From Tolkien's "On Fairy-Stories," again:
"Fantasy is a natural human activity. It certainly does not destroy or even insult Reason; and it does not either blunt the appetite for, nor obscure the perception of, scientific verity. On the contrary. The keener and clearer is the reason, the better fantasy it will make" (74-75).
From an interview with Philip Pullman published in The Lion and the Unicorn (23:1):
"People talk to me, or talk about me, as if I were a fantasy writer, and then expect me to know all about other fantasy writers. Northern Lights [The Golden Compass, in the US] is not a fantasy. It's a work of stark realism."
[edited to add one more bit from Tolkien:]
Probably every writer making a secondary world, a fantasy, every sub-creator, wishes in some measure to be a real maker, or hopes that he is drawing on reality: hopes that the peculiar quality of this secondary world (if not all the details) are derived from Reality, or are flowing into it" (87).
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
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OK, so maybe should have read this before class... and your Dad WROTE Beyond Beowulf?! Your family is unreal. I remember you mentioning a book by that title, but I didn't realize he wrote it! crazy, crazy - will have to add that to the "neverending" list... (while we're on the subject of neverending stories...) peace-
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