[Elenna]

I have had very similar experiences. A lot of people who have seen me reading fantasy or seen me posting here have told me that fantasy isn't literature.

Now, as somebody who wants to write fantasy professionally, this is kind of annoying. If I tell them that professional football is a waste of time, I get called a pagan or a Philistine (not really - a lot of the people who get mad at me don't have vocabularies that big).

I think fantasy is harder to write and to appreciate than realistic fiction - in realistic, the world already exists. You don't have to suspend your disbelief. However, with fantasy, there aren't any hobbits or elves or dragons. In order to put the reader in the world, you have to be a much more skillful writer.