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Sunday, December 15, 2013

Messages in Fantasy – Part 2




This is part two of my post about Messages in Fantasy. If you have not read the previous post, you can read it here.


Fiction, in general, can be, and has been, a medium used by writers to express their thoughts, passions and beliefs. Classic literature has been scrutinized in classrooms and in non-fiction books for decades, spelling out the authors meanings and intents. Fantasy fiction is no exception. It is a genre which is more pliable for infusing meanings; however, one could spend years reading in the genre and not really grasp what the author is wishing to convey—whether it’s subtle or obvious. As I pointed out in my last post, the story is everything, and a message should not overpower the story.

Now, this is not to say that all of fantasy fiction has a “message” to put forth. Most of the stories are just entertainment, as they should be, but, in the most part, there is usually always some kind of theme. The sort of themes that you find in most fantasy stories are things like: overcoming adversity and fears; comradeship between individuals; fighting injustice; banding together for a cause; discovery of one's potential; and what-ifs. This is only naming a few, but these themes tend to be universal and less complex—or less intrusive, for lack of a better word.   

When an author interjects their worldview into their stories the reader should be able to come out of that story with their own conclusions, not with a forced view by the writer. The reader may come away with misconceptions, but as long as they enjoyed the book the author should be content. In answering a question in regards to someone reading their own meaning into the story (fairytale), instead of his meaning, George MacDonald said, “Why should you be so assured? It may be better that you should read your meaning into it. That may be a higher operation of your intellect than the mere reading of mine out of it: your meaning may be superior to mine.” In a forum on his own website, author Stephen R. Donaldson wrote: Reading is an interactive process. Readers have always supplied their own interpretations of what they read. In my case, the issue is simple: I've never had a ‘message’ I wanted to communicate (impose on the reader), so rejecting my message should be effortless. (I'm a storyteller, not a polemicist. As such, my only mission is to help my readers understand my characters and appreciate what those poor sods are going through.) In general, however, one might say that the task of any writer is to communicate his/her intentions so clearly that the reader will—as it were spontaneously—arrive at the appropriate interpretation. And if that task has been accomplished, what would be the point of rejecting the author's message?”  

Stephen R. Donaldson’s The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever series has been described as “existential fantasy”. The books hold a firm view of Existentialism, which gives the stories a pretty grim, melancholy setting, as the main character, Thomas Covenant, is a leper whose life collapses around him and he becomes a man of despair—suicidal—which makes him into the kind of character you really don’t enjoy following. Existentialism is a philosophical movement that sprung from Europe in the 19TH century, but rose to prominence after World War II, which focuses on the human condition. In his book, From Hegel to Existentialism, American professor of philosophy, the late Robert C. Solomon, wrote: “Existentialism is not simply a philosophy or a philosophical revolt. Existentialist philosophy is the explicit conceptual manifestation of an existential attitude—a spirit of the ‘present age’. It is a philosophical realization of a self-consciousness living in a ‘broken world’ (Marcel), an ‘ambiguous world’ (de Beauvoir), a ‘dislocated world’ (Merleau-Ponty), a world into which we are ‘thrown’ and ‘condemned’ yet ‘abandoned’ and ‘free’ (Heidegger and Sartre), a world which appears to be indifferent or even ‘absurd’ (Camus). It is an attitude that recognizes the unresolvable confusion of the human world, yet resists the all-too-human temptation to resolve the confusion by grasping toward whatever appears or can be made to appear firm or familiar—reason, God, nation, authority, history, work, tradition, or the ‘other-worldly’, whether of Plato, Christianity, or utopian fantasy. The existential attitude begins with a disoriented individual facing a confused world that he cannot accept.”

Solomon’s summed-up description of Existentialism just about lays out the theme in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Author Stephen R. Donaldson created a character that is a man in the real world, a successful, bestselling novelist, with a wife and a son, and financially secure, but he is diagnosed with leprosy, and all comes crumbling down. Thomas’ wife and son leave him, he loses his confidence and ability to write, and people around him reject him as one accursed. One day he finds himself in another world, known as The Land, where he is embraced as a foretold hero who has returned to save them from Lord Foul. The people try to raise him up as someone of great significance, but Thomas is determined not to believe such things, and resists the inclination that this other world that he has found himself in is real—so much so that he goes to the extreme of raping the young woman that was simply trying to sympathize with him. The story follows Thomas’ conflict of seeing himself as a man of any worth, holding on to his own assured death in the real world, and resisting the realty of the “fantasy” world (the Land). Thomas feels that the Land only offers a false hope, something that gives him escape from his condition. However, as the story progresses, Thomas begins to see that he is of worth and begins to resist the thought of suicide. He begins to believe in the Land and the people around him, and he sees himself as someone who can be effective.

Stephen R. Donaldson’s choice to take a character and inflict him with one of the worst diseases know to man, and bring him into loss and despair, illustrates a character that takes an existential view of life. This character is aware of his human condition as a leper and his assured death, but he later finds purpose for his life; therefore, shunning the thought of suicide. His discovery of purpose is not obtained from a higher power, but by taking his own action, and being responsible for himself.

There are essays and books that go into great detail in pointing out the Existential themes in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. One essay is called Suicide and the Absurd by Benjamin Laskar, available online here. Books like Variations on the Fantasy Tradition by W.A. Senior and Stephen R. Donaldson and the Modern Epic Vision by Christine Barkley also discuss, in part, about the Existential message in Donaldson’s work.

Donaldson wrote in his essay, Epic Fantasy in the Modern World: “Now that the door has been opened, what I want to do is to bring the epic back into contact with the real world. Putting it another way, I want to reclaim the epic vision as part of our sense of who we are, as part of what it means to be human. For that reason, I chose to focus my epic on one ‘real’ human being. . . He is an ‘Unbeliever’ precisely because I wanted to bridge the gap between reality and fantasy: I wanted to take a fantasy-rejecting modern human being and force him to confront all the implications of an epic vision. Epic vision is powerfully seductive—because it is powerfully human—and I wanted to consider the question of what might happen to a modern man who was seduced by such beauty. . . Also because I wanted to bring the epic back into contact with the real world, I chose the technical device of reversing Tennyson's method. He took one epic character, Arthur, and surrounded him with ‘real,’ ‘modern’ human beings. I took one real, modern human being, Thomas Covenant, and surrounded him with epic characters. . .”

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever is a series that one either loves or hates. Not everyone can endure such a flawed and depressing character long enough to see him overcome his despair; and the Existential overtones flowing through Thomas Covenant may make an interesting story for some, while causing others to discontinue their journey in the series.

See Part 3 of Messages in Fantasy here.  



Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Messages in Fantasy



The fantasy genre was born from the essence of mythology, folklore and fairytalesfrom sources that were created to craft illustrations of existence and beliefs; as well as morals, fears and superstitions. These primary sources fed the imagination, and manifested in civilizations, taking the forms of art, literature, traditions and religions. From the ancient times to the modern world, myths, legends and tales, in the most part, were infused with messages and morals. Allegories like the epic poem, The Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spenser, gave praise to Queen Elizabeth I and told tales of virtue; and the novel The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald gave a message of faith and hope.

In modern fantasy, as character-driven stories becomes the archetype, the story is no longer just a tale of good against evil, but illustrations of life with a fantasy setting. Now we are journeying into the human experience within the pages of today’s fantasy fiction. There’s no longer a blatant moral message or an unapproachable virtuous hero laying out an artificial image of honor. Today, when we open fantasy fiction, we are presented with a whole slew of underlined worldviews, philosophies and messages.

In an interview, sci-fi/fantasy author Michael A. Stackpole said, “Writers forget that, first and foremost, we’re entertainers. Anything that gets in the way of that, like a message poorly delivered, hurts our work and our credibility. Story must carry a work. If you can get information in or get readers to think about an issue, that’s a bonus. And there’s nothing wrong with going for the bonus, as long as it doesn’t overshadow the story.” I believe Stackpole speaks for many authors here. A writer should always aim to write a good book; but if they can convey a message in the process, then it could be beneficial. But if a writer goes into their story with the intent to push forth a message, then it’s more likely to harm the work.

I don’t think readers in general care too much about an author interlining a message in their work; however, no one wants to be beat over the head by a didactic story. We want to experience how such a lesson affected or changed the character(s). I think this is the only way that this could work.

For the readers of Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series, the main complaint of the latter books in the series is the heavy theme of Objectivism, a philosophy developed by Ayn Rand, which concludes that reason is man’s basic means of survival; and that one should pursue life for one’s self (“rational self-interest”). The philosophy also shuns faith of any kind, because religion is accepted only by emotion, or it’s something that one is born into—it was not chosen in a rational sense. Objectivism also teaches that morality is to follow reason to the best of one’s ability—so that rationality is the basic virtue from which all the others proceed. These beliefs are circulated throughout Goodkind’s series, with books like Faith of the Fallen and Naked Empire really pushing the Objectivist message. For example, in Faith of the Fallen the main character, Richard Cypher, says, “The only sovereign I can allow to rule me is reason. The first law of reason is this: what exists, exists; what is, is. From this irreducible, bedrock principle, all knowledge is built. This is the foundation from which life is embraced. Reason is a choice. Wishes and whims are not facts, nor are they a means to discovering them. Reason is our only way of grasping reality—it's our basic tool of survival. We are free to evade the effort of thinking, to reject reason, but we are not free to avoid the penalty of the abyss we refuse to see.” Later on in the book, Richard also says, “Reason is the very substance of truth itself. The glory that is life is wholly embraced through reason, through this rule. In rejecting it, in rejecting reason, one embraces death.”

It is obvious that Terry Goodkind strongly embraces Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. Those who know Ayn Rand’s novels, Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, have caught the likenesses in Goodkind’s books (mostly Faith of the Fallen) compared to Rand’s work. Some go as far as saying that Goodkind is writing fan-fiction based on Rand’s novels. This takes away some of the originality of the story; and the maneuvering of the plot to give the characters opportunity to debate and give speeches to drive the Objectivist message slows the flow of the story. 

In an interview, Terry Goodkind said, “Art is the way we express the things that are important to us. When you read a story, you’re seeing what’s important to the author. When you see a story about characters that inspire us, that artist—that author—is telling you that’s what inspires him.” Goodkind doesn’t hide the fact that he weaves the tenets of his beliefs into his story. I believe all authors have something to say in their stories, but like what Michael A. Stackpole stated, a message not delivered right could hurt the story—a message should never overshadow the story.

In my next post I will continue the discussion of messages in fantasy, taking a look at the works of other well-known authors in the genre.


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Messages in Fantasy – Part 2