In many genres of writing, certain motifs run throughout the works, giving completely separate works each a sense of commonality. For instance, with horror writing, combining climbing suspense with a twist in plot has become quite standard. As this course demonstrates, certain motifs run through fantasy writing, too. The unlikely hero, the magical objects, and the balance between good and evil all present themselves in the works, in one way or another. Although many share the same motifs, variants exist in the manner in which the author crafts the setting. These variants and their relationships with each other ultimately create different effects on the reader. In turn, these effects correlate with the intended teleology of the author. Such elements can be observed in all of the works read in the course, although some demonstrate them more explicitly than others.
Anne McCaffrey in her work Dragonsong, chooses to build the fantastic in a world that closely parallels that of Earth. Water covers most of the planet. Humans dominate the planet, but live in classic social systems, e.g. villages and job specialization. The society, at least in Sea Hold, suppresses women as well, a fact which provides much of the conflict in the novel. From the outset, McCaffery makes this apparent. As Yanus and his wife converse about the lack of a Harper in the Hold, Yanus vehemently poses himself against his wife's idea of making Menolly, his daughter harper.
"The old man knew he was dying. Why didn't instruct one of the men?"
"Because," replied Mavi with a touch of sharpness in her voice, "you would never spare him a man when there was fishing."
"There was young Tranilty. . ."
"Whom you sent to fostering to Ista Sea Hold."
"Couldn't that young lad Forolt's. . ."
"His voice is changing. Come, Yanus, it'll have to be Menolly."
Yanus grumbled bitterly against the inevitable as climbed into the sleeping furs. [2]
It is not hard to see that Sea Hold in which Menolly resides practices the division of labor and opportunities based upon gender. The fact that McCaffrey demonstrates this so explicitly not only creates a phantom antagonist if you will, but also may serve to speak to the author's audience, young teenage girls. She speaks to them with a message of empowerment and self-confidence, a theme typical of works in this genre.
After formulating a relatable reality in Pern, McCaffrey chooses to insert elements of the fantastic into the world beginning with the premise that humans first populated this world through immigration. Having the reader grapple with this aspect, she then becomes permitted introduce the dragons that cohabitate Pern. The dragons have psychic and time-warping abilities as well, which contribute to fantastic elements of the story. Dragonsong gains its effect from this aspect. McCaffrey creates a world very similar to the real one but just different enough to make allowances for the fantastic. The cooperation of these elements assimilates the reader into the experience while permitting the author to mold the work towards her own agenda, in which the desire to empowering women dominates.
Taking a different approach to McCaffrey's, George MacDonald's Phantastes chooses to create an experience completely foreign to that of reality. MacDonald chronicles the exploits of a naive young man named Anodos in a supernatural realm. The work begins with the skeptical protagonist meeting his grandmother, a fairy.
I leaned back in my chair, and regarded them for a moment, when suddenly there stood on the threshold of the little chamber, as perfect in shape as if she had been a small Greek statuette roused to life and motion. . . .Seeing, however, as I suppose, some astonishment in my countenance, she came forward within a yard of me, and said, in a voice that strangely recalled a sensation of twilight, and reedy river banks, and a low wind even in this deathly room---
"Anodos, you never saw such a little creature before did you?"
"No," said I, " and indeed I hardly believe I do now."
"Ah! That is always the way with you men, you believe nothing the first time, and it is not foolish enough to let mere repetition convince you of what you consider in itself unbelievable. I am not going to argue with you, however, but to grant you a wish."
Here I could not help interrupting her with the foolish speech, of which, however, I had no cause to repent---
"How can such a very little creature as you grant or refuse anything?"
"Is that all the philosophy you have gained in one-and-twenty years?" said she. "Form is much, but size is nothing. It is a mere matter of relation. I suppose you six-foot lordship does not feel altogether insignificant, though to others you do look small next to your old Uncle Ralph, who rises above you a great half-foot at least. But size is of so little consequence with me, that I may as well accommodate myself to you foolish prejudices." [6]
After this point, the fairy grows in size, and Anodos affectionately advances toward her. She sternly rebukes and declares that she is, in fact, his grandmother. Formulating the beginning of Phantastes in this manner serves to challenge the unreceptive reader directly. As the Fairy brings Anodos in this fantastic world, so does Phantastes bring the reader.
MacDonald then chooses simply to immerse Anodos and the reader in the world. However, unlike Dragonsong, the world seems to be divided into sections. In each of these sections, Anodos goes through a personal adventure, sometimes almost seemingly unrelated to the previous one. Anodos first enters the realm of the fairy forest. MacDonald adds elements of the fantastic to the forest, personifying the trees. For instance, he gives the Ash Tree an ominous presence while giving the Oak Tree trustworthiness. From his exploits in the forest, and his failure to heed warnings given to him early on, the reader begins to see exactly how na�ve and rash Anodos truly is.
McDonald then crafts various other sub-settings for Anodos to travel through. A palace made of marble and silver, a library described as " . . . a mighty hall, lighted from the roof which formed of something like glass, vaulted over in a single piece, and stained throughtout with a great mysterious picture in glorious colouring," and an isolated little cottage in the middle of a vast sea. In each of these areas some constants remain, as Anodos remembers, to some degree, what has occurred before. However, for the most part, MacDonald makes the events disjointed. This provides for an extremely varied and entertaining read, and allows the author to insert themes or insights into the plot that may conflict otherwise.
Following closely in MacDonald's style in entrance, Lewis Carroll, in his children's classic Alice in Wonderland, crafts a fantastic world. Lewis begins his tale with a little girl staring at the pages of a book, and everything seems natural. However, this naturalness changes rather abruptly.
So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.
There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural). . . .
After this the rabbit takes a watch out of a waist coat pocket, checks the time, and runs off. Alice then follows the rabbit through his hole and into Wonderland. This type of introduction serves the entire atmosphere of the novel well as right from the beginning, the reader sees the type of rules this fantasy works with. The introduction of this rabbit combined with the italicized "very" hint that the rules of this realm will be far from those the reader may be accustomed to. And true to this idea, does Carroll stay. Later in the work, the reader experiences other anthropomorphic creatures that speak and emote. Confusing, convoluted speech and logic really create a fantastic atmosphere. The world Carroll creates may lead one to assume that nothing of substance could possible exist in this work; yet, examining the piece further, this notion could be argued against. For instance, Alice encounters a hookah-toting caterpillar, and after a vexing and convoluted conversation, it asks her to recite a poem, "You are old Father William." Alice then proceeds to do so; however, the story she tells differs greatly from the actual poem.
Another hint of this satirical tone enters with the queen and king. Carroll makes it quite apparent that these irrational characters are meant to represent the nobility in his own society, and even Alice, to a certain degree, embodies some of these satirical tendencies. As Serra Ansay suggests in her essay "Flawed Legal Systems in Alice and Wonderland and Great Expectations," the king's harsh, illogical demeanor towards the hatter, making him prove that he did not steal his own hat, mocks the legal system of Carroll era. As E. L. Woodward in his The Age of Reform describes the English legal system, "No attempt was made to simplify the language of the laws, or to compile a civil code, and the English Legal System in 1870, though far less of an anomaly and a hindrance to a reasonable social order than it had been in 1815, was still very far from an ideal code in which rights and remedies were clearly stated" (454).
Like Carroll work, C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia series places children at the center of a fantastic adventure. Lewis, also like Carroll, chooses to begin in the real world, the first book of the series beginning with the children playing hide-and-go-seek. Yet where Carroll chooses to simply delve right to the fantastic, Lewis spends a little more time expounding upon the personalities of his characters. He introduces the reader to this aspect through the interactions of the children amongst themselves. After giving us insight into the children's personalities, Lewis whets the readers' whistles for insight into this fantastic adventure, as Laura steps in the wardrobe.
This must be a simply enormous wardrobe!" thought Lucy, going still further in and pushing the soft folds of the coats aside to make room for her. Then she noticed that was something crunching under her feet. "I wonder is that more mothballs?" she thought, stooping down to feel it with her hand. But instead of feeling the hard, smooth wood of the floor of the wardrobe, she felt something soft and powdery and extremely cold. "This is very queer," she said, and went on a step or two further. [6]
Proceeding further through the wardrobe, Lucy finds herself in a snow-covered forest filled with conifer trees and a faun holding an umbrella. Lewis, who crafts this transition seamlessly, provides enough detail to allow the reader to experience the transition vicariously. Promptly after speaking with Faun, Lucy returns to her own realm, and Edmund also enters the realm for a brief time. After reading accounts of their exploits, Lewis returns firmly to "our world" for a bit of time. Motives for such a move vary. Designing the plot in such a manner adds suspense and intrigue to the plot. However, the most effective thing about this introduction comes from how Lewis addresses the disbeliever. When Lucy and Edmund, who later experiences the world for a brief time as well, tells of her experience to her peers, a humongous uproar of disbelief surmounts. They bring their shouting and dissent to the Professor with whom they are living. This individual provides a very interesting insight into the fantastic and its existence.
"That is the point," said the Professor, "which certainly deserves consideration; very careful consideration. For instance---if you will excuse me for asking the question---does your experience lead you to regard you brother or your sister as the more reliable? I mean, which is the more truthful?"
That's just the funny thing about it, sir," said Peter. "Up till now, I'd have said Lucy every time"
"Well," said Susan, "in general, I'd say the same as Peter, but this couldn't be true---all this about wood and the Faun."
"That is more than I know," said the Professor, "and a charge of lying against someone whom you have always found truthful is a very serious thing; a very serious thing indeed."
"We were afraid it mightn't even be lying," said Susan; "we thought there might be something wrong with Lucy."
"Madness you mean?" said the Professor quite coolly. "Oh, you can make your mind easy about that. One has only to look at her and talk to her to see that she is not mad."[50]
The children and Professor then begin to discuss what defines logical and rational. Susan then attempts to argue that reasons why such a place could not possibly exist. The Professor promptly enters a qualifier.
That is the very thing that makes her story so likely to be true," said the Professor. "If there reality is a door in this house that leads to some other world (and I should warn you that this is a very strange house, and even I know very little about it)---if, I say, she had got into another world, I should not be at all surprised to find that the other world had a separate time of its own; so that however long you stayed there it would never take up any of our time. [54]"
The entire passage with the professor attacks all those with doubts or reservations to submitting to the existence of this fantastic world. Considering the intended audience for the work, children, this makes sense. Lewis would definitely want to grab the attention of the young and curious, and for those who stand intellectually opposed to such occurrences; hence, providing a disclaimer is an opportune method of doing so. Also setting the speaker of such a thing as a professor, a person of distinction, gives certain credibility to the claim.
Like Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, animals with anthropomorphic characteristics populate the world. However, unlike Carroll's funny and strange style, Lewis closer to realistic speech; yet, also unlike Carroll, Lewis's motive involves the religious. Lewis fused his fantastic literature with Christian ideology, hoping to bring it to level that would absorb young readers. Such teleology becomes painfully apparent in various parts of the novel. For instance, at one point the evil White Witch captures Aslan, the Jesus-figure, and Lewis chronicles the trials in detail.
"Stop," said the Witch. "Let him first be shaved." Another roar of mean laughter went up from her followers as an ogre with a pair of shears came forward and squatted down by Aslan's head. Snip-Snip-Snip went the shears and masses of curling gold began to fall to the ground. Then the ogre stood back and the children, watching from their hiding-place, could see the face of Aslan looking all small and different without its mane. The enemies also saw the different.
After this, the enemies of Aslan muzzle and and torture him, in a fashion strikingly similar to the trial of Jesus Christ, resulting his death. Obviously, Lewis desired to draw parallels betrween Christ and Aslan so that children can comprehend the power of Christian Ideology.
Perhaps one of the most acclaimed fantasy works of our era, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of Rings stands as model for much contemporary fantastic literature. Similar to Dragonsong, Tolkien crafts an entire universe; however, unlike Dragonsong, Tolkien spends a lot of time developing the realm, painstakingly drawing out peoples of different races and elaborate histories. Such elaborate constructions help to make the character feel very real and relatable. The prologue of his epic provides an example of the seemingly superfluous amount of detail. At the beginning, Tolkien spends time introducing the reader to the focus of his epic, the hobbits.
Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people, more numerous formerly than they are today; for they love peace and quiet and good tilled earth; a well-ordered and well-farmed countryside was their favourite haunt. They do not and did not understand or like machines more complicated than a forge-bellows, a water-mill, or a hand-loom, though they were skilful with tools. Even in the ancient days they were, as a rule, shy of "Big Folk," as they call us, and now they avoid us with dismay and are becoming hard to find. They are quick of hearing and sharped eyed, and though they are inclined to be fat and do not hurry unnecessarily, they are nonetheless nimble and deft in their movements. They possessed from the first the art of disappearing swiftly and silently, when large folk whom they do not wish to meet come blundering by; and this art they have developed until to Men it may seem magical. But Hobbits have never, in fact, studied magic of any kind, and their elusiveness is due solely to a professional skill that heredity and practice, and a close friendship with the earth, have rendered inimitable by bigger and clumsier races. [1]
Throughout the rest of the prologue, Tolkien describes the other various races that populate his Middle Earth. Yet, Even from such a brief passage, the reader learns so much about the people in the story. Tolkiens hints at the ancient days and rules that characterized them. He addresses the fact that hobbits are not seen today, craating a inlet for the skeptical reader. Simply by mentioning magic, he presents the possibility that it exists in this world, and that humility and simplicity characterize the world of the Hobbits. Such ornate description characterizes Tolkien works and allows him to create characters that utterly fantastic in design, but empathically sound, as well. For instance, one can understand that Frodo feels for Gollum as they both share the same ring-tortured soul. So much so that when Gollum reverts to his former, evil self, he is almost saddened. Other characters, like Tree-beard and Tom Bombadil, also bring with them depth and intrigue. They serve as relics of the world, a living history if you will, not entirely of the realm itself; hence, creating not only aura of the fantastic, but, moreover, giving a sense of depth to history and inhabitants of Middle Earth.
Along with elaborate characters, Tolkien develops a world that, although stands fast as very fantastic, maintains in roots our real world, allowing for a very vicarious experience. When Gandalf and Pippin reach Mina Tirth, one of the last sanctuaries for man, Tolkien devotes a large amount of time to describing it.
For the fashion of Minas Tirth was such that it was built on seven levels, each delved into the hill, and about each was set a wall, and in each wall was a gate. But the gates were not set in a line: the Great Gate in the City Wall was at the east point of the circuit, but the next faced half south, and the third half north, and so to and for upwards; so that the paved way that climbed toward the Citadel turned first this way and then that across the face of the hill. And each time that it passed the line of the Great Gate it went through an arched tunnel, piercing a vast pier of rock whose huge out-thrust bulk divided in two all the circles of the City save the first. [734]
Such vivid imagery continues for several more lines, painting such an elaborate picture that one feels as if one actually stands in front of the gate. C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Naria books and MacDonald's Phantastes also utilize such a device to introduce the reader to the fantastic. From this work, one can easily infer that Tolkien held it very important to not simply tell a story, but to create a realm, entirely foreign, yet entirely familiar, as well. His focus on the most minute of detail serves as evidence of this.
All of the novels read during the course of this semester varied in style, plot, and design. Nevertheless, they all fall under the category of fantasy. Despite the vast differences amongst them, the same devices are utilized. Vivid Imagery, qualifying devices, unconventional language, and warped values only begin to represent all the methods a writer of fantastic literature may resort to in order to create his or her desired effect. However, the commonality of these devices among works typifies the human spirit, as it entirely human to be influenced via external stimuli. Authors gather inspiration and practice from one another, adding their own personal touch, creating an ultimately individual and genuine product. Some element of Lord of the Rings may seem very similar to Phantastes is simply that Tolkien became familiar with MacDonald's work. Yet execution of the story differs due to internal motives, ideals, and values that alter the manner in which an author creates the fantastic worlds and elements and their subsequent interactions amongst themselves, as well as the audience.
Last modified 17 May 2004