China Mieville on Consolation Fantasy
From the cover of the March 2002, Locus:
The idea of consolatory fantasy makes me want to puke. It’s not that you can’t have comfort, or even a happy ending of sorts, but to me the idea that the purpose of a book should be to console intrinsically means the purpose is therefore not to challenge or to subvert or to question; it is absolutely status quo oriented - completely, rigidly, aesthetically - and I hate that idea. I think the best fantasy is about the rejection of consolation… using the fantastic aesthetic to do the opposite of Consolation.