The Need for Fiction's Greatest Genre - Fantasy: Tolkien's Definition of Faërie-Stories Faerie Stories Part 8
The Power of Imagination!
The essay continues with Tolkien writing of something fascinating that makes one think of the great sorrow of this world. What is that something? The Long Defeat of History, a theory that people are steadily becoming in some manner lesser than their ancestors. It is a very old philosophical notion and one that is worth pondering about.
That said this is only half of what this interesting paragraph is about, as the more important detail that is explored is the difference between ‘Fancy’ and Fantasy, and also the power and importance of Imagination.
“The human mind is capable of forming mental images of things not actually present. The faculty of conceiving the images is (or was) naturally called Imagination. But in recent times, in technical not normal language, Imagination has often been held to be something higher than the mere image-making, ascribed to the operations of Fancy (a reduced and depreciatory form of the older word Fantasy); an attempt is thus made to restrict, I should say misapply, Imagination to “the power of giving to ideal creations the inner consistency of reality.”
This is where Tolkien separates the notion of Fancy from Fantasy. Fantasy is something that is intimately linked to imagination which is something that apparently Tolkien was very fond of.
Fancy you see is a flighty thing (hope you don’t mind the pun!) and is something that cannot quite last while a Fantasy is to be something well constructed and well-put together.
“Ridiculous though it may be for one so ill-instructed to have an opinion on this critical matter, I venture to think the verbal distinction philologically inappropriate, and the analysis inaccurate. The mental power of image-making is one thing, or aspect; and it should appropriately be called Imagination. The perception of the image, the grasp of its implications, and the control, which are necessary to a successful expression, may vary in vividness and strength: but this is a difference of degree in Imagination, not a difference in kind.
The achievement of the expression, which gives (or seems to give) “the inner consistency of reality,” is indeed another thing, or aspect, needing another name: Art, the operative link between Imagination and the final result, Sub-creation. For my present purpose I require a word which shall embrace both the Sub-creative Art in itself and a quality of strangeness and wonder in the Expression, derived from the Image: a quality essential to fairy-story.
I propose, therefore, to arrogate to myself the powers of Humpty-Dumpty, and to use Fantasy for this purpose: in a sense, that is, which combines with its older and higher use as an equivalent of Imagination the derived notions of “unreality” (that is, of unlikeness to the Primary World), of freedom from the domination of observed “fact,” in short of the fantastic. I am thus not only aware but glad of the etymological and semantic connexions of fantasy with fantastic: with images of things that are not only “not actually present,” but which are indeed not to be found in our primary world at all, or are generally believed not to be found there. But while admitting that, I do not assent to the depreciative tone. That the images are of things not in the primary world (if that indeed is possible) is a virtue, not a vice. Fantasy (in this sense) is, I think, not a lower but a higher form of Art, indeed the most nearly pure form, and so (when achieved) the most potent.”
This is Tolkien’s (very) long winded way of analysing the importance and the great virtue of Imagination and the work of putting it into actual form. What is this actual form? Well it would be the act of creating ‘Fantasy’ which is to say ‘World-Building’ as we now call it.
It is held up as a great virtue by Tolkien who prized it above almost all other creative endeavours.
“Fantasy, of course, starts out with an advantage: arresting strangeness. But that advantage has been turned against it, and has contributed to its disrepute. Many people dislike being “arrested.” They dislike any meddling with the Primary World, or such small glimpses of it as are familiar to them. They, therefore, stupidly and even maliciously confound Fantasy with Dreaming, in which there is no Art; and with mental disorders, in which there is not even control: with delusion and hallucination.”
This is where Tolkien makes an interesting distinction again. In this case what he’s doing is separating Dreaming from Fantasy. According to Tolkien there is no Art, no skill in Fantasy and what is more is that Dreaming involves delusion, hallucination and the manner in which it is used as a term is meant to signify mental-disorders.
Obviously back then the ‘Materialists’ were already disparaging any sort of notions of Escapism and attempting to negate the great achievements that Tolkien had made. He had brought back the realm of dreams, revived a major cultural founding stone for us all and yet there’s been a certain ingratitude by many towards him.
The reason for this is that Escapism and Fantasy Fiction have been treated as a childish thing, to be looked down upon rather than something of beauty to be revered and admired. It is among millions more of a guilty pleasure than aught else. It is a travesty that the Genre which was in pre-modern times held up in high respects such as during the reigns of James VI and his predecessor Elizabeth, and also in the earlier age of Augustus.
The Destruction of Romance
Yet now there’s a malicious element towards it, one that has come to weigh against the imaginative power of Fantasy. It has struck out against it, wounding it and scorning it for not providing immediate material benefits to people.
And yet this is the worst trick the Devil has ever pulled; he has robbed us of how many Great Romances in the past two hundred years? How could we ever allow ourselves to stop imagining faraway places? How could we let ourselves come to scorn and sneer at those who do so love escape to another world?
I mean once upon a time Men listened to those tales of Arthuriana and sought to equal the vast glories of King Arthur, and his mighty Knights! And there was also the glorious tales of the Paladins of Francia, and the Faerie-Queen’s epic, and Shakespeare’s tales or the Great Matters of Japan and of China which allowed them to cross oceans, and to make histories no less magnificent than the grandest of Epic Novels.
And are we supposed to leave History, that rich mine of mighty deeds, lovely stories and important lessons and our vast imaginations be, with no further Great Romances? We were not born to toil and struggle alone. We were born I tell you to imagine, to dream and to glorify and seek glory.
Are we to allow ourselves to wither away and to cease creating? No, this is not the answer. The only solution is to keep pressing forward. Because Imagination burden though it can be in the eyes of society at large is not a curse but a blessing! It is something to prize above all else.
After all it is only through Imagination that we’ve made it this far, because it was the Dreamers who traversed an ocean, built nations, and before that traversed vast continents into unknown forests and built the whole of the Old World.
“But the error or malice, engendered by disquiet and consequent dislike, is not the only cause of this confusion. Fantasy has also an essential drawback: it is difficult to achieve. Fantasy may be, as I think, not less but more sub-creative; but at any rate it is found in practice that “the inner consistency of reality” is more difficult to produce, the more unlike are the images and the rearrangements of primary material to the actual arrangements of the Primary World. It is easier to produce this kind of “reality” with more “sober” material. Fantasy thus, too often, remains undeveloped; it is and has been used frivolously, or only half-seriously, or merely for decoration: it remains merely “fanciful.” Anyone inheriting the fantastic device of human language can say the green sun. Many can then imagine or picture it. But that is not enough—though it may already be a more potent thing than many a “thumbnail sketch” or “transcript of life” that receives literary praise.
To make a Secondary World inside which the green sun will be credible, commanding
Secondary Belief, will probably require labour and thought, and will certainly demand a special skill, a kind of elvish craft. Few attempt such difficult tasks. But when they are attempted and in any degree accomplished then we have a rare achievement of Art: indeed narrative art, storymaking in its primary and most potent mode.”
Here Tolkien talks of doing one thing that more Writers should pay attention to and is something that George Lucas once remarked was that once you make a rule in your world you cannot break it. He put sound in Space when there is none, which means that he has to keep the sound in Space though it may not be well liked by all (or entirely realistic).
What is more is that there must be rules within a Fantasy world, there must be Reason. The Secondary World should not stand in opposition of our own world but should be a complementary thing. What do I mean by this? I mean that it should be like an extension of the present world, with rules such as gravity, and rationality and reason among other such things that our world has.
“To many, Fantasy, this sub-creative art which plays strange tricks with the world and all that is in it, combining nouns and redistributing adjectives, has seemed suspect, if not illegitimate. To some it has seemed at least a childish folly, a thing only for peoples or for persons in their youth. As for its legitimacy I will say no more than to quote a brief passage from a letter I once wrote to a man who described myth and fairy-story as “lies”; though to do him justice he was kind enough and confused enough to call fairy-story-making “Breathing a lie through Silver.”
This is the problem with the accusation of ‘Childishness’ is that it has been used alongside the mentality that Fairy-Stories are ‘Breathing a Lie through Silver’ to wreak untold DAMAGE upon our various Civilizations. It has in a lot of ways done more damage than any atomic bomb, and has led to a great deal of stunting of people’s wits, intelligence and sense of loyalty to one another.
People have become utterly atomized and torn apart from each other, so that they are atomized and divided and utterly alone. A Great Romance, a great tale is meant to bring them together. It is meant to inspire them and to fill their bellies and their hearts with fire and with love for one another. It is a great Hymn that is meant to bring tears to women’s eyes and to make them cling to their men who are meant to hold them as they sing together of the remembered glories of their homelands and tribes.
This is the purpose of Great Romances, which is always the goal of ALL Fantasy. It is not mere ‘Kids’ stuff’. There’s nothing wrong with kids’ stuff, but all the same it should not be uttered scornfully. Kids’ stuff as pointed out by C.S. Lewis is a beautiful thing and to be treasured. But to reduce the Great Romances, to reduce Fantasy to mere ‘Kids stuff’ is something that shows a scorn for all the grand tales, the grand epics of the past. It is to show scorn for the greatness, the vastness and the glory of our individual Civilizations and of even the likes of Homer, Virgil and all others like them.
We must reclaim Myths, and must restore them to their proper place in our societies, only by doing this will we inspire people to grand feats once more. It is no ‘silver-fitted lie’ but instead that greatest Truth out there about our people; we are good and true and deserve grand tales. We were made for more than labour, but for glory, and romance and greatness!
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Also Crown of Blood has a new edition, with maps, character bios and more!