C.S. Lewis on Misunderstanding Fantasy
“Good stories often introduce the marvelous or supernatural and nothing about Story has been so often misunderstood as this.”
On Stories—C.S. Lewis
The early decades of the last century saw the loss of credibility of fantasy literature among the academic elite who ruled it a popular genre with little to no scholarly merit. Little that had had the misfortune of being dubbed fantasy had escaped the blacklist cast upon the field. Many critics had also labeled the fantasy genre as largely cliché, full of shallow characters, and as having no value beyond being purely escapist entertainment. These generic labels, applied wholesale to fantastic literature, had pushed it off the radar until readers of Fantasy had become literary lepers, lurking in the corners of accepted literary societies.
Recent big screen blockbusters such as The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and its sequel, The Two Towers, as well as the two Harry Potter films have restored much attention to the oft-ignored genre. Despite the commercial success of the two fantastical franchises, however, Fantasy has not regained much standing within the academia, as scholars continue to neglect contemporary fantasy literature when choosing curricula and fail to give the genre its due while unwittingly including much that is fantastic in classical literature courses. Although these classics have been accepted, they have often been held either as the exception to the rule or have not been labeled as Fantasy at all. Further, the lack of Fantasy in the curricula of colleges across the country has become so egregious as to ignore modern literary giants such as George R.R. Martin who competes e...
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...ery dissimilarities than any other story could because of its similarities. Lewis said, “The value of the myth is that it takes all the things we know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by the veil of familiarity” (On Stories 90). “By putting bread, gold, horse, apple, or the very roads into a myth, we do not retreat from reality; we rediscover it. As long as the story lingers in our mind, the real things are more themselves.”
Bibliography
Lewis, C.S. An Experiment in Criticism. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 1961.
Lewis, C.S. On Stories and Other Essays on Literature. Ed. Walter Hooper. New York. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich Publishers, 1966.
Tolkien, J.R.R. “On Fairy-Stories.” Tree and Leaf. Boston. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1965.
Tolkien’s label “fairy-story” can be taken synonymously with fantasy literature.
In the beginning years of Janie’s life, there were two people who she is dependent on. Her grandmother is Nanny, and her first husband is named Logan Killicks. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, “Janie, an attractive woman with long hair, born without benefit of clergy, is her heroine” (Forrest). Janie’s grandmother felt that Janie needs someone to depend on before she dies and Janie could no longer depend on her. In the beginning, Janie is very against the marriage. Nanny replied with, “’Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, its protection. ...He done spared me...a few days longer till Ah see you safe in life” (Hurston 18). Nanny is sure to remind Janie that she needs a man in her life for safety, thus making Janie go through life with that thought process.
Janie’s three marriages were all different, each one brought her in for a different reason, and each one had something different to teach her. In summary, she married Logan because of her grandmother, Jody because she wanted to escape from Logan, and Tea Cake because they had true love. The marriages were different in that Logan treated Janie like a Slave, Joe was moulding her into what he wanted her to be, and Tea Cake just wanted to be with her. As a result, Janie learned many things from each marriage Tea Cake taught her to be herself and do what she wanted to, her marriage with Logan taught her to make changes in her life, and her marriage with Joe taught her to stand up for herself. In conclusion, her experiences in her marriages shaped her into the person she became, and were an important part of her life.
The beginning of Janie’s marriage to Joe shows promise and adventure, something that young Janie is quickly attracted to. She longs to get out of her loveless marriage to Logan Killicks and Joe’s big dreams captivate Janie. Once again she hopes to find the true love she’s always dreamed of. Joe and Janie’s life is first blissful. He gives her whatever she wants and after he becomes the mayor of a small African American town called Eatonville, they are the most respected couple in town. Joe uses his newfound power to control Janie. When she is asked to make a speech at a town event, she can’t even get out a word before Joe denies her the privilege. He starts making her work in the store he opens and punishes her for any mistakes she makes. He enjoys the power and respect her gets when o...
In the beginning of the story, Janie is stifled and does not truly reveal her identity. When caught kissing Johnny Taylor, a local boy, her nanny marries her off to Logan Killicks. While with Killicks, the reader never learns who the real Janie is. Janie does not make any decisions for herself and displays no personality. Janie takes a brave leap by leaving Killicks for Jody Starks. Starks is a smooth talking power hungry man who never allows Janie express her real self. The Eatonville community views Janie as the typical woman who tends to her husband and their house. Janie does not want to be accepted into the society as the average wife. Before Jody dies, Janie is able to let her suppressed anger out.
Unfortunately, however, after years of a happy marriage, Janie accidentally kills her husband during an argument. Her town forces her not only to deal with the grief, but to prove her innocence to a jury. Enduring and overcoming her three husbands and forty years of life experiences, Janie looks within herself to find and use her long hidden, but courageous voice.
"Unit 2: Reading & Writing About Short Fiction." ENGL200: Composition and Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 49-219. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
Meyer, Michael, ed. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999.
Studies In Short Fiction 18.1 (1981): 65. Literary Reference Center. Web. The Web. The Web.
Through analyzing Janie’s relationship with Logan Killicks and Jody Starks, it is clear that her individuality is questioned and influenced by who she is with. Killicks was chosen by Nanny to become Janie’s first husband primarily due to his enticing financial stability. Janie soon realizes that “marriage did not make love.”(25). She “wants to want him sometimes. [She] don’t want him to do all de wantin.”(23). Logan says to Janie, “Ah’ll take holt uh dat ax and come in dere and kill yuh!” (31). Janie has finally had enough of being used and bei...
Janie’s first marriage to Logan Killicks was an arranged marriage by her Grandmother Nanny. One day Nanny caught Janie kissing the neighborhood riff raff Johnny Taylor, and Nanny becomes convinced that Janie has entered her womanhood, and needs to marry.
Abrams, M.H., et al. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. 2 Vols. New York: Norton, 1993.
Firchow, Peter Edgerly. "The Politics of Fantasy: The Hobbit and Fascism." The Midwest Quarterly 50.1 (2008): 15+. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
It is easy for the reader who enters the enchanted realm of Tolkien's own work to be lost in the magic of the Middle-Earth and to forbear to ask questions. Surrounded by elves, hobbits, dragons and orcs, wandering the pristine fields and woods, described with such loving care they seem almost real, it is easy to forget there is another world outside, the world in which John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, an Oxford don, lived and wrote his monumental series of fantasy novels. It is, after all, natural to want to escape humdrum reality. Literature that offers a simple pleasure of a different time, a different place has nothing to be ashamed of. Tolkien in the same essay describes "escape and consolation" as one of the chief functions of the fairy-tale by which term he understands also what we would call "literary fantasy" today. "Escape and consolation" seem to be self-evident terms. What is there to discuss? Perhaps all that I have to do today is to praise Tolkien's fertile imagination and to step modestly aside.
High Fantasy is a relatively new genre, having only been introduced in the late 1800s. Through the novels that fall under this category, authors have had the opportunity to respond to critical social issues that are prevalent in their lifetime. This has allowed the genre to mature along with the advancement of our culture. High Fantasy has rapidly developed into a genre that is widely appreciated and accepted; George R.R. Martin has contributed to this progression through his novel The Game of Thrones, in which he responds to past authors, social issues of today, and the High Fantasy genus.
Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993.