Week 4 - Fantasy. "Faery story"

Why does the religious right in the US condemn fantasy, according to Cockrell (2004)? On what grounds does Cockrell defend fantasy literature, using Harry Potter for exemplification?

For some Christian people they think the whole imaginary concept, espcially of imaginary friends is bad and they associate them with the devil. They also think that the fantasy world will lead to children "lying and and other deceitful behavior." another main reason why Christians feel So strongly about Harry Potter is that, the books/movies start out with him in our world. just like all of us, as an everyday person. it is not all set as an imaginary setting. Where movies like the wizard of oz and are all imaginary and not as a potential threat as they are not in their everyday lives. there is a distance between the two. Christian parents are also already on edge about what their children are exposed to. The child has an open mind and absorbs whatever comes their way. "Christians also have of witchcraft that, like angles or the voice of satan, it is out there, unseen but ready to swallow up the helpless child who can be turned toward its seductive allure, and that it actually works." parents who have seen the film, know that their is no possible way that the children arnt thinking or how cool it would be to turn dad into a toad of put a spell on their aunt and blow her up like a balloon, because; Harry Potter did it. It is a frightening thought for Christian parents. The media in our society has a great effect on what our children are watching. their are bus signs, tv adverts and magazine articles promoting it every week. the only choice parents have it to ban it in their homes so they can control what their children are absorbing. "Rowling insists that magic in harry's world is a skill to be mastered, that it is in no connection to religion or theology, or with supernatural spirits, good or bad." a great example of this is; "the christian fundamentalist assumption that the monster and miracles or the bible are literally true, in all their ferocious splendor, then the unseen world must exist. and the separation of fact from fiction that deals with that world becomes shaky. With this in mind, a feeling of vulnerability to the supernatural is not surprising. Fiction must conform to perceived fact, and when it does not, strange contortions arise." Cockrell states there are things in theoretical physics more difficult to imagine than the miracles of the bible. But this magic lacks a god or a devil at the heart of it, another dangerous idea. At the heart instead lies mystery, which many theologians of the more experimental stripe tell us is god. Harry frightens only those who want the answers to be the same every time the question is asked. In Rowling's world the answer is not the same.

Is Tolkien’s notion of the ‘faery story’ linked to fantasy genre? How closely?

Tokien's notion of the faery story is very much linked to the fantasy genre. Everything he explains is very similar to what the fantasy genre is. It just has a different name for it. The Faery stories are mostly about magical lands that are based on the supernatural world or on talking animals just like fairytales he describes. for example, he states; "The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there; shoreless, seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever -present peril; both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords. " You could also say this is what the fantasy genre is about. far fetched events that they do not try and put off as real events that could actually happen. "The knight Pigwiggen rides on a frisky earwig, and sends his love the Queen Mab, a bracelet of emmet's eyes."The faery stories have alot of elfs and fairys that feature in the stories. "The diminutive being, elf or fairy, is in England, largely a sophisticated product of literary fancy. " but these stories are also not just about witches, trolls, giants, or dragons; "it holds the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky, and the earth, and all things that are in it: tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, and oursleves. Mortal men, when we are enchanted." There is one differnece between these two genres. Faery stories do not make it out like the whole story was an illusion. a dream sequence like Alice in wonderland would not be considered a faery story.

References-

Burn, A. (2005). Potter-Literacy –from book to game and back again; literature, film, game and cross-media literacy. Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature Vol 14, No 3.

Cockrell, A. (2004). Harry Potter and the Witch Hunters: a social context for the attacks on Harry Potter. The Journal of American Culture, Vol 29, No 1

Tolkien, J.R.R. (1988; 1964). On Faerie Stories. In Tree and Leaf. London: Unwin Hyman.