1. How does Tolkien (1964) define fantasy Compare and contrast this to the other definitions from last week’s reader.
2. Is Tolkien’s notion of the ‘faery story’ linked to fantasy genre? How closely?
3. What parallels can you find between A Wizard of Earthsea and the Harry Potter franchise?
4. What other influences does Burn (2005) suggest for Harry Potter?
5. How does the fantasy genre relate to modern media such as video games?
6. Why does the religious right in the US condemn fantasy, according to Cockrell (2004)? On what grounds does Cockrell defend fantasy literature, using Harry Potter as example?
Hey Alan, are you gonna do Q3? Ok… I’ll go with Q1 then. According to Tolkein(1964), Fantasy is a "higher form of Art and also the most potent … (which) is derived from the image, embrace both the sub-creative art in itself and a quality of strangeness and wonder in the expression. (p45)” But, at the same time, he pointed out that it’s hard to achieve the inner consistency of reality. I think... because there is no one way to define 'FANTASY'... depends on how you distinguish imagination and creativity it can be varied time to time. But in Tolkien’s view, FANTASY is the art that best left to words, true to the literature, something that’s hard to express in other forms of genres or forms. Is this making any sense to you?
Here is my answer for Q2. Yes, Tolkien’s notion of the ‘fairy story’ linked to fantasy genre cause he clearly pointed out that ‘fantasy is a quality essential to fairy story which is an unreal or incredible story. He, also, defined fairy story and fantasy in a similar way: Fairies are “super natural beings of diminutive size, in popular belief supposed to possess magical powers and to have great influence for good or evil over the affairs of man” (p.10) whereas fantasy is “a natural human activity or human’s imagination 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” (p.45).
Burn (2005) believes that some stories can be adapted to serve as the basis of games.Potter stories can be organized around the kinds of structures that form good games such as quests, magical ojects, monster enemies and a bounded fantasy world.Apart from that,cross-media literacy is brougt out by Potter as well. There are three major functions that derived from social semiotic theory across the three media(book,game and film). Representation is the first function.Especially,how the media convey what in language is a series of transitive sequences. Transitivity is the grammatical representation of does what to whom, who carries out action ,who or what is the aim. Next come to the organisational function, it refers to how the texts diversely organizes to let certain routes through by readers ,viewers and players. The last function is orientation. It relates to how the text orients itself to its audiences as well as reveals its functions as a communication between social agents.
After all, I am not too sure whether the answers are correct.Anyway, I would like to have a go.Is there anybody who may give me some advice on it?
The Parrnells are they are fictions and adventure stories.
But compare with A Wizard of Earthsea. The way of using magics are in different ways. WoE was practicing. But Harry Potter. The magic was "attached" to Harry while he was born.
But the key point is "Science fiction and heroic fantasy began as the province of men and the gradual entry of women into these genres has not necessarily produced more psychological depth overall"
I will say Harry potter using magic to "kill" the enemy. But WoE was practice magic to learn "anchoring"
From my point of view, fantasy novels are written about mythological stories which were in the Middle ages like The Lord of the Rings and the writers add their imagination on those stories.Also,online games,a representative form of modern media, usually have fantasy background that dwarfs or elves appear.So,as Marie-Laure Ryan observes,some fantasy stories are ideally adapted to serve as the basis of games.Actually, The Lord of the Rings gave rise to one of the most popular of game-genres,the RPG(roleplaying game).In the same way, the Potter stories may be organised around the kinds of structures that make good games : quest, magical objects,helpers,monster opponents, a bounded fantasy world,a puzzle dynamic(Burn,2005). Those structures are preconditions for most online games.
According to Cockrell(2004), Taylor and Carson note that many fundamentalist Christian parents associate their children's imaginary friend with the devil and Deborah J. Taub and Heather L. Servaty's study of Harry Potter notes that another prevailing belief among fundamentalist parents is that fantasy equals deceit, that fantasy and story-telling "will lead to lying and other deceitful behaviour," and this factor combines with the necessity "to protect their children from evil forces in the fantasy world"(p.25). However,Cockrell says that contrary to Nania or Earthsea, Harry lives in our world.In other words,Rowling suggests the existence of witches and wizards, and of workable magic ,in the world we inhabit here and now(p.26).In addition,he mentions about that Christians have witchcraft like angels or the voice of Satan and quotes Alison Lurie's statement "Most of the great works of juvenile literature are subversive in one way or another:they express ideas or emotions not generally approved of or even recognized at the time; they make fun of honored figures and piously held beliefs; and they view social pretenses with clear-eyed directness,remarking-as in Andersen's famous tale-that the emperor has no clothes" for defending fantasy literature.
I’d like to add some comments on Q3. Alan gave us some differences between A Wizard of Earthsea and the Harry Potter. And what I’ve found here is a similarity. Although they are in different sub-genres, A Wizard of Earthsea is High Fantasy whereas Harry Potter is low Fantasy, there are many similarities between them. Harry (from the Harry Porter) and Den (from a Wizard of Earthsea) are orphans or have no either parental hood or childhood. They also have inherited innate abilities in magical power which were discovered after they joined the magic school. There are headmasters, enemies and challenges as well in a story. You know, as Paul taught us about the structure of the fantasy fiction, these two stories have lots of similarities as well as diffences.
I think Kiniko made a good comment for Q4 above. I just want to add few more quotes here. When Burn (2005) talked about the influences of Harry Porter, he said ‘an idea of magic may not exits without a cultural experience of magic as it is an element sin children’s narrative … what it offers is by way of solution to the problems of real life.” I guess ‘the magic’ thing grabs children’s attention and they adapt it to their real life which could be helpful. Also the language used in fantasy fiction is another big one – easy to understand, more appeal to children.
Hi Yuna, I think we can do a comparison with Tolkien definitions and Wikipedia's one. According to Wikis, it says that "The identifying traits of fantasy are the inclusion of fantastic elements in a self-coherent (internally consistent)setting. Within such a structure, any location of the fantastical element is possible: it may be hidden in, or leak into the apparently real world setting, it may draw the characters into a world with such elements, or it may occur entirely in a fantasy world setting, where such elements are part of the world."
I find that it has the same point with Tolkien's one, Tolkien has said that imagination is important to fantasy, and that combines the point with Wiki.
12 comments:
1. How does Tolkien (1964) define fantasy Compare and contrast this to the other definitions from last week’s reader.
2. Is Tolkien’s notion of the ‘faery story’ linked to fantasy genre? How closely?
3. What parallels can you find between A Wizard of Earthsea and the Harry Potter franchise?
4. What other influences does Burn (2005) suggest for Harry Potter?
5. How does the fantasy genre relate to modern media such as video games?
6. Why does the religious right in the US condemn fantasy, according to Cockrell (2004)? On what grounds does Cockrell defend fantasy literature, using Harry Potter as example?
push
I will do Q3
Hey Alan, are you gonna do Q3? Ok… I’ll go with Q1 then.
According to Tolkein(1964), Fantasy is a "higher form of Art and also the most potent … (which) is derived from the image, embrace both the sub-creative art in itself and a quality of strangeness and wonder in the expression. (p45)” But, at the same time, he pointed out that it’s hard to achieve the inner consistency of reality.
I think... because there is no one way to define 'FANTASY'... depends on how you distinguish imagination and creativity it can be varied time to time. But in Tolkien’s view, FANTASY is the art that best left to words, true to the literature, something that’s hard to express in other forms of genres or forms.
Is this making any sense to you?
Here is my answer for Q2.
Yes, Tolkien’s notion of the ‘fairy story’ linked to fantasy genre cause he clearly pointed out that ‘fantasy is a quality essential to fairy story which is an unreal or incredible story.
He, also, defined fairy story and fantasy in a similar way: Fairies are “super natural beings of diminutive size, in popular belief supposed to possess magical powers and to have great influence for good or evil over the affairs of man” (p.10) whereas fantasy is “a natural human activity or human’s imagination 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” (p.45).
Burn (2005) believes that some stories can be adapted to serve as the basis of games.Potter stories can be organized around the kinds of structures that form good games such as quests, magical ojects, monster enemies and a bounded fantasy world.Apart from that,cross-media literacy is brougt out by Potter as well. There are three major functions that derived from social semiotic theory across the three media(book,game and film). Representation is the first function.Especially,how the media convey what in language is a series of transitive sequences.
Transitivity is the grammatical representation of does what to whom, who carries out action ,who or what is the aim. Next come to the organisational function, it refers to how the texts diversely organizes to let certain routes through by readers ,viewers and players. The last function is orientation. It relates to how the text orients itself to its audiences as well as reveals its functions as a communication between social agents.
After all, I am not too sure whether the answers are correct.Anyway, I would like to have a go.Is there anybody who may give me some advice on it?
Q3.
The Parrnells are they are fictions and adventure stories.
But compare with A Wizard of Earthsea. The way of using magics are in different ways. WoE was practicing. But Harry Potter. The magic was "attached" to Harry while he was born.
But the key point is "Science fiction and heroic fantasy began as the province of men and the gradual entry of women into these genres has not necessarily produced more psychological depth overall"
I will say Harry potter using magic to "kill" the enemy. But WoE was practice magic to learn "anchoring"
Hi,all. I want to answer for Q5.
From my point of view, fantasy novels are written about mythological stories which were in the Middle ages like The Lord of the Rings and the writers add their imagination on those stories.Also,online games,a representative form of modern media, usually have fantasy background that dwarfs or elves appear.So,as Marie-Laure Ryan observes,some fantasy stories are ideally adapted to serve as the basis of games.Actually, The Lord of the Rings gave rise to one of the most popular of game-genres,the RPG(roleplaying game).In the same way, the Potter stories may be organised around the kinds of structures that make good games : quest, magical objects,helpers,monster opponents, a bounded fantasy world,a puzzle dynamic(Burn,2005). Those structures are preconditions for most online games.
This is my opinion for Q6.
According to Cockrell(2004), Taylor and Carson note that many fundamentalist Christian parents associate their children's imaginary friend with the devil and Deborah J. Taub and Heather L. Servaty's study of Harry Potter notes that another prevailing belief among fundamentalist parents is that fantasy equals deceit, that fantasy and story-telling "will lead to lying and other deceitful behaviour," and this factor combines with the necessity "to protect their children from evil forces in the fantasy world"(p.25).
However,Cockrell says that contrary to Nania or Earthsea, Harry lives in our world.In other words,Rowling suggests the existence of witches and wizards, and of workable magic ,in the world we inhabit here and now(p.26).In addition,he mentions about that Christians have witchcraft like angels or the voice of Satan and quotes Alison Lurie's statement "Most of the great works of juvenile literature are subversive in one way or another:they express ideas or emotions not generally approved of or even recognized at the time; they make fun of honored figures and piously held beliefs; and they view social pretenses with clear-eyed directness,remarking-as in Andersen's famous tale-that the emperor has no clothes" for defending fantasy literature.
Sorry Kiniko.I missed out to say I wanna add my view on your comment!
I’d like to add some comments on Q3. Alan gave us some differences between A Wizard of Earthsea and the Harry Potter. And what I’ve found here is a similarity. Although they are in different sub-genres, A Wizard of Earthsea is High Fantasy whereas Harry Potter is low Fantasy, there are many similarities between them. Harry (from the Harry Porter) and Den (from a Wizard of Earthsea) are orphans or have no either parental hood or childhood. They also have inherited innate abilities in magical power which were discovered after they joined the magic school. There are headmasters, enemies and challenges as well in a story. You know, as Paul taught us about the structure of the fantasy fiction, these two stories have lots of similarities as well as diffences.
I think Kiniko made a good comment for Q4 above. I just want to add few more quotes here. When Burn (2005) talked about the influences of Harry Porter, he said ‘an idea of magic may not exits without a cultural experience of magic as it is an element sin children’s narrative … what it offers is by way of solution to the problems of real life.” I guess ‘the magic’ thing grabs children’s attention and they adapt it to their real life which could be helpful. Also the language used in fantasy fiction is another big one – easy to understand, more appeal to children.
Hi Yuna, I think we can do a comparison with Tolkien definitions and Wikipedia's one. According to Wikis, it says that "The identifying traits of fantasy are the inclusion of fantastic elements in a self-coherent (internally consistent)setting. Within such a structure, any location of the fantastical element is possible: it may be hidden in, or leak into the apparently real world setting, it may draw the characters into a world with such elements, or it may occur entirely in a fantasy world setting, where such elements are part of the world."
I find that it has the same point with Tolkien's one, Tolkien has said that imagination is important to fantasy, and that combines the point with Wiki.
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