A list of “influential” fantasy

[Blythe Alawdin]

I think it's important in some cases as to what came first so proper credit can be given where it's actually due like in the case of Carmilla and Dracula. Dracula has been attributed as being the beginning of vampire fiction when that simply isn't true. When these kinds of lists come out for anything whether it's most influential x whatever that well known and older pieces like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe are always added just for being well known. Why are no explorations made beyond these to bring light to something else that could be called influential beyond what (most) people are already familiar with? There is such a vast and broad spectrum out there but these lists but of course no one is going to agree with lists like these completely

 

[Cursor Wrathwind]

The list is for fantasy so I suspect that's why Dracula isn't on there since it's more in the horror/gothic category and I would disagree with it being on this list anyway since I personally wasn't impressed by it plus it being predated by Carmilla written by Sheridan le Fanu as a much earlier published work of vampire fiction

Something can be influential without being "good" or "impressive." Just means having an influence on others. And although Carmilla absolutely predates it, it can't be argued that it's more influential than Dracula when Dracula is literally a by word for vampire, and the fictional character with the second most TV/film appearances in history (after Sherlock Holmes). If we really wanted to go into vampire fiction chronology, Varney the Vampire predates Carmilla by a few decades and was at its time extremely popular. Carmilla might be earlier, but Dracula is the more widely readby far and, while many elements of Dracula were borrowed from Carmilla, Stoker added a number of other elements that have now become standard vampire tropes such as vampires not having a reflection, being repulsed by garlic, and having control over wolves and rats. That's a pretty good case for being "influential."

If anyone should be on this list it's Mary Shelley since she is the mother of science fiction as a genre and some of these books listed are scifi/fantasy.

Absolutely.

I think it's important in some cases as to what came first so proper credit can be given where it's actually due like in the case of Carmilla and Dracula. Dracula has been attributed as being the beginning of vampire fiction when that simply isn't true. When these kinds of lists come out for anything whether it's most influential x whatever that well known and older pieces like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe are always added just for being well known

Something that is obscure/not well known kind of can't be influential though, by definition. To influence others, they have to know about it/read it. So whatever is more popular/well known IS going to be the more influential, even if it's not correct to credit them as the beginning of a genre or trope.

 

[Kallarn Lo'Vosh]

Carmilla was an amazing tale though. And if you're arguing influential vampires youd have to put interview with the vampire up there too.

 

[Blythe Alawdin]

I agree it's hard for something obscure to be influential but I did mean that more as a generalized statement of those things just ending up on lists like these because they've reached classic status which seems to be enough for them to be added. There are less obscure works that could easily have their day in the shade that were also influential at these times but I almost never see them on lists like this. To use another example, is A Wonderful Life really the best Christmas movie of all time or do people just put it on lists because it's considered a classic? I don't know, it just feels like these lists always go for the obvious picks.

I would like to revise my opinion towards Dracula because I realized I was letting my own opinion of it get in the way which really boils down to gothic fiction just isn't my speed as many times as I've tried to read anything in that era and genre. You're right Dracula has influenced those tropes and I was hasty in dismissing that. It was a couple years back when I first read it at all and forcing myself to finish it (stubborn) probably did not help. All vampiric fiction does pull from real world applications where the dead coming back to life was something that was seen as an actual threat ie the strigoi in Romania. Without the predecessors we wouldn't have Anne Rice's Lestat or even, and one of my favorite comics ever made, American Vampire created by Scott Synder which offers a very unique turn on then while still paying homage to that classic image of a vampire we're all familiar with. Anyway, before I continue rambling senselessly I admit I misspoke in my initial statement and have come around to agree that Dracula was influential. It was too early in the morning to be shooting off opinions and getting into deep discussions