Week three - Fantasy

How has fantasy as a genre been defined? Find at least five formative definitions in Attebery (1980)?
“Perhaps the most satisfying way would be to line up a shelf of books and say ‘There. That is what I mean by Fantasy.’”.

“An overt violation of what is generally accepted as possibility.”

“A narrative is a fantasy if it presents the persuasive establisment and a development of an impossibiltiy…”

“A recognigtion of fact but not a slavery to it.” (J. R. R Tolkien)

“Any narrative which includes as a significant part of its make up is some violation of what the author clearly believes to be natural law – that is fantasy.”


These five defintions extracted from Attebery (1980) all in some way or another define the very word ‘Fantasy’. I believe that all these definitons are relativly similar and all evoke a similar meaning. A meaning which states that Fantasy is simply a place where we (the readers) can escape to, a place which isn’t far from the truth but a place where things happen that can’t occur in ‘real life’ due to them being created by an author. And yet the laws of physics also state that at the same time these things being based in the fantasy world are not impossible.


If we dig deeper into the above definitons we can explore the reasons for fantasy and why it is such an important genre (well I think it is anyway). Its interesting to note that as we come into this world as young infants, the videos and bed time sotries which we read and watched, were all mostly defined as fantasy. Mostly, all of the ones I experienced when I was younger were classified as ‘Low Fantasy’, being Fantasy which had “parallel worlds bordering on one”, for example escaping into C.S Lewis Narnia and David Bowie’s ‘Labyrinth’. By introducing young ones to a place where we could escape to through the means of litreture etc, is such a genius idea as it allows for the exploration of imagination. And as Elbert Einenstein once said, “Creativity and imagination are more important than knowledge.”


The very importance of having this ‘place’ we can escape to whenever we want, is just genius. For example whilst reading ‘A wizzard of Earthsea’ my interpretaion of the characters would have varied from that of my neighbours. That’s the beauty of fantasy, we are allowed to create our own understanding of the events which take place and we can create our own environment to where the events take place. It is this whole idea which fuels our imagination and allows us to become lost in amognst a whole new world that is so amazing. “Fantasy is an exercise of what may be our most divine and certainly is our most human capacity, the imagination.”


Another great thing about fantasy is that anyone can enjoy it and like I said before, enjoy it in their own way by making their own meaning and ideas of the ‘Fantasy’ in which they have escaped into. And like Attebery (1980) states “there is enough wonder in the old tales for all members of the family.”


Can you identify any common fantasy meta-narratives from your own reading/viewing?

When I was younger my favourite place to escape to was good old Enid Blyton’s ‘enchanted forest’. I could once again meet up with my familiar friends such as moon face and the giant slippery slip. I would spend hours just pouring over Blyton’s pages. The most rewarding thing about this was that in generations before me, such as my mum, she also had the chance to experience the wonderful world that I had. And even better, I passed my copies down to my sister as well to enjoy.


Even now that I have matured and grown up (let’s hope so anyway) I can still remember the characters and the things that happened in the enchanted forest as Blyton left such an enchanted impression etched into my imagination.


Now though, I prefer to escape into Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, allowing myself to be taken back to the 1800’s where they danced in balls and wore amazing costumes.


And even though the places where I escape to now have changed from when I was younger, I still enjoy escaping into a fantasy world where I can let my imagination create its own artwork to the blank canvas which Jane Austen has prepared for me, in order to create my own fantasy world!


“Man may, if he pleases, invent a little world of his own, with its own laws; for there is that in him which delights in calling up new forms - which is the nearest, perhaps, he can come to creation.” Attebery (1980).


Reference List


Attebery, B. (1980). Locating fantasy. In The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature: From Irving to Le Guinn. Bloomington: Indiana U P, 1980.

Le Guinn, U. (1993; 1968). A Wizard of Earthsea. In The Earthsea Quartet. London: Penguin.

Ursula K. Le Guin. (1993). Plausibility Revisited What Hoppen and What Didn't. Retrieved from http://www.ursulakleguin.com/ August 6th.