Friday, April 6, 2007

Fantasy Genre in Fiction

Wonder what fantasy is all about ? I dug out some facts for the laymen.

‘Fantasy’ as a genre may be the most ancient and common form of writing. Folklore and fairy tales are filled with ghosts , demons and wizards , inhabiting imaginary worlds .Which of us has not been fed during our childhood by our grandmothers , with a daily dose of magic and fantasy . I vividly remember sitting wide eyed listening to the stories of giants, drinking emerald green potions from gigantic goblets, of mysterious evil dwarfs scurrying into the darkness. A magical universe, where frogs turn into princes and beautiful girls into old raven with a wave of the magic wand. Though not all, many children stories fall under the genre of fantasy. Closely linked or associated with the science fiction and horror fiction genres, fantasy can be distinguished from other genre by a simple test. If the plot or the central theme of the story pivots on a magical or supernatural phenomenon, it is a fantasy.

‘Cinderella’,a typical example of the ‘Fantasy’ genre

The first example which leaps to my mind is the fairytale ‘Cinderella’ . Though it may be argued that Cinderella is not a full fledged novel but a short tale , nonetheless I consider it as the finest example of not only fantasy but the very essence of story telling itself. Multiple conflict situations resolved by a series of magical events……. eventually leading to a happy ending. Quite the Prince meets a maid, falls in love, gets married and they live happily ever after.

Cinderella is living with her step mother and two step sisters. She is treated badly and insulted by them. The reader is slowly steered towards a position of sympathy for poor Cinderella. When the step sisters leave to attend a ball at the palace , a crying Cindrella is left behind . Her deep desire to be at the ball is fulfilled when a fairy godmother appears from thin air. With a wave of her magic wand, she transforms Cinderella into a beautiful princess. The stage at which the fairy godmother waves her magic wand , the story of Cinderella gravitates towards the genre of fantasy. One may call this the defining moment of the story. The point at which, a real life drama transforms into a fantasy.

Low Fantasy

This term is usually used to contrast with the accepted and established sub-genre of ‘High Fantasy’ In the fairytale Cinderella , the real world i.e. the world which Cinderella and her step family co-habit and the magical world into which she is transported run parallel to each other. The beauty of the story is that both the worlds are utterly believable. We relate to the real world because of our experiences. At the same time we also relate to the magical world because of our deep desire to see Cinderella win and succeed. The story is therefore grounded in reality with magical elements incorporated. Cinderella herself, the protagonist, is a normal girl.

High Fantasy

Contrast this with the following scenario:

“As soon as her sisters left for the ball, Cinderella felt completely dejected. She fervently wished to participate in the ball. She knew it was a futile and hopeless wish. She gave a deep sigh as she hauled the handful of clothes into the wardrobe. But hey……something was not right. The wardrobe had a deep hole at the back. Then an amazing thing happened. She was drawn into the hole …….a complete new world. A world she had never seen before, not even imagined. It was beautiful……………”

Cinderella is in a new universe. A universe with its own laws and creatures which are not seen in the real world. She is free from the shackles of objectivity, from rules which are framed by the existential world. This would be classified ‘High Fantasy’. The interesting part in this sub-genre is that the author can defy all established norms. Ie norms that belong to the real world. This gives him an opportunity to give his thoughts a flight of fantasy defying the inhibiting gravitational pull of the real world. These worlds which are created may have absolutely no connection with the real world and they usually don’t. In high fantasy, the author generally takes recourse to a trick wherein the main characters leave the real world to enter into other parallel, magical worlds. Lost keys to a puzzle, a secret passage through an unused wardrobe or an unexplored tunnel ……..all these techniques have been used to reach other universes.

The Chronicles of Narnia

A prime example of this sub-genre would be ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ , a series of seven novels authored by C.S. Lewis . The story has all the elements of High Fantasy. Elves ,dwarves, magic, wizards , mutated human/animal forms all are integral to the story. The protagonists enter the make believe world of Narnia through an magical wardrobe. The transformation from the real world is instantaneous . when they walk out of other end of wardrobe.

The Lord of the Rings

The works of J. R. R. Tolkien in the realm of Fantasy are legendary. The genre of Fantasy would be incomplete without mention of his phenomenal works. ‘The Lord of the Rings’, is a path breaking work which has been remorselessly plagiarized , copied and revered by generations of fantasy writers with millions of devoted followers and ardent readers.

And what about the phenomenon of ‘Harry Potter ‘? This deserves a separate blog post of its own . I promise to take it up sooner than later.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good for people to know.