Strategies of Fantasy by Brian Attebery
Published 1992 · 60,000 words · about 5 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism
How hard is Strategies of Fantasy to read?
Strategies of Fantasy scores 51 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 58 out of 100
- Draws on critical theory but explains jargon accessibly, landing between popular and specialist registers.
- Sentence structure: 52 out of 100
- Abstraction: 72 out of 100
- The fuzzy-set concept and theoretical frameworks operate at a high level of generalization.
- Information density: 72 out of 100
- Moves efficiently between theory and close reading without padding.
- Narrative indirection: 12 out of 100
- Straightforwardly argues its case without rhetorical misdirection.
- Symbolic density: 100 out of 100
- Critical analysis rather than figurative writing.
- Ironic distance: 12 out of 100
- Earnest scholarly tone throughout.
- Resolution withholding: 100 out of 100
- Each chapter presents and resolves a defined critical problem.
- Structural complexity: 38 out of 100
- Organized by theoretical approach and then by textual case study.
How Strategies of Fantasy is regarded
Strategies of Fantasy holds a literary regard score of 55 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.