Rationality and Fantasy

From the Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature, p.3:

"It is in the seventeenth century that we can find the first critical awareness of the separate existence of a genre of 'fantasy'[.]"

You need an intentionally rationalist mindset - like that that came in with the Renaissance and the Enlightenment - to separate the fantastic out in literature.

Fantasy as reality?

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller is a really interesting example of the problem of perception in fantasy.  It's a retelling of the myth of Achilles, from his boyhood to his fate in The Illiad, and is told as a faithful, realistic story, as it might have been told by an ancient Greek with access to modern storytelling methods.  So it includes all the elements of Greek religion, which are now considered Greek myth; most importantly to this story, the gods are very present, and the belief that they can effect everything that happens to humans, if they care to, is absolute. All this is handled in a very matter-of-fact, concrete manner.

This is an example of one person's religion being another person's fantasy.  What was very real and evident to the Greeks, supernatural beings needing to be worshiped, feared, and appeased, is to us nothing but a primitive society's way of explaining things that we feel either have or need no explanation, or that can be explained by science.  So what's fantasy to us was deadly reality to them, and this is one of the aspects that makes fantasy such an interesting genre, and so potentially tricky.  Because sometimes the alternate life of these elements we see as fantasy is not in the distant past, but here in the present, living cheek by jowl with the majority hard-headed view of reality in the modern West. And who's to say what's ultimately the truth?

"Maisie Dobbs" by Jacqueline Winspear

Just finished Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear.  I’m really impressed. Even though it’s a mystery, the mystery is almost incidental to the story.  It’s much more about Maisie’s story, World War I and its effects on everybody, and just people being who they are as best they can and getting on with their daily lives in a loving manner. 

I loved the main character Maisie Dobbs.  Hooray for strong female characters! She embodies many of the changes happening in England in that time period. Moving from service to well-educated, middle-class, respected business owner. Healing from grievous wounds. Forging a new identity for herself after a traumatic experience made her rethink who she was.  She does all this without losing her compassion and humanity. She’s independent, strong-minded, and not cooing over babies from page 1.  She’s her own person, and a role-model.

The emotional story is really vivid and well told.  The love story, the emotional component of Maisie's journey through society, the effects of war, the sense of the characters constantly growing and changing are all unmistakable and interwoven, but not maudlin.  Winspear allows you to take in as much of the emotional landscape as you can or want, and at your own pace; she doesn’t push it at you.  The subtleties make it that much more effective and realistic, as I find that my emotions often sneak up on me and it takes me a while to figure out what exactly is going on in my heart. But they pack a punch. I was crying at the end of the book, at the final reveal. 

Her plotting is subtle. There are a number of things going on at any one time, and Winspear manages a number of reveals throughout the book that keep it fresh.  The story also takes some unexpected turns that keep you guessing.  Her characterization is such that even when a character is off-page, you wonder what’s happening to her and how the current events are going to effect her.  

I really liked the theme of World War I.  This is a war that Americans don’t talk about much, although there’s more seen now because of the upcoming 100 year anniversary of the beginning in a couple of years.  Winspear’s obviously done her research, based on my, admittedly, sketchy knowledge of the time period, and I reveled in the historical detail and her wonderful ability to evoke a time period. 

I also really liked the metaphysical and human aspects of the novel.  The metaphysical is nothing overwhelming, but the stress on the importance of meditation for problem solving and living deliberately, the importance of spiritual development, the emphasis placed on empathy were healing. I loved the insistence that we’re all connected and we all have a responsibility to help our fellows as much as we can while allowing each other space and dignity to be who we are and help ourselves as we need to.  There’s also an almost complete lack of judgment, an insistence that that sometimes we’re overtaken by forces we can’t control and we need help that we may or may not receive. You don’t read many novels with this level of intentional humaneness; Winspeare is conveying an admirable way of being as much as a very entertaining story.