Fiction vs Fantasy

I was watching some more nacis lectures and came across this one by David Nuttal and wanted to just comment on something he said in passing.

I think his work is amazing and tend to empathize with a lot of what he says, yet I couldn't help but cringe when he said he makes fictional and not fantasy maps. First off his example of the LOTR map, while maybe the most recognizable, is not the end all be all of fantasy cartography. Also while it has been severely criticized is not as bad as many seem to think, you just have to realize that it is made in a certain stylistic manner; I may go into a deeper review of that particular map at a later date.

My real issue is the statement that he makes fictional and not fantasy maps; this is based on a false dichotomy. Not so long ago science fiction, traditional wannabe LOTR fantasy, sword and sorcery, and standard modern fictional stories were all lumped together under the label of fantasy. Arthurian legends were considered Fantasy. what separates the Oddyssey or the Illiad from Fantasy? Most scholars agree that much of the events described in those works probably didn't happen. Many of these older myths and legends are not considered 'fantasy' simply because of their date and their origin, not because of the stories they tell.

Definition of Fantasy from the 1963 Webster's Illustrated Dictionary

 - an erratic or fantastic mental image(fantastic references fancy and fanciful which both reference imagination and something that is 'not real')
Definition of Fiction from the 1963 Webster's Illustrated Dictionary 

 - something imagined or made up

Fantasy is fiction and fiction is fantasy. Categorizing works of fiction into all these uber specific genres may be useful for libraries and catalogs, etc, but let's not forget that these are all works that came out of our of the imagination. When making these fantasy worlds we should doing the same kind of research that Nuttal is doing with his 'fictional' maps. This is part of the reason no one takes fantasy seriously, because we treat it as just a fantasy. Maybe do some research, put in some hard work and we can hope to have something as good as Nuttal. Make your fictional worlds as well researched and presented as the real thing.