be there. However, before I get to that, how about the other circles I threw into that diagram?
b) A cozy tone, and to me, cozy also implies some degree of emphasis on slice-of-life; that is, small-scall, intimate, family focused. But I’m not sure the whole thing needs to be slice-of-life, and that’s what I’m thinking here, that the stories that include more of an emphasis on adventure can still be cozy. Though actually, I think Troubled Waters is almost slice-of-life, except that the whole thing is kicked off by tragedy and then there’s the adventurous bit at the end.
c) And I’m not sure about this, but I also sort of wonder whether I actually do feel that Pastoral ought to have something of a fairy-tale tone as well as a cozy tone? Because maybe I don’t think so, even though that was something I thought of at first.
Overall, my vote for Single Work That Most Typifies Pastoral Fantasy is Chalice.
Wait, there’s no ebook edition? What the heck? Jumping through hoops, I see there WAS a kindle edition at one time, because it’s listed at Goodreads. But it’s not there now. This is super annoying, even though I have a paper copy anyway. I hope what this means is that the rights have been reverted to McKinley and she will shortly bring out a new ebook edition. There is no information about that on her website, so who knows.
I linked the version with the cover I like best, which is the cover on my edition. I think the audio cover is just silly.
This has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING of the feel of the story. I think whoever made this cover had the basic image sitting around, meant for a cozy romance, threw some bees on it, and called it good. It’s pretty, but it looks cold and it looks like its set on a beach somewhere and it doesn’t have the faintest fantasy vibe.
Here’s the cover on my book:
The golden yellow evokes honey, AS IT SHOULD. The cottage looks more appropriate as well, far less like a real cottage on the beach and much more like a possible fantasy cottage. I realize you can’t see them in this small size, but bees are present in this cover, including four stylized bees at the compass points of the circle. But it doesn’t really matter; the overall warmer town is what makes this cover so much better.
How about this idea that Pastoral Literature should include pastures? Well, how strictly do you want to take that? Did you know that you can refer to a field of clover as “bee pasture?” Or any other flowers, lavender, doesn’t matter, if you planted it for bees, then it’s bee pasture. So if you define “pasture” fairly broadly, then Chalice does include pasturage, as well as a fairy-tale tone, a slice-of-life emphasis, and the warm fuzzy feeling that’s so intrinsic to Cozy. In fact, if you consider bees the equivalent of sheep, then the beekeeper is the equivalent of the shepherd and boom, even Leo Marx might reluctantly concede that Chalice is a Pastoral Fantasy.
So this is kind of where I’m winding up:
And I included both The Long Earth and The Magic of Recluse without having read either, so I might be off base with those! The former is $1.99 as of the time I write this post, so I’m a lot more likely to read it now because I went ahead and picked it up. The latter is not at a forbidding price, but not a well-sure price either, so it remains on my radar, but not on my actual TBR pile.
I see I also accidentally left the intersection of Farm Setting and Cozy empty, oops. I’d have tried to think of something to put there if I’d noticed, but I don’t think I’ll do it now.
SO — what think you all think defines Pastoral Fantasy? And what do you think belongs in there besides Chalice? Or, as far as that goes, do you disagree about Chalice? Let me know in the comments! Slice-of-life Cozy is always an intersection I’m interested in anyway, always happy to hear about other stories in either circle or the intersection! I’m slowly making my way through the fanfic Cultivating the Slow Life, which is both. No pastures; more an enchanted mountain including enchanted forest, and I’m leaning toward saying it’s not Pastoral Fantasy. I’m about at the 20% mark, so lots more to go in this enormously long fic.
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I did a Google search for pastoral fantasy and it took me right to your 2015 post. My associations for pastoral literature are all the poems about shepherds lazing about with shepherdesses while keeping half an eye on their sheep. I think the word is more closely associated with ‘pastor’ as in the shepherd of his flock/congregation. But I wonder if Terry Pratchett’s Weird Sisters would qualify. Certainly the Tiffany Aching books should.
C. J. Milbrandt’s Galleries of Stone is by definition pastoral fantasy – except the sheep are people with horns, and the shepherd is a lonely sculptor with feline features. It’s one of the coziest stories I’ve ever read, despite some rising tension in the third book.
There is a whole subgenre of manga and webcomics that could be considered pastoral; I think they classify it most of the time as slow life isekai, wherein some random man or woman gets transported to another world either by portal or death/rebirth and fulfills their dreams of farming/foraging/making things. There is a further subgenre of people going that route in video games and thereby becoming the most powerful player (I’m not sure why that one caught on, but there are multiple stories like that).
Thinking out loud – Examples, Alphabet of Thorn for Nepenthe’s small comfortable world which she doesn’t want disrupted by big things; Rowan of Rin (says the Teen) for his concerns being small and they remain small even with they take him far afield, but he’s always concerned for his home village.
It’s where the focus in the story, whether the characters’ or the story, the cozy slice of life and small concern needn’t dominate the narrative but they should continue to matter to the character. The sense that things are a great deal larger than the bit the story shows and that’s ok.the small concerns aren’t necessarily the point of the story, but valued and continue to exist. Can’t be a mega adventure.
You know what keeps coming to mind as an example? No Foreign Sky. Me to backbrain: REALLY? backbrain: community matters a lot. Nature matters a lot. Those personal small ‘village’ elements continue to matter no matter how far in space we are. Me: so why not CJC’s atevi novels? … uh… concerns always too large?
In the UK that Chalice cover (which I agree is an odd choice!) is only for the audiobook: the hardback has the cover you (and I) possess, and the paperback is different again – I can’t post it here but it is definitely less pastoral, and looks more like something a publisher would select for a book aimed at younger female readers.
I think some of Victoria Godard’s books would meet the criteria, particularly Bone Harp, which is far from a favourite of mine, but also some of the Greenwing and Dart books (Travellers Joy, Bee Sting Cake for example), which I do love.
I meant to say on the subject of “pastoral” vibes that actually the Midwinter novella is giving me that feeling, though I’m only about halfway through.
Not sure whether anybody is more than halfway through the Midwinter novella, though I sort of hope it doesn’t go TOO much longer. It’s peaceful, but since it’s set at midwinter, I don’t really know that I think of it as pastoral. I guess maybe I want some farming and farmlands in my pastoral fantasy.
Elaine, I must admit, I would not in a million years point to NFS as an example of Pastoral SF. Though I could see a Pastoral story being set in that world. In fact, if I ever write the prequel, that will quite likely involve a pastoral section.
I’ve got C. J. Milbrandt’s Galleries of Stone on my immense TBR pile, I’m almost sure. “The coziest story ever” does sound inviting.
Julie Czerneda’s A Turn of Light has got to be the pastorialist of all pastoral fantasies. Farms, fields, cows, wheat (probably sheep; I can’t remember); the magic is all about the land, and the driving plot concern is preserving this land with its important magic. The author describes it thus: “I wanted a fantasy full of wonder and wild magic. Where families are kind to one another and main characters do their best and grow. A story with laughter and amazement instead of gore and grief. A fantasy able to hug me close, like my old favourites, to linger happily ever after.”
I think a lot of Patricia McKillip is pretty pastoral; even The Riddlemaster of Hed is ultimately about preserving the little agrarian island kingdom.
Oh, and The Sharing Knife series by Bujold, of course. The epic evil is threatening the good farm folk just trying to make a living off the land. Despite the malices, I consider this series pretty cozy.
Very interesting discussion. Just a quick note of a typo which I wouldn’t bother mentioning except that it left me confused for a couple of minutes. You wrote: “I hope what this means is that the rights have been reverted to Wrede and she will shortly bring out a new ebook edition.” I think you meant McKinley and not Wrede, right? As for the Chalice ebook, I got it in Nook a long time ago, so I know it existed but I don’t see it for sale anymore. Interesting. Also I agree with you, Rachel, about Chalice, and you, Kim, about the Czerneda series and McKillip. They all immediately leap to mind. But gosh, I’m having a hard time thinking of any other examples. The Hobbit starts out in the Shire but ends up in the towns by the lake and the dwarf realm under the mountain so I don’t think it quite qualifies?
Kim, thank you, I read part of A Turn of Light YEARS ago, tried to remember the author or title, and just could not. I fear I never finished it, though I don’t remember why not. I completely agree that it is the ur-pastoral-fantasy.
Sharing Knife is another great example! Very much so!
Whoops, yes, I’ll fix that typo. Thanks!
Agree that Galleries of Stone and Sharing Knife fall in this category.
I have the Czernada book but haven’t read it. I will have to try again.
There’s a related niche, I think, that’s not pastoral but is fantasy set in a small town or countryside. They are like urban fantasy, being set in our modern world except with supernatural elements, but not in London or Chicago or Boston but outside the city. The two examples I am thinking of are Sharon Lee’s Archer’s Beach series beginning with Carousel Tides, and the Green Man series by Juliet McKenna.
I realize I don’t consider the Sharing Knife series to be pastoral, and am thinking about why. I also have looked at No Foreign Sky and convinced my backbrain that it isn’t either. And now I’m rereading it.
So… for pastoral, I’m realizing what I am now testing suggestions against is something like Greenwillow by B.J. Chute, which bears some resemblance to Elizabeth Goudge, (might be contemporaries, I haven’t checked dates), and some – in my mind, at least – to Sarah Addison Allen’s books. Quiet stories containing subtle magic (or not), instead of flashy stuff. Greenwillow is probably from the 1950s, I can’t imagine it could have been written much later than that. I haven’t reread it in years, but recall a sense of underlying peace whatever the human dramatics going on, and a limited setting – basically an isolated and idealized English village. And I can’t come up with any genre fantasies that fit, except the McKillip I named earlier, although I have a feeling I’ve read some. Guess they didn’t make enough of an impression.
Maybe some of Henderson’s People stories..? And I don’t trust my backbrain, but it is now suggesting Walton’s Lifelode. Which is at least a definite fantasy, and set in a village. Beyond that I don’t recall much, only read it once when it was new.
Elaine, I was wondering about Lifelode too. It’s clearly not in a city. The action centers around the one family and their manor house. There is a battle, which I don’t think of pastorals as including, but it’s pretty small scale.