Literature of the
Fantastic
Roads Go Ever, Ever On. . .
Begins in Archetypes and the
Formation of Myths
• We start off with assertion that there exists in
all of humanity certain patterns and types.
• These archetypes if real were placed within
our minds by God
• Archetypes are the founding stone of dreams
and myths.
• Myths in this class are not classified as faulse
but as attempts to try and answer the major
questions of the human heart.
The big questions
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Where Do I Come From?
Why am I Here?
Why Do I Do the Things That I Do?
Can it be fixed
Is there anything more?
Where Am I Going?
These myths shape narrative which is
revealed in Literature: These
Narratives are read by those who
believe:
• Homeric Hymns
• Epic Poems, Iliad, The Odyssey and The
Aeneid
– (Not just Greek also Gilgamesh and Beowulf)
• Greek Drama—The Bacchae
Into the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance
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Medieval Romance “Wife of Bath’s Tale”
The development of allegory
The return of Drama in the church.
Shakespeare: Hamlet, Macbeth, Midsummer
Age of Reason ends a lot of the mythic fantastic
narrative.
– Bunyan's Pilgrim’s Progress-allegory
– Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is an exception but it is
primarily a work of satire rather than awe. Still it is
notable that this work was delegated into the realm of
children’s literature because children loved it.
The first flying saucer?
“Laputa” is a flying
island described in the
1726 book Gulliver's
Travels
Ghibli Studios came out a few
years ago with a film about
people trying to locate the
legendary flying kingdom.
• Important to remember that
Christianity is the “True Myth” and
so it shaped the narratives as well.
It was the dominant one throughout
the Middle Ages and the
Reissuance.
The Fantastic Among the Romantics
• Expresses the belief of things larger
• Affirms that reason is not the
only gateway to truth
• The wonder of the fantastic goes
along with the wonder of nature
• The particulars however unlike
those of Shakespeare and Chaucer
before him are no longer believed.
Romantics Psychological
• La Belle Dame sans Merci by Keats
• Expression of the Archetypal destructive
female
– Personal rebellion against the pains of love.
In Keats’ letters and in some of his poems,
he reveals that he did experience the pains,
as well as the pleasures, of love and that he
resented the pains, particularly the loss of
freedom that came with falling in love.
– However, the ballad is a very objective
form, and it may be best to read "La Belle
Dame sans Merci" as pure story and no
more.
“Darkness” by Lord Byron
• 1816 – The year without a summer—unusual
weather caused by volcanic eruption
• A scientist in Italy even predicted that the sun
would go out on 18 July, shortly before Byron's
writing of "Darkness". His "prophecy" caused
riots, suicides, and religious fervour all over
Europe
• The whole poem can be seen as a reference to
Matthew 24:29: “the sun shall be darkened.”
• Apocalyptic Science Fiction
Victorians
• Rise of the Gothic tradition: "a piece of fiction in
prose of variable length... which shocks or even
frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of
repulsion or loathing
– Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
– Dracula (1897)
• The rise of science and the loss of belief
– “The Oxen” by Thomas Hardy: “So fair a fancy few
would weave this day.” Speaking of a child’s Christmas
tradition but connected in his mind with Christian faith.
– Interesting that at the same times comes the Golden Age
of Children’s lit as well as the first exclusive examples of
Science fiction.
The Golden Age of Children’s Lit
• The delegation of the fantastic
to children’s literature – Golden
Age of Children’s Lit
• Charles Kingsley’s
“The Water Babies.” (1863)
• Lewis Carroll “Jabberwocky” Alice in
Wonderland (1865)
• Influences on C. S Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien
http://youtu.be/g-Hmfkve3pQ
“The Golden Key” by George
MacDonald (1867)
Then the Old Man of the Earth stooped over the
floor of the cave, raised a huge stone from it, and
left it leaning. It disclosed a great hole that went
plumb-down.
"That is the way," he said.
"But there are no stairs."
"You must throw yourself in.
There is no other way."
An clear image of faith.
“The Reluctant Dragon” (1898)
by Kenneth Grahame
• The critic Peter Green, in his 1959
biography of Grahame, writes that
while the story can be viewed as a
satire like Don Quixote, the characters
can be seen on a deeper level as
representing different sides of the
author himself:
• St. George represents Grahame as a
public servant who works for the
Establishment while the Dragon, who
would rather be writing poetry,
represents his anarchic, artistic, and
anti-social side.
The point is that once again there is
more going on in these narratives that
one might at first believe.
The key to this outpouring
of especially fine
children’s lit is that
authors made a point of
NOT being
condescending.
They wrote about real
problems even when
portraying them in
fantastic ways.
“Goblin Market” (1862) by
Christina Rossetti
• This poem can be read as a
straight forward fairy tale.
• Two girls Laura and Lizzie, are
tempted to eat the fruit offered to
them at the Goblin Market.
• Laura gives in and finds herself
unable to gain satisfaction.
Lizzie must eventually save her.
Although treated and presented as a children’s
story, there are strong sexual undertones and
passages to adulthood are suggested.
Hellboy 2 featured a visit to the
Goblin Market
The Coming of Science Fiction
• Speculative Fiction—if technology continues who does it
affect individuals and society?
• Types
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Extraterrestrial
Technilogical
Dystopia
Holocaust
Post Holocaust
• Classes
– Hard Sci Fi
• Nothing impossible
– Soft Sci Fi
• Whatever flies