Introduction to Fantasy
What is fantasy? How can one identify a fantasy story? When we speak of just the word itself we are referring to an imagined dream or event. We also refer to the word when we are speaking of wishful thinking. When we refer to fantasy in the context of literature we are referring to stories that have certain definable elements that make the story unreal. There are many such elements. They vary from mythical beasts roaming an imagined world to natural settings in which animals take on human characteristics. There are recognizable conventions of fantasy, such as toys coming to life, tiny humans, articulate animals, imaginary worlds, magical powers, and time-warp tales. A story needs to possess only one of these features in order to be classified as fantasy. However, some great stories use a combination of fantasy elements. I tell my students simply this: a fantasy is any story in which at least one element cannot be found in our human world.
Why should we acknowledge this genre at all? Isn't it leading children into unreal dreams and causing confusion between what is real and what is not real? I don't think so. Just because a story contains animals that talk doesn't mean that the animals are not expressing the same emotions as fictional characters. Can't a child learn about love just as easily from Charlotte's Web as from Old Yeller? In fact, it seems to me it takes more imagination and a more open mind to believe that Charlotte had feelings and could show love than it does to respond to the connection between a boy and his dog. It certainly takes an open mind to believe that there is a Middle-earth and that dwarfs, elves and humans can bond and protect one another. I believe that fantasy not only does not lead children astray and cause them confusion, but that it actually broadens their mind and causes them to think beyond what we consider to be the limits of reality.
What Fantasy Isn't
After saying what fantasy is, we should take a minute and look at what it isn't. Fantasy is not any of the following genres: realistic fiction, historical fiction, or science fiction. Let's look at each of these genres briefly.
Realistic fiction is a story in which all the action, characters and setting could happen, it just didn't. In other words, the characters act like you and me and they live in places where you and I could live. Many times the author has styled the character after someone he or she knows, but just made some minor changes. Realistic fiction has every quality of being true, except it isn't.
Historical fiction is a story that takes place in the past. In fact the setting of the story plays a major role in the action of the characters and the events that happen. The characters act and dress in the style and manner of real people of that time period. One distinction I make in defining historical fiction is that it can only be historical fiction if the setting of the story precedes the time when the story was written. In other words, a book that was written in 1950 about children in the 1950s does not become historical fiction in 2006. It will remain realistic fiction even though the setting and characters are now in the past.
Science Fiction: now here is where a distinction is truly necessary. Science fiction in some way involves a medical or technological advance that has not yet occurred, or a mode of advanced life that has not yet been discovered. But that is not to say that these things could not emerge in the future. We as humans are brilliantly coming up with new advances in medicine and surgical procedures. In the same realm we are also constantly coming up with advances in technology. If you had asked someone in 1930 if they thought there would be any way that one day everyone would not only have a telephone at home that can call anyone in the entire world, but also that virtually everyone would also have a cellular phone that had all the capabilities of a home phone, and more, and was something that could fit in the smallest of your jean pockets, they would have said it was impossible. That is what I mean by science fiction. It has not happened, but it could possibly happen.
Of course each of the above genres can be combined with one another to make various stories. What I wanted to point out, however, is that none of them can ever be combined with fantasy and still maintain its true character. Fantasy has this brilliant way of taking over the story line so that no other story line or elements of another genre can remain the central focus of the reader's attention.
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