Have you ever read a book which had you laughing and nodding your head in agreement?
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones is a hilarious look at the cliches of the pseudo-European-historical/high fantasy genre in the form of a travel guide. Or more precisely, a dictionary. If you've read any appreciable amount of fantasy, you'll get the sly references to the tourist always receiving three brochures, the "official management terms", the typical tour companions, and of course, the dark lord. Reading through all the entries, one could suppose a "fantasy tour" is nothing more than a transcript of a Zork walkthrough.
Despite it's light-hearted nature, The Tough Guide makes the reader and writer consider: what is good, original fantasy? Or even more broadly, what is good genre fiction? I don't think that good genre fiction necessarily needs to discard all tropes. But a good story doesn't depend on these tropes. Using a cliche just because it's there is lazy storytelling. Tropes and cliches force the reader to rely on stereotype--which in the end will leave people thinking that the story at best is nothing special and at worst derivative dreck.
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