I, for one, say THANK YOU!

If I want to read about elves and dwarves, orc and trolls, I'll read Tolkein.

I also disagree with those commenters. "The Moon Over Tokyo Through Leaves in the Fall" was one of the best fantasies I've read in a long time. It spoke to me in a lot of ways and touched me on a personal level through its imagery. Besides, here is the definition of fantasy per Dictionary.com (I think all the stories mentioned fit most of these definitions nicely):
1. imagination, esp. when extravagant and unrestrained.
2. the forming of mental images, esp. wondrous or strange fancies; imaginative conceptualizing.
3. a mental image, esp. when unreal or fantastic; vision: a nightmare fantasy.
4. Psychology. an imagined or conjured up sequence fulfilling a psychological need; daydream.
5. a hallucination.
6. a supposition based on no solid foundation; visionary idea; illusion: dreams of Utopias and similar fantasies.
7. caprice; whim.
8. an ingenious or fanciful thought, design, or invention.
9. Also, fantasia. Literature. an imaginative or fanciful work, esp. one dealing with supernatural or unnatural events or characters: The stories of Poe are fantasies of horror.


Keep publishing the good stuff and I'll keep reading regardless of the strict genre definition.

Definition discussions are *so* depressing. I mean, I'm all for people figuring out how they define fantasy, but when they start trying to police other people by their definitions... ergh. "I exclude fantasies that have a possible realistic explanation from my definition of fantasy" is a fine thing to say, but adding "and therefore there can be no legitimate definition of fantasy that disagrees with mine on this point, in any sort of subtle shading" is obnoxious.

Which is to say, "Superhero Girl" is a good story, and clearly intended to be ambiguous, even if I do think it falls a little harder on the side of realistic explanation than fantastic explanation. But the story is clearly plugged into a fantasy dialog, and is successful for this fantasy reader thereby.

To me: all fiction is fantasy.

APPLAUSE. I've been saying the same thing to anybody who'll listen for YEARS.

Thanks for being a market not constrained by definitions.

I'd like to add thanks for giving us great stories that aren't the same old prepackaged BS we are used to seeing. There is always that worn out discussion about the death rattle of speculative fiction. If we aren't constantly challenging conventions, there can be no other result but extinction. Maybe one of these days people will wake up and realize fantasy is more than just wizards and unicorns and other tropes of bad carnival posters and dorm room trinkets.