What is it about Britain and the U.K. that fosters such a rich history of fantasy literature? Not only modern best-sellers like Harry Potter, but also classics like C.S. Lewis' Narnia books, Tolkien's Middle Earth books, George McDonald's children and adult fantasies, and Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Or does it begin long before that with the country's legends of King Arthur and his knights?
Or, is it as host Robin Bennett claims, that because of the rigid outer life of manners and mannerisms, the inner life of British writers is so filled with fantastic eccentricities?
Or perhaps it has more to do with Britain being geologically separated and having such a long history?
Or finally, does it have more to do with colonialism? Just like Britain took opium and other resources from countries, they also plundered the mythology and legends of the countries they suppressed.
You can watch the documentary to find out for yourself. What I'm concerned about is more what this whimsical documentary has to say to us as writers.
On that front, there's quite a bit to cover.
Perhaps my favorite bit from this documentary hits at about the halfway point. It says quite adamantly that a write "can only get away with one big lie." Everything else must be true. For example, the narrator goes on to say, in Narnia the one big lie is a wardrobe that takes children to another world. After that, the characters must act and interact as if real. I love that. I think that works not just for fantasy but other genres as well. The suspension of disbelief can only stretch so far, after all.
The next point is that of why Fantasy books, and books in general, matter. Sometimes a book is a child's (or an adult's I would add) only friend, a secret friend. I can vouch for this in my life. As a child I hid myself in my room during my years of having few friends and escaped into books, particularly my Childcraft Encyclopedias and my Illustrated Classics by Verne, Dickens, and Wells. You never know. That book you're writing at this very moment might be the safe haven some reader is looking for.
The importance of Fantasy can't be overstated, regardless of how some wish to relegate it to childish flights of fancy. Without the safe otherworld provided by Fantasy literature, it might be too risky or painful to address certain topics. Fantasy can be a way of investigating things that are real, and perhaps things that are too sore to address directly. Dune (a sci-fi fantasy of the first order) deals with corporate greed in a way that makes readers think, maybe more than something more realistically based (like Upton Sinclair's The Jungle). Lord of the Rings can tell us more about the nature of humanity to embrace power for power's sake than a thousand biographies about famous politicians.
There's also a great nod to the steadfastness of the writers themselves. After all, any author who can continue through the editing process without stopping and calling it quits is already a champion storyteller. And what process is that? Writing the first draft. Editing it. Finished the final draft to send to the publisher. Changing it yet again for a structural edit. After that, more changes for a story edit. Then a line edit. All through that the author is continuing to go back and redo work. That takes tremendous dedication.
The best way to close this review is with a quote from Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat, that sums up the power of the Fantasy story--dreaming has no boundaries. Therefore, neither should dreamers who put these dreams onto paper and into digital devices.
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